Harpers Ferry / Civil War Battlefields KOA

Great location, amazing amenities(huge pool, game room, snack bar, camp store, coffee shop etc.), and friendly employees, but these are where the positives end. I've never stayed at a KOA/campground where the sites were so unlevel, close together, and the whole infrastructure in need of repair. 

The Historic trench section is nice in the trees, but the roads are crumbling and too small for most RV's. If the person across from your site is already parked, good luck having enough room to back into your site. Our site was so unlevel that I was not able to get the RV leveled the entire weekend. Looking at the surrounding sites most campers were jacked high on blocks or sloping significantly. The section of sites were on a curve/semi-circle, which caused the site beside ours to be even smaller. We had to move our picnic table to give space for this person to back his camper on the site. They were unable to get even close to level so they didn't put out their slide. There is a new section to the campground out in the open whose sites are more level, but they are even closer together than the section we stayed in. 

In addition to the poor sites, little enforcement was done regarding monitoring the number of people on the sites and the partying going on. A nearby site had 15+ people on Friday night partying and carrying on until 1:30AM until a fight broke out. They had a boombox on the bumper of the camper and blasted music all evening. After hours any vehicle can enter the campground as there is no gate. Cars/trucks pulled up to the party sites, who just drove in to party. I know calls were made to the office as neighboring campers stated to us. On Saturday night, the group wasn't quite as rambunctious, due to a visible presence of staff driving by, but with a campground this size, regular monitoring and shutting down of quiet hour violators should occur pre-actively. Harpers Ferry KOA could be so much more if they would invest in site upgrades and rule monitoring. We will not return.

Don’t know much about RV’ing as this was my very first time, so this review is very brutally honest. Upon arrival, I was met by such friendly staff. They made me feel comfortable as this was my first RVing experience. I stayed in lot 46, for the most part 95% evenly graveled. The park was very clean. The facilities were extremely clean. Bathrooms were phenomenal great hot showers , the location was within distance to Charlestown and also other convenience stores. The only negative thing that I have to say about this place was the fact that they still did not have Wi-Fi (even though I had read all the reviews that the Wi-Fi had been out for a while, the problem has yet been fixed). Other than the Wi-Fi issue this particular KOA was extremely nice. 

We stayed on one of the new spots near the woods, 107. Had plenty of room to maneuver! Two down sides are that the gravel is now quite level and our unit was completely off of tires, kind of scary with a slope. Also there is a loud pump from the hotel across the way that goes off all day and night. Otherwise, the grounds are well maintained and very clean.

Partiers with foul mouths through out the campground. No enforcement of quiet hours..did not quiet down till 1am. We felt bad for anyone with children having to listen to the language and fighting.

Definitely crowds up on the weekends but the amenities are endless! Wish site space was larger overall… my camping chair is straddling the neighbors black tank… I’m interested in seeing how we make it outta here just because people are allowed to park wherever they want and again… the lots are super tiny… office is huge and they even offer alcohol.

They say it’s BRF but that’s deceiving. IMO only sites with concrete patio $$$ are BRF. The other sites roads are narrow and tight to get in and out. Sites are rock mostly level but hold water. The sewer connection in our site would leak when dumping. There are some permanent site campers who have a collection of junk laying around. Staff was friendly and had lots of activities scheduled. Would stay again if the concrete patio site is available.

