River View RV Park and Resort — Hotel in Vidalia

We stayed here for a week while slowly making our way east. As you enter the campground from Highway 131 / Martin Luther King Avenue, the entrance road takes you up and over the earthen levee and then down to the office building. The office building divides the campground into two sections, the northern and southern sections. The northern section consists of a short arc of eight back-in sites with limestone pads that face two rows of pull-though and back-in sites with gravel roads, and then beyond those two rows is a fenced-in section of long-term residential sites which seem to be back-in sites. The southern section we were camped consists of three rows of pull-through and back-in sites connected by gravel roads facing the river. It seems like all of the back-in sites were originally designed as pull-through sites but are designated as back-ins because of spacing or obstructions. Our site (97) was a back-in site because a large electrical box at the back prevents you from making the turn into the site. Some sites have concrete pads with grass lawns while others are entirely grass. We chose one with a concrete pad because we were worried about getting stuck if it rained heavily during our stay, but the ground of the grass sites on either side of us seemed firm. All sites come with a picnic table. Some sites have adjacent trees, but most do not, leaving them fully exposed to the sun. Our site was level, and had the electric and sewer connections near the middle of the site, while the water connection was closer to the back.

Most of the amenities are located in and around the office building. Inside the main area of the building is the office, a clubhouse area, a supply store, and a laundry room. Individual unisex bathrooms with shower stalls are accessible from the outside of the southern side of the building. On the east side of the building facing the river is a covered patio area along with a swimming pool and a hot tub, and across the street from them is a horseshoe area and a white covered gazebo. The propane refill station is located across the road from the office building in the northern section of campsites. They do accept package deliveries, but ask the front desk for the mailing address of the campground as it is different from the driving/GPS address of the park. The children’s playground and the large fenced-in dog park are across the street from the first row of campsites in the southern section. The dog park can get busy during the day, but is barely used at night, possibly because it’s only lit by a single motion-sensing light over the trash can near the entrance. But there is no shortage of open grassy spaces to walk your dog.

The big draw of the campgrounds is its location on the river. Since our site was in the front row, we were able to see parts of the river from inside our RV. The eastern edge of the campground is bordered by a wide public concrete walking path along the riverbank, high above the river. You can follow the path north for almost 1.5 miles, passing under the Natchez-Vidalia bridge, watching boats push barges up and down the river. Sometimes the boats will park along the side of the river.

In terms of cell service, the best speed I got on my Verizon Jetpack with MIMO antenna was 15 Mbps down and 23 up, so except for a few drops in the morning and some rare moments of buffering, I was able to work remotely during the day and stream video in the evenings without any issues. The one speed test I ran on my 5G AT&T smartphone showed 229Mbps down and 40 up. ran a speed test on the campground WiFi and got no signal at all.

We would stay here again if we were...

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​The good:

Clean facility, pool and hot tub

Some, but not all, staff are friendly and competent. Jessica has exceptional customer service skills.

The bad:

Hot tub is not hot and you must ask that it be turned on.

Dry and dusty for most of the stay. Dust covered everything. Park does not irrigate or water the grass. Avoid grass due to painful stickers.

For primitive spots it appears that they are seasonal and staff offers inconsistent information. Arrived day after big October balloon festival, after dark, and were told by long time campers to go to far south end of park.

Upon arrival extremely poor and dirty conditions of restrooms and shower rooms. These are city owned facilities and poorly maintained with spiders, roaches, black mold, etc. Was told that the facilities were being shut down for the season and all power cut and locked.

Moved to the front closer to other campers, toilets, and club house. Thank you.

The ugly:

Some personal hygiene items stolen during the night, others were dumped in the garbage.

Saw several un-registered guests access restrooms and clubhouse facilities contrary to posted signage.

Had to listen to loud noise from river and levee traffic as well as sounds from plant at south end of park. This was constant and made sleeping difficult.

One night a burglary alarm sounded all night long at the plant. A 911 dispatcher relayed that they were trying to locate the owner to turn off the alarm. Another lost night of sleep due to the alarm.

When Hurricaine Patricia aftermath brought in torrential rains that caused flash flood warnings and road closures, as well as rained us out of our tent, we sought shelter - as posted and indicated by staff - in the laundry facility.

We called the numbers posted to ask for any help such as Red Cross, storm shelters, churches, fire or police stations that could offer assistance during the height of the pounding wind and rain as we were told by day staff that we COULD NOT use the laundry / storm shelter. In essence, although we had already pre-paid, we had to remove everything from the facility placing it outside in the pounding rain.

Several attempts to discover the protocol and make sense of the inconsistency met with extreme aggression and hostility by staff and then by local law enforcement who indicated that there was nothing they could do to help.

Bottom line: if you are a traveling motorcycle or bicycle tourist avoid this location at all costs. They appear to cater only to RVers and have little business sense or business protocols in place for natural disasters and how to accommodate someone who is not in an RV. In fact they should stop offering "primitive" sites due to the sub-par conditions of the primitive area as mentioned above.

Besides the obvious humanitarian lines that were crossed during the real and present danger of flash floods and impassable roads, there was an obvious lack of a plan, inconsistent and hostile execution of the "owners" demands. That is just bad business.

It is clear that this is a small town and perhaps, as some have suggested, it relies too heavily on Natchez for services. But with the fact that extreme weather events will continue and increase in the future, EVERY small town, business, public servant and civic leader should be on the same page and have an EMS plan codified.

Otherwise:...

I confirmed my site and received an email for the site I requested. Good thing I called to check on the request bc the manager had decide to put us in another site bc she "blocked the grass sites". We will be there for a full week during thanksgiving and you would think she/he would have had the decency to call/gravel the point. Thank goodness I know before I traveled more than 2 hours! I asked to cancel my booking or get the grass site. We will see how it goes. In any event if I do not receive the confirmed booking or even if I don't I will never trust this place again. I will go if I get what I booked. If not I will never be back. Moral of the story Call first!!!!! They don't care about what you requested or had perceived you would receive. On the day we were due to leave we receive and email with the new site and no grass sites can be used. Who's mistake is that. The manager is never available. The staff all say it's not my fault. I had to complain to the end to get an I'm sorry this happened. Still no manager call. I request the site that was available when we booked and was told it's not available now. So I guess it's ok to change our site but sure didn't want to change anyone else's. Even though we booked months ago. However, I wouldn't do to anyone else what was done to me. It appear that the manager is a computer manager and not involved with the people. The staff have poor communications skill and problem solving skills. Will never go there and I will post this to every site and all my camping friends. ...