Best Glamping near Kennard, TX

This Park is on the edge of being a 5 STAR park... 

PROS 

Senior Discount 

Check-in at the gate without leaving vehicle NO street lights in A3 campground, so good dark sky viewing(when neighbors don’t have a dozen campsite lights illuminating 3-4 campsites) 

Very very quiet Sunday thru Wednesday 

Site 62 backs up to Lake Livingston so excellent view of lake and easy accessibility from lakefront campsites 

Site 62 12 ft wide concrete parking pad level 

Moveable wooden and metal picnic table on concrete pad 

Metal fire ring(no cooking grate) 

Pedestal BBQ grill Campsite utility hook-ups in good condition with no problems encountered 

Trash pickup at each campsite 3 times daily 

Pristine grounds 

Very clean toilet/shower facility; it took 3 men 2 hours in a Monday to clean one facility, but no cleaning Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday(didn’t even pick up the trash)! 

Constable manning gate after normal gate hours 

Roped off lake swimming area 

Small playground near swimming area 

CONS 

Paid$3.50 reservation fee for completing 100% on-line reservation 

On Day#2 of our stay, a neighbor camper came to us to inform us that the park manager just stopped by his site(we were at our site and saw him) to let him know there was a burn ban established for the next 7 days and that he need to spread the word to other campers. Two days later we saw a small burn ban sign posted at the toilet/shower facility. Communicating this crucial information needs improved. Perhaps posting signs throughout the park, especially at the entrance. 

Trip hazard on the picnic table concrete where someone cut the chains that held the table in place 

Numerous dogs roaming…no leash and no human 

Absolutely no privacy from any other campsite as there is no vegetation between campsites 

No evening trash pickup so have to store trash created by evening cooking 

Gate was not closed overnight 

Camp store and water craft rental closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 

No wildlife sightings 

No park WIFI 

No camp hosts 

3 bars TMOBILE in A3 campground with no problems live-streaming with TMOBILE hotspot device

Lake Livingston State Park is a fantastic state park for water activities. The fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking and paddle boarding is all fantastic.

Campsites: The sites were all well maintained with the best spots being in Piney Shores & Red Oak. We were in spot #69. It had a great view but lacked in flat playing space for young children and hammock trees.

Trails: There were a few trails in the park, none of which were all that long. The main Trinity Trace Trail was flat dirt, good for young bikers. Though trails are short, they connect so you could do a few trails for a longer run/hike if you so desired.

Bathrooms: Each campground loop has one bathroom and shower. They can be a bit of a walk if you don’t have a close site. They appear to be older but maintained and cleaned well enough.

Park Specific Activities: Getting on the water was awesome, it’s the largest lake in Texas, so lots to explore. Fishing was fantastic. We caught bass, perch and catfish and lots of them! Getting in the lake left some to be desired. The bottom has many large rocks, tree stumps and is very mossy. Swimming can be fun but a little dangerous and slippery. The duck pond and frog pond are nothing to get excited about. We saw no birds in the bird blind and the frog pond is so small you almost can’t see it. We did hear a frog though.

Other: Connected to the park store they had a small educational space for young kids with a functioning beehive. The kids (ages 2-6) loved it. The park store is not open Mondays and Tuesdays. Kayak, canoe and paddle board rentals were only Thursday to Sunday 8:30-3:30. $10-20/rental. The pool was not functioning when we went in August 2018. They have a small amphitheater and near by a room available for rent which can have 50 guests. It was air conditioned and had nice hardwood floors.

In Summary: We would absolutely recommend it for water activities and relaxation. It’s a beautiful spot! We wouldn’t recommend it for just birding or hiking but the park as a whole is great.

This campground is probably one of the best in the area. It's clean, well maintained with excellent restrooms that are well lit and spotless. The boat launch is in great condition with plenty of parking. The camp store is well stocked and operated by the nicest of people. Slushes and Pickles all day! You've got all the amenities for RVs, lots of picnic tables and the campsites are well spaced out with fire pits electricity including 30 amp along with water. Lake Livingston is great for fishing and they have a designated safe swim area. Overall this is a very safe, very clean and family-oriented campground. Highly Recommend.

We love this state park and it's one of our favorites! This was our third time camping here in the Piney Shores Loop. We arrived on Memorial Day for four nights with reservations made 54 days prior. We weren’t loving Piney Shores#52 back-in campsite much due to: Steep drop-off of the concert pad and the narrow roadway making backing in challenging, but not impossible for our 27ft trailer.  Any larger rigs might not be able to swing it.

The dirt area around the picnic table, fire pit and lantern pole was a huge MUD hole! What a mess due to daily rains. 

