Best Glamping near Bennington, VT

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!

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 road to our campsite was paved and in good shape but there were a few tight spots because of the trees that make it tricky for a big rig (Loop A seems to be the best for big-rigs). Great thing about this park is the hiking trails and lake so you don’t even have to leave to the park to enjoy great outdoor recreation. We found it enjoyable just to hang out in the park rather than trying to find things to do in the area. After hiking and paddling, we loved relaxing out at our campsite with a campfire. 

Our campsite was spacious but required some maneuvering to avoid scraping trees with our RV. Campsites are spacious, shady, and had good separation between the neighboring sites which we enjoyed. Generators are allowed but not too many people were using them. The few other campers around that used them were mindful of quiet hours. Since it was still a little cool and our windows were closed and we never heard anyone’s generator. The park was not very crowded when we were there, but we can imagine it could get very busy and noisy in the busy summer season. The beach area seems to be a draw for people so the summer camping season is probably packed. The snack bar and gift/supplies shop at the sandy beach area were not open as we were there late in the season. There is also a nice playground for kids to enjoy. 

This is dry camping so there are no hook-ups but there are restrooms and shower. Both were clean but the shower fluctuated between lukewarm, hot, and warm during my shower. Oh well, the shower felt good after our active days. There are two pavilions you can rent which are nice if big groups want to gather. Take note that only two pets are allowed per campsite, so plan accordingly if you are a pet owner. 

Access is fairly easy, just off I-87, and there are plenty of signs directing you which way to go. Saratoga Springs and Lake George are nearby if you want to explore. We recommend visiting the National Horse Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, if you have time. We would definitely stay here again.

Booked an "Elite 50amp" site but had no realistic map to go by. Many if these types of sites are parallel to the water, but the map makes them look like back in sites. If your site neighbors are in their spots already when you arrive it will probably be hard to navigate unless you have a 20' rig. We don't, ours is over 33'and we were lucky that our site neighbors were both home to move their trucks so we could get in. Once in our site had a steep drop off to the lake, not all are like this, but be cautious about this if you have young kids.

They have many activities you can do on site (swimming in pools or lakes, kayaking, paddleboarding, fishing, floating, bike riding, playgrounds or weekly planned events). They advertise having a trolly shuttle but never saw it while we were there.

Had some issues with the lack of lighting on the roads while walking our dogs and this only made it worse when the seasonals fly around in golf carts paying no mind to the large trucks trying to get by. The dumpsters were FAR away from everything so that was also an annoyance. They also have hundreds of sites and only one area with dumpsters, seems like poor planning. At the end of the weekend people had piled many garbage bags near the small garbage cans around the grounds.

The roads are narrow and many should be one way, but are not. It would have been impossible many places in the grounds to pass a rig on the road due to the amount of other's vehicles, golf carts, decorations etc... so patience is important when arriving and departing. The gas powered golf carts were also a bit of a negative only because our site was next to a speed bump, so the noise was a little but worse for us.

Had an issue with water pressure on Saturday around 10am and called the office to make sure there was not a known water issue. Front desk knew nothing and said they would send maintenance but we never saw anyone. The situation improved so we think it was just a high demand time of day.

We would return here due to the proximity to Lake George and Saratoga, but we would choose a totally different type of site.

We were on site 219 to give you perspective when viewing photos.

Woodford State Park is situated between Wilmington and Bennington VT in the southern part of the Green Mountain National Forest. The park surrounds the Adams Reservoir and happens to be the highest elevation of all the Vermont state campgrounds. Woodford has two beaches- a larger day-use area with tables and grills and a smaller “campers” beach in the park’s third loop. There is also an approximate 2.5 mile trail that loops the reservoir and access to canoe and kayak rentals.

My sister and I stayed in site #2, which was smaller and less covered than some of the other sites. But I was lucky to book a spot just two weeks ahead of the Memorial Day holiday. Despite a couple days of rain, I really enjoyed myself and the park. The grounds seemed well kept and the staff were helpful. Plus there’s also looks to go and see in nearby Wilmington and historic Bennington.

After some exploration, I came to the conclusion that site #23 is the absolute best. It’s my go-to for my next visit! I judge this based on privacy, shade and water views, but of course preference is subjective. Sites #11, 21, 39, 40, 45, 56, 70, 72 and 84 were also pretty great.

Overall, Woodford was a great park and I definitely recommend it, particularly to those looking for dog and/or family oriented recreation!

We took our new to us hybrid camper out for its inaugural trip.

We chose to stay in the wooded loop of the campground and we were very happy with our site, #66. That section has about 12 sites, some big and some on the smaller side. Our site was easy to back into, even more so since no one was in the site across from us. Our site was very spacious, level and included a picnic table, fire ring, and nicely placed hookups for water and electric. We had easy access to trails that went along the river behind some of the sites with a few paths down to the river.

Everyone we encountered was friendly and respectful. There are quiet hours from 10pm-8am that are enforced. We were grateful to not have to hear loud partying going on into the night. There was car noise from nearby Rt 10 on the other side of the river, but nothing you can do about that.

We asked for assistance at the office with our first time using a pumping station at the end of the trip. We were given friendly helpful assistance and some great tips and advice for the future.

This was a nice enjoyable first visit for us. We will definitely be adding it to our list of places to visit again, but likely later in the year when we can enjoy the river and activities a bit more. We did not explore the options for bike, kayak, and canoe rentals but would like to in the future.