Best RV Parks & Resorts near Columbus, IN

This was the first time I’ve stayed in a campground that was split with Thousand Trails. The sites for KOA had mature trees and were of decent size. We reserved a back-in full hook up site and stayed for two days. Our site was level but not all sites were level as I watched my neighbor pull in. The campground had a very nice pool which was very clean and they have a private swimming beach which was also very clean and well maintained. The Thousand trails property was easily 6-7 times larger than the KOA portion of the park. All amenities are shared and it appears that at least one bathroom was being updated. The others look to need some repair and are dated but clean. Campground was very quiet at night with no rowdy or loud campers during our stay. I would stay again.

This is a combination koa and thousand trails

The check in staff was not very helpful, non were they friendly Interior Roads are very rough and not maintained

Office staff at the

the good stuff peaceful ,friendly staff and campers,nice fire ring and picnic tables. the bad the online reservation can’t choose the sites or areas so I called the number that was listed for campground and was on hold at a call center somewhere . check in was nice you had to pick whether you were koa or thousand trails then go pick a spot they didn’t know what was available. that went pretty well it was hard navigating through the potholes and mud holes with being 62’ long the spot we found was 30amp with water no sewer at 50$ a night I was disappointed 25$ would have been more realistic

The electric and water hookups are not in standard locations for RV hookups. Make sure you bring an extension for your electric hookup, otherwise you might not be able to reach the post. Same for water hookup. We had a lakefront site, however it wasn’t lake view. Sites 12/13 do not have a view of the lake due to dense brush in front of it. All other lakefront sites have a view. There is not a camp store, so make sure you have all the supplies you need or you’ll have to make a trip to Salem, which is only about a 20 min drive. There’s excellent cell service, no WiFi. There are laundry facilities at the bath house.

We called for reservations less than two weeks in advance, and they only had one site left. If coming from the north-west, try to arrive before dark as the road over the hills to this place is beautiful, but narrow and forested with some trees very close to the roadway. The entrance road to the campground is quite steep. We arrived after the office had closed, so they had left an envelope taped to the door with our name and a map to our site. We were in the full-hookup, back-in RV sites connected with the cabins but they are across the street so they’re not too connected if you don’t know who’s in the cabin nearest you. Most of the other rigs in this row seemed to be long-term. We were on the end opening onto trees and the gravel cul de sac. It’s beautiful.

Pads are gravel and we did need to use several leveling blocks on our site, which made for a doosey of a bottom step into and out of our trailer. This end of the park is very quiet, with dark skies at night for stargazing and lovely field and forest sounds. Even though the office had closed a couple of hours before, the owner Bruce came by after we had set up to make sure we were in ok. Thoughtful!

The “patio” pad for the picnic table is 12” concrete blocks. It was mostly level, but not near the edge near our tow vehicle. Tripped a few times; these blocks should be redone.

We needed some trailer work while we were here, so asked the owner for recommendations. The manager Ed then came by after the guy had come to be sure we were pleased with the recommendation.

Bathrooms were a short walk up the hill to the office. Pretty good, though they often needed supplies restocked.

We would definitely stay here again. We stayed in site 9.

Starve Hollow Lake SRA has full hook ups at half the campground and electric water access on the other half. Small lake for boating and canoeing and kayaking. Fun atmosphere friendly staff

Electric sites near the lake with several water front sites. Full hook up sites that are well spread out so you are not on top of each other. Very friendly staff. Clean facilities. Quite the hidden gem.

Starve Hollow State Recreation Area is 280 acres that are adjacent to Jackson-Washington State Forest (18,000 acres). Starve Hollow offers a great camping experience with accommodations ranging from primitive to full hook-ups and the park is impeccably maintained. The full hook-up sites are spacious with most offering a nice tree canopy. A large number of electric only sites are bordering the 145-acre Starve Hollow Lake with a large swimming beach, and picnic area. The park offers boat, canoe, and kayak rental plus an Education Center, fishing, hiking and mountain bike trails that extend into Jackson-Washington State Forest. The surrounding communities are full of interesting history; the longest existing (460') covered bridge built in 1875, classic round barns, original iron bridges, and the historic Medora Shale Brick Plant (1904) to name a few. Easy access from I-65 via US 50 W, then SR 135 S.

