June 6th, 2011
Tiger Run RV Resort is located in Breckenridge, Colorado and is the only campground close to all of the major ski towns, it’s 5 minutes from downtown Breckenridge, 10 minutes or so to Frisco and just 30 miles to Vail. Since it’s the only campground that is truly close.. if you want to RV camp this is it. The resort is primarily purchased spots with log cabin mobile homes on them as you seen in above photos. The grounds and facilities are nice, a little pricey, we stayed in the cheapest they offer at $40/night (regular season, not peak) and these spots are at the very back of the resort with a little bit of a walk to the bath house and other amenities. It’s beautiful, how can it not be surrounded by the Rocky Mountains.. and for convenience cannot be beat. The womens bathroom was under major construction while we were there with men working behind a plastic sheeted area, a little disconcerting but will be very nice when finished I’m sure. Overall a paws up.
Filed Under: travel
Tagged: colorado, looky loo review, rv park breckenridge, rv park review, rv parks vail, tiger run rv resort
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May 31st, 2011
We stayed at Prospect Park RV in Denver. There are not many choices if you want to stay within the city like we did.. most campgrounds are 15 to 30 miles outside of the city (from downtown). We really wanted to enjoy the city and surrounding areas like Boulder without having to drive so far each day which is what led us to Prospect, one of only two we found that were within a 10 mile radius.
The park has pros and cons, location is in the suburb of Wheat Ridge and is very convenient for getting around the city. The bathrooms are unisex which is not our favorite as we’ve reviewed in previous looky-loo’s, however the set up is unique in that there are 8 individual bathrooms (with shower/toilet/sink) and the 8 are divided among the people staying. Each camper receives a key to their shared bathroom, so in other words, don’t wait till you really need to go because if it’s in use when you get there the other doors are locked and you might find yourself in a bit of a situation. Overall it was fairly easy to get in with either of us only having to wait once or twice each and they were cleaned daily. The laundry in nice, in fact new washers were installed during our stay.
It is more of a trailer park than an RV park in that almost all of the park is permanent residents or workers who are staying for an undetermined amount of time. If you want to stay here you really need to know in advance to be able to get a reservation, preferably you might want to book ahead at least a month or more and then be diligent to make sure you have secured said reservation before arrival. The spots that are most frequently available are not full hook-up and even those are booked most of the time.
The best feature of this RV park (besides the bunnies) is having Prospect Park right outside your door, you don’t look over it from your site but you’re steps away from great walking/running/biking paths.
Filed Under: travel
Tagged: colorado, denver, denver rv parks, looky loo review, prospect park, Prospect Park RV Denver, rv park review
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May 19th, 2011
Amarillo RV Ranch is the busiest RV park we’ve been at since we hit the road. There were people checking in from morning till evening. Amarillo is definitely a crossroads for a lot of people and they’re all staying at this park, us included! Although we didn’t find a ton to do in Amarillo this park offered a great opportunity to catch up on day to day stuff. And, huge perk.. they have phenomenal internet service and great cable. Which means we got to catch up on some tv time (like the last 5 episodes of Raising Hope.. so funny!) and didn’t even feel guilty about it because it was super duper windy and there wasn’t much to do in town anyway.
The park itself is a flat grassy/dirt park, all spots are pull through, the clubhouse has a big indoor pool, the laundry facilities were great and the front desk volunteers were extremely friendly. If you have kids, the waterpark (in above photo) is about ten steps out the front gate. The bathrooms were large with the largest individual shower stalls thus far, so nice to turn around and not hit the wall of the shower..it’s the little things. Another bonus, they take Passport America (for two nights) and we think other club discounts as well, but we have Passport so we didn’t ask further that that. We would definitely stop here again if we pass through the Texas Panhandle. Clark & ellen give it a paws up!
→ p.s. ←
We had one good (translation..non-windy) day while in Amarillo, we sat in the sun enjoyed blue skies and got a birds-eye view of the Air Force doing some sort of training or testing (the plane circled about ten times). I think they were catching up on some tube time on that big satellite… catching some of the final shows of Oprah…which I am missing! How I watched her show my whole life and then the final season I miss.. not fair!
Filed Under: travel
Tagged: amarillo ranch rv park, amarillo rv parks, looky loo review, rv park review, texas
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May 16th, 2011
We moved to New Life RV Park in Georgetown, TX from Berry Springs RV hoping for a better bathroom situation. Read about the first stop here. We really wanted to stay in Austin but the one RV place in the city was booked for the month and all other RV parks are located in surrounding suburbs like these two. We drove by quite a few and none looked great. New Life, as you can see from the photos, has very well maintained grounds. The individual sites are very nice, each with bushes bordering between you and your neighbor offering privacy. The pool area is nice but the pool is not heated so pretty chilly even with the hot weather.
