Best Cabin Camping near Waterford, PA

I told my wife that this was the rotten place that we stayed at before. She insisted that was somewhere else but there we were, all the people complaining about the nasty manager lady as we are swimming by AND the creepy, chubby manager dude with the grey goatee, ogling the little girls a little too long. Why are those people still there?? All she does is sit outside the office and smoke cigarettes and he creeps around. Everyone hates them and will smile to their faces but they're horrible!

Pros: paved roads, mostly clean bathrooms and two swimming pools. Cons: Teeny, tiny sites. Bingo hall bathrooms are gross. Awful, rotten egg smelling water. The beds in the cabin rentals are rock hard. Horrible WiFi. Good luck if you’re there and the electric cuts out. Very few activities (which you will also hear about"there used to be so many activities" "Lisa never has any activities any more") Good grief, the people are unhappy but I guess, too cheap to move on to a better place? The entire staff complains about them constantly, especially Rhonda in the office. I just came in to buy ice, lady, I don't need to hear about much you hate your boss!

I would suggest you keep looking rather than tolerate this toxic place and all the unhappy seasonal people and employees. Save your money and vacation time for a nice place with decent management.

We stayed in site 218. this spot is in the smaller ( less crowded) part of Jamestown campground in Pymatuning SP. it is right on the water and has an easy access area for shore fishing and entering a kayak or canoe or some other water device. the site sits on a little bay and the otherside (more crowded) of the campground is across the water. the water is a little murky/ grassy but still good entry area. the campsite was spacious for a pa state park. the site is between the lake and the road. sites 212-222 look to be on the water with boat access, but 218 has the easiest entry. 220’s picnic Bench and fire pit sit next to the water with great views, but there is little shade. 218 had a great shady spot were you can hang 3 hammocks. there is no electricity at these sites and pretty much tent only. lots of tent space. the fire ring was decent but we moved it as it was right underneath a burnt tree. 218 was ADA accessible with a nice picnic table. restrooms were fairly close. clean... outdated, but clean.

As newbies to all things RV, we needed a place in Ohio to break in our new travel trailer. Indian Creek is family and pet friendly with all the amenities and even a great lookout spot across the street where you can take in a Lake Erie sunset. We loved the clean bathrooms and appreciated the staff's effort to maintain services while encouraging social distancing. All of their COVID-19 policies were well spelled out online and in signage across the resort so that you knew what to expect. All of the staff wore masks and bathrooms were cleaned often. Some of their usual events and programs were unavailable but they offered craft kits for children to pick up and do at their own campsite in lieu of the usual program. We enjoyed their beautiful put-put course and ice cream stand. They did not allow outside visitors in the resort. The only thing that threw us off was that the bathhouses were closed at night and we didn't know that until we tried to use them. The resort is expanding and adding new sites. They are planting lots of trees (it looked like one at each site) so the resort should become more park-like and less parking lot as they grow. We really liked the back-in sites with water and electric hookups because they were larger and more private and wooded. The fire ring was so easy to cook on that now I'm spoiled! The camp store/gas station was convenient and well stocked with camping supplies. Golf carts are available to rent if you need them to navigate this huge park. We rode our bikes instead. There is a township park just down the road towards Geneva-on-the-Lake proper that we used to spend some leisure and exercise time near the lake. We look forward to visiting this RV resort again in the future!

My family has visited Pymatuning park many times now and try have used a variety of spots at Jamestown campground. It is large, offering multiple options for campsite types. It’s a standard PA state park campground offering bathrooms (bathrooms are older, but are being renovated July-August 2021) showers, fire ring, picnic table, etc. Campsites J-106 thru J-116 are well shaded, but are alongside route 322 which maintains consistent traffic at all hours. If the noise is not an issue, this run of tent sites are well spaced, and offer easy access to the facilities. To be away from the road (and nearer to the lake) sites J-120 thru J-128 are closer together but can be quieter (depending on your neighbors…)

The beach area is clean, and raked often. It has a playground and volleyball court. On Friday’s they have a family movie night at the amphitheater. Most Saturdays in the summer they offer crafts and activities for kids at the beach.