Had a relaxing weekend here as our first trip of the season. Weather was pretty good but windy at times. We had 3 RVs in sites 12, 13, and 14 as well as 2 of the deluxe cabins. Our RV sites faced the large parking lot with dump station and registration building. Not an ideal view but it was okay. Site 13 had the best space. Site 12 was good too. Both had a concrete patio, great fire pit, and a round resin picnic table with 4 nice chairs. Site 14 was narrow and no patio. The area in the back had more wooded sites. They are expanding and creating more sites so there was some construction noise but that stopped by 4:30pm and not on the weekend. Campground was at capacity in the full hookup sites and seemed like it would’ve been noisy but it wasn’t. The cabins had a queen bed, 2 bunks, microwave and refrigerator and a small bathroom. That was a tight space but a bathroom none the less. There are bath houses too. Putt putt golf was free and they had a playground and bounce area for kids. There’s a pool that looked nice but not open yet and I saw an indoor basketball court sign. In season they offer a pancake breakfast most days and a small coffee shop. The store was well stocked with supplies, food, wine, and souvenirs and also offered coffee. Locally, you’ll find the town of Harpers Ferry, river rafting/tubing, and the Harpers Ferry brewery that has a gorgeous view and live music that’s just minutes away.

The beauty in this area is undeniable. Hiking, scenic views, the whole 9 yards. This campground was likely top of the line in its day. They are making upgrades on the grounds and I can see where they might fix what I’m about to tell you MAYBE, but I doubt it.

Wi-Fi - Do NOT expect great cell service or Wi-Fi here if you need it. We ended up here much longer than expected and needed it. It was tough to stay connected at best.

Laundry - Beware of the laundry area. It is not exclusively for KOA campers, any member of the community that knows about it can come wash ANYTHING in this laundry - including horse blankets, manure laden animal covers that haven’t even been rinsed off and grease covered coveralls. They have started doing better at cleaning out the dryer vents but be patient and bring quarters.

Water Pressure - the water pressure here is EXTREMELY high. You MUST have a pressure control before booking it to your RV. I understand why they have it up so high for the high volume summer months. It makes sense, but just beware.

Desk Staff - Front desk is very nice when you walk in. However, do not expect to get anyone on the phone. If you have an emergency of any sort and cannot handle it yourself, you will need to go physically find a person on site. They are all very kind and helpful so no worries there, but phones don’t get answered. That said, they do return your message if you can wait.

Issues - We had issues with one of the staff that doesn’t normally deal with customers (and shouldn’t) blonde lady in a back office. She was condescending, snarky and tried to tell me how my bank messed something up when a charge was attempted without my knowledge. If you do a monthly stay, watch your accounts. For you smart Alec’s out there, yes I read my contract and yes, I owed the money. Im human and forgot. However, it is common business courtesy to let a customer know that you are charging their account and due to their lack of communication, their charges remained pending for nearly two weeks, holding approximately $196 in limbo.

This park could be absolutely amazing. Truly, I do not know how the money gets distributed in a franchise such as this, but from a layman’s point of view, there seems to be no excuse for the lack of upkeep on many areas of this park. Possible short staffed at the time - that would make sense.

We know off season can limit amenities, but it’s often quiet and peaceful. This wasn’t the case for our stay, although fairly empty the campground wasn’t in the best shape. The facilities that were open could use some work. The restrooms are showing some age and damage. It didn’t help that during our stay, on a late Saturday afternoon, someone who was part of a large group of young, loud kids appeared to have missed their mark while using the restroom, and then must have decided to paint some of the bathroom with it. We did call the after hours line at around 8:45 on Saturday night, as the bathroom was rather disgusting and unusable, but no action was taken in our time there. I know it’s not the campsites fault that people are terrible, this campsite just happened to have a lot of loud and rude guests, ignoring quiet hours, etc.

I booked last minute and got the last paved, pull-through spot for the weekend prior to Halloween. Every weekend in October there are family-friendly festivities, and the guests and staff got really into it. It’s very close to Harper’s Ferry (almost worth the hike into town rather than the difficulty finding parking in a town with one parking lot). Took the dogs to the frequented Maryland Heights Trail, and that was a great 4-5 mile uphill jaunt that overlooks the town. Stunning in autumn. The site was clean, offered recycling, and the on-site store was convenient. For how close it is to Washington DC and Frederick MD, this is an easy getaway.

Nice amenities, everything you could want in the camp store. Sites are very close.

A lot of activities for kids, especially durning the month of October. Everyone decorates there campsites and kids dress up in costumes.

