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Old 09-28-2016, 04:55 PM   #181
Tbos
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In Aug we stayed at the West Chester PA KOA. I'd give it a 4.5. The family that owns it, runs it and they are very nice. The CG is a little hilly but sites were close to level and many had plenty of space. They had special events for the kids and in the case of the giant water slide they brought in on Saturday for us much older kids too. The pool was nice too. The public roads going in are narrow and can be challenging. Take it slowly and be careful and you'll be ok.


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Old 09-29-2016, 09:50 AM   #182
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What does a park need to do to become (or stay) a KOA?

I have been looking at parks in Texas and they appear to be former KOAs. They typically get good reviews, but aren't KOAs anymore. Just wondering why they are no longer a KOA.
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Old 09-29-2016, 10:59 AM   #183
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A campground that is KOA follows their guidelines. This includes frequent inspections. We've stayed at KOAs when the giant corporate semi-sized RV rolls in. Inspectors go over the whole park and then sit down with the owners. They grade the KOA and give a critique of changes that should be made - things like cleanliness, the store, the condition of the sites and roads, water/septic systems, etc. Also, after each stay, the customer has the opportunity to rate their stay and make comments. KOAs can win awards based on these ratings, which are prominently displayed in the KOA Campground Directory. Directories are free of charge at any KOA. I don't know how much it costs the owner to be in the KOA network, but I would think it would be pretty significant.

We've stayed at a few bad KOAs - there are so many KOAs that there are bound to be a few (at last count we've stayed in over 70 all over the USA). Sometimes when we get the new Directory, we look, and the bad ones are no longer KOAs! We've also stayed at a few where a new owner just took over or the campground just became a KOA, and there's LOTS of work to be done to get it up to par. Twice on our last trip we stayed at KOAs that had just changed hands - older couples had sold (they just couldn't keep up anymore), and both needed TLC but had so much potential with just a few changes). On a whole, we've had very good experiences (we've never stayed at one that we'd absolutely refuse to return to (except for Brigham City, UT that had goatshead weeds instead of grass-ouch). Price ranges for us have been between $32 and $65 (usually midway). We've been members for 15 years, so we get 10% off of every stay; and membership is so cheap that you make it up after just two or three stays.
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Old 09-29-2016, 11:09 AM   #184
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We are planning to stay at the KOA at Onalaska Texas on Lake Livingston during Thanksgiving week. Great reviews and we just had some friends that stayed there that recommended it.

Anyone here ever camp there?
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Old 09-29-2016, 12:08 PM   #185
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Originally Posted by Mike484 View Post
We are planning to stay at the KOA at Onalaska Texas on Lake Livingston during Thanksgiving week. Great reviews and we just had some friends that stayed there that recommended it.

Anyone here ever camp there?
My buddy has stayed at that KOA. He said it's really nice and plans to go back.

I've only stayed in a true KOA once (Lubbock, TX). It was great as an overnight stop.
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Old 09-29-2016, 06:55 PM   #186
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Wiscosin KOAs

On a recent trip to the UP Michigan, we stayed at 2 different KOA's in Wisconsin. Both were nice, clean and everything you'd expect from a KOA. The one we really liked was in Hancock WI, which looked very new, with exceptionally nice facilities. The log cabin lodge was well done, and a nice facility. The woman at the lodge, I assume owner(?) was very friendly, and had a person take us to the site. From what we could tell, all the sites were pull-thru, with lots of room between sites, with trees, and space at the end for your vehicle(s). Would highly recommend it.
The Madison KOA, actually in De Forest WI, was also nice, clean, but the spaces were fairly small, and no trees. Facilities were good too.

Overall, we used these sites as one night stops on our longer trip, so didn't spend more than one night. The one in DeForest WI is just a few miles down the road from a Camping World, if you need any anything.
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Old 10-08-2016, 06:04 PM   #187
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Re: The KOA Thread

We are currently on a trip taking us to New Jersey, down the coast to Hatteras and Jekyll Island and then back to California. We have stayed at the following KOA campgrounds: Bryce Canyon, UT; Silt, CO; Goodland, KS; St. Louis, MO; KOA Dayton, OH; Mercer KOA, PA; KOA Hatteras, Rodanthe, NC; Travelers Rest KOA, Travelers Rest, SC; Nashville East KOA, Nashville, TN; North Little Rock KOA, Little Rock, AR. All of these KOA campgrounds were okay. Some were better than others, but, they were all okay. Tonight we had planned on staying in El Reno, OK. This KOA is terrible. The sites are 8 ft wide gravel strips with about 3 or 4 ft of grass between each pad. The site we were assigned was plenty long enough but we would not have been able to open either of our apposing slides. The lady managing the CG was trying to be helpful. she said we could pull our rig forward so we could open our slide, but, that would have had our slide 2 feet from our neighbor's door. We asked for a refund. She was very gracious and even secured us a reservation at another KOA 60 miles further west. She admitted that the park was old and in need of renovation.
The point of this post is not to slam the KOA camp grounds. Our experience has been mostly positive. Just a heads up - if you are traveling through Oklahoma on I-40, you might want to by-pass El Reno West.
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Old 10-09-2016, 06:59 AM   #188
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Re: The KOA Thread

2012 KOA Mt. Rushmore was a complete disaster, premium site had huge mud hole when we arrived and when asked to be moved it was a "take it or leave" attitude. They did fill in the hole but only made it muddier. Will stay elsewhere if we ever go back to that area.

