Best Glamping near Essex Junction, VT

We stayed in the Venus yurt from Saturday August 3rd thru Thursday August 8th 2024. We were going to stay until the 10th, but we had an incoming hurricane and decided to leave before the exit flooded. 

Overall, their website pictures are NOT current and I believe the reviews on their website to either be inaccurate or very old. 

Day 1: the yurt smelled heavily of febreeze and was smaller than the pictures showed. The mattress, which had no cover on it, had been turned over(the bottom had nubs on it so it wouldn’t slide- this was face up). When we flipped it over, there were obvious fresh red fluid stains and other stains on the top of the mattress. For the price we paid, we would have expected either a waterproof cover enclosing the mattress or that the owners would have swapped out this mattress. The fact that the cleaning staff felt it was ok to turn it over expecting nobody to check was a bit revolting. We went to the office to get it removed, but the best they could do was provide 2 comforters to place between the mattress and our sheets. 

When we left to meet up with friends, we found the door lock was broken. We could only lock it from the inside. Our friends were in RVs and apparently the site was digging for new sewer lines, so when the wind shifted, we got a fresh scent of raw sewage. 

When we went to take showers at the facility nearest the yurts, we found there was no hot water, the showers had to be pumped to run(no continuous water flow in either the showers or the sinks), and only 1 of the 4 stalls had lockable doors. Both of these were reported to the office the following morning. 

Day 2: found that by the store were 6 showers with hot, continuously running water. 3 were out of service and only 1 locked. This was reported to the store/office multiple times. 

The lifeguard on duty at the smaller pool across from the store was sitting down in a regular chair with a table with an umbrella between her and the pool, face down in her phone with one hand, holding her sunglasses up with her other hand, while 3 small children(~8 years old) were sliding and playing unsupervised. As a former life guard/ wave pool certified lifeguard, I would have fired her on the spot. That is an unacceptably dangerous situation. 

The mini golf course was in disrepair, the arcade was empty of machines, and the activities touted on their website were nonexistent. 

The charcoal grill, which we would have used, had a large rusted hole in the bottom right side taking out~25% of the usable bottom, making it basically useless. Thank goodness for butane camp stoves.

 Day 3: shower lock situation had not improved(did not improve during our stay despite the office being made aware) Our neighbors left the yurt to our left and the person cleaning the yurt did a cursory cleaning at best. No sign of COVID cleaning discipline whatsoever. We spent the majority of the day offsite  

Day 4: lawn mowing started at 8:15 am. The grass absolutely did not need to be mowed. Very loud stand behind rider mower that kicked up dust more than anything as it had been very dry. Took them~3 hours. As a person on vacation, this clearly woke me up early. Very disappointing.

 Day 5: got a bit cold in the early morning, so we turned on the heat. It blew dust, filled the entire yurt with a burning smell and caused my partner to use her rescue inhaler. We turned it off quickly, opened the door and 2 windows to clear the air, and found the heater had not been cleaned. 

Day 6: decided to leave due to the pending hurricane. As I was checking out, a gentleman checking in was told he had been moved further into the campsite in case the river flooded and was told that, if the river did flood, they had a plan and to not be surprised to see RVs in the road. That was their plan?!?!? 

Overall, we will not be returning and will not be recommending this to anyone. If anything, we will encourage anyone looking to camp in the Adirondacks to avoid this campground.

Solid 10/10 would camp again! We stayed at the Heart Lake Campground for a week and a half utilizing it as our home base for adventures into the High Peaks Wilderness and the greater Adirondack region. We had a very pleasant stay here and personally found the weekdays to be best for “camp days” given there were few people—weekends are PACKED and there were more than a couple of party sites. It did appear that you would be able to drive in without reservation on a weekday and find yourself a site! Specifically, our site was fairly flat and most were like this but there were some that appeared to have a slope if you happened to be car camping. There are two wash houses with showering and bathroom amenities that are cleaned weekly (from what we observed). Multiple water fill stations sprinkled throughout the campground area. This campground is primarily tent centric, however, there are yurts, lean-to’s, and a handful of cabins available (and of course the ADK Loj has rooms). There is Wi-Fi at the Loj and meals are served but we believe these are for Loj guests only.

Our first time in Vermont, we were coming from Montreal, Quebec. And while there are many nice campsites to visit in Quebec... we've done them all, within a 2-hour radius. Well, guess what? Lake Carmi in Franklin (Enosburg?) Vermont, is less than 1 1/2 hours from Montreal! I think it must be the closest campsite to Quebec, in Vermont. The drive there was really pleasant too. It wasn't all highway. It took us mostly through very scenic routes in both Quebec, and Vermont.

After booking, I had read some bad reviews about the place - which gave me second thoughts. About the staff being very unpleasant, etc. Well I'm happy to say, that turned out to be absolutely untrue! To say that Kathy, Daniel and really, the entire staff that we met, was very friendly to us, is an understatement. They literally saved our bacon!

It's a long story, but in short... our car broke down at one point, and we had to get it towed. Our phone wouldn't work, and it was by the good graces of the Lake Carmi rangers and staff, and the use of their wireless, that we were eventually able to return back home to Canada.  I don't know what we would have done, if they weren't there to help us! So - big thanks to the amazing staffers at Lake Carmi.

We had reserved a site by the lake, and saw that the campground itself was quite nice. Just acres and acres of lush green forestation. Clean grounds and washrooms. A beautiful sunset over the lake. No electrical 'pollution'. No noise pollution - except for crickets, in the field. Other than the car trouble - quite a pleasant stay! We'll be returning next year.