The Retreat at Hickory Hills — Hotel in Greencastle

Let me start out by saying the campground itself was beautiful with lots of amenities. Unfortunately though, that's about the only upside. Very expensive to stay there with ridiculous rules. After seeing the cost and the rules I was very hesitant about staying there. But since my family had already booked a few sites and I love camping, I decided to book a site as well. They say hindsight is 20/20 and I have found that to be very true. From the get go it started out not so good. They say check in time is from 3pm to 6pm. Pretty short window for starters, but they want you to email them and let them know exactly when you are going to arrive. WTH! This isn't a job where all u have to do is shower then get dressed and head in. You have to get your food together, the camper, camping supplies and such. Weather and traffic plays a part as well. I told them I plan on being there by 3pm but if things don't go according to plan then it could be 4 or 5. Their response was and I quote "We need your arrival time". Keep in mind this is 4 days before the trip. Then, other members of my family that were going to be staying there were contacted by staff and that they needed to know my arrival time. Just ridiculous! It says 3-6 so that's when I'll be there. Of course the day of camping there is a wreck on the interstate and it puts me behind. I believe I arrived at 4:30. Thankfully no issues with that once I arrived.

I would to say that was my only issue but unfortunately that is just the tip of the iceberg. I will try to shorten this last part. Campsite is pretty nice minus all the roads being gravel. That's how they make some extra money by renting you golf carts though, cause you are not allowed to bring your own unless you are a seasonal camper. The gravel pad is a pull through and super long but you are only allowed 1 vehichle per site even though there is an abundant amount of space. But if you are a seasonal camper you are allowed 2. Noticing a theme yet? If you want to be a seasonal campground then so be it. Don't allow weekend campers if that's the case. Otherwise treat people equal.

The biggest issue I have with the place is the management/ownership. For starters, making false accusations against certain people in a group. Saying you are on your last strike, threatening to kick you out without hearing your side. Constantly having their security on golf carts ride by your campsite what felt like every 30-45minutes. When you confront them about all the accusations and tell your side of the story, you get a we never said that. The straw that broke the camels back is when one of the cars had a pass to come back to the campsite hanging in her window and they refused to let her in. Excuse me! She has a pass. She is pregnant. How are you not going to let her in. They made her park in the guest parking up front. When one of our group mentioned something about racism, their tune changed real quick. We had security show up at our campsites saying they apologize and no one had made those false accusations. The rest of the trip you rarely saw security or any staff members by our campsites. It was peaceful and like a normal trip. Mayybe it wasn't racism but it's awfully suspicious when our group was targeted and we literally hadn't done anything wrong. Wish we would have stayed at a state park like Lake Monroe. Definitely won't be staying at The Retreat at...

Didn't even make it there!! Absolutely insane rules. I called 3 times after noon (opened at 12pm) on Friday with questions before placing the online reservation. We are from Ohio and would be traveling late. It wouldn't let me book Friday. We were despite to find a site so I went ahead and booked online to ensure a spot. After booking, I called again and after getting no answer, left a voicemail asking if we could book Friday. After calling, leaving a FB comment and sending a message on Facebook, I finally had someone return my call. She told us that we couldn't check in on Friday if we were going to be there after 6. I told her we would try to figure something out. I called back a minute later and of course no one answered. I left another voicemail saying we couldn't make it there by 6 and would have to cancel. Then had a woman call me yesterday (Saturday) around 4 asking when we could be arriving. I told her I left a message saying we couldn't make the strict check in time. She said that info didn't get told to her and an office manager would be calling. She was nice and apologized. Caller ID said her name was Vickie. Today (Sunday) I received a cancellation email. Then a another confirmation email of the reservation I made on Friday. Then a email from someone saying they were busy and couldn't answer the phone and there will.not be a refund given. I literally called this place a total of 7 times. The only reason it took me 2.5 hours to cancel is because they wouldn't answer their phone. And if they would have canceled it that night when I left the final voicemail, they could have still booked the spot and made money. So they are not too worried if they still have their workers believing someone was coming. We camp every single weekend in Ohio and never have seen a campground with this many rules before you even get there. They at least refund money and change a cancellation fee. I encourage you to read the reviews from people that have camped there. Looks like we dodged a bullet. Not answering phones is common for them. So we are out of $155, but luckily found a nice campground in Rockville Lake. They didn't even give a credit. I was extremely nice and respectful until I got the...

We really enjoyed our stay at Hickory Hills! The property is huge and very well maintained. We stayed at site #6 in the transient section. Although most of the property is seasonal rentals, the seasonal sections are completely separate from the transient sites, as you can see in the campground map. The transient/overnight section is very new, and you can see that they are still making improvements to the property. The camp store, shelter, playground, horseshoe, cornhole, and pickleball are all new and really nice. There are two pools - one on the overnight side, and one on the seasonal side, which is convenient, and campers can use both. The pools are super nice, clean, with big comfy loungers and umbrellas. There were lots of activities planned over the holiday weekend for kids and adults. The band on Saturday was great! We were very impressed with the high standards maintained on the seasonal side. Overall, very clean, well organized, and clearly the owners are trying to maintain high quality. We loved cruising the entire grounds on the miles of golf cart trails.

Things to be aware of: read the rules, which are all posted clearly on the website and in your reservation confirmation. Electric bikes or scooters are not allowed, so if this is important to you, take note. We rented a golf cart that we really enjoyed, but they are gas, not electric, so they're loud and a bit smelly. Also note that all the roads and trails are gravel - no pavement - so biking is possible but not easy. Limited number of golf carts so definitely reserve yours ahead. You'll be glad you did - the property is so big it's not easy to walk everywhere.

Staff was awesome - greeted us right away at the gate, led us to our site, where our golf cart and firewood were waiting. Sites are nicely spaced. If it's important to you to have shade and trees, you'll want to try to stay at one of the perimeter sites. If we stay again, we'll try to get one of the sites on the perimeter across from the pickleball, cornhole, recreation area. More privacy and some shade there.

Overall, very happy with our stay and...