Which Campground Will You Never Go Back To

Morris Meadows Freeland, MD

Have you ever, for some perverse reason, wanted to experience a prisoner of war camp? You know, tons of pointless rules and rude guards who delight in enforcing all the pointless rules just to annoy you. Boy have we got a campground for you. Merry Meadows Campground in Freeland, MD.

We arrived late Fri. afternoon in the rain. We checked in, paid our fee along with a $10 deposit for a gate key. We mentioned that our daughter was coming over to bring us dinner. Oops, $5 charge for a visitor. She’s bringing her husband? Now $10, plus a $20 visitor deposit for the gate card. We could understand a charge if they were coming for the day and using the facilities, but to bring dinner on a rainy night? Also gate key is required to enter and LEAVE the campground. Will we be shot if attempting an escape over the fence?

Pool is open from noon to 8PM daily. When we tried to enter through the snack bar at 6PM on Sunday, there was a sign that the snack bar had closed at 4PM and the other gate was locked. We got the attention of the lifeguard closing up and she said that because there hadn’t been anyone there for a half hour, Lois (the owner) said to close early. We pointed to the sign with the noon to 8 hours and after checking with Lois she did reopen. Other people arrived shortly after. To access the pool, we’re back to the POW camp. You have to show your receipt every time and every person must be listed on the receipt to make sure you didn’t sneak Uncle Fred in under the beach towel. The chaise lounges are not to be moved. To enforce this, they are bolted down to the concrete. Tables are to be used for eating food purchased from the snack bar only.

They are about 20 miles south of York, PA where there is a Harley Davidson plant with factory tours. But no motorcycles are allowed beyond the front gate. It must be fun to schlep all your gear from the front gate to your site.

A dress code? No offensive t-shirts allowed. Who makes the decision as to what is offensive. Liberal political statements, conservative? Hunting slogans, PETA supporters? Beer drinkers vs wine?

30 cable channels, but half were such poor video that they were unwatchable. We mentioned it to the desk and the next day they replaced a connection and tested the signal and said it was “fine”. Their definition of fine is different from mine. No improvement. The wi-fi was typical for campgrounds. Not great, but usable.

Activities for kids are on the weekends only and there is a charge for virtually everything.

It’s actually a very nice venue. But there is a reason why it is about 40% vacant at the height of the season. After 40 years, the original owner sold out to his daughter in 2010. I wish we had visited when the original owner was still in charge. It would be interesting to see how it has changed in the last 7 years.

Lantley wrote:

Pirate wrote:
I have been to many, but there is really only one I will never go back to, Candy Hill in Winchester, VA. This is not a bash on them, just curious as to others black listed places.

For the record Candy Hill is one of my least favorite places as well.

A few years back (maybe 8 or 10 years ago)on this site there was a discussion on Candy Hill Campground, the owners even entered into the discussion, I remember someone said better to stay at the Flying J just off I81, this incensed the Candy Hill owners.
BTW we stayed at Candy Hill and as a number of RVers said it was not a pleasant experience due not to the park conditions but the ignorant owners....never again, there are also two Super Walmarts in the area.

On edit I think the discussion was held on Park Reviews rather than this site between the unsatisified Rv'ers and the Candy Hill owners, got quite heated if I remember well.

Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. :( Beautiful place and nice campgrounds. But the park rangers were so rude to me and my family that I will never ever go back. Let me tell you why...
We- our family- kids, adults, grandkids- were sitting at the table, around 10:00pm playing games. The rangers were walking by. One of the younger kids laughed out loud he was having such a good time. The rangers stopped, came back to our site and proceeded to lecture us about quiet time. I said I understand, our grandkid was just-
"Sir, if you say one more word, you're going to jail!" That was it. Never even finished my sentence. And I certainly do understand about quiet time in campgrounds. But we didn't deserve to be talked to or treated like that, let alone in front of family. I would never recommend that place to anybody.

Tvov wrote:

Busskipper wrote:
Who Cares!

I could care less about the bad ones - tell me about the GOOD ONES!

To p8ss and moan about the bad is just a waste of time - let's talk about the great places WE'VE Been.

JMHO

Then make a thread about good campgrounds! It is interesting to read about bad campgrounds (and from some of these descriptions I'm glad I wasn't there!), and good warnings if I am traveling in the area.

