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Very, very poor experience. My friend and his two boys(8-11yrs old) went to set up in out designated site. The four of us take a lot of trips all over Michigan camping and enjoying the outdoors as a great opportunity and experience for the boys. As a blacksmith hobbiest I have created two small tomahawks for the boys to use for making kindling while we are camping. As my friend and I started to unload the vehicle the youngest began making kindling from the firewood we had purchased. Within minutes the owner of the campground begins yelling and swearing at the 8yr old from across the campground. Evidently he was upset about the use of the small 4oz. tomahawk and thought the young child was going to attempt to chop down a full grown oak tree. The yelling was so violent and vulgar that I was at first unsure what he was yelling at. It became apparent when he said something to the effect that you are not allowed to have an axe on the property. The volume and profanity caused many in the campground to be startled and sent the boys to the truck in fear and crying.
My friend and I were right there but unloading the vehicle so to be honest it was not seen by us as to what actually took place and the young child did tell us he had hit the giant tree with the little hawk. Although this was not in any way going to damage the tree it would have been unacceptable to either of us and we would have conveyed this had we seen it take place. Our reaction was to try and discuss with the owners that it would have been more appropriate to walk over and ask him to stop - not scream obscenities at a child from across the property. The owner did not want to hear anything we had to say and eventually walked over to our site yelling at us all the way. We again just ask that he please settle down and let us explain the issue to the child and to please apologize to the now sobbing kid hiding in the vehicle. Instead the owner of the camp picked up the small tomahawk and threw it at us - bouncing it off the picnic table.
At this point his wife came out and we thought she may try to defuse her husbands rage but instead she just told us she felt we were bad people and she had a "bad" feeling about us when we arrived??? Was it the new vehicle, the 11yr old on crutches?? I mean we are two professionally employed, educated adults with two kids that have been to 100's of campgrounds together without any problems at all.
When we ask for a refund so that we could just move on(only being there less that 15 minutes as this time) we were told no refunds were available and that we were out the 100.00 we had just given them.
At this point, with no apology offered and after being rudely treated by both owners we packed up and left without refund. Obviously we will never go back and recommend that no one with children subject them to this couple or their campground.
The whole situation was completely unbelievable and I am still perplexed at how or what caused these two owners to get so violently outraged, not to mention their unprofessional approach to dealing with what happened.
Avoid this campground if at all possible is my...
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If I could leave a zero star review, I would. Upon arrival we were charged a $20 fee for my husband and I … even though we rented a cabin that slept 8…. And there were only 4 of us… they said “that’s just how it is” even though we pre-paid $170 for two nights we were also charged for a second set of sheets when the other couple we stayed with only ordered one set. When I said “we don’t need linens” we were told “welp, they are already in there” so… me not wanting to fight over an additional $20 I just let it go..… once we got into our cabin we quickly realized there was NO kitchen OR bathroom… which were in the pictures online when we booked the cabin. After talking to the campground assistant she said “there isn’t pictures of a bathroom or kitchen online because that cabin doesn’t have those” I pulled up the website to show her and she says “oh” and says she needs to talk to the owner… I ask for some sort of compensation because we packed for a kitchen! Now we have to eat out for all our meals. And I was told “we have free ice cream and popcorn for dinner…” 🙄 About an hour later I go to find the owner to figure out what’s going to be done about us reserving a cabin with a kitchen and bathroom and ending up with a cabin with NEITHER….and she tells me “it was a glitch with the pictures” and that they were not up on the website when the cabin was booked. (Lies, that’s WHY we booked that cabin) She said we could get a refund and leave… (EVERY place in town was completely booked, so we sucked it up and stayed). Talk about FALSE ADVERTISING!!
We are not afraid of rustic camping. We actually love rustic camping.. but we packed for a bathroom and kitchen… and live MULTIPLE hours away…
Now, onto the cabin. The sunset cabin was in desperate need of cleaning!! The floors were FILTHY, full of dirt! And a LOT of dirt. I don’t think this cabin has been swept in over a month!!! Spider and cob Webs everywhere, dead flies on the floor and in the window sills. Also, that cabin does NOT have a refrigerator… it has a SMALL mini fridge… there was also duct tape all along the big front screen holding the screen up, and the sliding glass door was crooked on the tracks, no running water (which I guess makes sense since there was no kitchen or bathroom like what was advertised. It needs some desperate TLC!
The bathroom that was across the road was also filthy. The counters/sinks were dirty every time I went in there.. the showers… YUCK!. The floors… NASTY (They did keep up on keeping the toilet paper filled though, so that’s a good thing).
The owner was polite and friendly but very much like “oh well, to bad” when I came to her with our issues.
I HIGHLY recommend you CALL them and ask what EXACTLY is in each cabin before starting your packing list so you don’t end up in the same situation we were all in.
I did notice that they have since removed the pictures of the bathroom and kitchen from their website. Which is good. But man, I was really disappointed with how they handled the whole...
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I could describe this place with one word... home. Allow me to elaborate.
I have been to quite a few campgrounds this past year from Florida all the way to Michigan, both state and privately owned, and this one by far is the most well maintained and has the sweetest lady running it. She puts her heart into this place and it shows. From the way that the grounds are maintained to the time she puts in to get to know each person who camps there. The pictures on the site just do not do this little slice of heaven justice.
My two children and I travelled up here from Tennessee the last week in July to experience the marvelous Torch Lake and every place on the lake was booked. And now- I couldn't be more happy about that.
At just 10-15 minutes from the quaint little town of Alden (which hosts one of only 2 public access points of Torch Lake) and 5 minutes to Lake Bellaire, the Chain o'Lakes Campground is in an ideal location.
They have a huge bonfire pit surrounded by dozens of wood chairs, clean restrooms, wi-fi, a clean pool, cabin rentals, beautiful aesthetics, mature trees, friendly staff, playgrounds, a shop that had a little bit of anything you may have forgotten or ran out of, a small petting zoo, a large pavilion with a fireplace, and so much more. I adored the squash and tomatoes growing around the veranda near the office. All this for next to nothing, in my opinion, out of your wallet.
Chain o'Lakes Campground could easily command $40 for a rustic camping site considering how much time and effort are put into this beautiful place and the location in reference to Torch Lake which is a rapidly growing tourist attraction. However, you can sense the love that the owner has for camping, the outdoors, and these grounds. Within 5 minutes of talking to her you will know that she isn't concerned with how much money you are willing to shell out. No, she genuinely cares about you enjoying your stay so much so that you'll be back again. As for me and my little bunch, we will be back again next year and every year after if I can help it. We've found our northern home on these grounds and I'm ever grateful for the experience. I hope the pictures that I took and this review entices you to experience it...
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