Best Glamping near Forest Dale, VT

We camped here for two nights for a mid-week getaway. The park is small, quiet and very well cared for. Restrooms are modern and clean. Everyone seems to adhere to quiet hours so it was easy to get a good night's sleep. There's no difficulty with fires here, because the firewood sold on site is kiln dried and kept in a shed, and the fire pits are 3 - sided concrete block. We had a waterfront site so we could launch our kayaks right from our site. The pond is very weedy, so fishing was not so great, but the hiking trails around the park were fun. Half Moon is a hidden gem!

We pulled in in the middle of memorial day weekend. The place was sold out. Staff was super friendly and had us check in on no time. The campground loses a start only because when it's at full capacity, it is very cramped. Some sites are much bigger than others and have more space though. The Schroon River run right through the campgrounds and you can rent kayaks and canoes or bring your own to go a ride. There is a little beach and just launch on site. The bathrooms are very nice and all individual with a toilet and shower in one. Another downside of you're more full-time is there is no laundry on site. You're 4 miles away from Lake George's downtown which is a great area. Plenty of nearby hikes. Each campsite had a BBQ-like fire pit. Campground has a very nice basketball court, pool and playground. Dog friendly and even we were there it looks like their looking to expand and make more sites. Only one cabin available at the moment.

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!

This KOA is what you expect from a KOA– lots of amenities, sites of all sizes and levels of cost, tons of activities, and in a vacation destination area. We spent five nights at the campground and found lots to do in the area and that we had an enjoyable and pleasant stay. 

The park is a large park that is terraced since it is in a pretty hilly area. There is the range of sites from pull-thrus, pull-ins and back-in sites and can accommodate RVs of any size. Some sites are full hookup while others are not and that is reflected in the cost. We paid $57/nigh for our full hookup site which is pretty costly especially since we did not use any of the amenities. Most sites are gravel with gravel patios but there are deluxe sites with paved patios, patio furniture, umbrella, and gas bbq grill. There are also camping cabins, some of which have kitchenettes and bathrooms that sleep six people. 

Our site, was located in the back of the park in a quieter section because it was away from most of the activities and park entrance. The site was a pull-in which was kind of nice because the view out of our front windshield was of a wooded area. Our fire pit was in the front of our site so there was a nice amount of privacy when we sat outside by a campfire and didn’t feel like we were on the side of the road. Despite the hilliness of the park and all the trees, we did not have any trouble navigating our 45’ RV to our site. The trees at our site would prevent satellite television reception but our site had cable and we got about 20 or so channels. The staff was very friendly and helpful. Like many KOAs there are tons of amenities and things for kids to do – swimming pool, fishing ponds, bike rental, scheduled activities, propane sales, camp store, fire wood delivery, and more. There is a fenced dog park which was a fairly good size and our lab was happy to chase a ball. 

As a whole, the park was very clean and manicured. No trash laying around and the gravel roads were free of potholes. The campground is located near the Queechee Gorge, covered bridges, hiking trails (including sections of the Appalachian Trail), good dining, maple syrup/cheese farm, the Marsh Billings- Rockefeller National Historic Park.

This is the only campground in the area I will stay at. It has so many benefits, I may not be able to do it justice in this review. The sites are huge. We fit two camper vans, two tents and put up a 20x20 rain tarp on Site 5. The site was freshly raked when we got there, and the leftover wood was stacked next to the fire pit. Picnic table easily seats 8. Lots of bathrooms around the park, each with showers. Firewood and Ice, along with some necessities are available at the office. Cell phone service is touchy depending on where you are in the park. There is fresh water available. Lots of activities to do here, from the Nature Center and hiking trails to seriously wicked mountain biking trails designed by Mr. Knight overlooking the reservoir where boating of all kinds is allowed. And the fishing in the river below is quite stellar. There's even an abandoned town up on top of the mountain for younto check out.

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 tent we stayed in was gorgeous! We fit 5 of us comfortably. Linens, blankets and pillows were provided. There was a fire pit, BBQ, picnic table with umbrella, covered platform, and a partition between campsites. There were plenty or outdoor activities to do such as swimming, tubing, kayaking, sports, and bike rentals. They had a gift shop and arcade on site as well. We unfortunately got hit with some pretty bad weather so we couldn't enjoy the grounds as much as we would have liked to but that was obviously not their fault. We had to evacuate the mountain our last evening because of really bad thunder and lightening but the ranger was very helpful and came around to warn us all and encourage us to be careful. They even refunded us for that last night. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a real "glamping" experience! You always see those fancy campsites on Pinterest or Instagram so now you can experience it yourself close to home if you live in NY.

We made the most of our rainy weekend by checking out the town and some caves. Plenty to do in the area of you want to venture out of the campgrounds but if you're there with good weather I doubt you will be bored!!

Absolute worst campground we have ever been to(and we do a TON of camping in state parks both in NY and out of state and private campgrounds as well). When we arrived our site was covered in trash and the picnic table was in the site next to ours with old propane tanks sitting on them. Beer bottle caps and cigarette ends were EVERYWHERE on our site, crushed cans and bottles scattered around, tons of garbage throughout the site(plastic spoons, cardboard pieces, plastic wrappers, a huge metal pipe, etc.) We spent the first half hour there cleaning up all the trash on our site and we didn't even get it all. All of the sites next to us had just as much trash in them as well and were never cleaned up the duration of our stay either. When walking around we noticed tons of other sites with garbage left in them too. I don't think any of the sites are checked after checkout and if they are they are definitely not cleaned up at all after check out. We stayed on the'other side of the road' and the bathrooms were absolutely disgusting and falling apart. They were never cleaned at all during our stay(although we seen workers sitting in the golf cart goofing around and talking several times instead of actually cleaning the bathrooms). The only thing the workers did was add toilet paper(and not even enough because there were several times we went and there was no toilet paper). We were there 5 nights and the trash can wasn't emptied once and none of the garbage or toilet paper on the floor was ever picked up. There was also poop smeared across the wall and door in the one stall and poop all over one of the other toilets that was like that our whole stay as well. Mirror was literally tapped together with black tape, there was only one faucet handle and locks on the stall were broken. We had to go across the street into the other side of the campground to shower and the showers were absolutely disgusting. Black mold covered the shower curtains, was all in the lights and on the lower and higher sections of walls and it smelled like mildew. It was gross and cannot possibly be safe. This is definitely a party campground and no quiet hours are enforced. People were up partying, drinking and blasting music literally all night. It's such a shame because the location of this campground is amazing and it has the potential to be a great campground but we will never go back. We have never been to any campground this dirty, unkempt and with workers who literally just don't care or do their jobs. Such a disappointment. Wish I had seen all the other bad reviews before going.