Sycamore Lodge RV Resort & Campgrounds in North Carolina — Hotel in Hoffman

I used to LOVE this place... It's just "okay" for me now.

We joined the campground by buying the lifetime membership in 2002. We got married behind the lodge. The staff did everything to make it perfect. When we bought our membership, we were told that we were guaranteed a place to camp with water and power and that we needed not make reservations ever. Now that they have oversold the park, reservations are mandatory unless you want to be sent to camp on a baseball field next to the main road with no hookups, privacy or shade of any kind.

When the park started to become oversold, they created a new tier of membership that gives new, higher paying members priority over us original members, so those of us early adopters have had their promises dwindle into lies because the original contract says that they can change the terms of the agreement to fit their needs at any time... and they do. I didn't think it was right that they wanted me to pay $2,000 more to keep what we had.

I also learned that our absolute favorite site would no longer be available to members and that it is permanently reserved as a "marketing" site. This is a site they use to bring people in to camp for free and make them listen to the "Now or never" pitch in an effort to further oversell the facility. They have a number of sites reserved for non member tours and they will turn paid members away if those free sites are the only ones left.

Under our original agreement, we were able to make reservations as far in advance as we wanted to and were only required to have reservations if we wanted to request certain sites. We used to plan out our entire summer and make those reservations at one time in March. Those days are gone now in favor of allowing the newer members to pick and choose what they want over a month in advance, while us originals have been limited to making reservations a maximum of 2 weeks out. That is NOT AT ALL what I agreed to and paid over $6,000.00 up front and continue to pay hundreds in maintenance fees annually for.

We can no longer get in on the "big" weekends like Memorial Day or 4th of July weekend because they are always "booked" before We are "allowed" to make reservations. We have NEVER been able to get a site with full hookups (Although those free weekender marketing campers seem to have no trouble getting on those sites)

When we ARE able to get in on "busy" weekends, I find myself trying to squeeze my 33' camper onto a site that would be tight for a pop up camper... and forget about opening the slide! Once I had to run over and park my camper on top of the shrubs to fit on the site they gave me. The maintenance guy said "Run over them. We're going to take them out anyway." The very next site over was twice the size and sat vacant all weekend. But no, we couldn't use THAT site... This past weekend, I couldn't even back my camper far enough into the mini site to get my truck out of the road.

So, yeah. I guess it is a good deal as long as you are willing to be dragged into the office every few years to "upgrade" your membership. Otherwise, you will lose everything they promised you in your original agreement and will become a "Second class citizen".

They do spend money upgrading the resort and the facility is truly very nice, although one of the bathrooms has been out of service for months and they only have hot water piped to the sinks in the bathrooms, so you get about 5 seconds to wash your hands before the water turns to 138 degrees. (I checked it with a thermometer) Third degree burns will occur with only 6 seconds of exposure to 140 degree water. 138 is not that far away.

While the park manager told me that they are required to have the water heaters set that high by state regulation, my research has shown that NC Anti-scald regulations set the maximum temperature at 120 degrees and recommend that public showers have an anti-scald valve in place with a max temp of 100 degrees. I would like to see the hot water temperature be set to a reasonable level before...

