Best Glamping near Caroga Lake, NY

This park is located approximately 12.5 miles from downtown Cooperstown and is set in the quiet rural countryside of New York. The mature trees make for beautiful scenery in the fall. There is a mix of sites varying from tent, RV, rental trailers, and camping cabins/cottages/lodges bringing the total number of sites to 120. Back-in and pull-thru sites are available. Site types include full hookup, water and electric, and no hookup with prices varying depending upon site. You can choose between 30/20 or 50 amp electric service. Interior roads are gravel and some site pads are gravel while others are grass. 

The park is nicely terraced and all the sites are level. Patios were a grassy/dirt area with a picnic table and fire pit. Our site (#41) was a pull-thru but there was no way we could drive our 45’ motorhome forward out of the site because of a large tree and narrow roads. So we ended up having to back out. The free wifi worked well as did our Verizon 4G phone and hotspot. We picked up a dozen or so television channels with our antenna. The park does have a fair amount of trees that would interfere with roof-mounted satellite dishes so you would have to pick your site carefully. But, there are some 30 amp and no hook-up sites that are clear. This is a typical KOA with lots of amenities including a swimming pool(which was closed for the season when we were there), a playground, volleyball court, basketball court, jump house, pavilion, recreation room, bicycle rental, and horseshoes. Showers, restrooms and laundry are also present and clean. There is a propane filling station. While there is no fenced-in dog park there is a pet walking area. The surrounding area is pretty rural and the closest town (Richfield Springs– which is very small) is five miles away and where you will find restaurants, gas station, grocery store, and more. A few miles from the park is a creamery that has a café. 

Approximately five miles away is Glimmerglass State Park which was great for hiking and kayaking Otsego Lake. There is a also a historic house at the park that you can tour and the country’s oldest covered bridge. Cooperstown is a little over twelve miles away from the park but well worth a trip. Not only is Cooperstown home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame but it is a charming downtown well worth exploring. Other nearby attractions include The Farmers Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, Hero’s of Baseball Wax Museum, Glimmerglass Opera, and Cooperstown Brewing Company.

The good: large, spacious, private sites that are all fairly level and all about the same size. Beautiful pool with 2 water slides, arcade, and cafe that wasn’t opened during the week but will be starting July 1. Clean facilities. Store was fairly well stocked with things you might’ve forgot to pack. Staff was nice.
The not so good: lots of rules and charges for every little thing, our walkie talkies picked up on staff conversations and we heard they wanted to charge a family a guest fee for a delivery driver if he was on site more than 15 minutes, Showers cost money at $0.25 per 4 minutes, no wifi at all and poor cell reception, pool is NOT heated as they state all over their website, trash is not picked up, no activities or anything to do other than swim. Far from downtown Lake George and no trolley service, charges for early arrival regardless of whether sites is available or not and you can’t sit in their parking arrival area and wait. I would not choose this campground again. It wasn’t horrible. There is so much more they could offer for their resort prices that they charge. Drove through Lake George RV resort on Rt. 149 and I think I’d choose that campground next time. Check out the boats you ride on Lake George! The Adirondack is dog friendly! Get the coupon at the arcade for $3 off the $25 cost. Frontier Town gift shop on Rt 9 with the big teepee out front had great selection of stuff for good prices. Northway Brewing was fun with good beer!

We pulled in in the middle of memorial day weekend. The place was sold out. Staff was super friendly and had us check in on no time. The campground loses a start only because when it's at full capacity, it is very cramped. Some sites are much bigger than others and have more space though. The Schroon River run right through the campgrounds and you can rent kayaks and canoes or bring your own to go a ride. There is a little beach and just launch on site. The bathrooms are very nice and all individual with a toilet and shower in one. Another downside of you're more full-time is there is no laundry on site. You're 4 miles away from Lake George's downtown which is a great area. Plenty of nearby hikes. Each campsite had a BBQ-like fire pit. Campground has a very nice basketball court, pool and playground. Dog friendly and even we were there it looks like their looking to expand and make more sites. Only one cabin available at the moment.

We spent a relatively quiet long weekend here on loop F 97, which is a bit removed from the main campground. It was a bit noisy on Saturday night but nothing disturbing.  This site also is bordered by a small stream so expect mosquitoes and the occasional visit from wildlife (we had raccoons at our site each night, so kept food in the car). Each site has a fire pit and a picnic table.

There is a store just outside the entrance that sells ice, wood, groceries.  There are quite a few roadside firewood sellers that are reasonably priced.  The fire pit does not have a narrow grilling grate so bringing something to ensure your food won't fall through the widely spaced bars is helpful.  

As I said, our site was out of the main population, but it was a bit of a hike to the restroom which is something to keep in mind if you've really got to get to a bathroom first thing in the morning.  

There is a Walmart about 10 miles away in Gloverville, so keep this in mind if you are planning on picking up essentials when you arrive.  

There are no sites with electric.

The goods:

Campsites are the largest and most private I've ever seen. Fantastic. Good privacy. 

Dunno why others are complaining about the 3 rocks as a fire pit. Plenty functional and directs the heat out towards the seating area. 

The pool is as good as it looks in the pictures. Your kids will be here every day and love it. The deepest the pool gets is around 4 feet. There are 2 slides and they are pretty well monitored. 

The check in staff and the store staff are great. Very helpful. The camp store is pretty well stocked. 

The needs improvement:

The café staff are completely incompetent. I went through 3 people to find someone that spoke English. A very basic order of 2 slushies took over 20 minutes and they were both wrong. I watched the same thing happen to the next 4-5 families while my kids drank their slushies. It has a ton of potential but terrible execution. I tried again a day or two later and bought some lunch, it took an hour and the order was wrong. 

The playlist at the pool area seems to alternate between Jimmy buffett / Bob marley (great!) and a 5 year old's sunday school religious kid songs (wth??). Super annoying. Combine that with the pamphlets handed out at check-in, it's a little preachy. Save that for church, I'm here to camp, Thank you.

The tent we stayed in was gorgeous! We fit 5 of us comfortably. Linens, blankets and pillows were provided. There was a fire pit, BBQ, picnic table with umbrella, covered platform, and a partition between campsites. There were plenty or outdoor activities to do such as swimming, tubing, kayaking, sports, and bike rentals. They had a gift shop and arcade on site as well. We unfortunately got hit with some pretty bad weather so we couldn't enjoy the grounds as much as we would have liked to but that was obviously not their fault. We had to evacuate the mountain our last evening because of really bad thunder and lightening but the ranger was very helpful and came around to warn us all and encourage us to be careful. They even refunded us for that last night. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a real "glamping" experience! You always see those fancy campsites on Pinterest or Instagram so now you can experience it yourself close to home if you live in NY.

We made the most of our rainy weekend by checking out the town and some caves. Plenty to do in the area of you want to venture out of the campgrounds but if you're there with good weather I doubt you will be bored!!