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Old 01-20-2018, 09:34 AM   #1
scottkeen
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First time RV owner. Campground expectations.

This is my first RV I've owned and it's now in storage. Aside from staying with my grandparents in their 16-foot travel trailer, and camping in a Class C in a New Jersey casino parking lot to play in a poker tournament, I don't have any experience yet with RV parks.

I drove out yesterday to a RV park 35 minutes from my condo outside of Washington DC, called "Hillwood Camping Park" with great expectations, and even thinking I could move my RV there and full-time while earning extra money by renting out my condo.

I was DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED with what I saw. The campground bills itself as "offers extended camping services at our full-hookup campground. Military, government, or business employees who are looking for long term campground accommodations close to the Washington D.C. metro and other offices... provides workers traveling to the D.C. area for long-term business or military assignments with a peaceful respite far enough away from the metro to relax but close enough for daily travel."

It looked awful. Horrendous.

The RV's were crammed side by side with just a couple of feet between them, only a few had space enough for a picnic table, most were just an arms lengths from the next one. The ground was uneven, bumpy, and muddy. There was a lot of makeshift outdoor storage apparatus, tarps pulled across and tied to trees, and "stuff" just scattered outside the rigs. Many of them had cars parked in front of them. There wasn't a soul to be seen.

It looked like a depressing scene out of the trailer park from the movie "8 Mile". I fully expected Eminem's drunken mother to come yelling out of a run-down trailer and Cheddar Bob to pull up in a squeaky beat up rusty old Lincoln.

There was about a 30:1 ratio of fifth-wheels to Class A. Just a couple of bumper-pull trailers and I don't recall seeing any Class B or C. Many of the fifth-wheels looked new, and there was A LOT of Montanas. There was one row which was all Montana rigs, many of them new.

I don't know if I had some pollyannac expectations of beautiful lakes and sunsets, fireside cocktails and conversation, and plenty of room around the rigs, clean and neatly kept sites. But all that was dashed in an instant. My brother who went with me couldn't keep from laughing and said he couldn't wait to tell his co-workers about the dumpy meth-head trailer park his brother was going to live in and how "Scott's next move in life keeps getting worse! Bahahahaha!"

The website for the place looked nice, but all I wanted to do was get outta there fast.

For $787 EWS, I expected nicer. Maybe because it's near Washington DC and meant for gov't and military contractors who come to work temporarily in the area and just need a place to park their rigs so they can live and go to work until the contract is over and they move to the next city.

These were the only reviews on RV Park Reviews:
Quote:
"Overall Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars

This was the worst place I have literally ever been. Filthy!!! Wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. The lady in the office is constantly talking bad about all the people staying at the park. Not a nice person at all and the owner takes no pride what so ever in this park. Lots of full time residents that have tons of old stuff hoarded around the outsides of their campers. This place was just gross! We camped at Hillwood Camping Park in a Motorhome."
Quote:
Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

This park needs lots of improvement. First off this is not a tourist park, it is mostly long-term campers who are here on contract jobs from out of town. There is no maintenance or upkeep of the park, all the sites are nothing but grass which turns to mud every time it rains or snows. Sites are not level either. If it snows, trees fall on your camper and destroy it, two campers completely destroyed during our stay. There are two maintenance workers on-site, but only one of them actually cares and will help you if you need something. The restrooms, showers and laundry are very rustic, old and filthy. While we were there, a camper had his back window broken out and everything was stolen out of the camper, so this place is not safe, nor does it supply any security. There were some reports of campers having their LP tanks stolen too. Be careful what you say to the lady that works in the office, she will tell everyone your business. The owner is very indifferent, unfortunately they are the only long-term camping park in the area and they know it, so complaining about anything in the office is not worth your trouble, basically the attitude is, you’re more than welcome to leave or find someplace better. So bottom line, if you are a tourist, I recommend you stay away and find another campground. If you are here on a long-term job, it is the only game in town, but you have been warned. Too bad too, this could be a nice park if the owner cared for it. We camped at Hillwood Camping Park in a Motorhome.
Please tell me this is not how RV parks are like. I want to believe in sunsets, glassy mountain lakes, nature's beauty, and fireside cocktails and laughs with new friends.
 
