Best Glamping near Mancelona, MI

I've been there several times.  This campground has been around a long time and is well known by motorcyclists in Michigan.  It's located behind their motorcycle repair shop.  It's not a fancy campground, but it is a bargain at $10.  The northern loop has electric outlets.  The southern loop is rustic camping (groups usually camp there).  Restrooms, showers and a pavilion.  Pay the $10 at their shop.  If the shop is closed either someone will come around or you can settle up in the morning.  Firewood available on site.  Village is 1.5 miles away to get supplies.

We stayed for a quick overnight and wish we could have stayed longer. If we stayed again - we’d pick site 101. Little more privacy than the rest. We stayed at 137 which backed up to the woods which was lovely. This is a very bustling and full campground with lots of groups and families. Lot’s of kids on bikes. We were surprised to see a group with a full bar right out front on their site. We’re used to Texas parks where that would NOT fly😆 But everyone respected the quiet hours so we had no noise issues at night. Easy access to the water from everywhere thanks to groomed paths. Nice long but narrow sandy beach great for the kids to swim. Busy but very fun place to camp!

This park has some strong positives that outweigh the negatives so depending on what really annoys you about a campground determines whether you may or may not like this place. The park is run by the City of Petoskey and sits on 21 acres in downtown Petoskey overlooking Lake Michigan.  Petoskey has a really cool downtown with great restaurants (we liked Beard’s Brewery, Palette Bistro, and Grand Traverse Pie Company), shopping, a free art center (Crooked Tree), parks, and a pretty marina with a scenic breakwater lighthouse. If you have never been to this part of Michigan, you should definitely come for a visit. 

The campground is very popular because of the price and location with about 1/3 of the park occupied by seasonal or monthly rentals of people that have been coming for many years.  There are 71 sites which can be used for RVs or tents.  Roads are paved and sites are grass/sand. There are fire pits and picnic tables at each site and a nice large grassy area in the front of the park near Lake Michigan with multiple picnic tables in a common space. 

There are many positive attributes of this park. The location of this park could not be better and the price of $30/night (water, sewer, 30 amp electric; $28 for electric and water only) is a great deal. (Especially because other private campgrounds in the area are easily $60+/night in the summer season.) They have free wifi that worked well and we were able to get over-the-air antenna television channels. You are really in a prime location with Lake Michigan in front of you. Many of the sites in this park have a great view of the lake (especially sites 1-16). Running through the park is the Little Traverse Wheelway which is a paved bike path spanning from the cute towns of Charlevoix to Harbor Springs. (If you don’t have a bike with you there are plenty of rental places nearby.)  

Now for the negatives. The bathroom/shower houses are old and tired but were clean. The park sits between a hospital and water treatment plant, one of which can be smelly on warm days the other of which has a very loud HVAC system generating lots of noise. The park is located close to the busy road M-31 so there is a bit of road noise. The sites are very close together so there is not much privacy. The park is open to day-use and has a heavily used bike path running right through it so there are lots of people coming and going.

This KOA is just south of Traverse City and very centrally located to all that makes this area so awesome! Wineries, Sleep Bear Dunes, golf courses, and of course downtown Traverse City. This campground is very well laid out and easy to maneuver any size rig. The front part of the campground is very well shaded, however, many sites are only a few feet away from M37, which can get noisy from the traffic. The back half of the campground is a little more open, but most sites are still partially shaded. The owners and staff are very friendly and accommodating. Fire wood and ice are available and they will deliver right to your site. As the caption says, great family campground. If you have kids, this is the place for you! With that being said, here is why I gave a four star rating.....we were asked promptly at 10pm to turn our music off, which wasn’t loud at all. Beyond our campsite it could not be heard at all. They have what they call a strict 10pm-8am quiet hours. At 7am there were at least 8-10 kids riding bikes and scooters all over the campground and nothing was said. I appreciate a them having policies and creating a place for families to make memories, but please enforce those policies for everyone. Oh, and one last thing....they are very pet friendly! I have never seen a campground with so many dogs! Ours had a blast!

While it was pricey at $65 night, we had a very spacious full hookup site within easy walking distance of pool. Shower house was very nice and modern, with 4 shower stalls. Full coin laundry was helpful too! They had kids activities over the 4thof July weekend, and our kid loved it. The KOA is about a 5 min drive to Otsego Lake and the state park, where there's a nice beach and easy lake access. There's also a newly paved bike trail right by the lake for you to log some miles on. Nearby towns of Gaylord and Boyne provided us with plenty to do, and only a couple hours to get to Sleeping Bear sand dunes. We thought this place was worth the expense- big, flat, level sites with fire pit and full hook up. Nice pine trees and plenty of space for kids to play. Did not like the additional fee for kid to get wrist band for jump pillow and mini gold, but did it anyways.