Darien Lakes State Park — Attraction in Town of Darien

Of the 11 NY State campgrounds we’ve stayed at in the last 3 months this is by far the worst.

First let me tell you about the good things here. There is a nice playground near the small swimming beach. The beach is clean, has a lifeguard, and is made of sand and mostly very small pebbles.

The nice, new bathrooms between the beach and playground, on the bad side were dirty and obviously had not been cleans for at least two days. Toilet paper and diapers on the floor of the women’s bathroom and outside were there from days before. Two of the toilets had not been flushed. I can’t speak to the men’s bathroom.

If you are coming to camp they will not let you check in before 1pm, even if you site is unoccupied. Be prepared to wait. The check in people are nice but are rule followers no matter what. However, they didn’t need to see my rabies certificates for my dogs even though this is also a rule. I showed them anyway. Because… it’s the rule. But that’s fine. Each park decides which rule to follow and which not to. It depends on on who’s in charge of the park.

The campground was crowded. Campers were stacked in as close as they could fit for the most part. At least half of the sites had no shade. The sites had random small trash throughout. The site pads weren’t very level but had a good packing of stone.

The worst park were the bathhouses. The bathhouses were old with broken tiles in the walls, floor, and showers. My husband said he had to cut his going off because the smell was so bad it was making him sick. The women’s was better as to smell. Not nice. But better. The bathrooms were NOT clean. The showers were NOT clean. They were smelly and disgusting. We couldn’t use them. For a park that doesn’t have water at most sites this is a game breaker.

We will not come here again. Nor will we recommend...

We have camped at Darien Lake State Park every year for over a decade and this time it was truly horrible. The bathrooms/shower houses were filthy and ironically the soap dispensers finally got filled and the floors finally got mopped at 7 am the day after the park manager was called (on his day off), so we assume they thought he might stop by for a visit. The glob of hair and purple shampoo/conditioner that was on the shower wall on Sunday morning was still there when we left on Thursday (as my daughters said "I thought you were supposed to feel clean after a shower?!!? Yuk!) and by then the whole bathroom was starting to stink! The site we were on was near a sewer/septic cover and it ended up stinking so bad that we threw a tarp, wood, and another tarp over it to try to squelch some of the stench! We finally saw a park police officer (on Wed.) when he came to check out the report of 2 days without hot water in our bathrooms and told him then that he was literally the only officer we had seen since checking in on Saturday (and the officer on Saturday was sarcastic and rude to one of our campers as was the "lady" in the office to another one of our campers on Sunday morning). Sadly, I was also talking to another lady who had been camping this summer all over NYS and she said this was the worst place they had been to ~ and I couldn't even defend the statement except to say it had never been this way before (the only reason for 2 stars and not 1 was holding on to the memory of our past visits). Truly not sure...

I bought a new trailer and was anxious to learn how to use it and set it up. I know the park was not officially open. The trailer is only 14’ long. I’m 65 and just retired. I have a small dog. Since the park is only 20min from my home I thought it would be a good place try out all the features on the new trailer before taking it on a longer trip. It’s was a beautiful day. I was the only trailer in the park but many people were out walking and enjoying the park. A large woman was cutting the grass and when she seen me backing into a spot headed right for me. She couldn’t wait to tell me the park didn’t open till next week. You have to see the manager. So I pulled back out and went to the office. I asked the manager if I could spend the night and try out my new camper. He angrily said no immediately. We’re not open till next week and if I let you do it everyone will want to do it. Really, no one else was there. I was upset, he was so angry and everything one there had a cocky attitude. I said sadly, what ever happened to freedom in America. I didn’t say it in a angry or confrontational way. I really feel that. He got even more angry and said this is not your property so out. What harm was I doing? One 65 year old man, really. What if I was a traveler from another state? Our Summer season in New York is so short. It wasn’t HIS property either. State parks belong to the people. They don’t belong to some arrogant I got this job because I know someone jerk. So I say again, what ever happened to...