KOA near us in Dayton Ohio was a quick get away and it is a super nice place. We did get woken up one night to find people sitting in our chairs drinking been and chatting up a storm. When I went out and ask what's up they all made their way out of our site leaving the beer cans for us to deal with!

Most recent KOA was Mackinaw city Michigan. This was a nice peaceful place but needing some attention on some items but would stay there again no problem.
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Old 10-12-2016, 05:52 PM   #189
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Re: The KOA Thread

The KOA in Petaluma ("San Francisco North" although it is a good 40 miles north of San Francisco) depended entirely on the "where."

The trip down we stayed in a back-in slot at the north side of the campground. 30amp, water, some sort of cable hook up (we don't use), internet, no sewer. It was quiet, not much campground noise, not much highway noise. Lots of trees and some vegetation between sites. Tiny bathhouse with 2 very small shower stalls with nowhere to put towels or clothing to keep them dry.

On the trip back up we stayed on the south end of the campground, near the road, in a pull-through spot that our 26' trailer (22' box, 4' of hitch) barely fit in, much less our trailer AND truck. Several rigs around us were the same position. 30 & 50 amp, water, sewer, cable, internet. Lots of people speeding through the very narrow roads in the campground, our picnic bench was actually on top of the sewer connection for the next site over. A ton of road noise, no trees, everyone crammed next to each other. Much larger bathhouse, 6 shower stalls, changing area outside the shower.

There isn't much other choice in the area, though, so plan accordingly. As an overnight stop it was passable (at $65 a night), for any other length of time probably not.
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Old 11-05-2016, 05:47 AM   #190
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Re: The KOA Thread

We have stayed at KOAs in Limon, CO, Staunton, VA, Baton Rouge, LA. None were very good. At Staunton, half the sites had no sewer, the roads were very tight, dog poo around our site, Baton Rouge was not clean, muddy roads. Limon was the same. Koa is always a last resort for us. Most any other park has been better. COE parks even with no sewer are preferable.-0
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Old 11-05-2016, 06:40 AM   #191
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Re: The KOA Thread

Our experiences with KOA are usually excellent. Just stayed at Beaver, UT KOA, Laughlin/Avi, NV KOA (for 3 weeks) and Fillmore, UT KOA on our way home -- all wonderful!
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Old 02-12-2017, 08:17 AM   #192
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Did our first long trip in the trailer, Southern Oregon to Tucson, about 1,300 miles each way. On the way down, stayed in Lodi, Ca, Banning, Ca then Tucson, on the way back stayed in Kingman, Az, Bakersfield, Ca, Orland Ca, then home.

Discovered that 350 miles or so a day is about the max we are willing to spend towing, hence the 4 days home after only 3 days there.

We have a 26' (ball-to-bumper) Keystone Hideaway 21FQ pulled by a 2013 Ford F150 V8 with the tow package and 3.73 rear end.

We travel with our own Verizon Wifi and VPN, we don't have a TV or use cable, we tend to use the park's showers and restrooms and on an overnight basis often don't connect to the sewer or water. We only need 30amp. All the overnight sites were pullthrough and we didn't even unhitch.

With the exception of Tucson, everywhere was off off-season and uncrowded.

The KOAs were:
Tucson Lazydays RV Resort (8 nights). Definitely the most "upscale" place we stayed. Huge, clean, friendly. We had a grapefruit tree and a little grass at our site plus a concrete patio, table and chairs. Level gravel pad. Very friendly people. Nice pool and spa, a little "cantina" on site. Pull-through slot. Pros: clean, well-kept. Cons: in a bad part of town, noise from the airport and air base. Nicely paved roads, which leads to the other downside: huge RVs and trucks going FAR too fast on the narrow park roads. People, the speed limit in the park is "9 3/4" miles per hour, not 15-20. The park is jammed with people, kids, dogs and you cannot stop that behemoth that fast. It won't kill you to creep through the park, honest.

Banning, Ca KOA (1 night). It is small and old, but we had a nice spot, backed up to a beautiful view of the mountains right behind. Highway noise, but the drone of I-10 is pretty much constant, so it is easy to tune out or mask with a white noise generator on low. Some of the spots on the other side are along the fence for the baseball diamond at the high school(?) next door. That could be really noisy. Only 2 showers for the entire camp.

Kingman AZ KOA (1 night). Again an older park, but off the highway and quiet. Has a permanent resident mobile home section and that is somewhat noisy, but not bad. This is not a "resort" despite being labeled one. Yes, there is a pool (although it was closed) and a small spa plus a kid's park and a very small dog park.

Other parks:
Bakersfield RV Resort (probably the most upscale after the Tucson park)

Orland Parkway RV Resort (not a resort, fine place to overnight, well off the highway - we were there during a series of torrential storms, the park roads were dirt/gravel with huge puddles, but probably not indicative of regular conditions)

Lodi Flag City RV Resort - perfectly fine for overnight, level pad. A bit of highway noise but not much. Not seeing the "resort" in the name, but around the larger cities in California there are a LOT of "RV parks" that get 1-2 reviews on the various sites. This was clean, the site was easily large enough to pull through and not even unhitch.
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Old 03-22-2017, 04:59 PM   #193
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Chula Vista?

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The San Diego KOA is a great place to stay when visiting San Diego. I have stayed there 4-5 times and enjoyed it each time. Easy to get to from the freeway, shopping for groceries is close and it is not far from the major attractions. Many people like Campland at the Bay but it is a pricey private park that is very busy, especially with kids. I much prefer the KOA.
We stayed at the KOA in Chula Vista (San Diego) last June. Big place, nice sites even though they are a little close together. Great amenities....loved being able to rent a car onsite!
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