Best Campgrounds near West Simsbury, CT

We stayed at Aces High RV Park for a long holiday weekend to visit with our daughter in Connecticut. We paid$150/night for a‘Premium Waterfront FHU Site’ on the lake. A bit pricey, but really nice site including level concrete pad and patio, clean and well-maintained utilities, and beautiful view. 

THINGS I LIKED: 

• Clean, well-maintained, and level site with concrete pad and patio(I love a clean, level concrete pad!).

• Utility hookups were in great condition and everything worked as it should (other parks should come and take a look at how to do this right).

• Beautiful pond and natural setting with lots of ducks, geese, chickens, and wild birds. 

• 20-minutes drive to Mystic and all the touristy stuff to see and do.

• The whole park is quiet and nicely-maintained. You might say that it should be for$150 per night, but we all know that not all parks are- even at higher prices. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH: 

• This is silly, but I wanted something to improve. The store didn’t stock a selection of stickers so we weren’t able to add to our collection. By the way, doesn’t this really mean it’s a great park if that’s my only criticism? 

WOULD WE COME BACK? 

• Absolutely, this is a nice place with Mystic nearby.

We generally only stay in KOAs or similar RV parks when we need showers, laundry, or a dump station. This one was in a convenient location plus many campgrounds had not yet opened for the year when we were there. It had rained for a few days before our arrival and that did not help our first impression as we drove on the rutted and muddy road to our site. There was a sign that improvements are underway, but I am not sure what those planned improvements are and when they will be implemented.

On the plus side:

*Friendly and helpful staff. Not sure why when we are given a map an employee escorts us to our site but that is a KOA thing. Later an employee asked if I wanted help carrying our clothes to the laundry.

* Warm showers (but it did take a while for the water to get warm)

*Brand new pool that was uncovered but it was way too cold in April to use*Sites were spaced a decent amount of space apart (although there is little physical separation). This was helped by the fact that there was no one on either side of us during our stay.

*In season, there are many activities to occupy families (pool, playground, mini golf, daily firetruck rides, complimentary shuttle into the town of Niantic); however, we could not take advantage of most of these.

*Reasonably priced laundry, although the washing machines were smal, and it took two to do what should have been one load. However, the dryers give you 60 minutes so although it took longer to dry, I only had to use one. 

On the negative side:

*Unmaintained roadways. The main one was once paved but has not been maintained; others were dirt (and mud after a rain)

*High price for what we received. Not sure if we received an off-season rate but at $87 per night for a water/electric site and not being able to take advantage of amenities seemed high.

*Allowing political flags to be displayed at sites. I understand that on private property, this can be allowed at the owner's discretion, but this was offensive to us. 

Again, this is not our preferred type of camping. Initially, I struggled to give this two stars but once the rain stopped, our stay improved somewhat.