We stayed at Clute Memorial Park & Campground which is located in and owned by the town of Watkins Glenn. Has a marina, is within walking distance of restaurants and is adjacent to the Lake. Nothing special but not bad.
we just got back from Sampson..
We never visited the Finger Lakes before, and we have two youngish children, so here is my feedback...
The site we had was 228...it was large, as were the sites surrounding us (loop 5) ...there was a "trail" kind of cliff leading down to the lakefront. (yes, I fell once ). We carried/slid our rowboat down there and kept it "moored" with a chain with no problems.
The campground used to be a military facility (we visited the museum, and it was beautiful). They are trying to "grow in" the park to a wild forest state. So even though we had a lake front site, with a small trail down, you could only see the trees through the brush, trees and growth, which was a bit disappointing to me, as I like to watch the sun, birds, boats etc.
Please dont think the campground was anything but large sites and awesome, these are only my observations, also park personnel were eceptional.
We quickly learned a few things...
there are now many places to eat (or shop or anything, other than the wineries). We could only row our small boat out so far to keep it safe for the kids. We were unable to catch a single fish (we are HUGE fishermen, and I bought non resident licences for DH and I). A small blue gill chased a lure larger than itself while fishing from the "pier" near the swimming beach.
So, we fished for five days, from shore, rowboat (not out deeply, this is probably the problem) and from different spots on the parks shoreline.
I would have loved to rent a motor boat, or taken the kids for a boat ride on a lrger boat, but we drove around Cayuga, Seneca and Keuka and could not find boat rides, or fishing trips or anything. We visited a few wineries (again, difficult, because of the children)...Some of the wineries really went out of their way for families with children, providing grape juice tastings, and even a lego table at one place. Wagners was the snootiest place there, I didnt buy a thing from them. Rasta Ranch, Swedish hill and another one I cant think of right now were awesomely friendly and nice. that being said, there you are, unable to go to more than a winery or two a day, not catching any fish (even puny ones) and no where to gift shop or eat, plus an obstructed water view made for a bit of a boring trip. I must say I prefer my 1000 Islands to the Finger Lakes 1000 times over.
There was a restaurant, "The Crows Nest" that treated DH like he had the plague when he went in for a menu, so we skipped them and ate at "Emile's", where we got great food and service. There was no where else really to eat other than a pizza place, Mc Donalds or a chinese restaurant. When we went around Keuka, we found a small pub that served lunch and ate there, but it was not memorable.
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