Peaceful Valley Campsite — Hotel in Town of Colchester

I will not come back to peaceful valley. Which is unfortunate because my family and I visit at least once a year during the summer. Its kid & dog friendly, there's no reception there so we get to truly unplug from the city & phones plus it's a family based business which I support 100% since I too run a family based business. But my last experience really was appalling otherwise I wouldn't have spent my time writing this review. We rented a cabin and setup a tent for my young children. No complaints there. The next day we notified the office we had family coming over. The owner's wife said that's fine they must pay to enter. Great. We paid that upfront. No problems there. It was just before dusk when the wife arrived to the cabin & started yelling at my husband in front of my guests, my children & other campsite visitors. FIRST of all, you should approach people with respect. If there is an issue you (wife) must approach your customers, set them aside & TALK to them. Secondly, she mentioned that the tents are not allowed to be setup with cabins. Ok? The tents were setup since the night before with no mention of it not being allowed. There are NO signage anywhere stating this could not be done. She accused us of trying to get over on them since my guests were going to sleep over. We'll again if there was a conversation regarding that then they would have paid to stay over, if they wanted to. There was no mention of time limits for visitors, there was no mention of what would happen if guest were to stay overnight. Bottomline, they failed to ask any followup questions nor notify a paying customer the rules. Usually a campsite will provide a map with rules on the back, Peaceful Valley do not provide a map. Then, my husband tried to talk to the wife & pay a site for our guests but she continued to yell & scream. THEY HAVE NO BUSINESS OR CUSTOMER RELATION ETIQUETTE. Then the husband comes in & says we are to be kicked off the property and threaten us. My guests left by that point & we paid for 3 nights stay upfront. He said because we didn't FOLLOW THE RULES that's why he's kicking off the property. BUT where are those rules? Online. Well that's a big help considering that there's no way of getting any internet connection. Then his response is, it's common sense. Yeah it's common sense to setup a tent when your camping right. It would be common sense for you, your wife & staff to have a proper system in place to ensure your customers are properly aware of whatever the rules. The fault does not fall on paying customers if the owners fail to provide the proper procedures in place plus have some decency. Just because its says you can refuse service to anyone doesn't mean you can threaten a family and do whatever you want. And I have pictures of the receipt & the picture frame stating cabin rules. Nothing there mentions there are more rules online. So customers beware because anything can piss off this family for whatever reason. And Peaceful Valley Campsite please upgrade...

Wish I had read these reviews, but instead I put myself thru 3 days at this campsite.....arrived late Friday afternoon, checked in, attendee said I have my choice of the “BEAR DENS”, looked into both units, could not decided which was dirtier, took the lesser of the two evils, both were very dirty. First thing I did was spray all the beds with Lysol and moved the disgusting chair into the corner, next I looked into the supplied refrigerator, disgusting, spilled juice, coffee rings and dirt on top, I cleaned the top and looked under the beds only to find an empty propane container and food wrappers, threw all them out. Noticed there were no curtains, no lock on the screen door, which barely closed. Went over to the closet bathroom, which was about 100 yds away, no big deal, but the bathroom/shower/toilet area were disgustingly dirty(SAME RUBBER GLOVE IN A SINK FOR 3 DAYS). Most toilets were not flushed, which I flushed all them, never took a shower in three days, because they were disgusting, empty shampoo bottles, used towels, etc…..After finding the refrigerator and “BEAR DENS” so dirty went to talk to the attendant, completely clueless, asked for management to come by, NEVER HEARD FROM THEM IN THE THREE DAYS I WAS THERE!!!!

Other negatives, an AIRPORT, YES AIRPORT, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE ON THE CAMPSITE, SAW MULTIPLE PLANES TAKE OFF AND LAND IN MY THREE DAYS. There were also model airplanes being flown all day, which were nice, but could be dangerous, at the speed they were being flown. Plus to top it off there we individual firework displaces both nights; these were not from the management!!!!!

Also there are no 4 wheelers allowed ACCORDING TO THEIR RULES & REGULATIONS and I saw ATV’S running the roads and the grass all day and until 11:00 at night, even saw a young boy on a riding lawnmower driving around the campsite, I know he woke me up twice Friday night, once at 10:00 and the other at 10:30…..there is a 10mph speed limit, BUT not for the ATV’S, some of them were flying around!!!!!

Advertise a swimming pool and since it was over 90 degrees everyday, thought I would jump in after fishing all day, but NO, no water in the pool!!!!

Really wish there were more good things, but NO!!!!! In over 30 years of camping all over our country, this is the WORSE campground I’ve stayed in!!!

Over all in a scale from 1-10 and ten being the best I would rate this campground...

Don’t bother with this place. After I read the reviews, I believe what I saw and what others said. This campsite hosts a music festival called Jetlag and as years passed, the owner was more and more intolerable. This year, Jetlag reopened after the COVID-19 lockdown and the owner was so rude and disrespectful.

First, he screamed at everyone driving more than 5 miles per hour threatening to kick them out when there were barely any visible signs except for one tiny 9x11 inch one further down the road which you can’t always see in the dark. This made first time visitors feel unwelcomed.

Second, the festival is only two nights and on the second night, the power was shut off on purpose by the owner. He was drunk and went around to every theme camp screaming and threatening to shut the power again due to music. He agreed to allow a music festival and was told the music is non-stop. Instead of communicating with the organizers, he shut the power completely on one side of the campground so hundreds of people were out of power the entire night which basically destroyed the entire event. The owner and his family also ran around harassing and mooning (yes, mooning) festival attendees!

Third, the bathrooms are disgusting and needs a major renovation. There’s 5-6 stalls, one toilet was broken, one was missing a toilet seat, all had broken stall locks, stained and crooked toilet seats, half the sinks usually broken, showers are gross, entrance door is beaten to death, paper towels weren’t refilled for two days.

An actual trash can costs $1 at Family Dollar and yet the owners decide to cut down giant buckets as trash bins. Seriously, how cheap can someone be? I highly recommend avoiding this place especially for any large events and I hope Jetlag changes their...