This place is right outside the gate of Harpers Ferry NP. We walked to the shuttle bus stop. It is a very large KOA, and was almost empty when we visited in September. The original site the gave us had a large rut and washed out spot, so we could not get level. I checked in the office and the reassigned another space that was much better. Full hook ups, nice clean shower and bathrooms, playground, pool, large dog park.

Narrow unlevel sites and sewage runs up hill. The staff tried to convince us that a 45' site was 60', which would not fit our 43' rig. Staff actually suggested another campground when we complained.

There are spots of the camp ground for travel trailers that are right on top of each other. No big deal though as there is plenty to choose from. The tent sites are all wooded and nice. My site with my 26’ was tight to get into. Took a little maneuvering to get in but all is well. Overall, will come back many times more.

This campground is very convenient to many historic and recreational sites. Some of the sites are very shaded, but like most KOAs the sites are pretty close together. The campground has a nice big pool and lots of activities for the kids. 

The area has river float and whitewater rapids trips on both the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. We were able to walk or ride our bikes to the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and access the C+O Canal Tow Path from there. Antietam Battlefield is not far from the park and just across the Virginia border were a ton of vineyards.

We had trouble leveling our rig and almost had to buy more leveling blocks from the camp store for $60($28 on Walmart.com) We made it work without but we saw one of our neighbors use a cooler to support there stabilizer jacks that couldn't reach the ground🤦‍♂️.

This was a great weekend trip. We took River Riders down the river. The KOA has a foot path that leads there or a shuttle with scoop you up. We had a really nice site with the deluxe patio on the end of the row. It gave us plenty of room, however most sites were very crammed together.

We had some friends stay in a cabin which they enjoyed. The cabin was located back in the woods by the civil war trench and was pretty secluded.

There is a lot on offer here to keep everyone busy. The town of Harpers Ferry is very close and lots of great trails to explore in the nearby area. Casino in Charles Town is also close if that’s your thing. Wifi and cell service was great.

Only thing I didn’t care for is the sites are pretty close together and some of the back-in sites are not very level. We were camping with friends so knew the people in the sites on both sides so didn’t mind the closeness, but otherwise that wouldn’t have been great.

Nice enough for overnight or 2 day. Staff is nice. Great attractions in the area. Some spots are big rig friendly but none are paved or very flat. Park is maintained ok but sites are sloppy, packed in and the park gets very crowded on the weekends. WiFi is absolutely terrible, which is not something we would review about but they are making no efforts to improve an outdated system. Basically there is none, if you need to check email or kids need to do school work - don’t come here. Movies and tv are completely out of question. It actually doesn’t seem like there is much pride in ownership on this one, unfortunately.

Great campsite and cabins in the campground. Surrounded by greenery. There is a rafting spot close by. Tonnes of indoor entertainment. There is a mini golf course inside the ground. Great for a weekend getaway.

Grounds were fairly well-maintained. Saw lots of park employees and not much trash around. Latrines were clean, fairly pleasant. Not much space between camp pads, so noise and light disturbances made it hard to enjoy. Overall, good experience; woodline had plenty of felled timber for firewood. Prob could've done without the person playing banjo at 10pm several sites over.

Broken water pipe flooded our site, broken sewer pipe that left raw sewage on our site, no WiFi, no cable, neighbors utility pole in the center of our site and their sewage pipe right next to our picnic table. They dug up the utility pole in the middle of our campsite without notifying us, leaving their tools all over the site and moving our stuff and smoking/throwing butts on the site.  No one answers the after hours phone number. Noisy at night. The manager was completely unresponsive despite me trying for days and days to talk to her. She wouldn't call me back or come by the site to talk to us and see the issues. The neighbors told us that they notified the campground of the water leak/flooding prior to us coming and yet the campground put us on this site anyway knowing full well of the broken utilities.

