KOA's in General

We don't automatically rule them out because it's a KOA. The ones we have stayed at have been fine, if not a little bit more expensive. What KOA has going for it is consistency. They almost always have a store, a laundry and propane. Most of the negative comments I've seen hear about KOAs are from the purists. They probably wouldn't be happy in any campground and can generally be ignored on anyplace other than a national park with no services.

Before we had the motorhome, we used KOAs for quick overnight stops. All KOAs we have been to are setup for late arrivals, some even have late arrival escorts. Since we now have a motorhome, we no longer stay in campgrounds for quick overnight stops. We usually just spend the night in a WalMart parking lot.

All the KOAs we have been to have been nice, some of them nicer than others. Some are bare bones. One of the nice things about KOAs is they are usually clean and well kept. One of the downsides is they are usually expensive. There are KOAs along I-95 that are $40 - $50+/night, some are even more expensive. If we are making a quick stop, it is usually only for 6 - 8 hours; not worth the money for that short time.

-Michael

KOA is like McDonalds. It depends on the franchise owner and how they run their business. Not all KOA's are created equal.

Overall, we haven't found KOA's to be any different than any other parks with similar facilities in similar locations. Some are better than others of course. The 10% discount we get with our KOA VIK membership usually brings the cost down to about the same as other parks in the area. And the membership points we accumulate pay for our membership renewal each year. That said, we just include KOA's in the mix with all the other parks we use, both private and public. If it's convenient to where we want to be and has the facilities we want, we stay there.

I always liked the KOA's as they were for the most part family owned operating under the KOA name. Families like to keep things up to their good standards...

One downside is you may run into alot of transit traffic in the middle of the night. Folks are traveling and coming in late at night around midnight etc... Some like to leave early before Sun up too haha...

I have stayed at the KOA in Townsend TN as well... Nice place...

Roy Ken

In the past, I always did KOA's when traveling. Usually they were a decent park and knew what to expect. Prices got higher and higher. I still use them, but not as much. I generally use Passport America campgrounds now. Only found one on my trips I pulled in and pulled on out.

I have the KOA discount card and 10% helps, and you build up points for $$$ off after so many uses. Think the membership is at 30.00 year, last time I paid.

People criticize KOA's but we've found them to be pretty good on average. I think they are kind of like Holiday Inns, there are better out there but you can usually depend on them to be decent. We've never stayed in one I would call a resort, but we've never stayed in one they was a total dump.

We don't stay at them very often. In General, they normally cater to families and are pretty expensive especially if the extras you are paying for are things that you aren't interested in. For one night, park and go type stays, we look for Passport America parks.