Best RV Parks & Resorts near Elwood, NJ

Not Much of a ‘Resort’

We stayed at Shady Pines MH& RV Resort for a one-night getaway just for the camping experience. 

The park was easy to find and located just under 3-miles from the Garden State Parkway. 

The front office staff person was polite and prepared for our arrival. 

I reserved this site using Campspot. The rate was$65 plus$23 in fees for a total of$88 for one night. 

Even though I provided accurate dimensions for our motorhome, the site was inadequately sized to accommodate the full length. The much bigger problem was that it sloped so much it was impossible to level. I didn’t have enough blocks to prop up the leveling jacks enough to level the RV. I called the front office and was given another site to try. That didn’t work any better. I called back and was given a third site which was the worst so far. Then, at the fourth attempt we could get level. The site was still on a decline, but not as bad as the other three. 

Our site (#71) was too short for our 37’ motorhome. I made it fit, but measured just 3-inches of air between the back of my RV and the back of our neighbor’s RV. Three inches! The site had not been checked since its last guests left because there was refuse(used bandages, a used propane canister, etc.) that should have been cleaned prior to check-in by new guests. The water, 50-amp electric, and sewer hookups worked fine.

Other than a small swimming pool and a small fenced area for dogs, there were no amenities.

In speaking with our neighbor, it became apparent that there are several people working on assignment for a nearby decommissioned nuclear power plant who live at this campground. Shady Pines caters to long-term and year-round guests as well as manufactured homes/trailers that are permanent. We were the only motorhome in the entire park. This is ok, but a sign that while this place suits their needs, it doesn’t do much to attract couples and families on overnight trips and vacations.

Due to the sloped and not-so-clean sites, lack of amenities, and full-price rate charged, we won’t be back.

This is our first stay at this Thousand Trails resort.

We had a reservation that we made using the App. The app did not allow us to book a stay starting on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday so we checked in on Sunday. The reason i mention this is that when set up in our site our neighbor told us that there were plenty of empty sites all the previous week - he stays here frequently and recommended calling rather than using the Thousand Trails app.

Next note - the resort did not reserve a particular site and suggested that we drive around and select the one we liked. That was ok and we got a nice level site with a concrete pad under the picnic table. Partially shaded. Consideration - As we have a class B unit we will be in and out of the site - we needed some way to designate that the site was taken if we went out. The resort did not plan for this ( see later note ) but they did come out and give us a length of caution tape to us to block the site.

This is a fairly large place. The sites are clean but small. Far and away this resort is used by seasonal and cabin campers. They only have a few ( maybe 25 or so) transient sites which they seem to allocate on on a first come first serve basis. If you have a class b and plan to go in an out i recommend you bring some sort of indicator to mark your site as occupied.

We came in late September so the pool was closed but the lake side beach was still open. The beach was clean and had beach chairs.

The camp store has limited offerings, was not open on Mon and Tue, and closed at 4. This may have been because we were late in the season.

We stayed two nights at this park because we wanted to spend a day at Six flags. Check in process was painless and the woman at the front desk was super nice and helpful. Many campers here are seasonal or long term stays and were very quiet and respectful. We had a bad luck of the draw being next to a very loud, inebriated family with unruly dogs but luckily they only were there the one night. Once they left, the atmosphere changed and we really enjoyed our stay. We would camp here again to go to six flags because it was easy to drive back a few minutes after a long day at the park. We had full hookup access with no issues as well.

We weren't sure about this campground. We booked through Thousand Trails and you can't reserve sites. Our trailer is 37 feet long, so there is always the concern we won't find any sites will fit in (we actually cancelled the membership for this reason). While we didn't have a problem finding sites, the first night we stayed our neighbors were partying late into the night- not good when we have two young children with us. We moved the next morning and our next site was wonderful- much larger and quieter. The girls loved swimming in the lake and the pool. We were only a short drive from the beach, as well. It was a very nice campground.

We stayed in the small tent loop at this private, primarily RV resort. First, the good stuff: The tent loop was empty for our 5 night stay with the exception of night 1. We were at site F17.

Bathrooms were cleaned multiple times each day, showers were warm.

There is a laundry facility. It's about $6 to wash and dry a load. There is no change machine that we could find.

If you have kids that are aged 6 and up, they are going to love this place.

Staff were nice and made several trips to the tent loop to make sure all was well.

Electric hookups at every site!

Baby turtles were hatching when we arrived.

And now the stuff we didn't like:

Well, it's an RV resort. The tent loop is crowded, site-wise, and I cannot imagine how packed together you'd be if every site was full.

The signage is almost non-existent. We drove right by the tent loop twice and there are no obvious "Loop A" etc signs. The tent loop is all the way in the back next to the pond.

If you are arriving after office hours, 6pm or so, you have to call to get a gate code. Otherwise, you are locked out.

Everyone has a golf cart and will drive into the tent loop to look at you as if you are a wildebeest and they're on safari.

Parents of small children and toddlers: the tent loop is surrounded by water on 3 sides. There is no safety fence. The water is mostly standing water so expect mosquitoes.

Site F 17 is the lowest point of the tent loop,which won't be a problem unless it rains. Unfortunately, it rained 3 inches one day and I literally dug a trench around the tent to keep it dry. F15 is on the high side and slightly larger site, request it if you can.

On Saturday night, there is a DJ and a dance party from 7-10 pm. It is extraordinarily loud and somewhat impossible to navigate a car through that many people. Plan on staying out of the resort or completely inside if you are up for it.

(I'm sorry for the photos; I didn't have my phone and had to use someone else's phone to take photos.  It was also torrentially raining so I didn't venture outside of the canopy!)