Finding a campground in an unfamiliar area can be somewhat challenging. While there are plenty of resources available to find campgrounds, finding reliable information about the campground's quality can be a challenging task.
We have only been RV'ing since 2008, so we have a lot to learn yet. In general, I've looked to Good Sam campgrounds as a sort of a benchmark or a "can't go wrong" type of assurance of a middle of the road campground option.
A recent experience has me puzzled though and leads me to the question "what is the criteria for a Good Sam campground designation?"
I was looking for an overnight stop option along the Ohio Turnpike. I was having trouble finding good options that weren't too far away from the tollway. Then I found the Milan Travel Park in the Trailer Life Directory. I saw it was a 9/9.5/7 on TL and was a Good Sam park. I was about to say "this is my place" and move on, but then I thought I'd check another of my "go to" resources: rvparkreviews.com. Ouch!
The reviews and ratings at rvparkreviews.com (http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/Ohio/Milan.html#CGID2198) are sketchy at best. Now, I know enough to take individual reviews with a grain of salt, but with enough reviews you can get a general sense of the place.
I noticed a couple overriding themes in these reviews. The first was repeated comments about voltage fluctuations. The second issue that is repeated is an environment that is very unpleasant due to the adjacent asphalt plant and the resulting smell.
So, I have not taken this trip yet. I don't know what I am going to do. And I don't know which source is right. But my question is why would there be such a wide difference between the TL rating w/ the Good Sam designation, and the general sentiment expressed on rvparkreviews.com?
If the voltage issues are true, you'd think that would be disqualification characteristic for a Good Sam designation on that alone.
Yes, I have found this information as well. That will be a good option for us on this trip.
past-MIdirector wrote: The OH turnpike has several rest areas with RV over night stops with power. I think they show these on there web site with cost.
To become a Good Sam park, the park must meet minimum scores on the Trailer Life scorecard which is published in the back of the Trailer Life Directory. I am not sure exactly what those scores are off the top of my head, but I believe it is somewhere around 7/8/7 with a clean bathroom asterisk. The reason it appears to vary so much, is the Trailer Life scores are very rigid and do not really take into account a lot of things the average traveler looks at. An example would be recreational points. If the park is located next door to Disneyworld, it gets no points, but a park in the middle of nowhere, with a rusty swingset gets some recreational points. A pool is very important in getting points, but the quality of the pool is really immaterial. Pools may be very important in the Sunbelt, but they are really not that important in many northern climates, it is just too cold to think about swimming, but no pool, no recreation points. A campstore gets a point, but it doesn't really matter if it only has a few moth eaten T shirts or is a Neiman Marcus clone. Finally, one persons vision of heaven is someone else's version of hell.
Woodalls/TrailerLife scores is a good place to start. I look at how many stars it gets for their bathrooms. Been my experience if the bathrooms get high marks the CG is pretty much good to go.
BTW I wouldn't limit yourself to just Good Sam CG's because of the discount. You will soon find out that their are many, much nicer CG's out there that don't sport the GS logo that have lower nightly rates than what you would be paying at others 'with' the GS discount.
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us".
In the past we have thought of Good Sam parks as being nice, clean, well maintained parks and often choose one instead of a non-Good Sam park.
Last year we went to Sand Springs Camping Area in West Virginia, a Good Sam park rated 3 X 8.5. We arrived there, no one was at the office so we drove around one loop of sites. The sites looked terrible, not level and rutted almost to the point of being unusable. We decided against staying there and instead went to nearby Chestnut Ridge Park, a much lower rated park. It turned out to be just what we wanted.
In the 2012 Trailer Life Directory Sand Springs Camping Area is still a Good Sam Park and rated 3 X 8.5.
Needless to say my faith in the GS ratings has been diminished.
Edit: corrected typo in CG name.
* This post was
edited 04/06/12 05:46am by tenbear *
Class C, 2004/5 Four Winds Dutchman Express 28A, Chevy chassis
2010 Subaru Impreza Sedan
Camped in 45 states, 7 Provinces and 1 Territory
Agreed - I don't really care much about the discount. I am more interested in the quality of the park. I was hoping that Good Sam would serve as sort of a "you know what you are getting" kind of thing. In other words, despite enjoying a Marriot hotel they are all different while you always know what you are going to get with a Fairfield Inn.
rockhillmanor wrote: Woodalls/TrailerLife scores is a good place to start. I look at how many stars it gets for their bathrooms. Been my experience if the bathrooms get high marks the CG is pretty much good to go.
BTW I wouldn't limit yourself to just Good Sam CG's because of the discount. You will soon find out that their are many, much nicer CG's out there that don't sport the GS logo that have lower nightly rates than what you would be paying at others 'with' the GS discount.
The Good Sam and Woodalls rating criteria is stringent, applies to the property itself. . It does not take into consideration surrounding esthetic factors.
How could they propose to rate that?
I am all ears. PM please,
Max
edit. - I have been invited to join an all new GS advisory council meeting in Dallas 4/23-25.
* This post was
edited 04/05/12 09:33pm by SDcampowneroperator *
Out of the three campgrounds we have stayed at the first was a GoodSam park here in Massachusetts, the second was a private rv resort in Maine, and the third was a KOA park in Montreal. The GoodSam park was the worst of the three, the cheapest, and in a very good area of Cape Cod. The park was staffed by workkampers for the 4 days we were there. The sites were terrible. They were a mixture of packed sand and gravel as our rv pad and poorly maintained with knee high grass thru out, the picnic table was unsafe to sit at, the seasonal site next to ours was occupied by workkampers who had "site creeped" into out site by almost 4 feet. They actually had asked us to move to an unlevel part of our site because our curbside slides extended over the patio they had built into our site. This campground was in the heart of the lyme disease area and they had neither cut the grass nor treated for ticks. Every time we went out side we got covered in ticks. If we had not prepaid for this trip we would have left. It is the only GoodSam park we have stayed at so for so we have nothing to compare it to. We will try another different GS park this season to see if this was the exception or the rule.
Todd
Todd, Shirley, and the "Maddawgs" min-pins Precious and Buster Brown
2011 Itasca Cambria 30C
2011 Demco KarKaddy 460SS
TST 507 RV TPMS
"if there is anything left when we are gone, then we miscalculated"
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