Thousand Trails Lake Whitney — Hotel in Hillsboro

Don't let the 3-star rating fool you. If you're looking for a fun, true "camping" type experience with the family, this campground has a lot to offer. It's a great location to simply "get away from it all." You're away from major airports, major freeways, and major cities. When we first came to this campground my first thought was about camping as a child. This place reminds me of that. Lots of trees, nice spaced out sites, and loads of "nature."

The amenities may not appeal to someone who is looking for a 5-star Marriott experience, but that's not the type of person who would really be interested in a "nature" type campground.

PROS:

1 - This park actually has useable WiFi with decent speeds. The down side is that you can’t get WiFi to your site… you have to go to the Family Lodge or the Adult Lodge to use it. But at least it works and works well.

2 - Great getaway location with a LOT of “nature.” Very quiet at night, and VERY dark (all those trees make it extremely dark at night).

3 - The amenities may not be posh or high-society, but the restrooms are clean and maintained on a daily basis. The showers actually spit out hot water, unlike some parks we’ve been to.

4 - Playgrounds for kids, activity center, short walk (or drive) to the Lake for fishing, boating, or swimming (this is a large park, so depending on where you’re at you might want to drive to the lake).

CONS:

1 - Cellular reception for making calls is hard to come by at most sites. Look for the small patch of sites in the A-Loop for your best bet for making calls or getting useable Verizon LTE data — Sites A57, A58, A59, and A61. Every other site in this park is lower in elevation, so the surrounding hills and trees make cellular data painful, or nonexistent, and even making voice calls can result in multiple disconnected, or failed, calls. If you work full-time from your RV… this will be your number one concern. Verizon receives awesome tower reception (voice and LTE data) if you’re at the Family Lodge… and the Family Lodge also has acceptable WiFi data speeds… but having to go to the Lodge every day to “work” isn’t exactly optimal for everyone.

2 - Low hanging branches will scrape the tops of “big rigs” such as most Class A and most 5th Wheel rigs. I’m not talking about the branches at an individual site (some of those are so bad you can only get a Teardrop trailer safely in there)… I’m talking about tree limbs on the roads that you are forced to travel on just to reach your site. Considering this is a “RV Campground” I would expect them to cater to their customers — and make all clearances at least 14’ or more. This oversight is so unacceptable that it’s worthy of a 1-star removal from the rating all by itself.

3 - You’re not going to find all-concrete, full hookup (50/30/water/sewer) level sites here. Most sites are moderately level, but they’re gravel (many with a thin layer of asphalt on top). Bigger rigs will put crater holes in the ground in many sites, so bring block support.

4 - There are only 23 Full Hookup sites (50/30/water/sewer), and most of them are taken by “annuals” or “long term” clients. Sadly, the best spots for cellular reception are 30/water only (no sewer). There are two additional 50-amp sites with water (no sewer). MOST of the sites in the park are 30/water/sewer.

5 - $3/night up-charge for 50-amp sites.

Overall, we really like this park. It’s currently “Spring Break,” and while I understand that this isn’t a Spring Break hotspot destination — it’s surprisingly empty. That works for me, as I’m enjoying the peace and quiet. The only reason I might not come back here would be due to the spotty cellular tower reception — and that’s not the park’s fault at all, so it’s not reflected in the 3-star rating. Other than being extremely limited on cellular data/reception — I’d come back to this park often. It just has that nature/camping “feel” to it that I...

We rented a cabin for a week to see the Eclipse that was passing through. Apon arrival we were told that although we were allowed to have fires, they did not bother to provide a pit for every site, but that we were welcome to peruse the property, and take a fire pit from a vacant site. These were the large ring style with flip over BBQ grate, and were too large for a single person to go collect alone. After we started searching for one, it was discovered there are very few rings even available, and when we couldn't locate one in an unoccupied site, we called the office to request assistance. They told us to "Go up to other sites and ask them if they would be using their fire ring." We found this to be incredibly invasive, some stranger walking up and asking to take away my offered amenity? We did find one- after another campsite left, but it was a disappointing start to what would be a regrettable trip overall. I cannot imagine an older couple having to move one of these pits around by themselves. Either provide pits or don't, having an extremely limited number to share is unacceptable.

