A former campground owner's perspective

[JudyJB]

When I started out 11+ years ago, a friend had bought me a KOA guide, so I stayed at a lot of KOA and other commercial campgrounds. However, I soon became tired or the "family" atmosphere, and I never used one of the pools, activity rooms, or other amenities, so they were a waste of money. I also had a couple of bad experiences with noise from crammed-in fellow party campers with a pile of kids and the noise of the "Toonerville Trolley" making its dusty rounds a few times a day.

Since then, I almost never stay in a commercial campground, unless it is a quick overnight to do laundry or there is nothing else in the area I want to stay in. And like the last couple of posters, all I really care about is electric and a clear view for my satellite. Because I am alone, I can fill my fresh water tank and not have to dump sewage for at least 3 days, at which point, I am almost always gone to someplace else down the highway.

One thing I have noticed lately is when I checked the commercial campground around my Ohio son's home in case I ever had to have treatment or surgery or something medical that would keep me in one place for a couple of months. There is a KOA nearby with 6 sites available for monthly (but not for permanent annual) camping. They are on dirt, and frankly old and crummy, but the monthly rate is $1,200!!! Ditto for two other commercial campgrounds nearby. Yuck, and I compare those places to the very nice RV part near Eugene, OR, I stayed in for four months when I was getting treatment in 2018-19 for a chronic form of leukemia. The cost back then was only $630 per month, and it was much nicer than the older Ohio places. I was a bit shocked.

Is this doubling of monthly rates typical since I had to stay in Eugene?? Because I am a Ohio resident, if I plan ahead, I can get one of the very nice, brand-new full hookup sites in a state park for $24 per night, but of course, I have to move to another state park every two weeks. These are paved sites with paved patios and paved utility pads, and also well-spread out.

 

[Ray-IN]

Prime beach real estate is limited and very expensive, yet highly popular with both RVers and the resort hotel crowd. Hardly surprising that beach-area campgrounds pack sites closely, charge high rents, and attract all sorts of people. There are now 331 million of us in the USA, so the days of empty beaches and sleepy waterfront villages are forever gone.

I totally agree! Many years ago in Melbourne FL. there was an RV park owned by lot owners.
A developer held a meeting and told the lot owners if ALL of them sold he would pay $1 million dollars for each lot. The deal never materialized because at least one lot owner refused to sell.
That's the story I was told anyway. I think it was on the news in FL too.
The only place to find sleepy villages and empty beaches today is in Western Mexico, and they are slowly disappearing too.

 

[UTTransplant]

We are gearing up to travel with our young family cross country and looking ahead at campgrounds. What has your experience been with KOA's? Should I stay KOA or are private own campground better? Any feedback or opionions are appreciated.

We loved KOAs when we had kids. They all have a playground, and most have a pool. We would get to our campsite, get basically setup, then one person would take the kids to get some exercise and the other finished setting up camp. It is a nice respite at the end of a travel day. For destinations we usually stayed at a public campground - national park, state park, forest service - but we stayed at KOAs on travel days. They cost more, but having a consistently clean place set up for kids was worth it. Even now with our kids in their 30s and 40s we stay at KOAs sometimes because they are convenient to our travel plans.