Elkhart Co. / Middlebury KOA Holiday — Hotel in Middlebury

This KOA campground in Indiana was a lovely surprise on what could have otherwise been a disappointing spring break. After our initial plans to head south and Camp with another family were cancelled due to severe thunderstorms, we looked into what else was open for camping closer to the great lakes area, and found this campground. A couple calls later and we were all set and arrived and I have a hard time putting into words how wonderful the staff is. They're genuinely friendly and very helpful! Fortunately the campground was nearly empty and we were able to get two nice sites together so we could be next to our camping friends and we all had a great time.

While tent camping would probably be OK too, our small travel trailer was perfect. There were some HUGE travel trailers there, quite possibly the biggest I've seen. But there are a lot of pull-through sites to accommode that and all the sites have a mostly-level drive. There are cabins too but we didn't look into the details of those.

The kids enjoyed riding bikes up and down the camp road, and there was a little pond which offered license-free catch-and-release fishing. I was not prepared for this (and even more surprised when my son said he wanted to put down his electronics and go fishing with his friends!) so I had to drive a few miles into town and buy a rod and hooks and worms at a local sports shop. My son even caught his first fish! And our friends daughter stayed occupied catching garter snakes. Not that I'm a huge outdoorsman, but it was a very nice parent moment to see all the kids off their electronics participating in nature.

There's restaurants and a great donut shop nearby and lots of horse and buggy traffic from the local Amish population. This was nice as it gave us a chance not to gawk, but rather to discuss with our children about different lifestyle choices and possible rewards/challenges associated with that, and hopefully instilled some acceptance of other people's choices.

There are a couple nice hiking trails on the campground as well. They're perfect for just taking a stroll through the woods with one little hill to contend with, and a little minigolf course for the kiddos to play on a bit.

There is also a fenced in dog run for Fido to do his business off-leash, just please pick up after your pet. I cleaned a lot of old dog-logs just so I/my dog didn't step in it, and was rather irritated that dog owners wouldnt have done that themselves.

I imagine in high summer when the campground is packed, it might not be as ideal for a quiet camping trip, but that also opens up more chance for social interaction and those quirky little temporary camp friendships that kids are so adept at creating, so I bet it'd still be fun, just in a different way.

Overall I recommend this KOA (more than any other KOA or certain picnic basket stealing bear campgrounds I've been to in the past!), and will likely return, even if theres no other cancelation to drive the necessity. It was just...

We stayed maybe an hour. Our cabin was grotesque, not KOA worthy period. Upon pulling up the pool looked green. We thought we could see passed that. As we drove through the campground we notice the activity area for kids was inconveniently located and in less than favorable condition. We pulled up to our cabin. Which was located next to the camp owners home. Nothing extravagant but again, we could see passed that. Upon entry to the cabin we pulled back the curtain that covered the patio door and cabin smelt like a 1970s camper that was cleaned with citrus spray. There were bugs in the loft area, dead and alive. The bathroom toilet had a sediment build up and looked uncleaned for several weeks. The main bedroom has a window ac unit that was filthy and smelt of must. Thinking we could maybe get passed all these issues it only got worse. I ran to the store to grab a few items for dinner, got back requested a vacuum at the check in office for the bugs, got back and started to quick prep dinner and wipe things down with thr scented clorox wipes inpurchased. I turned on the water and the most sulfuric smell came out. I was hoping after running it would clear out but it just kept coming. I went to put groceries away and the fridge and freezer had a smell as if they were unplugged for several days and then plugged back in. I went to look for linens in the main room and noticed a large pee stain on the mattress. Upon finding the linens the following occurred. The fitted sheet would not go over the bed, the pillow cases were dingy and the bath towels appeared to be a quality not even goodwill would sell. The blankets appeared to be left over for a hospital. The cabin door was rusted all around and spray painted over. The manager did stop in to deliver wood I purchased when getting the vacuum, she asked what was wrong and I couldn't hold back, i expressed my concern and issues. She was very kind and extremely apologetic. Advised we would be fully refunded even down to the wood. Thankfully we were able to locate another location to stay within 20 minutes. It did come as a challenge as we are traveling with 5 children but we figured it out, as...

My family and I Stayed here for the holiday weekend. We arrived late on thursday night and struggled to get set up as we could not clearly determine where our site started and ended. I specified in my online registration that I had 2 small children. While it wonderful we were placed by the rec hall we we're also put on a corner lot right off 2 roads(horrible with kids)

The bathrooms were disgusting and looked as if they hadn't been touched in weeks. I attempted to shower my youngest until black mildrew came seeping threw the bath mat on the floor of the shower and I decided to get out.

The electric box at our site did not work so we ran an extension cord to the empty lot next to ours so we were able to have electricity to things needed outside our camper. We notified the office and nothing was done. A worker came and advised I was not allowed to plug anything in at another site and I told him ours was not working and the response was I needed to tell the office (very rude I might add). Finally someone fixed it.

Quiet time was not enforced. There was a large group camping across from us, whom continued to yell and party until 2-3am. People camping near us continue to ask them to quiet down but nothing was done. The workers and a car load of people deciddd at 1230am they wanted something from the Rec hall and we're also loud, using foul language and had no disregard to campers near by. I asked they to be quiet as I had small children trying to sleep and got an attitude.

Very disappointed In the park as a whole as there was trash everywhere. The playground was also a disappointment. It looks like it hasn't been cleaned it weeks and the swings were broken

We also seen a sign posted when we got there of activities going on but never heard more of what time and where they were located resulting in us missing out.

I will not reccommend this park for family trips. It seems to be somewhere to go if you are traveling and need to stay for...