Verde River RV Resort is a newly renovated park with NEW facilities. Campground is on quite grounds on the Verde River with spacious sites and CLEAN everything.
Amenities here include pickle ball, mini golf, and a pool and sauna. Events include social hours, breakfast, dinners etc.
The staff, from the grounds maintenance crew who are planting trees and watering to the office staff are all helpful, friendly and you can tell they care. We will go back.
We stayed at Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge KOA on site 159. It was small and close. They had OK WiFi and cable TV if you have a cable. The site had an asphalt pad and concrete picnic patio. It looked level but it isn’t. It was a full bubble off both N/S and E/W, and I see lots of campers with leveling blocks.
The campground has very nice clean bathrooms, ours is about a 20 second walk and has private showers. There were lots of things for kids to do. The laundry facilities are nice, $2.00 per wash, dry was $2.75. They also have free dog wash.
The campground is in a great location for shuttle to Gaitlinburg and around Pigeon Forge. Trollies beat driving but expect to wait. They can’t promise times because of the traffic. Our shortest wait was out of Patriot Park (walking distance from KOA) as they had more running. The depot by the black locomotive only had 1 running which means at least 1 hour between trains. It’s only .50 cents each time you board. Both pickup spots within walking distance (black train deport about 15 min walk).
This is a campground I consider you stay at because of the destination; it’s not a woodsy, fire at night, campground. You cannot pick your site, you can only reserve the type/size. There were much nicer spots for the same price, but they put us on a small site because we are a truck camper – 26′.
We have stayed at USI RV Park numerious times over the years and have found it to be the cleanest and best maintain park we have ever been in.
The campground is located east of Wichita. They have 79 sites spread over a 20-acre lot. It’s quiet and peaceful with lots of shade from large trees throughout the park. Many of the sites can easily accommodate big rigs, and about 70 of the sites are long pull-thrus. All RV sites are full hookups with 30/50 amp service. There are phone jacks at each site too. They also have Wi-Fi and and 2 private rooms with high speed cable modems for guests who are unable to access the Wi-Fi connection.
The campground also has a playground, storage area, 24-hour (air conditioned) laundry, showers, restrooms and a dump station. They are also the only campground in the area that has a storm shelter! They have a nice little camp store that stocks RV supplies, ice, snacks, ice cream and Kansas made products and gifts for guests. The campground staff is very friendly and go out of their way to help with requests and to see that you are a “happy camper”.
USI RV Park is open all year round and they have reasonable rates. We paid about $40 a nite. I would definitely stay here again and would recommend this park to all of our friends.
We have traveled the entire country for seven years. We stayed several times at Grand Lake RV and Golf Resort. We will never stay here again.
We called about a year ago to make a reservation but found the park had changed so much. The park had raised their prices by a substantial amount and the reservation employee was not very friendly. Needless to say we did not stay.
Thinking maybe things had changed we decided to try them again on our way home to south Florida like we used to do. What a mistake. They are even worse. The employee was also very unfriendly like the one before. We said we were not sure if we wanted to stay three or four days. The lady stated that we had to decide at the time of the reservation because you had to pay for the whole stay up front with no refunds allowed. She said they started payment in full up front this year. Needless to say we told her to remove our info from their computer as we would never stay again.
Since there are probably ten other parks in the Ocala area, I believe their attitude will cost them business. Most veteran RVers don’t appreciate bad attitudes.
Grand Lake RV Resort
18545 NW 45th Ave Rd
Citra, FL 32113
Phone: (352) 591-1251
When we found this campground, we thought this would be a great spot to park our RV for the next few years. Rent was affordable, site was partly shaded, and had a nice covered deck.
Working with the owner, she agreed the site would work with our RV. Before moving into the spot, we got permission and paid $3500 to have a landscaper level and stone the drive and pad due to the excessive runoff from the street making the area a muddy mess. Finally in, we enjoyed the space for our first year.
Come renewal time, we received an email from the Owner raising the rent. We weren’t opposed to paying the rent, however, when we questioned all the improvements she told us would be done in the first year, and were not done, the owner sent us a second email asking us to pay the increased rent and to move our RV up several feet, because we were blocking the site behind us. We were aware there was a site behind us. We weren’t happy about this seeing this is where she placed us, and we were not opposed to moving the RV either. However, this would mean cutting into the covered deck to accommodate the slides (which she was aware of). It was challenging to work through this with her seeing the correspondence was primarily email, and we could not get her to participate in a call. Owner sent a final email notifying us, she would not renew the agreement. Then we were sent a 30 Day Notice to Vacate.