The surrounding area also has plenty of activities to offer: Local restaurants, ice cream, hiking, kayaking/boating, fishing, etc.

The Linesville Campground is a mid-sized state park campground with level, wooded sites, right on the Pymantuning Lake. A short walk to the marina which hires boats and sells snacks& fuel. There is a campground fish cleaning station with complimentary fridges/freezers. 

The amenities are well kept with plenty of space, located in the center of the park. There is also a laundry. They accommodate tents, RV’s and have cabins also. RV dump station and water fill up conveniently located in the center of the grounds. 

The township of Linesville is just 5min drive from the park entrance. Great weekend escape from Pittsburgh. They welcome furry friends!

Campground Review

I can honestly say that Oil Creek Family Campground is the best private campground that we have ever camped at. Especially if you’re camping with kids, it offers everything that you would want for a ‘great American summer’ style camping experience, without being a cookie-cutter big-name private campground chain. They have a large pool; a few llamas that the kids can feed and pet; a 27-hole disc golf course (recently expanded from 18 hole) primarily in the woods near and around the campground property; a small pond for sunfish / bass fishing; a dog ‘playground’ (enclosed area with some obstacles); a well-maintained hedge maze; a pavilion with ping pong, a pool table, and foosball; a DVD rental program at the main office with about 300 movies; and a small camp store with a small selection of books that you can borrow. They also provide weekly entertainment for the kids, e.g. rock painting or special guests. This weekend, for instance was ‘Jungle Terry and his amazing exotic animal family.’ We don’t typically spend a ton of time actually AT the campgrounds when we’re camping, but we did this weekend - and we had a blast on the disc golf course, fishing in the pond, and playing ping pong. The kids had an awesome time in the pool for hours and running around with the other kids in the maze. And everyone agreed that it was a perfect way to wrap up the summer before the school year starts.

We have a pop-up and my parents (whom we were camping with for the weekend) use a tent, so we had two water+electric sites in the tent camping area away from the RVs: sites A7 and A8. The sites in this area are well-maintained and LARGE, with plenty of room for a pop-up or multiple tents plus one or two vehicles, plus lots of room around the fire ring. There are smaller bathrooms placed around the campground as well as a center bathhouse located adjacent to the pavilion with 2 shower stalls and an additional toilet per gender.

We chose this campground due to its proximity to Oil Creek State Park. The state park itself does not have a campground, and OCFC is right next door - in fact, the campground hiking trail loop has a very short connecting piece to the 36-mile Gerard hiking trail that runs through the park. The park is beautiful with a lot of history (it is the site of the world’s first commercial oil well, and where the oil industry began in the United States around 1860) and Oil Creek - which is really a river - runs right down the middle of the park. It is a stocked creek and it’s great for both trout and bass fishing. Some parts of the creek also have a lot of northern water snakes (we saw 4 near the Blood Farm day use area) which was cool to see.

Overall: fantastic campground in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania - and we will absolutely be back.

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get occasionally receive products to test or gift cards for new companies to check out.  Over the past weekend, we tried out one of the Mountain House favorites, freeze-dried Lasagna with Meat Sauce in the #10 can. Lasagna is not exactly a typical camping food, so the fact that we could easily make enough lasagna to feed a group of six people (4 adults and 2 kids) just by heating up some water was wonderful! We made the entire can (boil 8 cups of water, pour it into the can itself, stir a lot to mix up all of the freeze-dried ingredients, and let it sit for ten minutes - EASY) along with some crescent-roll wrapped hot dogs over the fire and it was like a gourmet camping meal. Everyone loved the lasagna - even the two picky kids!

It does not have a pool or game room or any of those types of amenities and thats what we LOVE about this campground. it is simple camping. it has everything we need. a picnic table , fire ring and electric hookup. It’s nice and quiet. There is a fair amount of room between sites so you don't feel crowded. The lake is fantastic for fishing. We have seen the most beautiful sunsets here that you won’t see anywhere else. There is an eagles nest on one of the islands. If you take your boat or rent one at the marina you can go out on the lake and you will see eagles for sure!! There are also a lot of other birds to enjoy! If you just want to fish or just relax while viewing the sunset , this is the place for you!