Draper's Acres Campground — Hotel in Town of North Elba

So, Giving this 3 stars is actually a little hard just because I kinda would like to give it more however a few things bothered me during my second stay at this sight.

So the first time there was awesome we went there in October 2019 and we stayed for a weekend just to hike Cascade Mt. and then to visit Lake Placid. The site we got was big with electric because of how cold it was going to be I figured electric would be great so I could use a small cheap heater which heated the tent well. The bathroom at the time that we used was just a trailer basically with 2 baths in it. Never showered though because no heat was offered in the trailer.

July 2020: Stayed for a week this time and got a site (20) in the back which was a plus. This time around though the site was small for a 6 person tent but even if we had a smaller tent it would have been a pain (literally) because of all the roots and it was on a slant. We had cots which help avoid the roots however because of the slant we kept sliding to our sides which we corrected the next night by turning the cots the other way however we still slid a little bit. We ended up having to move the table over a bit to give us room for a rain tarp, the table was close to the tent and would have still been close to it even if we used a smaller tent just due to the roots alone. I Do understand its camping and such but I have never seen a sight that bad before, usually its flatter/smoother or filled in a bit at least to make it flatter for tent campers without killing the natural look of it to much. This sight was better fitted for a hammock to be honest but I am sure It was just me though having to big of a tent....things were forgotten to be mentioned when calling to reserve such as wanted electric again and the size tent we were using lol.

The next thing though is the bathrooms/showers. A lot of reviews said they were very clean bathrooms.....now it looked like a normal camping bathroom to me....they did clean it a lot because of Covid but The bathrooms felt like they were just quickly and very cheaply tossed together. The doors would run into the top of the toilet causing the door not to close unless slamming the door, the locks were kinda busted up and one door I had to do all that I could to lift up enough so I could latch the lock. When showering I really would recommend bringing a platform to place you're things onto as well as flip flops because what ever the heck mats they use outside of the showers murder the feet. The shower nobs leaked really hot and really cold water out of them. The toilets.....With all the water in the room from taking a shower it was really hard to sit down on the toilet without getting you're shorts completely wet, this was the case with both the main shower rooms and the trailer showers/bathrooms on the other side of the site. You pretty much have to bunch up your shorts and hold them while sitting there to prevent them from touching the wet floor. They had port-a-potty's which I used more then the actually bathrooms because of this. Oh As for the trailer Showers, one of them for some stupid reason you have to hold the whole time in order to have constant flowing water.......that was annoying.

This is a great campsite though, friendly and helpful, I understand its hard to maintain bathrooms and such when so many different people use it many times a day and many wreck them for no reasons at all.

What would make it better for me is having Showers and toilets Separate so then that water on the floor issue isn't to much of an issue, and maybe allow for bigger rooms for the shower and just have a drain in the middle and water seal everything around it, along with a platform for clothes.

Oh and for site 20 just adding a bit of dirt or sand to flatten it out a bit....I really think only a couple roots need to be covered to make it a bit better

We will be going there again hopefully in Sept or October so its nothing that would stop me from...

I don't normally leave reviews, but after reading so many complaints about Draper's Acres and then staying there myself, I wanted to be sure to put in my two cents. This is the PERFECTLY LOCATED, AFFORDABLE camping spot to stay at when camping for the purposes of hiking. It's not glamping, unless you make it such, but you sure do get a bang for your buck at Draper's Acres. ||||My positive experience began before I even stayed at the campground. Upon reading so many negative reviews (small sites, too close to the road, dark and hard to navigate at night), I promptly contacted the owners and started asking questions...a lot of them. And every single one of my emails was responded to promptly, kindly and with no hint of annoyance. And trust me, I asked a lot of questions. The owners gladly shifted my reservations several times and their responsiveness put any of my fears to rest. ||||My party was assigned three large sites with ample room for tents, cars and EZ ups. While there are smaller sites than those we were situated on, all seemed sufficient enough for several cars and tents. The sites are spread out sufficiently with woods between each to give a sense of privacy. Yes, there's obviously a moderatly used highway located right next to the campground, but it's nothing that you can't ignore or drown out with some earplugs at night. We still found the camping to be very serene and tranquil despite the sound of traffic every once in a while.||||The fact that we paid $40 per night for sites with fire pits, drinkable water on site, electric, warm and clean showers, clean portapoties, affordably priced wood and ice, well, I'm here to say I can't possibly see what someone could possibly have to complain about! At a price like that, in the heart of the Adirondack High Peaks, Draper's Acres is a great value, offering an excellent experience with a side of awesome customer service. We'll be back...

I'm going to have to unfortunately agree with many of the raters on here. This campsite has a great location, which means it also has great potential. It seems to recently have taken on a few new ventures. Apparently, one can not only camp, but one can also get a hoagie at the front office, go tanning, and have hair styled. I'm not sure how these are synonymous with camping but who am I to judge? The campsites themselves are quite nice. They're quaint, private, and on the small side which is nice. The trees block sound and neighborly views which comes in handy if it's a get-away camp trip. The negative is definitely the bathroom. The first awful part of the bathroom is that when someone is doing his/ her morning constitution, a passerby (outside) can see under the bottom portion of the door on a well-timed glance. The second negative is the high-school locker shower stall. It's coin-operated which is no big deal, but every time I've been there, I've had to force it to work. Once I had to walk to the office (salon, tanning booth, hoagie shop) and ask for directions on how to run it. I was told to "whack it once." This is not something I wanted to be doing while waiting to shower. Also, once the shower is running, do not, under any circumstances, stand near the shower lever. This is difficult with the small shower, however, scalding hot water drips out of the shower lever and will definitely make you scream loud enough that the person sitting on the toilet might just alert a passerby with a hand signal that the man in the office should offer no assistance other than to advise to "whack it." I would also recommend bringing newspaper and a lighter. This place sells "fire starters" which is merely glue and sawdust in a jello- shot cup for around three bucks. I think this place would be wonderful money were to be put back into the location. Until then, I recommend solar showers and...