My husband and I visited Sycamore RV Lodge in June 2024. We had a small dog with us. We camped for free in exchange for going on a tour of the campground and listening to their sales pitch to buy a membership to Travel Resorts of America. The campground was spacious. Nice sites with lots of shade trees. Our number one complaint was all of the dust. A bit more gravel on the roads would help eliminate some of that. We also wish the dog parks had grass instead of sand. Our dog just stood there because she's used to playing in grass, not in sand. The RV park did have a lot of activities that would be great for a family with children. Since it was just m and my husband, we didn't really do any of the activities except we did use the swimming pool, which was nice. We were looking forward to using the hot tub but it was out of service when we were there. On Saturday night they had a live band at the pavilion with people dancing. It was a lot of fun. They also had food trucks on Friday & Saturday nights, which again, was very nice being that the closest town was about 20 minutes away. Brian and Lonnie (camp workers) were extremely nice and friendly, especially Lonnie. He stopped by our site and visited briefly with us a couple times during our stay. He was very pleasant and gave us helpful info about the campground, activities, etc. We were taken on our campground tour by Will. Will was very friendly and showed us all of the campground amenities. After the tour he told us about the memberships they offered. One was around $19K, one was around $10K and the last one was around $7K (all of which were more expensive than what we were looking for). When we explained we weren't ready to buy right now, he was not pushy. His boss, Greg, on the other hand, was the opposite. In fact, he said "hey, I don't mean to be coming across like a jerk".....and my husband said "but yet you are". I had to laugh and say my husband was joking because the tension made me a little uncomfortable, but my husband was actually serious. After Greg realized that we weren't going to buy on the day of the tour, he got up from the table and told Will he might as well just give us our free gifts b/c we weren't going to buy. He didn't thank us for our time or even say goodbye to us. Just got up and went back into his office. Other than the one interaction with Greg, we had a pleasant visit to Sycamore RV Lodge. They did give us a couple of gifts for coming and doing the tour: A Smores package, free firewood, 21 more free days of camping @ Sycamore and a $50 gift card. We were told by several of the members at the pool that we won't be able to get a reservation when we try to make one using our free passes. I sincerely hope this isn't true! Overall, if you live close to Jackson Springs and are looking for a membership, we would recommend possibly buying. We are 2.5 hours away and it wasn't a great drive for us to get there. We also like too many other campgrounds that are closer to us that don't participate in this membership and I'm not willing to give up going to those campgrounds right now to join somewhere that limits where I can go with the membership. But again, Sycamore is a nice campground with lots of amenities (especially if you have kids). We would definitely recommend visiting Sycamore if you...

We went to the two nights Free that they offer as long as you Take A Tour and I have many things to say about the campground. One is Yes they are very nicely set up as far as the lot size and the weekend activity list. Staff experience was Great, I think they are very friendly. Negative feedback: not in my eyes a RESORT!! This is a normal campground with the Normal stuff. Pool only 3-6 foot and not big at all. It's salt water pool and I don't personally like it. The general store needs more, not enough to take home for friends and family. The closest store with diesel or heck gas for that matter is twenty minutes away. No sewer hook-up, unless you are a member and talking to the people around that were members said that they hardly ever get one of the less than 18 full hookups here. To say to us that they are a RESORT well, just not what I thought at ALL. Kids yes will love it! You have fun stuff for kid's but I was extremely bored. The air conditioning system was broke in the main kitchen and I even did all the dishes for the craft of making dog treat's, and not one thank you! I talked to some of the employs here, they like it, just not having no sewer is a pain. Over all it was worth the Trip FOR FREE ..the tour where you are asked to buy INTO the entire place was about three hours or more, no LUNCH AS SAID, we were given a microwave sausage and egg on a hamburger bun. TEA WAS AMAZING!!! So yes pros and cons to my review. The young staff are awesome... The DOG PARK IS NEVER BLEACHED!!! SO no recommendation for puppies who are prone to Parvovirus that can occur if the area has had a sick pup within the last year.. ( parvovirus lives in ground for a year and is a deadly disease ) FYI to the staff that had no CLUE why I asked ..they had no CLUE. I would love to see sewer hook-up at least at more than 1/4 of the places you stay. I will explore other resorts before we buy into One. I just couldn't see payment of a yearly fee of 400 when they Already have 16,000 members and if you total that amount well, I think it's too high. I will consider a purchased coast to coast when I'm maybe 40 plus years old..makes sense then with the packages they have. I like the choice of going to the other resorts before we purchase THIS. They do give u the 21 days of Free camping at the other resorts..which we will do and see if we like them. I thought the bathroom's looked clean, though I didn't use them. The distance between " the woods" where they stuck us was way to far away from the bathroom's. They keep a nice place, the pine needles are a pain everywhere..great FIRE HAZARD.⚠ I have told you about my entire weekend ... U are entitled to your own opinion. No they don't hassle u to Buy ... No they aren't up to date on certain things ... But overall .. I felt safe, kids were everywhere and playing, having Fun. The music was Good and the people who are members are pretty cool... I just think I would love to see newer updates as far as a RESORT says it is.. thanks for reading..hope I helped, and to the owners..no I think you are on a great start to a great Place..just not to the younger bunch who are not interested in buying right now. Everyone is different and likes...