Best Glamping near Whately, MA

For some, the strange people who haunt certain grounds are a plus. For the rest of us, they are just a regular feature of the land west of the great Massassippi River. Anyway, being some of the first people to hit a campground like this one early in the season certainly has it’s benefits. For one, the bathrooms are cleeean as hail, and this place is really well-appointed. Pooping in relative comfort basically makes this glamping. They even have a big ole nice sink to wash your dirty dishes (and whatever other unmentionables, if you nasty), clean water spigots, RV sites with hookups, plenty of wood for sale, forage, or barter, and flat campgrounds with concrete fire pits with built in grill grates and wooden picnic tables. All amenities are within close walking distance, which is also a plus. The trails in October Mountain State Forest are very pretty, with some grand vistas to pull over if you’re some sort of nature pervert or lookie loo. Good fishin’ and mushroom hunting and other things white folks like to do in these parts, too.

Now let’s get to the cons:

bugs- this place, at the end of May is positively swarming with mosquitoes and gnats, even in the 2 rainy and cold-ass nights we spent there, the flies were everpresent. It’s Hitchcockian; and I don’t want to make any accusations or cast aspersions, but these insects are prejudiced, at best.

massholes- these are a given. I’m one so I know.

rangers- because this is a state park, you will have ranger patrols consisting of, um, rangers, some of whom might be more interested in what’s in your coozie than others, because, you know, rules. That said, we had no enforcement issues, but then again the camp ground was empty. Otherwise, unless you’ve got one of the few yurts onthe property, the campsites aren’t far enough apart that you ever really feel secluded. They’re not too bad, though, plenty of room.

This place, overall, is a good time if it’s not below 60 and wet.

Beautiful area to hike. Quiet off the beaten path. There are 3 yurts available May-October (no dogs allowed in the yurts☹️. There are several tent sits available. Dogs are welcomed here! Every site has a fire pit and a picnic table.Highly recommend staying here if you are in the area!

Absolutely beautiful! Highly recommend renting a yurt while staying at October Mnt. Clean and super comfortable

Stayed on an rv site for 1 week this past summer. Had a great time, kids had a blast with the boat rentals and fishing.
Saw they have 2 yurts for rent as well.

Staff was incredibly freindly and gave us restaurant recommendations around the area.
About 5 min from great hiking at purgatory chasm.

This is a smaller campground with a few loops of campsites. The sites that are near the small pond are generally larger and have better space for pitching a tent. The sites on the first two loops/spur roads are smaller and most of them are designated for tents only or tents/popups. Site 33 is large and level, suitable for an RV, but Group B site is right behind it, which may or may not be an issue.  Group A & C sites are also in the first two loops.

65, 67, 68 are walk-in sites, with the tent area lower, closer to the water.  At the top of the hill, there are several yurts available.

Dump station and additional swimming/water activities are a little farther down the road at Lake Dennison .

This is a great campground located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts on walker pond. Brand new bathroom/shower facility this year. Offers hiking, biking, swimming, fishing. Nice and quiet also. Highly recommend

This campground is clean and well kept. Lots of families here. Swimming in a pond or a short drive to a bigger lake (camping pass covers both). One of my favorites. It's kind of a hidden gem in north central Massachusetts.

It cost me $52 because I am not a Massachusetts resident, per night. I got site number one you can hear the hum of the electric station. The Ranger said he doesn’t even notice it anymore. The trails are pretty it’s Labor Day weekend I’m lucky to have a spot. Would not recommend it.

I tent camped here in night while exploring the fishing in Western Massachusetts.

The campsite was peaceful and quiet and mostly tucked into the hillside.

I did see the electrical station at the entrance but the sound didn’t reach where I was staying at site 33. To avoid that sound, I would suggest sites further up the road.

The sites offered medium privacy. Site 33 was built into a slope in the hill, so it required walking up a short set of stairs, but the tent site was level.

I didn’t explore the hiking trails but it seems very convenient that you could leave into the trails right from the campground.

For any fly fishing folks, this campground is very close to the Housatonic (catch and release only!)

Beautiful campground in a nice central location nearby several nice towns in Central Massachusetts. The hiking is some of the best I have seen from a campground in the area, with a huge system of trails which are all very well marked. These trails vary greatly in terms of difficulty, a few of the trails are doable in less than 15 minutes if you maintain a quick pace. The harder trails, including the one going up to Carpenter's Rocks are more strenuous and feature a good amount of elevation gain, rocky terrain, and very worthwhile views for the trouble.