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Old 01-20-2018, 09:57 AM   #2
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This is NOT what I have experienced in RV parks. Have I seen some of those parks? Yes. Did we stay there? NO! We were doing recon on one long term stay park in particular. What we saw was horrendous. One TT in particular that was probably 22' long had 4 adults that were living in it. And I mean LARGE adults. This trailer had not been moved in years. I was expecting to hear banjos at some point. One thing to look for is does the RV park have a age limit? That's a good indicator on whether or not they will allow junk. Also look at their ratings. As you can clearly see from your post the RV park is not rated well at all and the descriptions pretty much match yours. You will find what you want. There is nothing better than boots on the ground. Keep looking.
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Old 01-20-2018, 10:14 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by RoadRunnerTR21 View Post
One thing to look for is does the RV park have a age limit? That's a good indicator on whether or not they will allow junk.
What age limit are we looking for? "No kids"? "Senior citizens only"?

I'm 49 years old next month. I don't think I quite yet meet the senior citizens age limit (6 more years until I can order from the seniors menu at Denny's!)

Is this how "long-term" campgrounds typically are? From the other reviewers, it sounds like "tourist" campgrounds might be nicer. My idea is to full-time and move to another campground ever 1-2 months. I don't know yet, really, since I haven't done this before. But in my mind I want to follow-the-weather. I think I'd like to stay at a campground for 1-2 months before I move again and sprinkle in some 14-day boondocking in BLM in between campgrounds.

For now, I just want to try weekend and holiday camping in my nearby area. Full-timing will be an option when my work contract is over.
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Old 01-20-2018, 10:26 AM   #4
RoadRunnerTR21
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Sorry for the confusion on age. What I meant was that some of the RV parks will ask how old your rig is. They might have a rule that they don't allow RV's over a certain age. Yes, there are also RV parks that have a "no kids" rule or a "50 and older" rule. I'm familiar with your neck of the woods but not from a RV park perspective. But I will say that the beauty being mobile is that if you find something you don't like, MOVE! My wife spends hours researching RV parks for our trips. She has yet to come up with a bad solution. There may be some things we don't like but that's normal. We have stayed in some long term RV spots and we found them to be nice, the people very friendly and the management very helpful. Like I said Keep looking. You will find the right spot.
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Old 01-20-2018, 10:30 AM   #5
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Unfortunately the first place you looked was awful but most parks are not like that. Yes, you need to do a lot of research but there are a lot of beautiful places out there to discover. One tool I have found to be very helpful is Google Earth. When planning a trip I zero in on a specific park then go to Google Earth and find the address. This way I can see what the park really looks like. I can see if the sites are very tight and if there are piles of junk around.

We were in the DC area last spring and stayed at a beautiful park that was in a lovely wooded area. It was called Prince William Forest RV Campground. I don't know if they have longer term spots but might be worth checking out.

Good luck and don't let this one bad experience spoil everything for you. There are wonderful adventures out there waiting for you!
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Old 01-20-2018, 10:58 AM   #6
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What you saw was an exception, not the norm, although there are parks like that out there. campgroundreviews.com will generally give a fairly accurate view of what to expect. If the reviews are generally good with a few bad reviews mixed in, the park is probably ok. Reasons for bad reviews are often minor such as desk person was not friendly, wind blew to hard, Wi-Fi was weak, unsupervised children allowed in pool, etc. Basically go with the general trend of most of the reviews without dwelling on individual ones. We have never stopped at one such as you describe.
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Old 01-20-2018, 02:21 PM   #7
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Would tend to stay away from parks in large metropolitan areas although there are exceptions. Have also found parks in high cost housing areas have a lot of full timers that are living there to avoid housing costs. These folks often bring a lot of stuff and bring the park down some. The parks out in the wide open spaces tend to be nicer (but not always). Bottom line, research of reviews is needed.
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Old 01-20-2018, 03:27 PM   #8
scottkeen
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Originally Posted by AZ Traveler View Post
Would tend to stay away from parks in large metropolitan areas although there are exceptions. Have also found parks in high cost housing areas have a lot of full timers that are living there to avoid housing costs. These folks often bring a lot of stuff and bring the park down some. The parks out in the wide open spaces tend to be nicer (but not always). Bottom line, research of reviews is needed.
I think this ^ is what's going on here, makes sense. The N. Virginia counties are the 2 highest per capita income counties in the entire country and the housing costs match. They're building new townhouses 4 miles from my condo advertised as "Starting only in the 800s".

