Camping etiquette

Never had anything close to that. Pick your times & CGs I guess. I would not expect anything close to solitude at a KOA. Solitude is what we had last night. We had a county CG all to ourselves. Silence except for a very occasional sound of a distant train. One light on at the bathroom for the whole CG.

Last weekend I was camping in a Michigan State Park which has fairly secluded sites, (Pontiac Lake State Park), and mine was one - I could only really see the two neighbors across the road so I was happy.

There was a three pair group of nice folks in their late twenties across the road and we'd chatted and introduced dogs to each other. They were quiet and nice but on Monday morning at 0230 I'm woken by just loud enough drunken chit chat to wake me. That level of chit chat is impossible to get back to sleep to and about 45 minutes later they started imitating electric guitars...

I opened the trailer door and in my best ex-military SNCO voice I simply yelled "Gentlemen, Quiet Please!"

Silence came immediately and in the morning I quietly packed up and left before all but one girl who's dog needed a pee woke up...

Not everyone who act senselessly are senseless - sometimes they are just unaware they are causing a problem. Had we both been there another day or more I'm sure we'd have shared a beverage or two and apologies from both sides would have been exchanged.

For those of you that think people are overly sensitive to others being in their site… would you be ok if you were at say some beach resort hotel & people came onto your room’s deck, took chairs/tables/grill &/or used some property you had on your deck?

On the one hand, boisterous neighbors can be a way to meet new friends, but on the other & IMO far more frequent from my experience it ends up being a rude unpleasant stay for the person being encroached on. The sad part is all of it could normally be avoided if the offending neighbor would just talk to you about their plans/activity before it kicked off.

The bigger ‘rub’ IMO is the attitude of these kind of people that they can do whatever the hell they want & you can kiss their rear end if you don’t like it. 20-30 people in a single RV site is asinine & supremely disrespectful of anyone else. Those kind of #s should necessitate them having to get a “Group” site somewhere that has group areas.

When you pay money for a camp site you’re renting the use of that square footage. To barge into space that someone else is paying for is rude, arrogant behavior. A little respect & common courtesy goes a long long way but too many people choose to not show it to others.

BadgerMcAdams wrote:
Knock on wood (tapping the side of my head) I have not had a camping experience ruined by other campers...Now, Mother Nature and the lovely wildlife (the skunk that wandered into the camp the last time we went camping) are another thing.

I'm with you on this....or maybe my tolerance level is not on High alert when in the Great outdoors. The person who can't seem to ever find a location void of any distractions is soon discovered to be the issue themselves? maybe?

As previously stated, we all have our ideal situation in mind when we arrive at a campground/campsite yet that ideal is seldom found cause we all have different styles and expectations.

Knock on wood (tapping the side of my head) I have not had a camping experience ruined by other campers...Now, Mother Nature and the lovely wildlife (the skunk that wandered into the camp the last time we went camping) are another thing.

"So what? If hungry enough, and don't have milk for cereal, there is room at my table"

We had a similar experience years ago when we were tent camping in Fundy National Park, when it was just the hubby and me. It was raining (as usual) and we had a tarp set up (as usual). There was a dad in the site next to us with no tarp and he asked if he could stay under our tarp just long enough to eat. Of course we said yes. We noticed they were eating dry cereal and asked if they wanted some milk to which they gladly said yes. Their milk had gone bad. We chatted for quite a while, until they had to pack up and leave.

We were also in a situation many moons ago (tent camping still) when we were surrounded by a huge family who had booked sites all around us, long after we had booked ours. After they arrived and set up they apologized to us because we were stuck in the middle. We just said no worries. They had set up a volleyball net and immediately invited us to join them, including their cookout lunch. We accepted and had a great time. Large groups aren't always bad.

Deb and Ed M wrote:

RobWNY wrote:
One way to solve that kind of problem is to bring a chair over and sit down right in the middle of their party. When they take issue with it, tell them they took over part of your site so you're doing the same LOL.

If you do that when MY family is camping together, you'll get handed a beer, a roasting fork and your choice of marshmallows or hotdogs. We tend to "adopt" anyone in the vicinity. Seriously, at our last family bash, we drew in a Grandma/Mom/daughter who were camping next to us and got drawn into the vortex of our family - the Grandma gave me her name and number and said "Call me when you come back so we can be here, too"

LOL. One morning of a family reunion, I was fixing breakfast. A couple of early teenage boys walking and passing a box of Cheerios back and forth eating by handful. I handed each a plate with a biscuit and gravy. Aunt that keeps track told me they where not in our family. "So what? If hungry enough, and don't have milk for cereal, there is room at my table"

DutchmenSport wrote:


When camping, things are always going to happen contrary to our own expectations. Be the bobber and just float along with all the manifold changes occurring around you. Add them to your experiences, and laugh about it when you are sitting in that nursing home some day.

I love your attitude!! And as campers - if we encounter a situation that truly makes us crazy - we can MOVE.

In 15 years of RVing, I can truly say I can't remember any "awful" experiences - but sure can remember countless wonderful/beautiful/fun times!

RobWNY wrote:
One way to solve that kind of problem is to bring a chair over and sit down right in the middle of their party. When they take issue with it, tell them they took over part of your site so you're doing the same LOL.

If you do that when MY family is camping together, you'll get handed a beer, a roasting fork and your choice of marshmallows or hotdogs. We tend to "adopt" anyone in the vicinity. Seriously, at our last family bash, we drew in a Grandma/Mom/daughter who were camping next to us and got drawn into the vortex of our family - the Grandma gave me her name and number and said "Call me when you come back so we can be here, too"

Not to go to far off topic

We have never had a issue with people being disrespectful at a KOA, the one we stayed at this past summer I was already aware the sites were to be on the small side and there would be probably a lot of younger camping families. When I called early to make my reservation, I explained our situation and they gave us a site on a outside perimeter loop road, worked out well. For the most part I try to look at the glass half full. :C

Mike