Best Glamping near Lake Sidney Lanier

We stayed here over July 4th weekend and it was a really great experience! The campground is nice and well kept. The bathrooms were so clean and so nice! They are air conditioned with three stall and three showers. They also have a nice playground on site as well as a air conditioned club house they provides a nice break from the heat. They also have firewood and I’ve on site which is really convenient. The owners are super nice and come by each morning to pick up your trash. We enjoyed fishing in the pond and trekking through the creek. We would highly recommend for anyone camping in the Cleveland/Helen area.

I have stayed here 3 or 4 times. The owner takes great great pride in his ownership. He was able to buy it from a family whom let the place go down hill then rebuilt it himself with family and friends. The cabins are warm at night without the need for a heat source. The shower house is also climate controlled. There are no designated places for tents therefore you don't necessarily have to stay in the first spot you picked. Another thing I love about the ownership is your bill is on the honor system. They will not hound you about what you owe. You can pay as you go or wait for the total as you leave. You are far enough in the sticks but also close to whatever you need from down the road. He placed 2 or 3 (can't remember) posts for electricity and never complained about me stinging my 100' extension cord through the creek so we could enjoy the fire pits as well as the electricity for phones and tent heaters. Their food is very good too sadly, only on the weekends from Friday evening to Sunday morning.

Nicest state park cabin I’ve never stayed in! The furnishings were beautiful and the screened porch was amazing. I really appreciated that the bedding and towels were plush and extremely comfortable-very unlike most state parks or other rental cabins. It was also impeccably clean, AND the bathrooms had handcrafted local soaps!

As a side note, my husband is a wheelchair user and this was the most accessible vacation rental we’ve ever encountered (and we travel a lot). The picnic table had a seat cutout, the fire pit and grill were on a level surface, and the kitchen sink was roll under! 10/10 thank you HLC for the thoughtful attention to accessibility.

"SITE# 47, Pull-Thru, Not FHU, 50A, Water, Dump LENGTH OF STAY: Stayed 9 Nights, RATE:$30.56/ Night with No Discount/ 0% Discount BATH HOUSE: Clean but Outdated LAUNDRY: Not Recorded STAFF: Friendly PARK IMPRESSIONS: Nice, We would stay here again RV PAD: Concrete, ESTIMATED RV PAD LENGTH: 40 Feet, Tow Vehicle Could NOT Stay Connected and Parking was away from site SITE SLOPE: Door side Tire Blocks needed ROADS: Adequate, MANEUVERABILITY: Narrow PEDESTAL PLACEMENT: Center of site length, SHADE: 30% GRASS AREA: At-Site, DESIGNATED PET AREA: Not Recorded PICNIC TABLE: Yes, FIRE RING: Yes, VERIZON Signal(bars): 5G-3, SPEED: 394 Mbs Download, 47 Mbs Upload T-MOBILE Signal(bars): 5G-5, SPEED: 714 Mbs Download, 124 Mbs Upload No WiFi, OTA TV CHANNELS: 75, CABLE TV: No, PLAYGROUND: Yes POOL: No, WATER FEATURE: Lake, FIREWOOD: Yes, STORE: No CLUBHOUSE: No, PROPANE AVAILABILITY: No Original site was# 46(back-in) but was VERY small. Moved to site 47(Pull-Thru) but due to road slope pull-thru is un-usable. Lower numbered sites(less than 30) appear somewhat better. Empty camp ground host side byhind 47 cannot be used unless site 47 is emprty due to sloping road. One single use dump station. One campground host presently in the park- their site was not marked. Appears that most sites are back-in and set sideways to a hillside and lakefront leaving very little level space for chairs. Fire rings are frequently located 12-20 feet away from picnic table and 3 to 9 feet below site level on a slope. Reservation Software used by office was down upon Saturday arrival with no IT help until Monday- two days away leaving office staff frustrated and using their own phone to access the reservation system customers use instead of management side of software. Staff stated it goes down frequently with no IT support on weekends. Six bathhouses in park. Bathhouse nearest beach closed awaiting replacement of fixtures after renovation. Shower has outdated fixtures- several shower heads had significant mineral deposits restricting flow. Men's side closed at another bathhouse. Many shower stalls had no hook or fixture to hang a towel or clothing. Several showers had broken shower valves making them unusable. Stayed 9 nights and did not see anyone working on bathhouses. Beach area parking is limited to 6 or 7 spaces and one handicap space however, there is a larger parking lot a little further away. Bathhouse showers have a pull string valve next to the shower head that had to be held down to get water with many strings broken, missing and too short to allow shorter people, children, or handicaped wheel-chair use. Some sites have precarious/dangerous sloping driveways for RVs to get into. Newly installed sites are near completion but they make sites very close together. Many sites do not have a fire pit and many do not have a grill. Many sites arer too small to park a second vhicle even if the camper is small. Parking on dirt or grass is prohibited by rules but appears to be selectively enforced. The campground has a boat ramp and reasonably large parking area. Extra careful site selection is warranted. Four docks in River Forks Park. Firewood is available at the office. CHECK-IN: 01:00 PM CHECK-OUT: 12:00 PM RIG: 42ft- 17,000 lb 5th Wheel"