Not usually too busy on the trails, though expect hordes of people at the parking lot especially during the warmer months. Firewood is easily available, if a bit pricey, and the tent sites are generously sized with plenty of room for multiple shelters. Have spotted beavers deep into some of the water-adjacent trails, as well as many species of birds.

Definitely give this one a try if you're in the area. Rental fees for the tent sites are very reasonable, and it's worthwhile to come for the trails and views alone.

I’m more of a quite, in-the-middle-of-nowhere kind of camper, so I tend to shy away from commercial campgrounds, but it was easier for me to commute from the KOA than from home when work was crazy because of COVID and I stayed for a few months- July til October. It is a nice campground, no complaints. I was in the seasonal section, which has some interesting folks staying there. The site was very nice and felt private. I like the reliability of KOAs, and I pretty know what I’m going to get when I book.

We have been here multiple times and we can never disappoint. This KOA is the middle of the tiers of KOA, this is a holiday. Many things to do with children and without, today we did tie dying People Rode On a hey list hayride plus a old-fashioned firetruck. The workers and owners of this KOA are courteous and professional we will always return.

Staff was very nice, adequate amenities. Very little privacy between campsites even in wooded areas. A smaller operation with a high percentage of seasonal residents. They do seem to offer some interesting activities for kids with weekend fire engine rides, a gem panning center, seemingly well maintained playground/pool and a small haunted house for October. Not fancy but very functional and a convenient location for us, we will visit again.

We love this KOA! I recommend if you were in the area to stop here and spend some time with Michael and his staff. There are plenty activities for everybody. They have a fire truck ride that brings you around the campsite and hay-less rides. There is a pool there is a playground there are games of all ages. If you’re in the area I recommend to stay they have 10 sites up to the large rigs with full hook ups.

A group of Coworkers and I went hiking on 7/31 at Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area, very easy phase, great area

We stayed here for one night en route to Cape Cod. Although we had requested a specific site on the KOA website, the gentleman in the front office had arranged for us to park in an easily accessible pull-through site, right at the entrance. We really didn't want that particular site, and although he advised against the tricky back-in site 'up on the hill' that we had originally selected, we thought we would at least give it a shot! We are SO glad that we did!

We went to this campground during fall foliage time. Very peaceful and very great staff. They had hayless rides and fire truck rides. This time they had a haunted house walk through.

We were able to book site 112 at the last minute and the staff waited for us to arrive. Although they were very friendly, they dropped the ball when it came to cleanliness and park security. We had other campers arrive back at their tent sites across from ours at 11pm and they were inconsiderate of all the sleeping campers with their lights already out. After Midnight I called the office and emergency line but got only the office answering machine. There was a host in a site 2 down from the party and nobody came to address the noise. I had to go and ask them to quiet down twice and lower their spotlight they were using to cook with. They stayed up (about 15 of them) til after 2am. I did email the owner and let him know the situation so I was able to contact someone about it, and he was going to check into it and where the ball was dropped by the staff not patrolling the campground like he said it was supposed to be. We had water and a 15 amp power box at our site and it was great for a tent but not for anything else. The sites are very close together. If you have kids, they have a lot of things for them to do, but when you want to get sleep, it wasn’t the beat place to stop.

My husband I camped here for a weekend getaway and we wanted hookups being it was Columbus Day Weekend. This is a parking lot with grass. The Men’s room was so disgusting that my husband refused to use it, actually he couldn’t ( there is a camper who is a dirty bird) which is not a good first impression. This is a residential park with older travel trailer residences. There was a nice back field area. The shower houses and toilets are very dated. I like to proximity to the city of North Hampton. We had great meals in town. The staff here is great, the other campers were nice. They had a Halloween/trick or treat night, fire truck rides it’s very kid friendly. We didn’t like being right on top the other rvs, our sewer pipe was in front of my neighbors picnic table. There was 30/50 amps, water and electric and WiFi! This campground is “in the country” plenty is sightseeing and hiking opportunities in the area.

I’ve gone here 3 times in 2 years and my kids love it can’t wait to go bAck I hear they built a mini golf course

Quiet (besides occasional plane overhead) lots of trees, spacious sites, clean and modern bathrooms and showers, nice friendly helpful staff.