Best Glamping near Orange City, IA

Glamping Reviews near Orange City, IA

132 Reviews of 8 Orange City Campgrounds

• 

  Carolyn M.

  Guide

  Oct. 23, 2019

  Big Sioux Recreation Area — Big Sioux

  Ok place to spend the night, but could have been better

  I spent the night here and had to pay the entrance fee to the park as well as the camping fee for my tentsite. They had only a few tentsites available amid all the RV sites, but they were right on the edge of the playground, so the families had to walk right through my campsite to get to the play area. Not too big a deal as no one wanted to use the play area at night while I was sleeping, but still.  I also looked over at the power lines. There was a flush toilet facility close by but there was a very bright light on all night. Good for families needing to navigate in the dark but not wonderful if you like sleeping in darkness. And though I was told that quiet hours began at 10PM, the site next to me was quite loud through the trees until at least midnight so the quiet hours are not enforced. Meh. I don't think I'll be going back.

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• L

  Lisa D.

  Traveler

  Jun. 28, 2018

  Blue Mounds State Park Campground

  No water and biting flies

  This campground is still charging $17 for a camp site, $7 transaction fee and $7/day entrance fee despite the fact they have no running water. The toilets still flush. In the morning our car filled up with flies that bit us for hours before we were able to eliminate all of them. It is a 5 mile drive back to Luverne if you need supplies, and I was unable to locate a grocery store.

  Two good things; they have a Free Little Library and at night the lawn was covered with fireflies

  The campground was so miserable that the campground host had abandoned their trailer and was never present. We did have several locals drive through the campground to spy on us, presumably to see who was stupid enough to camp there. You are entirely responsible for knowing what site you reserved because there was no attempt to label reserves sites.

  There is no privacy between sites. This is just a big lawn with driveways, picnic tables and fire pits. The landscaping is nicely done with blackberries popping out of some hedges and providing eye-level interest at the base of trees.

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• T

  Tyson K.

  Traveler

  Sep. 26, 2025

  Big Sioux Recreation Area — Big Sioux

  Another overnight stop.

  Just another overnight stop on my drive to Iowa. I spent the night in a non-electric tent site so I can't really comment on the other parts of the campground. It does have nice bathrooms with running water and showers. The non-e tent sites are in a forested section, all shaded. Sites include picnic tables and fire rings. Sites are located a very short walk from the designated parking. I had a great night's sleep as it was relatively quiet. I didn't partake but they do have a Frisbee golf course. Took a short walk on their trail system to the suspension walking bridge. My complaint would be the fees. I thought i was paying one fee for the non-e tent site but then there was an additional fee for non-res and another fee for park day use fee or permit. This fee was confusing whether I was supposed to pay this or not. So what looked like a small fee to spend the night turned into much more.

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• 

  Tara S.

  Legend

  Jul. 26, 2019

  Blue Mounds State Park Campground

  Quiet little oasis in the middle of the Minnesota prairie

  This was a drive-by site for us and not a destination, so our review is based on only one night. We found the park to be very quiet and only had a few camping neighbors during our stay. It seems like it might be a destination for retired RVers, as everyone seemed to know each other well, which was fun. 

  Highlights include nice, easy trails through the prairie, lots of wildflowers, and a herd of bison. We only saw the bison from a distance, but apparently, there are tours. We experienced lots of bugs in early July - biting flies and mosquitoes, and there was a constant humming noise from a nearby farm that really detracted from our experience. 

  Otherwise, the campground was really peaceful and the bathhouse was clean. We arrived around 4:30 pm and the office was closed. We didn't see a single park employee or campground host during our visit. 

  We checked out the tipis, which looked really fun, but with all the flies, we opted for setting up our tents to keep them out. We'd totally stay here again, but we probably wouldn't go out of the way to visit.

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• 

  Krista T.

  Legend

  Jul. 17, 2018

  Blue Mounds State Park Campground

  Unexpectedly amazing

  Last August we headed to Blue Mounds to investigate out the SW corner of our state for the first time. We swung through New Ulm on the way there to check out the Schell's brewing company and we also stopped at Laura Ingalls Wilder's Plum Creek to break up the drive from the twin cities. The drive itself got pretty boring on the last half- lots of flat fields and cows. As you get closer to Luverne things start to become more interesting and the town of Luverne itself was an unexpected delight.

  Yes, the water currently has e.coli in it. There is a huge alert on the park's page explaining how you can go about accessing water and showers nearby. The $17 rate is the discounted price to reflect the e. coli discount. The main campground is pretty open, some sites have shade, it is a prairie after all. The cart-in campsite offers much more privacy with the grove of trees there. The bathroom facility at the drive-in campground is much nicer than the one for the tipis and cart-in sites.

