Bluffton / Fort Wayne South KOA Journey — Hotel in Bluffton

We traveled with friends here, and had two camp spots right next to each other. We reserved spots from Friday night through Sunday. I’ve read a lot of the reviews previously, and was a bit apprehensive, but also took into consideration that this is a campground, not a luxury hotel. No matter how fancy your camper is or how much money you spent on that gleaming financial success story, you’re staying in a campground. Expect imperfection, or sell your camper and stay in hotels. The Road in is pretty rough, but I believe it is also shared by another company that is at the entrance. Looks like they probably have heavy trucks going in and out of it from time to time. Who’s responsibility is it to fix the road? That’s anybody’s guess. Even so, the rough road kept guests from speeding, so there’s some good that comes from that bad. For the most part, the park was quiet in the evenings and at night. They were a couple of jerks with loud mufflers who had to rev their engines, just let everyone else know that they were pond scum too. Other than that, it was quiet - and relaxing to sit around the campfire. Guests were friendly as well. We had two pull through sites with full hook ups, and no big issues there (one small one explained below). We ended up having an unexpected family member from out of town tell us they were on their way to the campground on Sunday, our checkout day… We went to the office to request an extra nights stay. They said no problem at all, and just added it to our bill. Fortunately our spots were not reserved for anyone else, so we didn’t have to move. Staff was friendly and knowledgeable, I don’t expect much from the campground store. If you need additional provisions, it would probably be best to take a short trip into town. There’s a Walmart not far from the campground. We needed some extra firewood after hours, so I called the office number to see if I could get someone to allow us to take a couple bundles, but no one answered. I felt no reason to call the emergency number for firewood. I left a message that we were going to go ahead and take some firewood, and told them to charge it to my card on file. The next day, I went to the office and reminded them of the firewood. They said it was absolutely no problem. The grandkids loved the swimming pool - and spent most of the stay in the pool. It was clean and refreshing. The dog park was clean, and even had some obstacles for your dogs if you chose to use them. There is a dog washing station also, but it surely needed some attention. That’s really the only negative part of the dog park. Playground was decent for a campground, with lots of stuff to do for the kids. Dumpster area was clean, and so was the pumping station. The camper parking spots were a little bit overgrown with weeds, but the park had obviously recently sprayed them, because most weeds were dead. Nothing against the park, but I wish they had double sewer hook ups - or kept the sewer taps more centered in the parking area, because the sewer drain in our spot was way forward of where one of our discharge ports on the camper is (We have two. One that handles the bathroom sink, shower, and black water tanks, then a second one farther towards the back of the camper that handles the kitchen sink, and the outside kitchen sink. We were short about 10 foot from being able to connect the kitchen and outside kitchen drain. We have a 33’ camper (about 37+’ with tongue), and a 22’ long pick up truck. We didn’t have much room to move the camper forward or backward to make the connection work. Having either two access pipes, or placing the one they have more centered in the parking area would be better. Since we only stayed three nights, we did not fill that gray water tank, so before leaving we just pulled forward a bit and drained that tank. Just a very minor inconvenience. Overall, I am pleased with my experience at the campground, and the wife and grandkids would agree with that as well, because they said they had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere...

Arrived on Wednesday for the Fourth Weekend departed Sunday.

Initial impressions are everything. The staff at checking were helpful and friendly.

I didn’t make any purchases from the camp store except for ice and charcoal lighter fluid. The food and rv/camping supplies appeared to be sufficient, but perhaps low due to the holiday weekend.

Plenty of ice and firewood for the weekend.

Our site was large enough for our 36 foot class a and two vehicles (one on either end of our rv).

The water pressure was high enough even with my water pressure regulator. Though my rv has a factory pressure regulator I sure an additional one as a backup. Side to side site location was closer than I would like, but sufficient. Other sites looked more spacious, so my experience isn’t representative of the whole campground.

The rv parking area was stone based, but could be improved - but it was sufficient. The power and water pedestal was in good shape. Our camp site was marked/numbered on the pedestal.

The only problem was there was several walking hazards that I brought to the management attention. There were two stumps that had not been removed. Both stumps were cut close to the ground, but still are high enough to be a tripping hazard. Both tress that were removed appeared to fairly old from the condition of their stumps. As I walked around the campground I noticed there were more than a few stumps throughout the campground in the same state.

The toilets were close to our campsite, as was the camp kitchen. The men’s toilet was well maintained and clean. The camp kitchen needed some cleaning, but due to being open the weather could have been the problem. The public (single) grill and one of the folding tables was broken. I brought this up to the manager. She seemed oblivious to the grill being broken (the grid was unserviceable).

My grandkids used the pool, as did my daughter and myself. On the one time that I swam in the pool it was cloudy. Later my grandson returned from the pool and said it was closed due to being treated with chemicals. With the weather being in the 90s the cloudiness was expected. Later in our stay the pool water appeared more clear.

At night the pool lights didn’t come on at night. I would think the pool not being lighted at night would be a safety concern. Unlike other pools I’ve used that are gated, the gate didn’t have the a self locking gate. Perhaps a self locking gate isn’t required by city/county ordinance. There was one section of the fence that needed repaired due to what appeared as damage from a fallen tree branch.

The showers are located in the same building as the camp registration. My first impression was that there was sand in the corner of the floor near the entrance. I would expect sand from being brought in from outside. The second time I used the shower the same sand was still present. After taking a closer look I discovered it to be soap scum that had hardened. Basically the cleaning crew hadn’t done a good job in cleaning the floors. As I had used the showers I also noticed that basic maintenance was lacking. Above the shower stall the paint was pealing due moisture. This was aided by the shower vent fan appeared not to be working, or not being affective in removing moisture. The hot water was hot with plenty of water pressure.

The dog park is very large. The large gate for the lawn mower had construction plastic fencing to keep small dogs from getting out. The inner fence plastic fencing needed to be reattached as it was falling apart.

We played basket ball and beach volleyball. The volleyball court was over grown by weeds and the sand needed maintained. Given that it had rained the sand was littered with tree debris and nut husks, but it was obvious that the sand hadn’t been raked for some time.

The playground was littered with weeds that hadn’t been removed.

Basically attention to...

We were here all week. We decided to camp here because our previous experiences at KOA Campgrounds had been very pleasant. The following review is NOT a reflection on other KOA camping locations. In fact, our previous experiences made these shortcomings all the more shocking and disappointing. The office closed too early on weekdays. Even if we’d get back from our day’s events during its open hours it would be closed which meant we’d have to leave again to buy ice and other simple camping supplies. On Friday we needed quarters for the laundry, but there wasn’t a change machine anywhere in the campground. Although there were actually workers on the grounds for once, there was no one to be found in the office. We finally bought a bag of quarters after someone decided to show up, but not all of them worked in the machines. We had to wait for someone to help us, but everything worked fine when they were there. After trying to “wait out the issue with the dryers” we realized that the laundry machines didn’t take Canadian quarters…although they were included in the bag of quarters provided by the camp for use in the 24 hour laundry room. The bathrooms attached to the Camp Kitchen were never cleaned. The floors continued to get dirtier and dirtier and there was always a fresh batch of dead bugs floating in the toilets every morning. The swimming pool was not refreshing. Its water was way too warm to cool off on the hot...