No concrete pad under the picnic table, so your feet were in the MUD hole! HINT– Park Maintenance needs to apply some medium size gravel around the table and fire pit. 

Picnic table (chained to the ground) and fire pit were right next to each other. WHO DESIGNS THESES CAMPSITES?? 

Power interruptions, albeit short. Very glad we had our power surge protector. 

We loved: 

Very level concrete pad requiring no additional leveling efforts. 

Huge campsite along the lakefront with access to launch kayak/canoe or even swim(which we didn’t). 

Gorgeous sunsets over the lake. It was wonderful to sit at the fire facing the lake and watch the sunsets. 

The squirrels that ate from our fingertips! It was also really amusing to find the squirrels VERY friendly. They just hoped up onto our laps and took peanuts in the shell from our fingertips! 

Super quiet as only 6 full hook up campsites were occupied due to COVID operating restrictions.

Lake Livingston State Park is one of our regular visits. During the school year it is hard to head out on a Friday, drive 2-3 hours and then setup in the dark for a weekend camping trip. Lake Livingston is just over an hour from our house and has lots to offer. They recently rebuilt one of the camping loops to where now this is one of the few state parks in Texas that have Full Hookups. Not all loops have Full Hookups but a couple do.

Like most state parks in Texas the sites here are large and offer a lot of shade. Each site will have a table and a fire ring. There are tons of hiking trails and geocaches throughout the park. It is also close to shops in town so that if you forget something you are only about 15 minutes from a Walmart. There is a shop on site that has most of the essentials.

Super nice staff and full saturday breakfast (eggs/bacon/pancakes/coffee etc--extra fee, but very reasonable!)

Pool, jump pad, playground, trike rentals, Rock/gem mining slough, movies/events, etc.

Sites are level pull-through sites and most have a clear view of the playground, which gives the kids a sense of freedom.  They have cabins and cool teepees as well, but have only ever camped in RV here.

Have been camping here in the summers and both Easter & Halloween weekends and they do easter egg/candy hunts and have other events for the kids/kids at heart.

We love coming here and the staff are always very kind to us. (photos on this review are during the halloween event--we decorated our campsite lol)

First & foremost, This park is not well-maintained, and the camping sites are right off of the highway. The splash pad does not work, and the bath house was terribly dirty and freaked of sewage. The group sites are basically a big parking lot- zero grass space between site numbers, although there is shared grass areas along the rows. We moved site numbers within the group sites so that our kids would not be playing right beside the highway (there is a gate, however it’s still concerning), and to slightly distance ourselves from the traffic noise. Beware there is also a large wedding venue directly across the highway & our kids were woken to the sounds of fireworks at night on the weekend. There were large fire ant mounds all along the concrete, and we had to purchase fire ant killer ourselves, as well as deal with some broken glass & the trash can for our site that wasn’t emptied before our stay. I spoke with the staff member working in the office and all she could say was “i will let management know.”

As far as the good: we had 6 kids and 4 adults staying, so despite the concerns and annoyances, we still were able to relax enough and enjoy our break from the daily grind. The kids played outside all day- making walking sticks, fishing a lot, catching bugs (spotted some really neat moths, too), and making up games.

The best: the nearly-daily trains coming right through the campground for various reasons (loading new cars or taking passengers on a local trip). My son is an avid train-lover and this was the main reason we booked our stay here.

This is an X-Texas State Park that really needs some overdue TLC.

After making reservations over the phone 163 days prior to arriving and prepaying the entire amount, we were told at check-in there was no record of our reservation. Once we got through that confusion we were had to ask for directions to the campground. No map provided. Even with a reservation campsite are selected once you arrive and drive through the campsite. FHU loop roadway was difficult to maneuver due to the roadway being covered with pine needles which blended it into the non-roadway. We saw most people driving thru campsites thinking it was the road as the FHU loop were mostly pull-thru sites. Limited sites for RVs longer than 30 feet. Most sites were designed for 20 feet or smaller. Not a slide-out friendly campground as most sites were very compact. Minimal vegetation between sites. At our site the wooden picnic table was partially rotted. Parking pad broken up by roots so very uneven surface. The firepit ring was mostly rusted away and was completely filled with ash so our fire was on the pi ash. Sulphuric smelling water. Highway noise. On our last night, the 30 amp breaker kept tripping without a full load. Happened twice within an hour so we scaled back our amp use under 20 just to have some heat during the night. Campground WiFi was probably one of the best we’ve experienced.

Highway noise even in our campsite the furthest from the highway.  Of course, lots of train whistles during depot operations.