Despite our efforts to move onward and upward in the bathroom situation, this park failed miserably. What we didn’t know going in, that we think makes a huge difference, is having separate womens and mens rooms, and this one doesn’t. Just say No to unisex bathrooms. The bathrooms were dirty, really dirty, every single day. In a state or federal park you aren’t paying for this and you go in armed & ready so to speak (not to say those aren’t well kept, you just have different expectations) but in an RV park you are paying for the facility usage, otherwise it would be primitive camping. The toilets had “waste” in them every time and it is not pretty. The floors were always wet and dirty and the cleaning was minimal and non-existent on weekends. It’s byoTP so be forewarned, lest you get yourself in a a situation. They seemed to be used non-stop by men and we don’t know how they keep the big buses they were coming out of to use the facilities, but if how they left the bathrooms was any indication…scary. In summary, the grounds are kept perfect but the bathroom is a big pass.
For this looky-loo review clark & ellen give the same report as last, if you do not need the bathhouse at all it’s a go, if you do, keep on moving.
Filed Under: travel
Tagged: austin tx rv parks, georgetown tx rv parks, looky loo review, new life rv park, rv park review, texas
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May 12th, 2011
We really wanted to stay close to downtown Austin but with the exception of one place in downtown (which is very hard to get into without at least a month ahead reservation) you are pretty much relegated to commuting. We liked the overall look of Berry Springs RV, the hosts were exceptionally nice, the grounds were kept well.. nothing fancy but good. The laundry is free, haven’t seen that before or since, so a nice perk. But, did you sense that but coming?? But, we only stayed a couple of nights before moving to another spot locally. They only have one, one, bathroom. One teeny tiny bathroom with shower and toilet for a fairly large RV park. It was busier than grand central station and never clean. This is not because they don’t clean it. But when a hundred people are using one bathroom for everything you can’t really keep it clean, especially as tiny as it is. If you don’t need the bathroom facility at all then the park is really good. It is wide open between fields so if it’s windy you’ll feel it, but other than that it’s pleasant. The rate is $25 per night and here’s their website. Clark & Ellen say…if you need the bath facility keep on moving.
Filed Under: travel
Tagged: berry springs rv park, looky loo review, rv park review, rv parks austin tx, rv parks georgetown tx, texas
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April 6th, 2011
Tapo Canyon is a Ventura County Park, it’s one of several that the county runs from beach side to valley. We chose this park for its convenient location to see both Los Angeles and the ocean towns of Santa Barbara & Santa Monica. The park is located in Simi Valley with the drive into the city ranging from 30-40 miles depending on where you’re going.
The drive takes 45 minutes to ?? depending on when you go. On Sunday morning there was little traffic and it went quickly. On a weekday morning we left at 7, planning an early arrival to see things before it was too crowded and it took 2 hours. The upside.. we still beat most of the crowds and could take photos of things that by late morning, early afternoon are mobbed.
Once in the city Santa Monica is just 10-15 minutes away or straight from Tapo is right at 40 miles. Santa Barbara is 65 miles and is a beautiful drive.. see this post to get a great route that includes Ojai. We found it to be very convenient,and the closest to the city that we could find. If you want to drive in from the coast there are many spots, most are primitive camping however.
Simi Valley is beautiful and lush and full of valleys. We very much enjoyed the scenic aspect of this campground. The scenic part also caused us the main negative…no internet reception at all. Zip. This may be of no concern to you and if so then no doubt you’ll love it. The two downsides to no internet for us were… very hard to keep up with 4 blogs and getting way behind is not first on my list. Second, being that we were visiting a city with lots to do and see we would have liked to have done more internet researching during the evenings before venturing out and having to do it all in the car on the way in…so do your homework beforehand!
As the photos show, it is a well maintained park with good amenities, a playground, horses welcome, dogs (on a leash), horseshoes and a separate but public-welcome (on Saturdays) archery field. We felt fortunate that we were there with only one or two other campers. This leads to the only other downfall.
The bathrooms have 2 stalls (which would probably be just fine even when busy) but only one shower per male/female. I could imagine when the park is full the showers having lines. Not ideal.. and the one thing I really, really didn’t like…. the company I kept in the showers. Spiders. Yup. I am n.o.t. a fan and there were many. This is not to say the bathrooms were not kept clean, they absolutely were cleaned and cleaned well. The issue lies in the design. At the top of the showers instead of screens it’s open. So lots of moths and spiders coming in, the minute you clean and leave… they’re baaaccckkkk… Naked + spiders = not fun.
The host was incredibly nice and always available. She was attentive and dedicated to ensuring we were happy. Nothing but 100% positive on her and the overall upkeep of the park. We definitely recommend it, giving it a paws up… just be prepared for no internet and bring some spidey sense with you.
