Thousand Trails Medina Lake — Hotel in Bandera

This is an interesting place. It's a 30 minute drive to town, but there are a few convenience stores and a couple gas stations nearby. Overall, this place is run down.. if you are looking for lake front, forget it The lake dried up years ago . The spaces are not cared for ....trees are dead and dying .. I think this used to be a gem....but Thousand Trails has stopped putting money into this dying place. There are still some redeeming qualities. The pool is big and sparkling but the hot tub gets muddy somehow . The Lakehills community is a challenge. Many of the local places are trashed and don't show pride of ownership. Unfortunately you have to drive through these areas to get to the park.

The roads in the park are horrible.... The A section sites are very unlevel....and they don't have gravel. Just mud and tire ruts. We had to raise one side of the RV by 4 plus inches to get reasonably level.

They assigned us a spot that hadnt been mowed. And wasn't wide enough for our rv . The guy at the office said oh.well we give you both spots just in case . We actually occupied the spot next to the one assigned. Plus...originally we were assigned to a space across the road and when I asked why they changed the location, he said because that spot doesn't have sewer. Sheesh ....I don't know where the fail happens .. I know the central Florida office makes the reservation when you use the app or call the office.

We stayed nearly 3 weeks because my friend was working in the area .

The park is full of deferred maintenance. Plus ....toward the end of our stay, the power went out at 4pm in 98 Degree weather on Memorial Day weekend. It only affected the A section.... We were told the only option we had was to move to another location. Which actually turned out to be a better and nicer space. But I discovered that this park only has 5 total employees but hundreds of spaces. One employee was on duty at the time and He didn't have access or the authority to help . He couldn't leave the office and he want interested in whether other people had no power. He Said no one else called. I walked and talked with the other campers. They all had generators . We didn't.

Apparently there is NO onsite manager... And this poor guy wasnt high enough on the totem pole to make decisions. I asked what would you do if someone drowned in the pool? He said he'd call 911... And I said who else would you call? He had no answer. I felt sorry for him.

This park has other problems. The locals have discovered how to get into the park and use the swimming pool. My first visit to the pool was disturbed by rowdy teenagers from the community. They took over the hot tub and made it uncomfortable for the other people to use. On the day that the power went out, the park was holding a private Super Host community event at the pool. Well over 150 people set up tents and BBQs around the pool . It's entirely possible that the overload from the event contributed to the power outage for the park patrons in section A next to the pool. This event kept me from going to the pool that day......or from doing my laundry.... Even though I applaud their efforts at being community and civically minded, It's a fine line....and might have been ok if they had two pools and enough staff....etc...etc..etc. Too many unauthorized people now have the gate code to get into the park...

Of all the Thousand Trails and Encore parks we have visited, this park is at the bottom of the list. But we will go back ...fully knowing what is in store because it's the only Thousand Trails Park near San Antonio, which is definitely a great place to visit. I recommend that you stay out of Section A near the pool. Go to section F or somewhere close to the club house..much farther into the park.

I hope Thousand Trails decides to put some money and effort into this park. Maybe new management. It's sad to see it go...

I can not describe how absolutely bad this place is run... This campground has all the potential to be one of the nicest campgrounds in the area, but falls flat in many ways. There are a few of the staff that are nice, but most are incredibly rude, unwelcoming and have an attitude with anyone less than a permanent resident of the site.

We reserved our 50amp site online, paid in full, however once you show up its a free for all on who gets what site. Luckily we found one of the very last 50 amp sites, after driving around aimlessly for 30 minutes and was a very hard turn to get into the spot. Close to 90° turn. Not easy for a 38ft 5th wheel. That doesn't even start with the fact most of the roads are washed out with massive pot holes before every site and turn. Also, most sites are extremely unlevel, bring plenty of leveling blocks.

"Are you a member?" If not, be prepared to wait at the front gate for most of your free time because they WILL NOT give you a gate code. There is a phone number to call posted at the front gate that no one will ever answer. So even after you have checked in, set up camp, you will NOT be given a gate code. Be prepared to be asked if you're a "member" quite a few times.