Why aren't we posting about frogs? I wanna talk about frogs, this topic is a waste of time because it isn't about frogs, why bother posting it?

If you don't like the subject, nobody is going to make you click it ;)

Busskipper wrote:
Who Cares!

I could care less about the bad ones - tell me about the GOOD ONES!

To p8ss and moan about the bad is just a waste of time - let's talk about the great places WE'VE Been.

JMHO

Then make a thread about good campgrounds! It is interesting to read about bad campgrounds (and from some of these descriptions I'm glad I wasn't there!), and good warnings if I am traveling in the area.

two travelers wrote:
KOA in Lancaster PA. Rude, unfriendly owner/manager. My wife has some mobiiity issues and we had friends picking us up. He wanted to charge them $18 to go in and pick us up and the same to drop us off on the return. I explained situation "those are the rules". Asked about a ride in his golf cart - " no it's for work". Should have suspected something when on a busy holiday weekend he was the only one with empty sites.

As a local resident, I'm really sorry that you are one of many that has suffered through problems with this place. The owners are pretty famous for being rude, obnoxious, and obsessed with control. Pretty much about as unsuitable as it gets for being in the hospitality industry.

Sadly, when looking at the reviews of the place on the big review site, I'm highly suspicious, and believe that it's another case of a property that is benefiting from fake reviews, and fraudulent reviewers. I experienced a similar situation at a CG in the PA grand Canyon area. The owners are absolutely bat turd crazy, and well know in the local community as such. The reviews alternate from one with zero stars and a very detailed account of off the charts behavior from the ownership, to the next one, which would go on endlessly about how wonderful everything is. This has since been something that I look for while doing research. If a review thread is seesawing from horrible to wonderful, with no middle ground, I just assume the good ones are bogus, and move on.

If you are in the area again, please try Lake in the Wood, or Country Acres, both are great properties that are very well run.

Who Cares!

I could care less about the bad ones - tell me about the GOOD ONES!

To p8ss and moan about the bad is just a waste of time - let's talk about the great places WE'VE Been.

JMHO

dodge guy wrote:
Butte MT KOA! Thank god it was an overnight. Pull in at 7pm and out by 7am.

Oh, I WISH I could of gotten out of that **** hole in 12 hours! I stopped in town early one summer to book a week at a CG. We were coming back in late summer, as I was supervising a new home for Habitat for Humanity. The KOA was the only reasonable option at the time. I prepaid for a really decent site. We got there, two months later and I was told that the site was not available. They tried to stick me on a patch of dirt between two beat to snot, single wide trailers with permanent residents, I refused. They found a better site. During the week, my wife and young daughter were verbally assaulted at the pool, for trying to use a lounge chair. Scumbag townie punks, friends of the owners, would take over the pool during the day, and abuse paying customers. They were also harassed by a bum on the adjacent walking/bike trail. One night I was sitting at our picnic table with some friends when a drunk bum crashed a bicycle into the table at a pretty good speed. He flipped over the bars, got up, apologized, and rode on. Another time I got done with work and loaded the family in the truck to head out for diner. As we were slowly leaving the CG we passed another mobile home with the curtains open on a big picture window. The occupant was sitting in his living room, watching hard core porn on a big screen TV. I was thrilled that the kids got an eye full of that! The entire week we were there the same garbage laid on the floor of the bathroom and shower area. Yea, twelve hours would of been heaven, compared to eight days.

Ruff It campground in Sterling Illinois. You had to pay for the showers, restrooms and in need of updating badly.

We have several:

Shore Forest CG Hop Bottom, PA This was our first ever outing in our new-to-us pop-up. Crude sites, unlevel, unmowed. Pay showers. Rude, noisey and drunk campers to all hours of the night. In all fairness, that was 25 years ago so maybe things have changed........

Indian Flat CG El Portal, CA Dirty, dusty, run down, crowded & in dire need of upkeep. Residents looked at us like we had three heads. I could have sworn the sound track from "Deliverance" was playing somewhere in the background........

Beech Bend CG Bowling Green KY, Parking lot, period. Worst utility hookups we've seen anywhere. Zero shade.

Jellystone Park Caledonia, WI Nice, but way, way, WAY overpriced and management not pleasant to work with. We only wound up there because a severe storm had ripped through Illinois Beach State Park a few weeks before. Have been boycotting Yogi ever since.