Full hook-up or water and electric sites, sites are level. Tent sites available. This place has zip-lining, paintball, arrow tag, ATVs, off-road tours, mountain biking, hiking, cabins. It's near Nashville, IN's quaint shops, music venues, Stoney Lonesome, Gnaw Bone, and, of course, beautiful Brown County State Park.

(Four stars because we stayed there during a wedding and the music and traffic from the wedding was a bit intrusive; also, because when we arrived at our campsite we had to ask management to remove a squatter, so the site was not clean).

First, I would like to correct someone's prior review. Electric and non electric sites are both reservable and walk up. Almost half and half. The hike in sites are all walk up. As you look at their maps, if making a reservation, each site on the left of the road are NOT reservable. All sites on the right AREvreservable. However, if you want to reserve a site, I highly suggest you do it very early in the season, esp. if you are including a weekend. Depending on how busy check in is at the time you show up without a reservation (again, only for non reservable sites), they sometimes will let you drive around and pick out a site from the left when entering loop, then come back to gate and pay. You will see reserved signs on every reservable site whether anyone is actually in them that night or not. It saves a lot of trouble for all concerned by not letting you pick a site you THINK you can have by not understanding their system. On to the review: I have camped at Hardin Ridge since the 70s. I have tent camped in regular primitive, hike-in, and in electic with a camper. All the sites are large and well-shaded with tables and fire pits/grates. The grounds are kept very clean, as well as the shower rooms, bathrooms, and vault toilets. There are many electric, some electric/water, and a few full hook up. Water spigots are heavily spread throughout each loop. Also, there are the RV water spigots avail along the lanes in some of the loops in case you want to fill tanks before parking at site without it's own water. The camp hosts have always been great to me and since I usually camp alone, someone checks on me each day. That includes when I pick the most secluded hike in spot. They have never been intrusive. They do expect every rule to be followed at all times and will tell you to pack up and leave if you are an asshole about noise, dogs, etc. There are at least one pair, some two, camphost pairs in each loop. While the campground is not a rest home by any means, it is not a party place such as Allens Creek or Paynetown campgrounds that share the same lake (Monroe). Some of the loops do not allow generators and or have restricted hours of usage. The is a small beach, boat launch, multiple small playgrounds, and an ampitheater, but there is no campstore. It is about 11 miles to the nearest small baitshop/store/gas pump. There is ice and wood for sale at the gate.

This campground is huge. They are family owned and at first glance seem a little dingy or that they have a lack of care but this is not the case. They are very laid back and allow their campers to enjoy their experience as they wish to enjoy it whether that is long term or short term. They do have certain rules like every other campground but as long as you bide by those rules it's a very relaxed environment with very friendly staff and campers. If you are looking for a clean polished luxury campground, this is not the campground for you. But we like a little dirt so it suits us just fine.

We followed our RV GPS into the quaint city of Franklin and turned right off of Jefferson Street onto Fairgrounds Street that leads a short distance to the gate. Waze wanted us to continue on King Street coming in from I-65, but there is a sign that says no trucks and the street is not RV friendly. Our RV GPS had us going the right direction to get to Jefferson Street. As we had made reservations on the day of arrival we were texted by the fairgrounds camp host asking for an estimated arrival time. The camp host site is right at the entrance of the campground (CG) area. As they only take cash or check, we paid the host upon arrival and the host walked us over to show us the site they selected for us. Upon arriving at back-in site 34 with FHUs and 50 AMP, we asked if we could change to the adjacent 30 AMP area, so we could have some space and yard. The camp host said that due to the age of the wiring they do not allow 50 to 30 AMP adapters. However, a 5th wheel came in a day later and hooked into 30 AMP with an adapter. The CG has poor site and utility placement with multiple sites sharing water. The sites back up to each other and the utilities are down the middle. There isn't dedicated site utilities like the majority of CGs, you just pick the water and electric that happens to be open and is closest to you. There are no picnic tables nor fire pits. Be sure to have plenty of water hose(we needed 50’) to reach a spigot. Our area had full timers and short stayers. There was another site area across the field that was either long term or seasonal with decent spacing but we weren't offered any of the empty 50 AMP spots and no one else was put in that area. Wifi was very useable for checking mail, Facebook, and such. Water pressure was good. We got 3 bars on Verizon. With an unobstructed view of the northern sky we used our Starlink. There’s plenty of area to walk your dog inside the fenced fairground areas. The next time we are in the area, we’ll pass on this CG.

