What Makes A Good Campground?

Curious what most campers seek in a campground. For us, other than location, it's the showers: lots of hot water, plenty of hooks to hang clothes and towels on, a dressing area that isn't a lake when you get out of the shower. Of course we have a shower in the TT, but never use it. A scenic place is nice, but we're usually out all day so it doesn't matter. Some private and many state campgrounds charge and the worst are places we've stayed like Penninsula State Park in Wisconsin where the water is tepid and you have to continually push a button to get 5 seconds' worth of water. Yeah, I'd say it's the showers. KOA is consistently good.

 

QUOTE(happyscampers @ Oct 20 2010, 10:16 AM) [snapback]24645[/snapback]

Curious what most campers seek in a campground.


I agree with the hot water, even if I have to pay a quarter - just make sure it's hot. I like the idea of no puddle on the floor (some kind of mat would be fine) and somewhere to hang my towel and a shelf for my clothes.

Beyond the showers, I look for navigable roads and accesible sites. Activities for the kids are a plus. I also look for proximity to interesting attractions (if there's alot to do in the area, I don't worry so much about activities in the CG). Fire rings are important too. If I can't have S'mores, i get cranky.

 

I guess this thread may show how many different interests we have. We spend 200+ nights per year in our rv and have never used a campground shower. Whether a cg has hot water is absolutely unimportant to us. So just to start the discussion, a good campground to us is one with pull thru open sites with no trees to drop limbs,sap, and other junk on people or vehicles or interfere with satellite reception, reasonable cost, good roads, enforced rules regarding dog clean up and noise, good laundry room, good clean water with adequate pressure, clean power of the right voltage, and sewer hook ups. Others will have other wants, probably just opposite of ours.

 

The shower isn't at the top of my list, but a good one is a nice feature. I hate ones where you have to keep hands on a button to dispense water, and where there is nowhere other than the floor to set shampoo bottles etc.

I look for parks with some degree of quiet and privacy. Where did the RV park owner mentality come from that the ideal park is made up of rows of spaces right next to each other along the freeway. When looking for a park I usually eliminate the ones along the freeway first, and look for something quieter. It's worth a 5-minute drive to not put up with the noise. A fair campground offers a bit of distance between sites ie: patch of lawn with table etc. A good campground puts the next site just out of view. The "fair definition" is what I would expect in an RV park, the other in a state park.

A good campground has sites that are easy to get in and out of. The longer I camp, the more I appreciate pull-through.

A good campground offers some shade trees and landscaping. A pool is a nice perk. Some of my favorite spots to camp are at hot springs resorts.

Finally a reasonable price makes a good campground. Last year the RV park in a town where I made an overnight stop wanted $34 for a nothing special site. The AARP rate at the motel 6 a couple blocks away, with RV parking, was $29.95. Guess where I was stayed that night!

 

I agree with the folks who like picturesque as much as anything. Add to this a helpful and friendly staff, and you have what we're looking for. I like shade and trees and water. I like quiet as well.

We stayed at a campground that otherwise met all of the needs mentioned above, and included great showers with lots of hot water. Add to this a progressive rock show that lasted until four in the morning, and you have my idea of NOT GOOD. This was a live show, and we weren't told about it when we checked in. Suddenly there were several hundred people who weren't registered in the park wandering freely, driving cars and motorcycles, and of course the battle of the bands going on into the wee hours.

I guess what I'm saying is I'm not interested in surprises from my campground, and it kinda overwhelms the rest of the experience.

 

I had to reply to this thread after a weekend at what used to be a favorite RV Camp. We camp for peace and quiet, to enjoy nature, wildlife, walks, and bike rides. Sometimes just sitting and doing nothing. Don't care about the showers (use coach) or pool. Enjoy accessibility, fine with pull thru or back in. What we are tired of is GOLF CARTS and LOUD MUSIC. When did feeling like you're in a barroom at the racetrac become part of camping? This week we spent watching 6 and 8 year olds drive golf carts at 30+ MPH down a packed gravel road...and listening to every kind of music blaring from them. Parents are sitting in their camps either ignorant or drunk. Maybe both. Quiet time from 10PM but at 1130PM, no one from the staff available to calm them down. See this so much anymore. Luckily the SP's in our state do not allow golf carts (yet)...so we'll just have to frequent them and give up the idea of parks and campgrounds. Always looking now at the rules in advance to see if carts are allowed and if kids are allowed to drive them. Then if so, we stay away.

Reasonable price is nice, but will pay a little more for peace and quiet!!

Happy Camping!!

 

Honesty in the description.

If they advertise a heated pool, then Heat it! And clean it!

If they have showers, then have hot water with good water pressure, and Clean them! And cleaning them once at the beginning of the year does NOT count as being regularly cleaned.