  We spent one night in the tipi (cool experience for $30-$35 a night) and two nights at a cart-in site w-09. Some of the paths to the cart-in sites are not flat and rather long, but ours wasn't bad at all. I would definitely consider staying at that campsite again. I don't think I would necessarily stay in a tipi again unless I could book it on short notice if I knew that the weather was going to be dry and cool. The day before we got there it had rained quit a bit and when we arrived it was HOT. This meant that we got to enjoy our tipi experience with the aroma of hot wet tipi. The tipi floor is a platform made out of manufactured deck boards that keep you off the ground. The tipi itself isn't nearly as critter-proof as a tent. We wound up packing up our belongings and putting them in our car between leaving the tipi and moving into our campsite since we wanted to go check out the local area before we could check into our next site and somehow a garter snake got transported out of the tipi in our belongings and into our car- awesome haha.

  The park was flooded a few years back which washed out a quite a bit- the lake that used to be there is now gone and just overgrown with plants. Most of the park is dedicated to the bison, so hiking opportunities are kind of limited. There are a ton of bison, but you either get to see them or you don't unless you go on one of their bison tours. They were present by the fence twice while we were there. There is pretty much a large trail loop with another large loop that swings off of that. Bring a wide-brimmed hat and tons of sun screen, not much tree cover on the trails. The one visitor center located in the southern portion of the park appeared to be permanently closed.

  Luverne was cool. There are tons of historic houses and next time I'm out there I'll spend some time driving through neighborhoods to check them out. There is a basic grocery store off of Main Street for anything that you may need to pick up. I kind of wish that we had gone out to eat in town more because of how great the food was. Sterling's was delicious and much more upscale than anything I expected to find out there, the local Buffalo Sweat beer was great enough that I tried to find it at the local liquor store before I left. Showers are available at the Luverne aquatic center for free.

  Overall I really enjoyed my experience and I look forward to my next trip out there, whenever that may be. If you are coming from the Twin Cities make sure to hit up Schells and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Plum Creek homestead like I mentioned above. Nearby side trips are Pipestone, Touch the Sky prairie, and Jeffers Petroglyphs

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• 

  Kris H.

  Traveler

  Jul. 24, 2019

  Scenic Park

  very friendly

  Scenic park is across the Missouri river from Sioux City,  Iowa.  It is easy to get to. Very friendly staff.  Restrooms are kept clean.  It is a large campground with several different restrooms with showers.  There is a number of permanent campsites, there is also some that can be reserved.  Some are also pull thru's. Ice and firewood are available on site.  There  is a separate area available for tents. With it being  on the edge of South Sioux City, Ne and across the river from Sioux City, Ia. there is lots of shopping options close by.  It can also be reserved for groups, with a shelter available for use.  There are some sunny spots and also spots with lots of shade.  I really like this campground!

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• 

  Emily C.

  Ranger

  Jun. 19, 2020

  Sioux City North KOA

  Very fun

  A tent site was $40 with no electricity so it’s more pricy then other sites but they have a ton of things to do. Checkers, chess, swings, play set, mini golf, inflatable bouncy blog, pool, and more. They had a gift shop with anything you needed to buy. The bathrooms were very nice and clean but did smell a bit. They had electricity/ wall outlets in the bathrooms. The highway is very close so you do hear cars. Privacy fences around the site to block out the neighborhood. Very nice staff!

• 

  Stephanie B.

  Guide

  Jun. 28, 2020

  Blue Mounds State Park Campground

  Very well maintained park

  The campground is smaller but it is very well maintained. New bath house. They have done a lot to make this park accessible. Grassy sites, some better positioned than others. Very good shade. Some random placement for trash bins but I’d rather have too many than not enough.

  There are lots of hiking trails with options for lots of distances. It was cool to see the Bison (from the west loop). The dam is pretty as well.

• M

  Marie B.

  Guide

  Jun. 18, 2022

  Big Sioux Recreation Area — Big Sioux

  Clean and Dog Friendly

  Such a nice campground. Nice big shady trees and manicured lawns. They sell campfire wood for 6$ a bundle on site so we had some great campfires going. They have nice long paved trails for walking and biking. We got to walk our dogs on it to avoid tick contact from the grassy trails. There was a cool suspension bridge that was fun to walk on. The showers were very nice and hot without a lot of traffic. 

  There is no sewage hookup or water hook ups. They do that 50/30 amp sites available. There is a dump station right at the entrance to dump when you leave and it also has a separate fresh water station if you want to fill up right when you get there so youre not traveling with a bunch of water in your tank. 

  It was a great campground and the falls were close by and palisades state park was also in the area with a nice hike. 

  There is an extra $8 car fee per night that you have to pay on top of any camping fees. If you are staying longer than 5 days it better to just get the annual parking pass for $32, which would cover parking for all state parks and recreation areas in SD. 

  They have great discounts if you are a veteran and south dakota resident.

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