Sara's Campground

This place was a perfect stop for a couple of nights. Even during the week, there are kids everywhere. Lots of places here are full time, but they don’t go home during the week. You can walk across the street to the beaches of Lake Erie. All sits appear to have concrete pads with a picnic table and fire rings. We did not build a fire, but everyone we saw had much larger logs than the standard 2x4 sized kindling bundles you get from most places.

Laundry is across the street, so you do kind of need to drive over if you need it. It was only $1 per load and the dryer was $0.25 for 5 minutes. We were able to get two washer loads into a single dryer and get the clothes dry enough in 25 minutes.

The Waldameer water world place is perfect for kinds in the 5-12 range. Teens will dig it too, but they don’t have audacious roller coasters like a six flags. Actually, they had so many rides in the right age range that we couldn’t ride them all in one day and we only did the amusement park. Prices also weren’t crazy like a six flags, so we can’t say enough good things about that one.

Just outside the park are some places to eat and get ice cream. I think they are also owned by the same owners, but not 100% sure on that. We had pizza and it was surprisingly good. I expected fast food quality or worse, but they delivered!

Wi-Fi is reasonably good even with so many people. You can register up to 4 devices, so they seem to be slightly more advanced than most campgrounds.

The showers are pay to play, which is new to us. $0.25 for 5 minutes and they’re coin operated.

We had a great couple of days here and would come back in a heartbeat!

They gave us tent site #60, we pull up and someone’s tent is there, we call and she says “go to #62” and we agree, well someone’s belongings were on the picnic table for that site and we thought well it’s probably just the campers stuff that are in site#61 but we let her know about the stuff and she says “oh well a lady lives at #62 in her car so that’s probably her stuff and she’s just gone for the day. I’ll have the park ranger come check it out”our thought was okay….well why offer it if you know a lady lives there?? So the park ranger comes over and says “just go to 63 that’ll be fine” so we do even though we’re a$$ to a$$ with a pop up camper. Shortly after setting up EVERYTHING a med sized camper pulls up and backs in next to #64 and just sits there and then proceeds to come tell us “you guys gotta move we gotta pull up in there cause it’s the only spot with a dumping site I’d call the office if I were you” Which pissed us off as this family just stood there watching us and waiting for us to move . We’re so flustered and confused and sweaty so I call the office for the 3rd time and the ranger shows up again and says “I told you to go to #64” and we like…..dude there’s a pop up camper there we can’t….he says well it wasn’t there before….IT WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME. We then had to break it all back down and shove everything back into our car hurried and go to the other side in the campground to #35. We were very tempted to just pack up and drive 1,000 miles back home. It ended up being a great spot and no ther campers showed up but was all sand which sucked cause the rain but we worked with it. She gave us $30 out of $60 back for our two night stay and apologized. She was nice and sweet but clearly not organized. Our ankles got bit up not sure if it was just mosquitos but possible sand fleas cause they are very small bites like fleas and quite a few just on our feet/ankles and SO ITCHY. We made the best of our stay but will Never go back there…a campfire grate to cook food over fire pit is $17 and the middle of it burnt and bent so not great quality but once again we worked with what we had. To top it off we ended our last night short by having to hide out in our tent due to a skunk rummaging around a little to close to our site we watched out for it for about an hour as it got closer and closer to us, we kind of made a game of chicken out of it! Haha Sounded like a huge accident waiting to happen considering our dog was with us and she somehow ended up coming into contact with skunk spray only on one of her fluffy ears???

We went to Sara's Campground and walked around the campsite (bayside aka away from the beach and behind the restaurant) from end to end (3 times).  I didn't see a camp host sign or office.  We never did find the main office until the 3rd time when we were driving out of the neighborhood.  They do have a big sign at the entrance but my brain didn't process that they were also across the busy road. 

This campsite is actually on BOTH sides of the road. My passenger spotted them as we were leaving the area after we had passed the area multiple times. It almost looks like they are an extension of the water park for those of us that are out of town. The area is very busy visually so be prepared to accidently drive past it. 

The main campground (bayside) is located behind the restaurants.  The location is awesome as it is right across the road from the beach.  You will want to note that Presque Isle State Park does not have any camping within their park boundaries.  

Sara's charges $30.00 a night and only two adults per tent. The beach camping is first come/first serve (no reservations). No pets on the beach side which may explain why there were some tents over on the bayside (RVs) side of the campground. If you wanted to escape the wind this might be a good spot to tent camp. Also, if you wanted to be close but not too close to the water due to having young children. 

Sara's Diner was closed but seemed to be used for storage for the main business.  We were able to get milk shakes at the eatery. You order at the outside window and then move inside to pick up your milk shake or other food items.  At the other building (Eatery), I asked two employees if they knew where to connect with the campground office but they didn't know what I was talking about.  

We used their cross walk to walk across the main street and we immediately came to the beach.  On the left it was labeled private beach and a wall blocked the view. I didn't realize this might be part of Sara's but also looked like some private property/condos to me. Once on the beach to the right was a long beautiful shore line. It would be an easy walk and carry of beach items. I was hoping we could camp at the site and get a post card to reserve a spot for the upcoming year.  

We did see folks camping in tents behind the restaurants with the RVs. The ground was slightly sandy and they looked comfortable. We looked on with campsite envy. Some folks may prefer this as it is back a bit from the shore so it isn't windy the whole time and less sandy. Either side had easy access to the bike trail and I would have felt safe riding my bike on their bike trail.  It was a smooth paved lane that was mostly away from traffic. 

Presque Isle Lighthouse Open 7 days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.$7— House Tour and Tower Climb$3— House Tour FREE— Walk the grounds Taken from https://www.presqueislelighthouse.org/

We also did the boat tour https://piboattours.com/lady-kate/  This was $16.00 and well worth it.  We were able to learn a lot about the history of the island.  It is naturally windy and out on the open water so make sure you take some layers as it can get chilly even in July. 

We then hit the road to continue to find another campsite.  If you don't mind crowds and noise from the road, RVs, or other campers then this is the site for you.  It has a great location that cannot be beat for ease of access to the beaches.