Lakes RV & Golf Resort — Hotel in Chowchilla

This is a pretty park with a nice water feature at its center. We paid extra to have a space near it and have enjoyed watching an egret fishing in the afternoon and listening to the small waterfall. The park is nicely landscaped and has privacy hedges between the sites. We stayed here a few years ago and I don’t recall it being as dirty as it is now. As far as I can tell, bathrooms are only cleaned a couple times a week so can be a bit grungy and low on toilet paper after a few days without cleaning. Our cable connection and 20 amp plugs didn’t work and 30 amp power connection had to be inserted just right to supply power. ||There is a grassy dog park, but it was a muddy mess (there’s been no rain so I don’t know why) and had dog poop along with giant holes at the back end. It seems that they’re now hosting long term visitors whose sites look like something in a not-so-nice mobile home village. There were a big bunch of kids and their related stuff smeared about. They consistently left their dogs staked out with no humans in sight, so they barked like crazy whenever we walked by with our dogs. Finally I just stopped walking by there, but it’s not a large park so walking is already limited. ||There is a beautiful golf course right next door with miniature golf and a nice bar and restaurant. Evidently, golf is included in the price of the stay, but since we don’t golf we paid a premium price ($60/night or $390/week) for few amenities on site. Sites around the small lake had picnic tables, other sites did not. There is a spa and a pool that’s too cold to be comfortable for swimming. Otherwise, there are bathrooms, reasonably-priced laundry, not much for a store (basic RV supplies, a few sodas, bottled water and ice), gas BBQ for public use and an office. It is gated but walk-through gate wasn’t locked until they put a padlock on it at night so it couldn’t be used at all? Men in the office were polite and helpful but one appeared to be playing computer games whenever I passed through. ||Park is conveniently located just a couple miles off 99, east of Chowchilla (about halfway between Sacramento and Bakersfield), which has a variety of shopping options and services. So, we’ll probably stay again on our way through but not for more than...

Have your ducks in a row if you’re going to park at this joint. It’s for the following reasons that my husband and I will never visit this park in the future…

I tried calling and received a message that the office was closed. My luck, I had just missed them. We thought we would drive onto them and do what we have done many times before at parks all over the country - stay the night in an available spot and pay the next day. We only needed to rest for the night and this has never been a problem for us in the past.

We arrived to the gate around 7:40pm. After hours check-in without prior reservation is an ABSOLUTE NO. And I mean ABSOLUTELY NO! We wanted to park overnight and pay in the morning the way many parks allow. That practice is ABSOLUTELY NOT ALLOWED here - despite the many open and available spots. (I know this because there was no paperwork in the after-hours boxes.) This is THE first RV park in our 4 years of full-timing that does not offer this service or an after-hours check-in contact. I completely understand security and protection for their guests, but they can’t spring for an after-hours camp host -seriously???

Furthermore, arrivals after 9pm are NOT allowed - AT ALL! You better not have any problems w your RV/trailer on your way to this park. There is no one to call for assistance if you cannot meet their deadline. However, you WILL be greeted with a bunch of the busy-body campers. They’ll tell you to go stay at the local grocery store until morning…regardless of the number of open spots within the park. They’ll talk over one another spouting the same information all at once.

Conclusion to our exhausting 11 hour-day of driving - still without a reservation, we arrived around 8:30pm to Arena RV down the road from Lakes RV. The friendly, managing couple rented us their last spot without any...

This was a horrible experience. 14 adults and 12 children, 6 spots is what we reserved. Some us arrived a day early, and enjoyed some time together, along with some other RV'ers. Nothing seemed out of line and we enjoyed the first night. The remainder of our group arrived the next day, the guys went and golfed and the wives and children remained at the RV park. As far as "free" golf, they failed to mention you must pay a cart fee. Soon after our departure to the golf course, the onsite camper in charge and the staffer on duty, decided it would be a good idea to threaten our wives with the possibility of removal from the park, for our kids doing what kids do.. Fishing, riding bikes and tricycles, ect. They made a huge mistake assuming the wives would be easier to bully or intimidate. They also stated that there were complaints from the previous evening, and told them, it would not be tolerated and we would be asked to leave. Even stating that they had not long ago, made a camper leave at 12:30 at night. They waited until everyone arrived, I am assuming to get all the money they could out of us, before mentioning anything about the night previous, our any of the kid problems. Take into consideration, it was New Years eve... Upon returning from the golf course, we decided to depart, some after only being there for only 4 hours. We get together often and our children are very well behaved. We have never been treated this disrespectful, our ever been accused of causing any problems. They stated that quite time is 10 pm, what they mean is silent time. We had mild conversion at our campsite, not loud or out of line. I believe all were in their...