Harpers Ferry / Civil War Battlefields KOA

We set up camp at Harpers Ferry/Civil War Battlefields KOA Holiday as our launchpad to visit the historic sites in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and Frederick, Maryland. 

We paid$114/night(average per night, including fees and taxes) for Site# 94. A bit pricey considering a lack of elbow room, but it’s a great location and everything is well-kept. 

THINGS I LIKED: 

• Location, Location, Location! Close proximity to plenty of historic and tourist places to visit. The Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Visitor Center is literally next door. Harpers Ferry Lower Town and Bolivar Heights are a few minutes by car(or shuttle from the Visitor Center). Frederick and Antietam are each barely 30-minutes by car. Gettysburg, Baltimore, and DC are about an hour’s drive. 

• Clean and level gravel site with well-maintained utility hook-ups. 

• Great campground store filled with food, drinks, camp supplies, souvenirs, and essentials you may need while away from home. 

• Friendly staff in the office& store. 

• The whole park is quiet and well-maintained. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH: 

• Heads up, big rig owners! Our Pull-thru FHU Patio site(#199) had a serious slope. It was impossible to level my 45’ motorhome without elevating the front wheels dangerously in the air. The nice staff kindly moved us to a FHU site without the patio and furniture. And refunded the difference in price for the lesser site. Thanks for providing the move but ‘premium’ sites should be somewhat level, am I right? 

• Get cozy, the sites are quite small and tightly packed together. 

• A $3 per night“Pet Fee” for our small, mostly-indoor dog felt a bit like nickel-and-diming. I realize it only amounted to an extra$12, but he didn’t need any extra gravel. 

WOULD WE COME BACK? 

• Absolutely, this is a nice campground with lots of great places nearby including Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Frederick, Washington DC, Baltimore, and more.

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.

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 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.

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.