We did not cause any issues. We paid on time, were quiet, kept the site and surrounding area maintained, and followed all the rules. The friends we made at the campground, could not understand why she did this. We asked her to reimburse us for a portion of the monies we spent to improve the site. She declined. Before we had fully vacated the site, and before our move out date, someone else was moving in, and she had rented it to them for a $1000 more a year than we were paying.
BEWARE:
The owner is only on site to collect the rent. There is no campground management on premise.
There is one worker, who does everything from electrical, plumbing, landscaping, leasing and evicting.
Management basically gives you a site, water and septic. If you want anything done, it will cost you. Any improvements you make, you will not be reimbursed. Review this section in the agreement.
The campground has not been maintained and needs a good cleanup. The water was always being shutoff due to leaks, septic issues, flooding issues, and many of the sites are not maintained. Heavy duty tractors broken down and left in the park near the children’s playground.
Expect contract workers for Blue Ridge Electric to fill the campground at least three times a year, they come and go at all hours, and can get loud at night.
Review the agreement in full, and have an attorney review before signing.
This “resort” is great if you’re just passing through. However, if you plan on staying a few days, you may ask yourself, as I am, what makes this a resort.
In lot C, which is just that, a gravel lot, the washing machine must be on the same water line as the showers. So, if someone is going laundry, you get a cold shower, or you wait.
There are no trees in lot C. Seriously, it is just a gravel parking lot. It is not very level, and the sites are short. We have a 25′ rig, and it barely fits.
On the positive side, it is close to Front Royal and Shenandoah National Park.
Campus Park & Ride is a very utilitarian campground which is located in the Gray’s Ferry section of Philadelphia or locals refer to it as South Philly. This is the closest campground to all of the historical attractions in The City of Brotherly Love.
The campground itself is a working commuter lot. Don’t worry, there is still plenty of rooms and separation for the RV’s. Each site has a water connection and access to a 20-30-50 amp electrical connection.
The bathroom’s have “opportunities for improvement” so if you have a full bathroom in your RV…use it.
The on-site staff are super friendly and always available to offer suggestions or tips about what to see and what to do in Philadelphia.
As my wife, son and I excitedly arrived to King Phillips Campground for our first time there to join our parents for the Labor Day weekend.
We were checked in for a site that was not our original reservation. Even the manager rolled his eyes in question the newly assigned site. On July 6th, I had been told I would be placed in section “C” over the phone after being asked if I wanted a sunny or a shady site and also after I had described to this woman that I drove a Freightliner truck and had a 40’ 5th wheel camper.
As I approached where we were being directed to, and also my parents questioning as to why we weren’t in the section that even THEY were told we were going to be in 7 hours earlier, I was still trying to follow the lead of the parking escort who guaranteed me there would be no issues fitting into the new site. I proceeded to try to park in the spot just as directed by the parking escort when my truck and trailer began to slide backwards down the road into a tree.
After backing down the road and going to the office to tell them what had happened, they offered me another site that would involve me having to drive down the same steep slippery hill. I declined and asked about being placed in the section “C” we were supposed to be in all along that now had a 36’ Motorhome in it. Also, the 2 sites next to it were empty. I was told they could not move the people soon to arrive from these empty sites. Even though they had NO issues moving us! This left us no option other than to drive 2 ½ hours back home and leave our family members behind, ruining our family camping weekend.
After numerous attempts to contact the owner, Mike Spaulding, he finally returned my call 24 hours after this all occurred. This is NOT the behavior of a professional business owner. He obviously did not even care this happened to us and offers no resolution for damages created by his staff and facility. He also told me of their policy, that they have the right to move first time visitors regardless of their requests or camper size to accommodate repeat customers. This policy was never explained to me when making my reservation nor is it made available to the public in any way.
Our recommendation is to NOT visit this campground EVER!
Hartwick Pines is a great state park with spaces for tent and RV campers of various lengths.
Spaces are paved (black top), most are level, and each come with a picnic table & concrete fire pit. There is a good mix of back-in and pull thru spaces. Most pull-thru sites are tree free for slide outs. Not all sites have full services (water, electric, and sewer);
There is a play area for the kids, frisbee golf, a volleyball court and rest room facility with showers.
There is a visitor center for old growth forest and old saw mill demonstrations.They have an online reservation system.
Thearea has virtually no cell service. State park personnel friendly and helpful. The campground is located about 15 miles from Grayling, Minnesota and 3 miles from the freeway.
Blaze-in-Saddle RV Park is an older campground, recently purchased and rebranded under this new name.
The campground has been totally remodeled and the new owners are doing a great job! This is one of the cleanest RV parks we have ever visited. Personal service, clean accommodations with great amenities. They have a dog run and even areas for your horses!
Full hookups and much more! 2500 E Route 66 and their web site is blaze-in-saddle.com