March 28th, 2011
… within minutes of downtown you’re back in the desert…
Sam’s Town RV is off of the strip, as are all but one.. Circus Circus RV. Circus Circus has an RV park but it’s on the far, not very nice end of the strip and even if you stay there your walk to what you will want to see is a major hike. We felt better off staying further out and taking advantage of shuttles that drop you off right in the middle of things than staying at Circus Circus.
Sam’s Town is convenient in that it has a great shuttle with 2 drop off points. The shuttle is free to guests, runs all day and into the evening and takes only about 20 minutes going and 30-35 coming back. We found it very convenient and this is a huge plus to the RV park.
The park is your basic parking lot, but nice, and stays full. We had a somewhat secluded spot off to the back which was nice because we had fewer campers around us and a little more room to spread out. The major downfall to Sam’s Town is the septic system set up. It is a full hook-up RV park, but instead of the septic system having direct connections, you drop your hose into a ground hole and this stinks…literally.
We had not been to a park like this and the smell is horrific. It is a major negative to an otherwise good, convenient park for Vegas visitors. It would not prevent us from staying again but you should be forewarned. To combat the problem we kept all of or our drains (sinks, shower) plugged at all times except when we had to wash dishes, etc. and then immediately plugged them back up. This eliminates the smell seeping in because if not your entire RV smells like a bad toilet.
The other negative were the bathrooms being closed at inconvenient times (and frequently with no warning). They close from 9-11 in the mornings for cleaning which makes for massive use from 6-9. They were often closed at 7-7:30 a.m. for indefinite times with no warning. At best bad communication, but we can’t really say that it isn’t always like this.
It is reasonable, only $25 a night, free cable with movie channels, no wi-fi, free shuttles, close to everything and the front desk staff were helpful. If you bring drain stoppers and plan to see the sights you’ll be fine.
Filed Under: travel
Tagged: las vegas rv parks, looky loo review, nevada, rv park review, sams town rv park, sams town rv park review
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March 18th, 2011
We blew in & out of Lake Havasu so we can’t comment a lot on the camping… the campground is above the lake so you have a view of it in the distance. To one side of the campground is a storage yard and on the other side a hill with a gas station leading down to a boat ramp for the lake. (fyi.. there is no beach, lakeside, etc. in all of Lake Havasu, only boat ramp access)
The front desk person was very friendly, the grounds are your basic parking lot, the bathrooms were clean, just worn down with age. The pool is quite small, if this is part of your plan, it might not cut it for you. It is exceedingly hot in L.H. and the campground has no shade, major consideration to keep in mind.
Overall, for a one-nighter it works just fine and they take Passport America.
March 16th, 2011
We considered this stay to be just like a vacation…lots of sun with full days at the pool. (we basically lived at the pool.. and loved it) The resort is extremely nice, very well ran and the amenities (as you can see in the photos) are vast. We didn’t even come close to covering them all in these photos. They have woodshop classes, ceramics, exercise classes, 2 indoor gyms, basically… you name it, they’ve got it!
The people were very friendly, check-in is super efficient, they have someone lead you to your site who helps you get backed in and set up. The prices are very reasonable, especially if you were to stay a month or more. The grounds have orange & grapefruit trees at many of the sites and the park is also convenient to just about everything.
The bathrooms are very very busy. No matter what time you get up, they are already in use and maybe full.. it didn’t present a problem for me but is good to know so you’re prepared. Sean said the mens bathroom was too busy. Seems at least some of the women use the facilities in their RV’s but they must boot the men to the park bathrooms because he said it was so busy that they would need to be cleaned multiple times a day to keep up, this was his one & only negative.
Overall clark & ellen give Mesa Spirit RV an eight paws rating…we would definitely stay here again!
Filed Under: travel
Tagged: arizona, looky loo review, mesa az, mesa rv parks, mesa spirit rv park
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March 14th, 2011
While visiting Joshua Tree National Park we stayed at Twentynine Palms Resort. The North entrance to Joshua Tree National Park is within 2 miles making for very easy access. The RV park is set off to itself and in a quiet spot just outside of the main part of town.
The office and grounds are nice, however the facilities show wear and age. The one bathroom/shower house is next to the office so if you need to be close make sure to look at your spot beforehand, otherwise you could easily be on the opposite end. The womens bathroom was decent, no issues (worn but fine) but the report on the mens room from Sean…a big thumbs down. Part of the issue is that a lot of workers live on site and this seemed to be their only bathroom source….think very high traffic… with very little cleaning (or so it seemed to him).
It’s very convenient, which is why we stayed there. If you plan to be in the park mostly, it gets the job done.
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