Embraced by the sound of crashing waves, awash in indescribable sunsets, camping on the beach can be a blast. It can also be real pain in the butt when it comes to getting around oddball regulations and restrictions. Here’s how to find those loopholes in the law:
Regulation: No camping
Workaround: Go fishing
On Cape Cod and North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras, you can stay out all night—as long as you’re fishing. Clamp ($5) to your 4×4 so you can relax in the bed and still have a line out.
Regulation: No tents on the sand
Workaround: Reserve an oceanfront campsite
Many coastal state parks have a few choice sites just off the beach. Every site in the Sandspur Loop at , in the Florida Keys, will make you feel like you’re in the Maldives ($36 per night). In California, campsite 64 in 24-acre , 170 miles north of L.A., is as good as the Golden State gets ($23 per night).
Regulation: No rental RVs
Workaround: Go to Texas
Most National Seashore beaches don’t allow rental RVs. Padre Island, outside Corpus Christi, permits them along the first five miles of white- sand beaches south of park headquarters. Snag one from (from $150 a day).