The family and I stayed at Poland Spring Campground for 8 days this August. It’s a family campground with activities for kids but make siblings share arts and crafts materials if the activities director doesn’t plan ahead. (Lots of crying from my youngest because she wanted to make one herself and showed up to the activity 15 minutes early, yet, got her materials yanked out of her hands when another child showed up 15 minutes late). Very strict 4 adult, 4 child per site rule so forget about having even paying visitors. Quiet time is 11 (even talking!) they will force you to go to sleep by 11 if you’re not COMPLETELY silent! Practically destroyed my camper getting in and out of the campground thanks to the way they tell you to get to your site (unnecessarily making me loop through the whole damn place instead of taking the straight shot in) Trees and roots everywhere making it impossible to take turns and forget about kids on bikes! I cleaned so many wounds during our stay from my kids falling off their bikes thanks to the landscape. Really weird dirt there also, it’s like a clay of some sort and caked to the bottom of your shoes and made a mess all through the camper no matter what I did. A couple of us went barefoot a lot and they are still treating a weird rash that developed on the bottom of their feet. We will not be going back. The only reason I gave them a star at all is because of Riley in the front office. Long walk to the “beach” no matter which campsite you book. No place to lay out so leave your beach chair at home. Bathroom on my side of the campground was disgusting! So many bugs and spiders and the clay dirt was all over the floors even right after they cleaned.
Beaver Brook in Monmouth Maine is a must stay if you have kids from babies to teens. Our family has been going annually for the last five years. We meet up with a couple Moms and their children who we don’t get to see too often and make it a “girls and kids” trip and have a blast making memories and gives us moms a well deserved break. This year we opted for a small group site with a centrally located fire pit and spent our days in the lake, pool, or just hanging out while our kids (ranging from 8-12) rode their bikes, made friends at the playground or participated in the activities that the camp had to offer. Sites are all big with plenty of room between the sites for the perfect amount of privacy. Hook ups for water/electric/sewer but also tons of tent sites too. Staff is friendly and helpful, kids loved the big red and blue slides at the pool, restaurant, ice cream and store all in the same area.
For parents; live entertainment with local bands on Saturday nights, an adult only swim nightly. (Playground is close enough to the pool to actually enjoy this while listening to my kids play), candy bar bingo (where you can play bingo WITH your kids and was quite fun) and just a nice atmosphere all around between all the other families there.
Will definitely be back next year!
The family went to Loon’s Haven this weekend (Thurs-Sun) and had a blast. This campground has the cleanest bathrooms I have ever seen while camping. The pond is crystal clear and we boated over to one of the small islands to find a rope swing which provided entertainment and memories for my children. There is also a bigger rope swing directly across the pond from the beach but I wouldn’t recommend taking children under 13 to it because you have to get on a platform and you have to clear many rocks before letting go. The campground is on the small side with no chance of getting lost and has mostly seasonal campers there. The only problem with that is they feel entitled to scream “slow down” at you when going 6-7 mph on the 5 mph road. I get it, there are kids around but to scream at strangers coming in is a little much. I gave it a 4 star rating because I feel they could have more activities throughout the day and they don’t have any (from what I could tell) during the week. No pool but a cute little beach which fills up fast. Nice playground and the store/canteen has great food and great prices compared to other campgrounds we’ve been to. Curfew for kids to be on their site is 10pm. Beware- if you need to go into town make sure you get a card to get back in the gate! They close it down at 8pm and my husband and I could not get back in! They never even offered me a key card at check in. Overall we really liked the campground and had a good time.
Went to Papoose over Memorial weekend with the family and had a blast! Staff was super friendly, tons of activities for kids and adults, nightly entertainment, and lots more! Played parents VS kids kickball and laughed so hard. They have an nice pool and lake. We tie dyed as an activity as a family and in turn had a great souvenir to bring home. We booked for next Memorial weekend while there because we had so much fun!
Apparently KOA recently purchased this campground and while there were newer facilities (bathhouses mostly) the place was still in need of lots of repairs. River and water slide was fun and they did provide us with a late checkout of 5pm but only because one of my children was covered in ticks from an nest that was on the ground and the other got poison ivy. I don’t recommend camping riverside because the mosquitoes were the worst I’ve seen in my life and I grew up in Maine so I know mosquitoes and how bad they can be. The adults only hot tub wasn’t working on our side which meant we had to go to the one by the water slide with tons of kids nearby. Not very relaxing if you ask me. Staff was friendly enough but definitely did not go out of their way to go above and beyond. Security drives by your campsite on their golf carts a million times day and night and stares you down.