Geneva State Park Campground

Brought the pop-up to Geneva State Park over Labor Day weekend and stayed in site 83. The experience was excellent. The site was wooded and ample, with plenty of distance between us and our neighbors on all sides. The bathrooms were fine, and we never had to wait for any bathroom facilities even though the campsite was completely full. The camp store was well-stocked and had some necessities and some extras. We heard standing water could be an issue at some of the sites, but we did not encounter that. After waking up to a thunderstorm at 4:00 am the first night, we fell back asleep and found no standing water at our site when we reawakened a couple hours later. Lastly, cell service in the park is excellent.

This was my 7-year-old daughter's first camping trip, and she had a blast. It took us about 20 minutes to hike to the beach, which was pleasant and had its own facilities and parking. The trail continues down a bit to the creek and marina as well. Away from the park we visited Geneva-on-the-Lake, which is a very short drive away. There we played some arcade games, putt-putt, and had ice cream.

Note that not all campsites are the same at this park, as some areas are closer together, and some are not wooded. Also note that the opportunities for fishing from shore seemed to be limited within the vicinity of the campground. If you're dead-set on fishing, you may want to check out a charter from the local marina.

In all, however, an excellent facility that has a good range of things to do, along with traditional woodland camping.

This was our first trip to Geneva State Park, despite my family going to the GOTL (Geneva on the lake) strip quite often growing up. We stayed at site 57, which I would consider a medium site. Don't let the website pictures fool you, many of the sites have a bit of a hidden area behind them that many utilize. Our site was very nicely set back from the road about 20-30 feet and had three trees around the fire pit that we hung out hammocks on. Our neighbors to the left actually set up their tent about 75 feet behind their site in the woods. The first, lower number, area of the campground seems to have way less shade and much smaller sites, while the higher numbers are much more shaded and have less dense woods behind them that many people utilize. The highest numbers currently, 94-100, were recently added and are basically an open field and gravel pads. The next set of sites being built are replacing the waterfront cabins and will be above site 100. We can't wait to come back and stay on lake Erie. There is only one shower house for the entire park, which I imagine is crazy during the busy summer. Luckily the restrooms throughout the park are flush toilets.

Outside of the park you have the nearby Geneva on the lake strip which has a wonderful boardwalk feel with small stores, putt putt, arcades, food, etc. Either way you explore, west or east, you will find many beaches of all sizes, amazing metroparks, observation decks, museums (Fairport maritime, Astrabula maritime) and more. You can spend many days just finding place after place.

The only negative part of our stay was the outrageous million dollar "campground", Hearthside Villa, that is currently contracting phase four directly behind the state park campground. So if you go during the week, you will hear a lot of construction noise.

It’s definitely not a destination in and of itself, but if you’re into the nearby town (we aren’t) it could be good. Decent beach, some sand but plenty of Great Lakes rocks, campsites are spacious but a little confused. So, they’ve cleared the brush between sites but didn’t grow much grass… either give me the grass or leave some scrub for privacy, what they’ve done is make it shady (good), spacious (good) and dirt (bad).

Lake Erie is… ok. It’s the warmest Great Lake (good), but also most prone to algae blooms (bad). Check water quality websites, local posting of results is non-existent.

So, there’s one shower house. It’s all the way in the front, closest to the full hook up sites. Not sure what they’re going for. Also, if you’re not in a full hookup site, you need to fill your water from the one (1) spigot of freshwater at the checkin station. Kinda silly.

There’s nice trail access here, good beaches and it’s just off the interstate. In the time of covid, you need a reservation which can be done less than 24 hours on their website, but no walk ins. If you’re on the way somewhere like we are, it’s great. If you’re looking for a destination, look harder.

Geneva State Park Campground:  This was our first trip here and given the COVID situation it was still very pleasant.  The camp store is closed so be prepared to get firewood either from the surrounding woods or from a local store at an inflated cost.  Other than this everything was great.  Showers were very clean, water pressure was pretty good and the restrooms were cleaned as stated, twice a day, very thorough too.  Our site had electric so charging a cell phone or portable battery is possible (kid happy).

The actual campsites were pretty large where we stayed.  We were spot 82 and had some nice tree coverage, suitable for hammocks as well.  The mosquitoes SUCKED...our blood, or tried to, but we had some lotion and candles so be prepared for an army of these 'suckers'.  The raccoons are very intelligent and not scared of you so make sure you lock up the food in your vehicle.  We had a visitor one night because our teenager left a bag of honey mustard pretzel bits in the vestibule and they barged right in to get them.  Lesson learned on his part. 

They offer a fish cleaning station if you decide to do some fishing and there is a decent little putt putt coarse in town, which is a few mile hike away.  Speaking of hiking....

There is only 1 real trail from the campground and it leads to the small town of Geneva-On-The-Lake, which felt like stepping back  in time.  Not everything was open but since many of the shops are walk up there were still many options available during the C-19. 

The Beach is located along the trail to town and was being cleaned when we were visiting.  The water was a little to cold for swimming right now but i remember swimming here as a kid and it was always enjoyable.  Not the best Beach on the lake though.  I would venture 20 mins west to one of the other beaches.

Overall, it was a nice experience, not my favorite campground in Ohio but definitely a good one that you should not overlook, especially if you enjoy fishing or spending time on the lake.