Canoe River Campground — Hotel in Mansfield

My family and friends have been camping here at Canoe River since 2010. We love it here. It's the perfect place for a large group to go and have fun. The sites are wooded (unless you're in the meadow), and are close enough to everything, yet far enough away that you can enjoy yourselves.

This is a largely seasonal campground, with tent sites, and RV sites for weekend/week stays. The grounds are maintained enough so you know where each site is, and where the roads are.

An update to the facilities couldn't hurt, but shouldn't be a reason why you wouldn't want to stay here. The Ice Cream bar/snack bar is great for when you no longer want S'mores.

The pool area is large, clean and well maintained. The kid pool is great, as it slopes down from both sides to a 1.5-2' deep in the middle. The two pools, are separated from each other by a gate, and both are surrounded by fences, with access to restrooms, right off the main office.

There are horseshoe tournaments, and an antique fire truck that gives kids rides around the campground. My 3 year old looks forward to that each year.

The restrooms/showers are what expect, nothing fancy. More light in the stalls would be nice, but not needed. The showers are coin operated (quarters) and are hot, and have good pressure considering all the water being used.

Bring your own firewood, or order more than you think you'll need, right when you check in, in case they can't keep up with the demand, like in the past.

Most of the "1 star" reviews are from almost a decade ago. Read the newer ones, and ones with an actual review. I'm not saying that all the "bad" reviews aren't warranted, but some might be out of spite, or from previous owners/managers. We've never, in the 6 years we've been going, have had an issue that would make us give a 1 star, or 2 for that matter. We have camped in RI, CT, MA, NH and ME, and this is the best place for your money.

This isn't an "entertainment haven" like some other places in MA, you won't get handed an hourly detailed schedule of events, but there is stuff to do. This is your basic, everyday, campground, wooded sites, electric, water/sewer (unless on an actual Tent site), there is fishing, boating (for "rent"), swimming in the pool(s), a little playground, basketball courts, horseshoe pits, function hall, open field for baseball/kickball. If you want to be busy with crafts, activities, dances, hoedowns and the like, check out some of the "resort" type places, Canoe River isn't that. If you want a place to stay, in the woods, with typical campground activities, then this...

Paint goes a long way. This place is rundown. They don’t take care of their sights. God forbid your site is next to a full timer/worker. Safari ones are the worst. Positive=affordable and location. |Let’s talk about affordability shall we… they are adorable. For a family with growing kids, this is good. Location,Good for concert goers, locals to spend time away from home, or come up for the summer to see family. If you are looking for a great place for young children. This isn’t the place. Sure they have two pools, one being a kiddy type. Sure they have playground but that same playground that has been there for …… ever! Their bathrooms and shower area, I have never seen anyone clean them. They have a basketball court that needs to be upgraded. They will do arts and crafts one day, bingo another…. Blah blah blah. Stuff you would do in the nursing home. With elderly. They should be doing more for the kids. They should staff, actual people that don’t “live” there. Pay for people to do face painting and tattoos. Do a carnival, movie nights out by the pool every Thursday nights, Glow swimming where everyone has glow sticks and they get to swim. Arts and crafts, each kid paint a rock and have it be somthing positive and then bring to another site as an act of kindness.|So many fun and cost effective things they could be doing but they don’t. They have these people who have lived there for 20+ years run these things and it just isn’t working anymore. Hire staff, clean the bathrooms and showers and make sure there is toilet paper in the women’s bathroom! The pool is a free for all. No one monitors the area. We don’t need a life guard but we need staff to be in proximity so that when the wrestling show is done, wrestlers now do these moves in the pool and come pretty close to cracking their heads. Staff should be wearing bright tee shirts so we can identify them especially kids in the event one wanders off and is scared.|I attempted to reach out to the owners pertaining to a serious matter and I never got a call back. Cool! |Will we go back….. I dunno, we have been camping there for years. None of which anything has been updated. I will not spend a week there anymore. If we go, it will be just to do a quick weekender.||Doesn’t cost a lot of money on paint. It also wouldn’t hurt to clean and care for the canoes and paddle boats so that when we go to rent them, they aren’t filled with mucky rain water. There is no reason why a staff person can’t maintain that.||They did put in cornhole....

So mixed feelings of Canoe River. I will discuss pros and cons. Pros: staff very friendly, few fun activities for kids, price, quiet time was respected, sewer at the site. Cons: very outdated. Not all the sites are created equal. Our site was less than half the size of the two trailers beside us and it was a difficult back in spot with tree stumps. If we had such a smaller lot, I’d expect to pay less. Not sure why we were given that lot as there were much larger ones available throughout. The pool is jam packed and did not seem very clean. Adults are in the kid pool just sitting because the larger pool was so full. The food area was disgusting if you look behind the counter. You must purchase their wood for fires, but there wood was soaking wet. Not really family friendly. Yes, there are many families there but it was more of a party spot for families. The entire time all we could smell was weed, which I know is legal now, but I did not want my two year old and three month old inhaling it. The amount of profanity, loud music, domestic fighting, drinking and driving, and fireworks was frustrating. The rules of the campground are Not enforced whatsoever. Bathroom and shower is a good walk, so if you have little ones I’d only recommend campers with bathrooms. Also if it rains, the road becomes unwalkable due to the very large puddles. Also there were many seasonal campers which I typically don’t have a problem with, but these people without trying to be judgmental seemed sketchy. Saw some of them using drugs and blaring music with bad language and their trailer areas were just a disaster. Multiple older men following around and talking to underage girls. I would never allow my children to walk around this campground independently.

Maybe this was our unfortunate experience because I’ve heard many mixed reviews from people I know. I guess it’s like playing the odds if you get a good spot around decent people. Or a better spot maybe for people without kids who want to party. Very unfortunate because it was a little more family friendly, it could be a sweet little campground. Once again, I cannot say it enough that the staff working at the events for kids (tee shirt making, fire truck ride) were...