First night we went to go make some drinks, and discovered that every single dish in the cabin was dirty, either greasy or still had visible food on them. We opted for beer, and bought food out for the first night. Next morning when we attempted to make breakfast, we discovered the stove in the cabin was not functional. After reporting this to maintenance they were unable to resolve the issue, we did not have any means to cook food within the cabin for the duration of our stay. Thank goodness we had our camping gear with us, as we were forced to use our propane stove outside the whole time, we got lucky with the weather too, otherwise we would have been wet three times a day to cook.

When my mother went to clean all the dishes, so that we could at least utilize the ones provided, the hot water handle on the kitchen sink snapped off, when maintenance came to fix it the water shut off below the sink snapped as well. We were given pliers to use anytime hot water was needed in the kitchen throughout our stay, but sharp plastic was still left behind where the old handle was, to remind us if we forgot to use the pliers.

A few days in we tried to do laundry to find one of the three machines available was absolutely coated with mud, the cleaning ladies even came through and performed their "morning clean" of the laundry room, and never once actually looked at the machine, which was not in use at the time.

Walking Trail system was overgrown with signs that did not align with map provided. Roads were very poorly maintained, and overall experience was atrocious. At no time was compensation offered to us for the lack of amenities, and when I called a couple weeks later to discuss my concerns (after finishing a long road trip), they stated that only available option was to offer a free night at this terrible resort, when I live halfway across the country and have zero interest in staying here ever again. I was told the compensation was only available during our stay, and at no time was this offered to us, even after they told us the stove would be inoperable.

Very disappointed, this was my first Thousand Trails experience, and I will be cancelling my membership, as not only was the cabin and property I paid for poorly maintained, but the customer service has been less than ideal. I have been awaiting a call back for two weeks in regard to these concerns, and anytime I call to follow up I have been told a manager will call me back, and yet I have not been provided any helpful communications so far.

Would not...

We have gone to this location for the last four years with a group of others. Our group generally gets 1-2 cabins and 2-4 campground/RV sites. We stay for 7-8 days each visit. Unfortunately, we encounter issues each year and will not be returning in future due to it. Some of the biggest issues we have run into yearly is dishonesty in regards to the amenities, lack of cleanliness, and lack of care of the facilities.

This most recent visit we arrived to both pools being closed. We were told they were closed for the season, yet the temperatures were still hot enough to warrant having it open. When asked again a few days into our stay, we were told the back pool had no chemicals and the front pool was too chlorinated but that they were working on it. We went back again the next day to ask about it and we were told the pool was still too chlorinated and that this happened during Labor day, too, and no chlorine had been added to cause it. Chlorine would've needed to be added for it to be so high. We were then told that the back pool also had too many chemicals, even though the day before we were told it had none. When we drove by the back pool to do laundry, it had a film on it and was slightly green. The front pool was finally opened up on our final full day there, without anyone notifying us even though we had been asking almost daily. We were able to enjoy it once we realized it was open and it was closed down again about an hour and a half after we accessed it.

In regards to the lack of care of the facilities, I brought to the attention of the same lady that we discussed the pool with (Brittany) that the bathroom on Loop A had a leak coming out from under the second toilet. Something that could be easily remedied. She informed us she was aware, yet it hadn't been corrected. There are also leaky faucets in sinks and showers in multiple locations. Then, on our last day, my children and I, along with another guest were shocked by electricity when taking a shower. The metal part of the faucet on the shower had electrical activity and would cause tingling of fingers/hands if the metal was touched. The response from the lady we told was unprofessional and seemed like all she ran into all day were complaints about issues.

This location would have so many advantages if the management worked to get things up and running smoothly. After being hopeful for four years that they'd finally put in the effort, we realized we'll have to take our yearly business elsewhere. Others in our group have been doing this for longer than four years at that location and will also go with us to a new location for our...