Best Glamping near Erie, MI

We've camped at Maumee Bay State Park twice and enjoyed it both times.  The campground is part of a larger resort complex that includes a hotel, marina, a nice beach on Lake Erie, a second beach on an inland lake, golf course, mowed hiking trails and - our favorite - about 5 miles of beautiful, paved bike paths.  It's all very clean and well maintained.  The whole place has a welcoming, friendly vibe.

We camped on site 47, electric only.  Very level and spacious paved spot with its own shade tree.  Nearby shower house accessible by well-lit paved path.  Our only problem was a bit of water puddling near the camper/fire pit but it went away after the first night.  

The campground is spread out so everyone brings bicycles and also saw a few golf carts.  Very nice for family bicycling!  Saw lots of wildlife on our rides.

The surrounding area is kind of industrial.  We toured it the first year we went (very interesting!) but stayed close to camp this year.

Absolutely beautiful RV park! Gorgeous views of Lake Erie and walking distance to the gate of Cedar Point. Beautiful landscaping and very clean. Staff is incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. Good little camp store with reasonable(ish) prices. Too chilly to swim but the pool looks nice. Bathhouses are updated, clean and very nice, but pretty far from about half of the sites. One section has premium sites with upgraded grills and fire pits and crazy good lake views. The regular sites are still well landscaped and each have a grill and an extra long picnic table, but no fire pit. You can bring your own fire pit if your site doesn't have one. No bikes or golf carts allowed on the grounds, but there are Cedar Point buses available day & night as well as rickshaws during the day. Until now I have held Disney World's Fort Wilderness as the penultimate place for camping but they could learn a few things from Cedar Point! We stayed five nights in a pull through sites, #231. I would love to snag a premium site for our next trip but it may be difficult because they allow you to book up five years in advance!

This is a typical fairground campground with open grassy areas for campsites surrounded by barns and tracks. The fairgrounds is located just off I-94 which makes for easy entrance and exit to the campground, but, means there is lots of road noise. Close by are plenty of stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc. In fact, there is a gap in the fence that runs around the fairgrounds allowing you to walk to a Walmart, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and more. 

We arrived without a reservation and the women in the office was very helpful providing a map with all available sites during our stay and letting us choose which one we wanted. One of the first things you notice is that a number of people are here long-term so we went to the back area hoping it would be quieter and less crowded. A number of the campsites are “buddy” sites meaning your patio opens to your neighbors so be careful which one you pick. This is pretty undesirable when the neighbor is a total stranger so we chose a site where we didn’t have anyone next to us. 

They offer 50 amp full hook-up sites, 50 amp/water, and 30 amp/water sites with pull-thru and back-in options. There is a dump station located in the middle of the park which is easy to get to. The roads are wide and a lack of trees makes this campground accessible for any size RV. The sites are level but some lack grassy making the patio pretty dusty or muddy. Unfortunately, where we were was pretty muddy just after a light rain. This campground works best for RV’s and not tents. For tenters there is a designated section that is set in a corner of the park with large trees for shade but not much privacy between you and others. A water spigot is in the tent area and there was one picnic table. The camp office sells firewood but we only saw two fire pits in the whole park. Be aware that noise from the interstate and nearby train tracks may make for a restless night. Bathrooms are centrally located in the campground and were old and tired but relatively clean. On-site laundry is available.

Apparently, management is having some issues with campers not obeying some of the rules. One of the sad things about this campground is that campers have to be reminded to clean up after their dogs. Apparently, it is such an issue that we got a letter stating that if you don’t pick up your dogs poop you would be asked to leave. How sad is that? There is free WiFi which worked pretty well. Upon checking in, we had to sign a piece of paper stating that we would not download copyrighted material or stream movies or we would be asked to leave. 

My favorite aspect of this campground is that they had a community garden that you were welcome to pick from. We got tomatoes, Swiss chard, peppers, broccoli, and more. Overall, this campground was fine for the few nights we were here and close to the attractions we wanted to visit. We never felt unsafe even though it was close to major cities. We chose this campground because we wanted to go to Ann Arbor and Dearborn and it was a very convenient location.

Pros:

·        Good location if you want to visit Ann Arbor and Dearborn

·        Close to interstate for easy access

·        Long, level sites that will fit any RV

·        Community garden you can pick from vegetables

·        Stores and restaurants are nearby (some within walking distance)

Cons:

·        Lots of road noise from I-94

·        No trees for shade or privacy

·        Would not recommend for tent camping

·        Many campers are long-term

·        “Buddy” campsites with patios facing each other

There is so much structure and order to this campground! The grounds are laid out so nicely! One big circle with cross roads all along the way. You can camp however you'd like too! They have RV sites, tent sites and cabins. All mixed in together so you can travel with all your favorite campers. They do breakfast every morning in the front pavilion for $4.50 (all you can eat pancakes, 1 sausage and coffee) I haven't tried it yet, but its certainly popular. Laundry is open 24 hours a day and in an open area. Not the biggest fan of that due to needing to do laundry in the rain. Bathrooms are clean and standard. Row of toilet stalls and showers in a separate room. They have a stellar playground area, I don't have kids but even I was drawn to wanting to play on it. Very pet friendly around here. Close to downtown, near Cedar Point and all the other attractions over here. They have 2 pools, one being heated. We haven't had a bad rain storm while we're here but you can tell by the ground of our spot its going to be bad and super muddy. All in all this campground is pretty awesome.