Asheville East KOA

This KOA, which is actually in Swannanoa and not Asheville, is awesome for families and kids. There is a pool, playground, gaga ball pit, golf car rentals, fishing and splashing in the Swannanoa River, and a game room. On weekends they have themes and activities that includes crafts and movies. The bathroom I used was older, but clean. The main issue with this campground is how close the sites are (even tent sites) and how packed it can get - literally no privacy and the layout isn’t super attractive (and yes, train is loud). It’s a good location to explore downtown Asheville (20-25 minutes), Black Mountain (5 minutes) and Montreat (10 minutes). There is a bus that runs along the 70 corridor, but it’s not frequent. Lastly, there is a grocery store and brewery within a mile. The staff at the office and store are always nice. So definitely a great place to hang out with the kids or to use as a base camp for hiking, but super, super busy and close quarters.

We overnighted in the primitive tent sites and we’re lucky enough to be at the end. It was next to the Swannanoa River and beautiful. This is a KOA holiday but very family friendly and had lots of activities, a lake with boats and kayaks, and other summer fun things. We just stayed for the night to make a fire and explore some trails the next day on the fly, but will definitely go again!

This is a beautiful campground with tons of space for bike riding or walking. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful and they have fun events for kids on the weekends. The laundry room has 8 washers($2/load) and 4 dryers($.25/8min) and is open 24/7. 

We stayed in Section A which was **extremely** tight for navigating, parking, and camping, especially with our 43' big rig. 3 people had to move their cars to allow us to back our 5th wheel into our space. We could barely open our awnings without touching the RV in the space next to us. The back of our 5th wheel was less than 3 feet from the camper behind us. On the last 2 nights, we moved to B15 which had plenty of space with an awesome patio setup.

Trains come through near the park at all hours of the day and night, using their horn religiously; Not a huge deal but you may get woken up in the night or early morning.