Cape Hatteras / Outer Banks KOA Resort — Attraction in Hatteras Island

This was our first time in the Outer Banks area and while we do have a 5th wheel, since we didn't know the area or campgrounds, decided to make the first trip stay in something different while we gathered information on the area, campgrounds in the area, and if it would be something we would revisit.

For this stay, we were in an ocean front deluxe cabin. They are small, but we knew it would be tight for the 4 of us going into this. The view is amazing from the deck. The window AC/heat unit was TERRIBLE. Every time the compressor kicked on, it sounded like the Okracoke ferry engine was in your ear. The exterior of the AC unit is definitely seen better days as fins are rotting off. Sleeping for the 7 day stay was rough b/c of the AC unit. The bed was decently comfortable. Pillows are very soft so if you like firm pillows, bring your own. There is zero air movement in the bunks so that pocket door has to stay open. The metal exterior flap for the microwave is REALLY noisy with the wind banging it on the cabin at all hours (we taped it shut after that first night and took the tape off when we checked out).

The bathroom is fine (the drain in the tub is in the middle of the tub...odd). The furniture on the deck is pretty comfortable to sit at and eat, play games.

The pool is huge (but you definitely need to wait until closer to or in summer to use it) and has nice seating. The oversized hot tub was warm and a nice cool weather spot to relax in for a few minutes. The kid's playground was nice and seemed to be liked by the various ages that were around it. The bouncy pillow was a hit with everyone, that ventured into the fenced-in area to play. It looks like they are about to install rubber mulch in that area which will be nice to little feet running around without shoes.

Cabins still use a regular key (only provided with 1). Lock is finicky. They should move to keypad entry to make it easier for everyone, especially families as they come and go).

The inside office staff is super friendly/helpful. A couple of the older gentleman on golf carts were a little gruff in the 2 or 3 encounters we had.

Most of the camp spots seemed a decent size, it did seem like a lot of them had to use blocks under one side to get level. I am pretty sure I read something on the hall wall inside that said this was a corporate-owned location (not a private individual that had a licensed franchise) so I was a little shocked at some of the lackluster features (uneven lots, very few concrete pads, no signature type sites with bigger fireplaces, pretty uneven driving surfaces with ponding water, etc). Being corporate store, you would think they would want it to be a flagship type of location/destination. Not the case. No reflection on the staff as they probably have little or no input on these items since corporate likely oversees everything that is done/spent here.

Location is ok. It is VERY peaceful, not a lot of traffic really but you are sort of between areas if you want to venture outside of the campground. There isn't a lot to do/eat there in that direct area, especially in the off season (however Watertons was very good food closeby). You really had to go down to Avon or up to Nags Head to have any type of food option during this stay mid March.

The campground is very good at sending text notices. We had notices of short power outages expected for island maintenance, notes of people not parking their bikes in the right places, and a few others.

Since we had a 10 hour ride back to TN, we wanted to get on the road early. The office doesn't open until 9am. We flagged down what I think was a cleaning/maintenance crew (man and woman) on a golf cart and asked them how can we check out early and he took the key and said he'd take care of it. I guess he did because I have not heard anything otherwise from the campground.

While this specific Oceanview deluxe cabin wasn't a good experience for us, there are still some nice things about the campground that we may still use this KOA should we bring our 5th wheel...

I was suffering Covid when we pulled in here and wrote a grumpy review that the place did not deserve. UPDATE: This Campground is in the heart of the OBX It is an oceanfront campground in an area that during certain times of year endures frequent storms, high winds, high surf and actual ocean overwash during hurricanes. Any beach Campground faces challenges especially around maintenance. That said, the buildings here are immaculate and very well kept. We have been camping 40+ years coast to coast. I would say that this Campground has one of the biggest pools we have seen and it's beautiful. There is a poolside tiki bar serving wine and beer based drinks (no liquor) There is live music evenings and other entertainments. The Glow Train at night is cool for kids. The camp store is large and well stocked. The store and office are elevated and there are many steps. At first I could not find and elevator. But there is in fact one there! There are camping choices here. RV sites, tent camping cabins, deluxe cottages and a couple Glamping "tents" The sites are typical KOA as in they pack them in pretty tight but site size is reasonable. Remembering that this is an oceanfront site. Street maintenance can be a challenge. The main avenues are well paved. Side streets are gravel and somewhat bumpy. Our site was crowned in the middle and we ended up with a near 2ft step up to our bottom step. Not all sites were that way. There are some golf carts in here but not too many. One of the benefits of the gravel slightly bumpy streets is there is no high speed golf cart and auto travel inside the park. No night time "cruising" round and round. This is a very quiet Campground at night. This is OBX. You never know what you are going to get with regard to a beach. We arrived shortly after Hurricane Idalia and before hurricane Lee. The beach was currently a bit narrow but completely usable and not crowded. There are miles of beach available in both directions, and if you have a 4x4 you can buy a beach permit and find yourself some solitude! There are 2 beach access inside the Campground one with steps and a board walk over the dune. The other is meant to be a handicap ramp, but again this OBX during fall storm season, so the ramp is very sandy and is not quite reaching the current level of the sand of the beach. Not exactly wheelchair usable. That's a difficult thing to maintain here. One disappointment was that there is no car parking at the beach access area, which means you must walk or ride a bike from the back of the park to the beach. I believe that I remember years ago that there was a row of car parking down there, but it is full of campsites now. I feel this makes it a bit rough for those with some disability. Camp Hatteras a block away does have parking at the beach. Parking is a bit of a question if you want to park in front of the store as well. I believe that that could be resolved with some clear signage as to where to park for store pool etc. The cable TV is excellent, WIFI has good coverage and bandwidth. We had good T-Mobile cell service. Water quality and pressure were good. Water can be salty down here but we did not detect that. Our unit has two sewage outlets and the placement of the sewer connection was well located to connect to both of them. Our electrical connection is in the rear and we could reach the power pylon without an extention. Small irritatin here. Our trailer is a Grand Design, the water and cable connections are inside the front storage area. Many builders are now doing this. The water pylon and cable TV connection are not Co-located with the power pole. Rather they are located directly adjacent to the street at the rear of the site. We had to park our trailer with the bumper on the edge of the street to reach the water connection with our 25 foot water hose. We had to buy an additional cable TV cable as there was no way to reach the cable TV cable connection with the 25ft cable we carry. The site was a bit short for our rig we parked our truck sideways Nice Campground! We...