Our first time camping at a KOA. Nice and shaded sites with full hookups. Clean bathrooms and showers. Nice laundromat. Staff was very friendly. Was a little pricey but with water electric sewer and cable hookups and a laundromat. Definitely worth the price. And the town of Nashville Indiana is about 10 minutes away with lots of neat shops and food. We had a great time.

This is our second time staying at this park. The first time it was at the end of the season so I figured I would at least give it a second try. This is a 3.5 rating in my opinion but it has to be a 3 or 4 star. Awesome host, very attentive, pleasant, polite and helpful. She is everywhere and doing everything. The campgrounds have several sites in multiple sections. I love the large fire pits. There is plenty for the children to do, basketball court included the 13 year old rated it 4 5 and stated a pretty nice playground. There are sever beanbag toss games. I believe you have to bring your own bags. I wish there was a little more effort put into the grounds themselves. Gravel on the drives going to the sites, hay/straw for areas where mud is present, fill in some of the standing water sites and have a few more full hook up pull through sites. Also, I was not happy with the location of my firepit, I felt like we were right outside our neighbors window. It was too far from the site itself and too close to the road. We had a wonderful time while we were here and this was our second visit. I was happy there were sites for all 6 families in a short time period.

Very nice place! Hiking, fishing, kayaking, and horse riding trails. It is located just a few minutes from Brown County State park and Nashville In. There is a few RV sites (9 or 10) mostly tent camping sites. There is water available and outhouses, there is a dump station for RVs. I would have given 5 stars, but need some more sites for RVs (some of the sites are not real level). There is NO reservation.

Sites for rvs are concrete and you will need to level some on all of them. They have electric and water. Reasonable prices. Our only complaint is you can’t get near the water to fish anywhere by the lake due to the weeds.

Starve Hollow offers camping from full hookup, electric only (by the lake), tent camping, and cabins.  The lake has a swimming area (no lifeguards), playgrounds, and bathhouse.  The lake allows boats with electric trolling motor only. 

We stayed in the full hookup section (camping facilities: electric, sewer, and water hookup as well as fire ring, picnic table, and parking spur at each site. Modern restrooms/showers(wheelchair accessible) are available nearby. 53 sites available, sites 222, 232, and 234 are wheelchair accessible).  The bathhouse was clean (even though it rained most of the weekend).  these sites are a good size and able to get any size Trailer or RV into these sites.  There is mostly grass on most of the sites in this area.

The campground also offers electric only sites (camping facilities: electric hookup, fire ring, picnic table and parking spur at each site. Drinking water is available in area. Modern restrooms/showers(wheelchair accessible) are available nearby. Dumping station is available. There are 87 sites available. Sites 28, 44, 65, 75 and 90 are wheelchair accessible).  They have about 20 sites that back up right to the lake allowing fishing from your campsite.  Keep in mind that a lot of the electric only sites are very tight with a lot of trees in the area.  I can probably only get my 36 ft 5th wheel into a third of the sites, but there are many of sites that had shorter units on them.   

Cabins:  Starve Hollow has 13 rent-a-camp cabins available March-Nov.(closed Dec.-Feb.)(NOTE: Local sales only during off season/winter months, contact property for details). Each cabin has a front porch with a swing, outside electric outlet and front porch light. Inside there are two small rooms each providing a ceiling fan with light, a heating/cooling unit and electrical outlets. The front room offers a small table with bench seats, corner shelf, chair, rocking chair, and a loft. The back room offers a bunk bed(single) and a double bed(NO LINENS or MATTRESS PROVIDED). Air mattress recommended.

Fishing/Boating Starve-Hollow Lake has three boat ramps to choose from, one at the dam and two in the electric campground. Kayak, rowboat and canoe rental is available. A valid Indiana fishing license is required. Rowboat and canoe rental is available from mid April through October. Starve-Hollow Lake is a trolling motor only lake. For campers a fish cleaning station is available.

Swimming A large beach is available for swimming from the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. Restrooms, dressing facilities, showers, and food concessions are available to visitors. Wheelchair ramps allow access to beach and concession area.

Picnicking There are picnic areas and picnic shelters that can be reserved. Both shelters can be accessed by wheelchair. The East shelter has an electrical outlet. Picnic tables and grills are located at the picnic sites. A wheelchair accessible playground, basketball goals, softball fields, horseshoe pits and a sand volleyball court are located on or near the swimming beach.

Hiking Trails Starve Hollow has several hiking trails to explore that total approximately 11 miles.