We stayed at this campground 12 years ago, and we are here again. It’s just like we remembered it.
As we arrived, the lady came down to greet us. She was very friendly, and showed us on the map the various areas we could stay. Basically any unoccupied spot. We came pre-season, so they have mostly open spots. Next week, they will probably be much fuller. But they were still getting some areas ready for the season. She did recommend a couple areas, and we drove off to look at them. We found a nice spot in the woods, right next to the restrooms and showers. There were some branches fallen on the spot, so I pulled them away, and we set up our tent. Then we went down and told here what spot we chose. The tent spot only cost $26 (no power or water though). Much cheaper than man of the other campgrounds we have encountered during our trip. But I guess the KOA’s are a little newer, and nicer.
The restrooms are old, and nothing fancy. The showers are the same way. Interestingly, the showers cost 25 cents for minutes. I forgot about the pay showers, but when I saw them, I remembered them from 12 years ago. I can’t remember if they cost a quarter back then.
The manager lady was also very helpful in locating a good restaurant in town. She also mentioned that they have WIFI, but I would have to come down by the office to use it.
Cape Ann Camp Site is located at 80 Atlantic St, Gloucester, MA. (978) 283-8683.
After looking at some other campgrounds, we decided to stay at the KOA in Acadia. We stopped in to the office. We asked about a campsite, and how much it would cost. The two women here also couldn’t easily tell us what a camp site cost. The one did tell us the best tent site was about $56/night. That was down by the water. I asked about a site not by the water. It turns out they have a couple locations. One location was by the water, and one was in the woods. The sites in the woods were cheaper. She gave us a price under $40 for the site in the woods with electricity and water. We decided get the site in the woods with power. She booked us for three nights, and gave us directions. They were very friendly. And when we asked them about restaurants they tried to help us, even though they were from out of the area. They recounted us with every place they had eaten in the week they had been here. LOL!
We headed down to our site only to find that the site they gave us didn’t have power. We returned to the office, and they apologized for the goof. They moved us to a site with power which was the $40 price, but they did it for no charge.
The site was pretty basic. It was near the restrooms, and had electric, water, and even a cable TV hookup.
The bathrooms and showers are clean, and I thought it was cool that when you go into the shower, you can close and lock the door (it’s not one of those flimsy swinging doors with a latch that someone can just reach under and take your stuff).
Wi-fi was available right from our camp site with a very strong signal. Unlike the KOA in Twin Mountain, NH, I didn’t need a special code to connect to it.
We debated about whether to drive from Shelburne, VT all the way to Bar Harbor, ME. It was doable, but we would have spent the day on freeways, and not had time for stops. It would have given us three days in Bar Harbor. We decided instead to stop in the middle, and take our time on the drive taking smaller slower back roads. There were many places that we could have stayed, but I decided that the Twin Mountain KOA in New Hampshire would be good. It had a cabins (Kabins) available. And since the weather was turning miserable (rainy and cold), we thought staying in a cabin would be preferable to sleeping in a tent.
We arrived in Twin Mountain, NH, and easily found the KOA using directions on a brochure that we had found.
According to the brochure they only have a small number of cabins, and with the rain, I was hoping they would have one available. Fortunately they did. I was hoping for one close enough to the office so that I would have access to the wifi from the cabin. They put us in the cabin closest to the office, and I have a great connection.
What I like about the KOA campgrounds is that they are clean, and have lots of amenities. They cost a little more, but you are getting more for your money.
The people in the office were very friendly. They were also very helpful when we were trying to find an open restaurant on a Sunday evening, and even called the restaurant for us to verify they were open.
The cabin was nice and clean, and included heat which was nice since it had really gotten chilly. It had a full sized bed, and three twin sized bunks. All four had mattresses.
If you are in the area and are looking for a nice campground, I don’t think you could do much better than this one.
After finding that all the hotels/motels in Shelburne were booked solid, or very expensive, we decided to stay at the local campground. We headed over there about 7:30pm, and found the office closed. Fortunately the sign said we could find an empty campsite and check in in the morning. They listed the empty spots on the sign on the door. We found an empty spot, and pull our car in. It was raining, and we hurriedly set up our tent.