We sold our camper so we decided to try out one of the deluxe cabins that sleep 8 this year. I appreciate all the kid friendly activities, my nephew had a blast. Spent most of the vacay on the jumping pillow. He’s obsessed with the glow train too. I loved how dog friendly they are, however the dog park could use some work. It’s all sand and rough grass and there are burrs in there too. Our dog was so excited to play and the moment we got in there- nothing. Perhaps too many different dog smells. It needs more grass and shade. The beach is nice and close. I loved how all the bathhouses had outdoor showers to rinse off on your way back to the cabin without having to go in. I also really appreciated the dog wash area too. The pool is huge and I loved the amount of space it affords, even when they were a lot of people there it didn’t feel crowded. It also has an outdoor bar and indoor cafe. There’s usually a band playing at night too. I think it might be a salt water pool because I never smelled any chlorine in the water. Then again, I never saw any staff put anything in or test the water from time to time either. FYI, there’s no lifeguard on duty. The hot tub however is another story. That water was super cloudy and stung so bad- don’t know if it was too much chemicals or from having a little sunburn. Also it says on their website it’s for adults only- 18+ which I was looking forward to. There were more kids than adults in it- always. I’m talking kids with diapers on so you know that water is suspect. The steps and seating area is also very rough and will snag your swimsuit so be warned. We didn’t use the bathhouses as we had a cabin with a bathroom. However I did take a peek in just to look. Ugh, sweet baby Jesus I’m so glad we didn’t have to use them. Disgusting! I seriously believe they don’t mop a single floor in this entire campground. There must be like 2 or 3 people on their cleaning staff to explain why everything is so poorly maintained. The floors were disgusting, trash, hair, hair ties, empty toiletry bottles, hair in drains, dirt, sand, gross looking shower curtains, etc. I also didn’t like how the bathhouse was unisex- seems very unsafe. The shower stalls have individual rooms with doors that lock but you’re still all together in one area. Now for the cabin review. We stayed in the dog friendly 8 person cabin. There are 6 of them in a semi circle facing into a grassy courtyard with picnic tables and fire rings. I loved how much deck space we had. There was always shade on one side or the other so we sat outside most of the time. Very nice breeze, no bugs/mosquitoes/gnats, etc. However the seagulls are very aware of dinner time in the campground so don’t leave any food unattended. We lost someone’s dinner to them one night because of this. Careful walking around the deck- there are a LOT of nails sticking up on the floorboards. Seems someone thought hammering them 3/4 of the way in was good enough. We had more than 1 stubbed toe on this trip because of them. They had two rocking chairs and a small side table plus a larger round table with 4 chairs on the deck. The table and chairs are a little heavy but we managed to move them around. I should note that the outdoor furniture looks like it needs a good power washing. There’s also an electric grill with each cabin which is perfect for cooking outside. The inside of the cabin needs a lot of repair. Ants on the shelves, saw cockroaches when we were packing up to leave, the hairdryer is broken, only half the toaster works, lost hot water 2 minutes into a shower 1 night but it worked fine the rest of the time. The floor is the grossest thing ever! We went out and bought our own mop to clean it. It took me over 45 minutes of moping and rinsing before the mop stopped looking black. I don’t believe the floors have EVER been cleaned, just swept. Beware- the bunk house has no air or fan. It gets VERY HOT in there. Luckily we had a fan with us which helped but we always had to keep the door open and AC blasting. Very pricy for how...