We arrived just before sunset & we were in a rush to set up before it started to pour. We had no trouble finding our reserved site & while we were getting settled, the hosts (Cocoa & Ryan) popped over to welcome us & also brought back firewood a few mins later. The sky opened up shortly after & it poured ALL night long, but our site didn’t flood. Quiet hours began at 10 PM, and I didn’t hear a peep from anyone else after that! The bathrooms stayed clean for our entire stay, & the hosts graciously offered us a ride to the hiking trails in their golf cart the next morning, so we didn’t have to fold up our rooftop tent to drive down. I wish we would have been able to stay longer, and we can’t wait to return!

Campground Review: Nacoochee Adventures is located just before Helen at the beginning of the Nacoochee Valley. They offer small primitive camping in vardo type wagons and tree houses as well as zip lining. We went as a family of 4 and half of us did the moonshine canopy tour while the other half did the quick zip, a half mile zip down the mountain. My son did both lines and preferred the quick zip. The canopy tour takes you back into the woods to view and old reclaimed moonshine still and gives you a great view of the wild ferns on the forest floor. The guides are all very friendly, great with kids, and generally positive people. They also offer smaller zip lines for kids, parties, and a giant swing. You can buy local beer and wine after your tour on site.

We stayed in the creek tree house and to our surprise, they gave us an off road golf cart with our treehouse to transport our stuff up the mountain to our site. If you ask, they will give you directions on how to drive your cart through the trails to get to the Nacoochee Tavern for pizza and more local beer and wine as well as some great shopping.

We went in June and it was a typical hot Georgia day so we opted to wait until late in the afternoon to head to our campsite and were pleasantly surprised at how much we could do right there from the check in area. We walked across the road and visited the Hardman Farm, a DNR run site with the old Hardman home and buildings across from the famed Indian mound. From there you can either walk or bike the Helen to Hardman Trail to Helen and skip the ridiculous tourist traffic. From there you can walk or bike a good portion of the city of Helen, depending on how deep into tourist land you want to go.

The treehouse is nice and shaded with a fire ring, a hammock, and a path to a small creek. There is an outhouse nearby but they leave a special door open at the main house for you to access bathrooms and showers via the golf cart 24/7. Our tree house had a full bed in the loft and a king bed in the main area and lots of citronella candles outside to ward off the bugs but as soon as it got dark, the mountain air cooled everything off and we could forget the heat while we slept.

In addition to the Hardman Farm, the Sautee Nacoochee Center is nearby as well as the old Sautee Store, just past the Indian mound. By bike, you can access these locations and loop back to Helen on Bean Creek Road which passes a lovely roadside waterfall. If you want to check out Helen from the point of view of how things were before tourists and motorcycles this is he perfect jumping off point, literally. Zip the treetops and then hop on your bike!

Product Review: As a Dyrt ranger, I get to review cool products and on this trip I tried out the Primus Primetek stove set 1.3 L. When I first got this stove I worried it would be "too much stove" for basic backpacking. But I have found that with a family it works perfectly to heat up water fast and enough of it to make coffee and pour into Dehydrated food bags for everyone. I have yet to attempt real cooking on it like pancakes or sautéing but the hear output is very efficient and even and clean, which makes me think it will be fine. The metal hose that connects to the gas sort of winds around the bottom and there is a hook to hold it. It I have had a little trouble repacking it in the bag to sit flat. This is a minor OCD observation. Also, the bag it comes in does not include room for the fuel so when you are packing your stuff you always want to remember your fuel. I have not forgotten fuel yet but can understand how that might happen. Overall, it is a great stove for us and our needs, a little pricey but worth it.