I'd say at least 20% of the camp sites electricity are broke. They paint the electrical box red to indicate the site has no power.

We brought our boat with us, and wanted to park it in the broken spot next to our camper. The designated boat parking is a good mile away from our spot. First we had to register our boat with the campground, even though they dont charge for your boat. I asked if i could park in the broke spot, got a no. Asked why, they said because boats need to be parked in the boat parking. Asked if i could pay for the broken spot, which was also no, because it was broken, they couldn't rent it out. Asked if i could park the boat in our spot that we were camping in, also a big NO. Asked about the security of the boat parking, which there is none. Moral of the story, i have to park a $60k boat in an unsecured, unlit area or pay a $48/day fine. But dont be worried, there was only 1 break-in in the past year...

Rolling circuit breaker blackouts. Seems like this campground can't handle the electrical demand. (Edit) Also starting to smell like raw sewage outside.

The park map is not very accurate. We got lost driving around for the first 15 minutes.

The camp claims to have internet wifi. They do, however it's located at the activity center, which is 1/2 mile down the road from our site. Have no idea about the quality, but everything else says it's probably pretty bad.

During check in, there were about 10 people in line, with an only 1 elderly gentleman (one of the few, if not the only nice park agents we ran in to) trying to work the computer. It was painfully slow, while the line grew. I was 3rd in line, and it probably took about 30 minutes to get to me. That's not the big deal, the big deal is there was a guy, 30ish, who sat at his computer and never once looked up or even mentioned any type of help. Not sure how anyone could watch an elderly person struggle, as the guests in line were becoming more frustrated. His kiosk was for "members." Just adds to the experience as this place cares nothing of the guests.

Because the lake is so low, about the only boat that can launch are jetskis and pontoons. Any type of deeper hull boat will drag the bottom. Oh, and the "launch" is about 25ft from the waters edge, and you'll be launching off the natural terrain slope to the water. Not any fault of the camp, but the agents really dont understand how the launch wont work for all types of boats.

We are still here for a few more days, I'm sure I'll have more to add. If i could give this place 0 stars i would. Id leave, but we...

This is one of the more rustic Thousand Trails preserves. Prior to arrival we received an email alert to take 8th Street once we got to Lakehills. It was specific about not taking 3rd Street Spur even if your GPS tried to take you that way. This prior information was greatly appreciated.

The lake doesn't exist, and from the looks of the over growth on the dry lake bed, it appears to have been dry for a while. Still, we enjoyed our stay very much.

The welcome staff provided a map and tips about where we might look for a suitable spot for our rig. We did have to go slowly through the roads as we looked for a site mostly due to uneven roads and some low branches, We found an easy back in, a little longer than our truck and 5th wheel which is a total of 53 ft. Personally, we didn't mind the extra care we had to take because we enjoyed the camping in the woods atmosphere. There were trees on either side of us and behind us. We could see other campers but were far enough away and had some foliage to give us a sense of privacy. We had a good Dish satellite reception after putting our satellite antenna on our roof. We saw lots of doe and one nice size buck near our campsite.

The laundry room was small but clean. There were several people using or waiting to use it the day I wanted to do laundry, so I chose to go to the mini Laundromat in Lakehills, again very small but clean. It was also busy, so we went to the Wash House in Bandera (nice, country ride for about 25 minutes). It was clean, and I was able to use 4 washers and dryers all at once as well as a folding table. So options are available depending on your needs.

The Activity Center is large. When we went in there was a small group of adults finishing up a card game. There was a jigsaw puzzle out on a table and a couple parents painting rocks with their children. The pool table isn't level and has a rip in the felt.

Lakehills had more than I expected. There was a Dollar General, True Value, Hills Market, veterinarian/pet hospital, and American Legion.

From this campground we drove to San Antonio on 2 different days, about an hour away. On day one we went to the Alamo and Riverwalk. On the second day we went to San Antonio Missions National Park which is also close to a...