Philadelphia / West Chester KOA Holiday — Hotel in Newlin Township

The West Chester Holiday KOA was an enjoyable experience.

I know there's a lot of people that have something to say about KOA. And admittedly, i've had negative experiences with some of their Journey Level Campgrounds. However they're holidays are of different caliber, and that certainly extends to the West Chester.

The Grounds: Well kept, and maintained.

Checking In: When me and my wife checked in, it was a breeze. Their website had allowed us to preorder wood and starter materials. Which were delivered to us upon showing us our site. It was level, it was immaculate. If I could say one thing, it was a little narrow. We travel in a sixteen foot airstream, and as a result, because we're sixteen feet, sometimes we get funky locations. This could certainly be be defined as one of them, there were these large sedimentary boulders that we're at the site. That we were able to navigate around with no problem. And were actually really cool and added the the beauty of the site, but it did limit the square footage of the actual site itself a little.

Staff: They were extremely helpful, no request was too extreme. And we went during an unusual period of weather where there was a tremendous storm that hit the area with a power outage. The koa kept us abreast via text at all time throughout the entire process, allowed us to use generators in lieu of power. And actually offered refunds on the excursion itself. Which wouldn't have benefited us, but, to be Frank is not common in the hospitality industry as power outages, are normally considered out of control of the hotel or a resort. I felt this was a classy touch.

Amenities: Me and my wife are extremely private people, and we rarely utilize amenities at the actual campground. Itself, as to date, we don't have children, and a lot of KOA Amenities are family forward. However due to the extreme heat wave, we did choose to use the pool.  It was substantial dipping pool right with a max depth of five and a half feet. Totaly concrete, with plenty of my seating and umbrellas.  It was an extremely enjoyable experience.

Me and my wife are millennials and sometimes like to play with the arcade. However, in this circumstance, we didn't get to try it. The pictures make it look fun though. Maybe next time..

Bathhouse and toileting facilities: The men's and women's restrooms that we utilized off of the general store, we're complete with both handicapped accessible stalls and shower stalls. They were cleaned and well maintained.

Site level Amenities: Our site included an extended sized fire ring, i.e. it wasn't a truck wheel. And included a griddle attached. Additionally, I can report that there was no there septic odor or anything coming from the utility pole, which sometimes can be an issue.

Overall: Was definitely an experience worth repeating an extremely enjoyable campground, would...

We stayed at this campground as our first out of town trip with a camper. The campground was what you would hope for from a KOA (very clean and well maintained; level site, friendly campers, nice amenities, etc.).

But it was the very end of the trip that really made the difference.

After we packed our camper and headed home, our truck broke down in a busy intersection about 10 minutes away from the campground. A few helpful, handy people stopped by to try and help, but no one could get our truck to start. It was an extremely hot day and our 5 small children were getting antsy and tired after we had been stranded for a couple hours. But then, we were able to get in touch with the owner of this KOA.

Even though we had already finished our stay there, he came to our rescue. He was extremely busy that day but dropped everything to patiently help us all afternoon. He helped us unhook our camper from our truck and towed our camper back to a new spot at his campground. Then, he brought my wife and kids to the camp pool to make sure they were set up for the afternoon and evening.

Finally, he helped get our truck to a mechanic, brought us back to the mechanic that same day after a new starter was put in the truck, and ensured our family ended up together and rested back at the campground. Rather than making the 4 hour drive home, we decided to just pay for another night at the campground, driving home the next morning.

Well, the next morning, in our rush to leave for home, we accidentally pulled away from the site with the awning still extended. About half of the awning tore off the side of the camper before we realized what was happening. We were still at the campground when this happened, and just like the day before, good people came to our rescue. This time it was a couple helpful campers, plus two of the campground employees.

They helped remove the rest of the awning from the camper, figured out how to fold it and store it in the camper for safe travel home, and tie off the electrical wires that were damaged. We felt terrible and embarrassed but the crew stayed pleasant and patient, just like the owner was the day before (this awning process lasted an hour or two, and was an extremely hot day).

We safely made it home that day and are still very grateful for the owner, his staff and the other campers that helped us over those two days. We highly recommend this campground for (clumsy) families, couples or friends that want to explore the Philadelphia area or just want some quiet time at a...

We stayed at this West Chester KOA campground twice over the last two summers and would NOT stay here again as tent or RV campers. Our site was covered in thick oozing mud that holds water like a pigsty and we had to wear muck boots the entire time and take them off to go inside our tent and teardrop RV. It wasn’t just one part of our camp site- there was not any path we could take to get to our vehicle or tent where we did not have to go through thick muck/water. It was too gross even for crocs. Muck boots were required to safely navigate this disaster of a campsite. I understand that rain happens but decent drainage and adding gravel or an adequate supply of wood chips is expected when you charge $128 per night for a camp site. Our site was disgusting and it will take us countless hours to scrub the layers of muck off of our gear. Things we liked: the pool, the store which has everything you could want including eggs, s’mores supplies, ice cream, gifts, and fun toys for kids. If you forgot to bring it, the store probably has it. The bathrooms were well maintained with hot showers that have good water pressure. Our kids enjoyed the fun games and canoeing the Brandywine. The staff were friendly although they never did fix our site even after we asked them 3 times. The last time, they finally dumped some wood chips in one area of our site but it wasn’t enough and our site was still really gross. During our stay, a lady actually fell and broke her leg because the ground in front of her tent was so treacherous and muddy. You have to see the pictures to really “get” how deep the muck is here. You get stuck in it. Also, our daughter’s iPhone was stolen from our campsite. She is special needs and should not have left it out but still… that really sucked especially since her phone is the controller to her cochlear hearing implant. She then had no way to control her hearing implant. We did file a police report. The sites are really close together so, if you like peace and quiet or even a shred of privacy, this is probably not the vibe you’re seeking. We didn’t mind this since our site was shady with lots of trees right and right on the Brandywine. We actually enjoyed the loud music our neighbors played in the morning because they had a great playlist (mostly reggae and some rock) and we were already up anyways. This is a place families come to have a great time. If our site had been decently maintained, we would have loved to come back. But, we won’t...