Family friendly? Then don't charge extra when the kids accompany the parents. Also, family friendly means shutting down the "dance party" before midnight (or even earlier).

Activities? Then have activities! And have them run by people who know what they are doing and want to do a good job.

Etc.

Early this year my son and I camped at a state park. The site was very unlevel, there were no hookups, no showers, and the "bathrooms" were outhouses. We had a Great Time! The descriptions of the park (Macedonia Brook State Park in Connecticut) were accurate, so we knew what to expect at this beautiful park.

Virtually all the negative reviews of campgrounds start out something like "It was not what I was expecting" or "What I was told / read was wrong". Of course, the other way negative reviews start is "The owners were rude..." Which leads to the observation that having a competent, active staff goes a long way in making a pleasant campground stay.

 

For us bathrooms use to be a big deal, when we traveled with the kids (we had 5). The girls would always go check the bathrooms while us guys set up the RV. Now thats it's just the Wife and I it's no big deal to use our own shower.

Now we travel for us and on our 2 week vacation this summer I did absolutly nothing lol

 

Since our RV is our home, we have our own shower and washer/dryer. For us excellent water pressure is needed. Excellent 50 amp power. Although we have got by just fine with 30 amp. Like a place that has sites for big rigs, but also the interior roads are the same. Made for big rigs. Not driving on the grass with the truck so the trailer doesn't hit a tree, the branches or rocks lining the roadway. For me a quiet campground is nice. For some reason screaming kids running around doesn't bother me, but a barking dog does. Wish more people would follow the quiet time hours. Seems like over the years I have had to wear ear plugs more to get to sleep at night from staying in noisy campgrounds.

 

My idea of a great campground is: friendly reception clerk, overall appearance of campground, true advertisement, level sites, peacefulness, enforcement of rules and a fair rate.

 

For me friendliness of the receptionist isn't a priority. If anything, a miserable owner or receptionist gets my wife and I laughing. At one campground we stayed, the guy was like the fellow from "Slingblade". "Ummm, biscuits and gravy". :huh: Anyway to add, large sites do help. The bigger, the better. I don't care to be packed in close. Well maintained, reasonable price, clean, quiet and enforced rules. I'll pay a little extra if it keeps out the riff-raff. Don't get me wrong, I can be as obnoxious as the rest but there is a time and place for it. Showers aren't an issue either. I have one already with plenty of hot water. That's the main reason I have a TT, to avoid the public toilets and showers. I would find it hard to complain about the showers when I already have one at my disposal.

 

Hello everyone, I'm new here. We are recent fulltimers. A very interesting thread is running on the HDT forum of rvnetwork.com. RV Park reviews is mentioned as a good place to get info on parks. I have used this site a lot and like it, so I joined.
That said, my concern, if other criteria fits, has to do with the cg itself ie what does 'Big Rig Access' mean?
As tv get more powerful and rv's get longer and heavier some site descriptions don't seem to fit. Trees (low branches,slides won't go out) short or no pullthroughs, and tight corners.
So I reckon a park owners product awareness and knowledge of what a 'big rig' is tops my list.
Passing this to staff is important.
Then it comes down to honesty...when I am on Google Maps and looking at the park and I see a motorhome with a toad parked in a pullthrough please don't say it's 75' when it's only 60 at most. Thanks, J&V

 

QUOTE(J&V @ Nov 3 2010, 05:43 PM) [snapback]24792[/snapback]

Then it comes down to honesty...



Well said B) Welcome aboard J&V!

 

Although we have a 40' 5th wheel we are a bit over 65' when hooked up. Big Rig Access does not mean nearly the same thing for a MotorHome as for a tow vehicle and trailer. Their pivot points are different and width when closed up can be, too, so maneuverabilty and clearances are a big priority in selecting a candidate campground.

Too many times ingress, egress and leveling issues have turned a very anticipated stay at a highly rated CG into a fretfully stressed event. Yes, all of the mentioned items are important to many people and can certainly downrate a stay if below par. However, if one cannot get to their site, get level or are worried about getting out when they leave, it taints the whole experience whether the stay is for a day, week or month.

It would be extremely helpful if campgroundreviews.com included the general rig length and type (MH, TT, 5th, HDT) when applicable in the profile for each reviewer and provided that as searchable criteria. The reason is that I know that the size of the equipment used to pave a public road is wider than my rig so I know I can fit on it without getting out a tape measure.

So, If I know that others with a rig about the same size as mine has made it through a campground without incident, I am pretty sure I can, too. But, if someone mentions "tight turns" and I don't know if they were in a 24' Winnebago, a 43' Prevost or a 40' 5th wheel towed by a Heavy Duty Truck, I will likely avoid that CG altogether and possibly miss a really great experience.

One other BIG advantage to knowing the type/size of rig is that once an investigator sees a review by someone with a similar rig, they can use the "see other posts by this reviewer" to see wherever else that person has had experiences with that rig.