Crazy taxes and crazy cost of living is one of the reasons I want to get out of here (again, for the third time!). I have many other reasons. I would do well to rent out my condo for passive income and just go full-time across America.

But it makes sense that people moved to that RV park in the Washington DC suburbs to save on living expenses. In a way, it's similar to the streets in Silicon Valley filled with RVs and the tent cities under the freeway overpasses because rent is too high. My friend in Mountain View, CA is renting a room in a house -- just a room, he's sharing the house with other people -- and he's paying $2,000/mo for just the room.
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Old 01-20-2018, 04:15 PM   #9
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And this my friends is why I try to ask for advice on specific area parks from people on here that I trust more than online reviews! Granted I do use online research as well but I always try to back that up with trustworthy fellow RV owners advice.


So next time someone asks you for your advice on parks in an area you have visited in the past don't blow them off with "well you can goggle it" or "there are websites for that"!
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Old 01-20-2018, 04:45 PM   #10
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Understanably most private campgrounds are solely in it for the profit. The more rv's they can cram in the greater the profit. The adds the rv industries show always have a beautiful secluded campsite near a body of water or mountains. While these kinds of sites certainly exist, they are usually boondocking sites. National, state, or Corp of engineers sites are usually somewhat spread out with nice views and have water and electric, but most don't have sewer at each site. We have stayed at some very nice private campgrounds, so they do exist. It seems that what you saw was a trailer park, not a campground.
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Old 01-20-2018, 04:54 PM   #11
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In very broad terms and certainly not in every situation what we have found is that generally speaking government run campgrounds will have more room between campers while older privately owned campgrounds tend to "pack um in like sardines". This makes perfect sense because private owners are all about getting as many campers in a given area to make more money, while the government is trying to offer an "experience".


I'm not trying to say that one type of campground is better or worse. Nor am I trying to say that long term tenants are always a bad thing.


Government campgrounds are not there to make a profit and as such are usually very economical. They almost all have a limit on how long you can stay to discourage long term tenants and the potential issues that can come from that. Depending on the state and certainly true of most federal parks we have visited, there are certain minimum standards that they are expected to meet and there is usually enough money to ensure they do meet those standards or they shut the park down until it does.


It's not always the case but all to often the privately owned campgrounds turn into something more akin to trailer parks with long term residents and perhaps a few undesirables. Since long term residents are a more stable form of income owners have very little incentive to address issues related to same. Likewise you will often see private owners neglecting even basic maintaince on their facilities. Particularly older parks.


There is however a new trend with private "resort" rv parks opening up that are much more extravagant and cater to higher end rv owners. The kind of folks that drive Class A diesel pushers. They usually cost a lot more to stay at and are generally much better run and cleaner than your typical older park. At these parks you usually have more room between campers (more akin to what you see at government run parks) and there is usually a concerted effort to keep the clientele a little more on the high end as well. In many cases, these parks do not allow any sort of soft sided camping (IE: tents, popups and the like). It is more of a Country Club sort of setting than primitive camping. The term GLAMPING comes to mind.


One last time, let me state, I am not saying that one type of park is better than another. Nor am I saying that any of the above is absolute and there are not exceptions because there certainly are. I am just stating this as generalities and broad brush observations. We have stayed at all three types of parks and some that were the exception to the rules above as well. In the end, research research research is the answer and even then your going to find yourself pulling into something that sounded really nice only to turn out to be, as our President recently used, a sh$#hole. It happens, you learn from it and move on.
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Old 01-20-2018, 09:43 PM   #12
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This is why we carefully investigate before we make reservations and, even if we are staying longer initially only pay for the first week. We've never moved on, but this keeps our options open.
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Old 01-21-2018, 06:52 PM   #13
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Regarding the government campgrounds - you must exclude national parks. It seems to me they are REALLY cramped together. At least Yellowstone is. I haven't stayed in others recently so my memory is incomplete.
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Old 01-21-2018, 07:29 PM   #14
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Regarding the government campgrounds - you must exclude national parks. It seems to me they are REALLY cramped together. At least Yellowstone is. I haven't stayed in others recently so my memory is incomplete.
That's why I was careful to say that my statements were generalities. There are exceptions as I said but at least in the South Central area of the country this seems to hold fairly true.
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