Waldport / Newport KOA Journey — Hotel in Newport

This is a very nice campground. Office staff greeted us warmly when we pulled in. The campground is well-maintained and pretty. The sites are large and level. Lots of shrubbery and plants to help with privacy. Nice playground and dog area. Store is stocked with essentials and souvenirs. The bathrooms/showers were immaculate. There are several one room private bathrooms with toilets, sink and shower. They looked just like home. The laundry room was very clean. The WIFI was solid! And Kudos to this campground for checking/cleaning sites when campers leave (it seems that few campgrounds do this anymore!). When they did, they found a set of keys we had dropped and they called us after we left. They offered to mail the keys to our home, but we asked them to mail them to an address we knew we would be at in a few days. We appreciated their attention to detail to do that!

This would be a 5 star review, except for a couple of things:

1.) Although the bathrooms/showers were very clean, my husband took a shower in the evening (not the morning rush) and he said it was the WORST shower in our cross-country trip. He said there was NO hot water AT ALL. He had a conversation with someone else who said that was her experience as well. The next morning we saw there was hot water in the bathrooms, but apparently it doesn’t last long and you have to get your shower in early.

2.) There’s a path to the beach from the campground. It’s marked on the campground map and there are signs showing campers where it is. It’s a nice walk to the beach, BUT, at points, the path is steep, there are lots of tree roots, and at the end, a huge pile of driftwood that you have to walk over, so it’s easy to fall – which I did. I walked away bruised and sore, but it could have been much worse. This should be improved – it wouldn’t be a big deal to smooth this path out a bit and remove the driftwood from the end of the path. We come from a beach town where everyone wants to walk down to the beach. There are TONS of pretty easy and not expensive ways to make a safer path down to the beach. This is a potential liability !, and really needs to be fixed.

3.) The sewer hookup on some of the sites is not at the end of the site, but in the middle, so you may need an extra long hose to connect. We did.

4.) Even though this is a small campground, and we followed the directions from the office person to get to our site, we found it a little confusing, and we would have appreciated someone pointing out our site. Other reviewers have said there are tight turns here for big rigs – yes, there are. Our travel trailer is 27 feet, and we would not have wanted to make the turns in a bigger rig.

Recommended, but get a new water heater for the showers, and fix the path down to the beach !! This campground works best for small to...

The campground itself is nice. There is a playground for kids. The cabins are exactly as promised. The reason for the three stars is the bathrooms were dirty 90% of the time we were there. If cleaning was happening we had the unfortunate timing to enter them right after a little boy used them or a family of some sort. But judging by the dried urine on the toilet tank I’m thinking they are only cleaned two or three times during the day. They are well stocked though. Also a warning no heat in the bathrooms my iPhone Said the bathroom was 61 degrees at 8am, so it makes it miserable to even think about showering. The campground has more rules than any KOA I have ever been to. My spouse did receive these rules in writing at check in and agreed to them so we were aware from the start. We couldn’t even have family who lived locally come and visit for a couple of hours, as they are in a work training program they would have needed to come to us. They use the excuse of COVID but considering the CDC’s newest policies that even Kate Brown has endorsed. Vaccinations status and mask policies in place plus they are in a green zone. I do feel this is to keep non paying people off property and not so much Covid.

Fortunately there are good state parks and restaurants nearby and we left our money there instead.

I had to arrive late to join my family who were camping due to work obligations and the family who was there ahead of me went into the office to get the second overflow pass because I wouldn’t make it before the office closed and they were made to feel like they were sneaking people on property even though I was a registered guest. In their words they felt like criminals. Be aware there is a fire out at 10 PM ban for noise control purposes but it’s good since it prevents forgotten fires that could go out of control. However be aware that the campground is patrolled by local neighbors who are happy to complain if your kids even talks slightly loud. We had an autistic child with us and he was making car noises while playing prior to bed at 9:30 and the patrol person stopped the car to come over to scold us because it disturbed the nearby neighborhood. I was not impressed it was not even a staff member. Usually I love KOA and have never had issues with any of the other ones I’ve traveled to before and during the pandemic but we won’t be coming back to this one. I’m actually sad because I love the area but we have enjoyed the brookings and Lincoln city one far more and they have more amenities...

Upon check in I knew this wasn't a great KOA. There were two kids working the front counter who didn't tell me where the restrooms were, where the laundry was, anything helpful other than how to get to my cabin. One of them had what I assume was a new nose piercing which looked infected. But the store at this KOA was better than most others I've stayed in. I did like the individual bathrooms, though on the busy 4th of July weekend, there did seem to be a need for more of them. Only stayed in a cabin for 2 nights. If you're staying in a regular cabin, be prepared to wait in line to even get to it. Both nights I had to wait in the car for over half an hour because the road to get to the cabins gets blocked by people with campers coming to the front office. Both evenings there were children running through my site and neither the parents or the staff did anything about it. There were also kids messing around on bikes near my girlfriends car. They were seeing how fast they could go and see how far they could skid. Rocks were hitting her car and that irritated her a lot. There were dogs constantly barking. People playing music loudly and drunkenly. One man walking around the campground drinking a bottle of wine. Quiet hours were supposed to start at 10pm but I was kept up until midnight by noisy neighbors. There were so many "rules" that other campers broke. We had to sign saying that we would follow the rules. Either enforce them or get rid of them. I will be staying here one more time to give it a second try.

PROS: Individual bathrooms, cooking fire maintained for public use, walking distance to the water, laundry open 24 hours, mostly friendly staff, close to Waldport

CONS: No rule enforcement, mostly kids working it, too close to neighbors, poor layout, purchased firewood was expensive and halfway wet, higher priced than other KOA's I've stayed in, bathrooms constantly soaked (could benefit from...