This is another place where RVParkreviews could help by making it possible to search a combination of the "other posts..." and state, campground and other selection criteria now available. It just needs a "search previous results" box to limit the next search to the results of the previous one.

For those with Heavy Duty Trucks (HDTers), they are still few but growing in numbers and at the least, reviewers with those tow vehicles can put HDTer or @HDT in each of their reviews to help searchers find them.

 

QUOTE(Emery @ Nov 4 2010, 08:46 AM) [snapback]24794[/snapback]

Although we have a 40' 5th wheel we are a bit over 65' when hooked up. Big Rig Access does not mean nearly the same thing for a MotorHome as for a tow vehicle and trailer. Their pivot points are different and width when closed up can be, too, so maneuverabilty and clearances are a big priority in selecting a candidate campground.

Too many times ingress, egress and leveling issues have turned a very anticipated stay at a highly rated CG into a fretfully stressed event. Yes, all of the mentioned items are important to many people and can certainly downrate a stay if below par. However, if one cannot get to their site, get level or are worried about getting out when they leave, it taints the whole experience whether the stay is for a day, week or month.

It would be extremely helpful if campgroundreviews.com included the general rig length and type (MH, TT, 5th, HDT) when applicable in the profile for each reviewer and provided that as searchable criteria. The reason is that I know that the size of the equipment used to pave a public road is wider than my rig so I know I can fit on it without getting out a tape measure.

So, If I know that others with a rig about the same size as mine has made it through a campground without incident, I am pretty sure I can, too. But, if someone mentions "tight turns" and I don't know if they were in a 24' Winnebago, a 43' Prevost or a 40' 5th wheel towed by a Heavy Duty Truck, I will likely avoid that CG altogether and possibly miss a really great experience.

One other BIG advantage to knowing the type/size of rig is that once an investigator sees a review by someone with a similar rig, they can use the "see other posts by this reviewer" to see wherever else that person has had experiences with that rig.

This is another place where RVParkreviews could help by making it possible to search a combination of the "other posts..." and state, campground and other selection criteria now available. It just needs a "search previous results" box to limit the next search to the results of the previous one.

For those with Heavy Duty Trucks (HDTers), they are still few but growing in numbers and at the least, reviewers with those tow vehicles can put HDTer or @HDT in each of their reviews to help searchers find them.


If you describe the rig, you go a long way to identifying the author to the campground. This could cause problems. It could also allow an unscrupulous poster to describe the rig of a camper they were having problems with. If you read the bad reviews, a number of them are about having problems with fellow campers. If that poster wrote a bad review, criticized management and then gave a description of their rig that identified the person they were having issues with, the park might not look so kindly on that guest. At an overnight park, not really a big deal, but at a seasonal park, it could be. Keeping the reviews as anonomous as possible seems to me to be desireable.

 

I would say that we rate RV Parks higher when the following conditions exist at the park.

1. A smile and relatively quick in help set the mood for the campground
2. We like quiet and not freeways. Unfortunately many good parks locate in relatively noisy places. I am sure this is because many like quick access to campgrounds.
3. Having a nice place to sit outside your coach is certainly welcome.
4. 50amp service.
5. Not so many trees that they block all sat use.
6. Park wifi
7. Sewers that are set up to drain without having to use the ramp.
8. Parents that keep screaming horrendously loud kids toned down. I did not say quiet, but please no constant screaming late at night.
9. Dog pooh gets picked up.
10. No vicious dogs.
11. Prices should not creep too high. When you can stay at a Best Western for less the park is way too high.

 

I'm not sure why a park would get a lower rating because a fellow camper has a screaming child. That has nothing to do with the park itself but the people camping there. Also, it is the campers that don't pick up dog poo not the campground employees. I don't understand why either of those things should cause any campground a lower rating. We can't control everyone that stays with us.

 

I would think it is more a problem when it seems to be on-going. If a group of campers are being loud for a looooong time, management knows about it, and does nothing. If management doesn't keep on top of dog owners picking up, then the campground can get gross.

 

First we check rvparkreviews to get a general idea of how others view the park, but far more important is that the reviews, the printed guides and other info gives a good feeling about the park.

We appreciate good signage, clearly demarcated sites with adequate spacing between them and no trees for satellite reception. We could care less about restrooms, showers and laundry as we have all that with us. In general we find the parks that appeal to weekenders and vacationers aren't the best, but the ones where the travel trailer crowd is complaining about the noise and the permanents are quite acceptable as we fulltime year after year traveling around the country, following the seasons. I guess it is to each his own.

 

QUOTE(Bob-Linda @ Nov 13 2010, 08:54 PM) [snapback]24848[/snapback]
the travel trailer crowd



lol! I just find that funny.... and I are one!