When our tent was sent up, we headed off for food. When we got back it was dark. My wife went to bed, and I plugged the extension cord into the power hookup, and recharged my laptop while working on a couple blog posts. The brochure for the campground says they have wi-fi. My computer shows one network, but it looked like another computer. A few minutes later another connection appears. I connect and manage to upload m posts.
In the morning I head off to the bathrooms intending to take a shower. There are a couple shower stalls. I turn on the water, and it is cold. I turn the knob to both extremes, and get nothing but cold water. I am not sure which way is hot, so I leave it in the middle. The water says cold for the longest time, but eventually warms up a little. Just a little! I had it turned all the way to what seemed to be hot, and the water seemed warm coming out of the shower head. But by the time the fine streams of water hit my body, they seemed kind of cold. I washed my hair, and was suffering. I couldn’t find my soap in our bag, so I washed off as best as possible, and got dressed in the cold shower stall trying to keep my clothes from getting wet on the wet floor. I did get hot water at the sink though.
Back at the tent, I attempt to connect to the wi-fi, but am unable to get a connection this morning. Oh well.
We broke down our campsite, and loaded the car. Some of the other people staying at the campground look like permanent residents, maybe people down on their luck, paying the weekly rate. We check out at the office. I ask about the wi-fi, and he says that it is only good to about 50 feet from the office.
The campground is an older place, that could probably use some updating. The spaces are close together. But at least it was cheap.
My wife and I were planning to go camping in the Adirondack High Peaks region. I looked for campgrounds near Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. I found a KOA but it was up around Wilmington, and I wanted to find something with a shorter drive from Rochester, NY. I found another campground with all kinds of amenities, but as I tried to book, I found it required a 3 day minimum stay. Darn it. I found another campground, but found that the tent sites were located on islands and you needed a boat to reach them (good thing I read more before booking one). Then I tried Rollins Pond Campground. It is a state campground. I went ahead a booked a site.
There are two campgrounds here: Fish Creek Pond Campground & Rollins Pond Campground. Fish Creek Pond Campground is more family oriented, and has it’s site located directly on the pond, and are all squished close together. Rollins Pond Campground offers more quiet, and has buffers between the sites.
As we arrived in the area, we found that we had to drive through Fish Creek Pond Campground, to reach the entrance of Rollins Pond Campground. There were about half a dozen cars in front of us at the check in. The check in process was agonizingly slow, and took us about us between 20 minutes and half an hour to get in.
We drove to our camp site. 80% of the campsites are located on the water, and the rest are across the road. Our site was not one of the 80% on the water. Reserve America listed our site as Drive Tent Prime. I am still trying to figure out what “Prime” is. The best thing about our site is it was near the bathrooms. The only things found on our site were a picnic table and a cement block firepit that looked kind of busted up.
The bathrooms were dimly lit, and not very clean. Often we found the toilets clogged up. And most of the bathrooms had only toilets and a couple sinks with cold running water. There were also mirrors, but because of the dim lighting, they weren’t extremely helpful.
There were a couple shower buildings at the campground, but we would have had to get into the can, drive to them as they were quite a ways away from our campsite. We never did.
There were water faucets located along the road for campers to use, but these were located a distance apart, and required a short walk to get water.
I looked at fishing in the pond (from a camp site on the water), but the water near shore was too shallow to try fishing from shore, and I didn’t have a boat. There was a place near the entrance where I saw people fishing on a small dock. But I would have had to drive to it, and just never got around to it.
There were a handfull of activities scheduled each day. We checked out one listed as Mountain Pies. We weren’t sure what mountain pies were. So we got in the car, and drove to it as it was a long ways away from our site. Mountain pies seem to be pie filling spread on white bread, and toasted over a fire. We didn’t bother with them, and headed back to our campsite.
Overall, I just wasn’t impressed. I will not likely stay at this campground next time. Maybe I was spoiled by our last trip to Old Forge where we stayed at a private owned campground.