We stayed at Harpers Ferry KOA for a long weekend. Upon arrival we were told that the campround was going to be at full capacity. Just after puling into  into our site we immediatley noticed puddles that were growing and leak from the adjoining sites water hook up. We went to the office and maintenance responed at first telling us that in order to fix the leak they would have to shut off water and dig up lines in about half of the campground. At the same time we discovered that the cable was not working, and neither was the wifi. Maintenence came back and was able to stop the leak. We were then told that due to the leak , no one would be put on that site. People camping on the other side of us told us that the campground had been aware of the leak because they reported it hours before our arrival as well, and nothing had been done, We opted to stay on that site for remainder of the stay as were were already set up. We then went on an outing only to return to find that a work crew began to work on the water line , moved out gear , and threw cigarette butts around our site as well. On top of that the sewer hook up was also leaking. The actual manager was asked for but never responded to any calls. The sites were also very close together and tight.

The staff was not very knowledgable on the area attractions either. I asked two different employees how to get to the local attractions and neither could tell me.All I was told was that the battlefields were closed, but people could still walk around on foot.  After some exploring we were able to find historic Harpers Ferry about a mile up the road. Harpers Ferry was great. Most of the shops and restaurants were open and great. 

Cell service in the area for both AT&T and Verizon was poor. I do not know if this was due to the terrain or lack of towers. The area of Harpers Ferry was nice, but the campground experience was not.

My go-to weekend KOA getaway! They should give frequent visitor rewards. 😀 I love this KOA. People are always so friendly and neighborly. Living in DC, this takes 1 hour to get to, and it is the closest I can get to experiencing a “real” camping experience. Meaning, you’re deep in the woods, smells of campfires, kids biking around, large groups of friends and family; yet, you have all of the amenities of a KOA resort. Excellent campground for kids, too. Lots to do and special events all of the time. It’s a huge campground, so there is a place for everyone: large rv’s with patios away from the woods, then everyone else gets to be in the woods. Beautiful cabins throughout the campground. The tent areas are awesome. Highly recommend!

This was our first stay at a KOA. We had previously stayed away because although we are glampers, this seemed too much like a resort and less like camping. And although this is true, we were pleasantly surprised with the conditions of the campground and how much fun we had here. First, the grounds are kept in great shape. The roads were freshly paved, the grass/trees trimmed, and the grounds clear of trash. We got lucky and got an end site despite arriving without a reservation. To top it all off, we got there during get one free sale and ended up paying less for a site here than at the less attractive Harper's Ferry campground. You can divide up the ground into two locations, the big-rig park with no trees and the smaller-rig area in the woods. We have a 34' travel trailer and although the site was narrow, it was easily long enough to fit our needs. If we hadn't had an end spot, I would have felt a little crowded with my next door neighbor, but that's KOA. The amenities for kids were incredible, with arts/crafts, a movie theatre, an arcade, nice playground, and jumping pillow. The pool looked like something out of the dark swamp, but it was early in the season and gated off, so I didn't think about it much. For adults they had wine tastings and a coffee shop open on the weekend. I felt so pampered.  The best part about this site is the location. We could walk or easily drive to Harper's Ferry NP visitor center, from where we could take a bus into downtown (if you didn't want to hunt for parking in town). Harper's Ferry is a cute little historic town and the hiking is amazing, being right on the Appalachian Trail. A few more tidbits - the store was well-stocked and not too expensive, bathroom/shower facilities were clean and plentiful, laundry worked and was average price. Would stay here again and recommend to others.

Love the surrounding area. The camp store is one of the best. We have attended Holloween event several years and it’s so much fun with decorating contests and trick or treating!

We stayed in a cabin here, was alittle pricey but worth it. Toddler had a blast with all the activites. and its located close enough to everything

We come to this campground every year for Halloween camping. Staff is friendly and actually seem to enjoy their jobs. The free pancakes on the weekends are a must! Lots for the kids to do and a wine tasting on saturdays for the adult.

fun place to be in the summer

Great location, clean, big pool, mini golf a little run down and bounce house is broken, but jump area was great for kids. Close to tubing and rafting.