Nice enough campground, but we will never stay there again.
That being said, the campground itself was very nice, the sites were very large, the place was very clean....It has a lot of fun activities and if they had a more flexible cancellation policy I would have given it 4 stars. I am also not a fan of the gate system they have, it is borderline prison in the restrictiveness. I do not agree with being chained in at night with the only way out to call the police to get the gate open in an emergency. If my child needed to go to the hospital I suspect I would have had to pay for damages to said gate...
We ended up only staying on the property to sleep and could not enjoy the place due to the smell.
As mentioned, I eventually talked to the owner, and for that I upgraded the review.
I wouldn't call this a campground, more a glorified, overpriced park. Road to the campsite is nestled in between a couple shopping plazas off the main road and it's really just a football field behind. We called beforehand- got there late due to traffic. The staff was rude at checkin. They repeatedly emphasized that it was a FAMILY campground and they want it quiet and safe. They said it so many times they were being rather condescending, most campgrounds are family oriented and we're not criminals. Lady gave us the map to get to the campsite but suggested we might get lost, advised us against driving the wrong way down the one way roads, etc. She talked to us like we were kids who needed to be reprimanded even though we were guests who are in our thirties with kids. I thought it was odd but brushed it off. That was until we got to the campsite & were seriously disappointed. The camping areas are the smallest and closest together I have ever seen at any campsite I have ever been to. There was a family of 6 staying in a tent literally a foot away from where we needed to set up our tent and if you had sat at the picnic table and stretched a hand out you could touch the truck parked in the next site. The two sapling trees in between the spaces were held up with rope and I could wrap one hand around them. They had a dozen families in an area smaller than my modest eighth of an acre backyard. Wife was horrified, she wouldn't even get out of the car. Went back immediately after seeing the campsite and asked for our money back and they refused. They had said over the phone when we booked the night before that there was a $20/night cancellation fee but now told us reservations have to be cancelled 30 days in advance. Five star resorts we've been to have a cancellation policy of maybe 48 hours; wife was livid. Man, who wasn't owner, behind the counter proceeded to tell her how a business is run, clearly unwise to the fact that she went to business school and he's a lackey at a campground; now I'm getting mad. They offered to move us to a different campsite and we reluctantly agreed. Our friends, another couple we were camping with were also stuck in extreme traffic and had left a couple hours after us. Front gate closes at eleven so you can't get your car in at all but they don't want you going through the key pad gate to get to your campsite after ten either and we told them that they wouldn't be there until around ten. They made a really big deal about giving us the keypad code for the other car but did give it to us. Friends barely made it in in time and when we gave them their pass to the gate for their car it was the same as ours! Had to trick the gate to get both cars through with one code. Later, at 11pm sharp, a guy came around with a water bucket and put everyone's fires out, although a couple of our neighbor's re-lit theirs. We sat in the dark in the tent and talked before bed. They actually came out around 1am and told us to "go to bed" (I'm completely serious.) Next morning they told us we had been too loud and that cops would escort us out if it happened again. Neighbors who had stayed up across the way actually defended us and said we weren't even being loud. We packed up everything and left. The rude lady who checked us in almost hit us in her car driving the wrong way down a one way camp road while we were leaving. Then we couldn't get out bc we had two cars and one keypad code. They didn't believe us that both codes were the same, they made us show them both papers with the codes, and finally admitted they messed up and let the other car out. They refused to give us the name of the owner. We called another site, told them we had booked a campsite nearby and the spaces were just too close together and we couldn't even hold a private conversation whispering in our tent without being too loud: they immediately guessed that we were at Saco River Camping Area and told us they got calls like this often. Spent rest of vacation at a different site. Luckily the rest of our vacation and camping experience went great!
Nice campground, a bit close, beautiful dog park, nice amenities for kids. Quite a few mosquitoes, but everyone still had a great time!
Fun place for all ages. Great amenities and friendly staff.
We left a day early as we finally could not take it anymore and the owner clearly did not care.
I would have given a different review if the owner had even tried to respond to us.
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All that being said, forces of nature cannot be predicted, and in the future we will only book on the weekends and take our chances during the week so we can relocate if need be,
I will never go there again and would not recommend until the ownership changes.
About two days after arriving someone fertilized right on the other side of the river and it was so bad my eyes watered...we tried to stick it out but it was too much for us and I have asthma. We asked at the front about the situation and they would not even acknowledge the issue at first. I asked about an early departure and they said they would need to contact the owner...i went back multiple times to ask and they got no reply from the owner.
A response from the owner says they have no record of my stay. Yes, because I don't use my full name on the internet as I don't find that safe. Also, you are assuming I was the one who made the reservation. This occurrence most certainly happened. If you look through the reviews, you will see that other campers have had similar complaints. Positive change starts with admitting fault, which you're clearly not willing to do, so, we will not be giving you a second chance. That's ok, there are plenty of nice camp grounds in North Conway, none of which have I had such a bad experience with.
2 days earlier in the week, we had to leave the campground, close up the trailer and go elsewhere during the day as the smell was so powerful I could not stay there. It was much better at the front of the campground than in the back,and not once did anyone come back there as requested.
I will say this however, in the past, when we could not stay in a spot/campground due to outside forces...(Hurricane, floods, forest fireor any other reasonable outside influence..Yes, we have been chased out by all those) The campground did not charge us for those days.
Grew up going here and loving it. Then a few years ago it was bought by new owners. Terribly rude, compassionless, unprofessional people who are not cut out for working with people. The night we arrived it was storming, torrential down pour, thunder, lightening, etc. We kept calling to let them know we would be late. No answer, even though it was hours before the office closed. We left a voicemail asking hem to call us back if there would be an issue. They did not. We got there and we and several other guests were locked out. They left no information, no key, nothing. We called so many times on the line that was supposed to be for emergencies. Nothing. Finally some college kids who had been out and forgot their key had their parents, (who they were camping with) let them in, and so we all drove in and helped each other find our way to our sites in the dark storm. We put up our tent in the storm (our small car was too full with our stuff and our dog). The next day, they were mad at all of us for coming onto the property without permission. We asked for money back, but only received threats. Us and all our neighbors will never, ever patron this camp ground again. So sad that a place once filled wit only happy memories is now tainted by these awful people. I do not usually leave such emotionally charged reviews but I just am still shocked at how these people treated nearly a dozen of their used-to-be regulars.
Saco River Camping Area is a US Campground based in Conway, New Hampshire. Saco River Camping Area is located at 1550 White Mountain Hwy, North Conway, NH 03860, USA.
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