Leslie Boss - I found out about this campground on About.com, and I RV camped there in July 2006.
Campground Review
I read the reviews and thought it would be a great place to stay while we were vacationing in Virginia Beach. I must admit, the place is very large, and considering the constant turnover, the campground is very well kept. They have clean bathrooms, the gardens looked very nice, and it is obvious that the owners take pride in their establishment as they are putting money back into the campground by putting up new facilities. One of which is a new laundry facility, which will far out beat the small one they have now. I was a little surprised that they had music playing every night around one of their four pools, as the other campgrounds that I've stayed in will only host such events during the weekends. Still, the site I had was not right on top of the music, which was OK. I am not sure why they do not have cable hookups on all the sites as it appears that there were wires cut on most of the wooded sites that I walked past.
Being from NJ, I was very surprised to see the amount of Canadian campers who only spoke French. While talking to one of the campground personnel, I was told that 90% of the campground is from Quebec. I was a bit surprised because normally I would have conversations with campers next to me or across the street. Being that a large majority of the campers were from Quebec this was virtually impossible. During our visits at the pool, when we would bump into an English speaking person there would always be comments made like, "OH! You speak English?" Also, while my husband and I stayed at the KOA down the street on General Booth many, many years ago and knew about the jets that flew overhead, we were prepared, so we thought. My husband thought it was cool, until 30 of them flew overhead one night with five minute intervals going back to the air base. This was definitely not cool and when you have to walk around your camper holding your ears and stop talking because you can't hear what the other person is saying, it becomes ridiculous. I could only think about the sleeping babies. Fortunately though, they did stop by 9:30pm.
The staff was friendly and helpful. Pumpouts, or as they say, "honey wagon," was $10, which is great compared to other facilities. No fire rings on the campsites, which made it discouraging to have a campfire. Also, if you can get a super site, do it. They are much, much nicer. I wish we had, and kept trying to get one earlier on during our trip. When visiting Virginia I probably would not stay at this campground again even though they do have a lot of things for the kids to do, but then again, so do others.
1 out of 5
The good, the bad, and the uglyAugust 19, 2009By DEtraveler
"We just returned from a vacation at Holiday Trav-L-Park. I made reservations last January, and was very clear on the size of our rigs (camped with friends) but the sites assigned to us were barely large enough... we were really right on top of those around us. This is the best advice from this review: if you have anything larger than a pop-up or small camper, spend the extra money and get the super-sites. You will have a beautifully level site, fire ring, CABLE, and adequate breathing room. As mentioned by others, the jet noise is loud and it's constant. You get your first morning 'wake up call' around 7:45 and the last flight is around 10pm. They can fly as often as every 10 minutes in between. The good thing is that when you go 2 miles north to enjoy the beach, you neither see nor hear them. But yes, in the campground they are conversation-stoppers. As for the beach, the campground has a parking lot 2 miles north that is 2 blocks away from the ocean. It's a great benefit, but get there early (before 10am) if you want a spot. I have never seen so many Quebec license plates in one place. I have no problem believing the other reviews that it might be 90% Quebec. You cannot just make casual conversation with other campers like you would normally do; chances are better than not that they don't speak a bit of English. Midway through our week, 80% of the campground lost electricity. These things happen, however, the campground management completely mishandled the situation. There was zero communication and rumors about the problem were everywhere. We asked numerous employees and got just as many different responses and a few were downright rude! After 36 hours with no power (which was not out anywhere else in VA Beach) we finally opted to check out early. Attempts at refunds were again met with several different 'policies'. Finally, just yesterday, the manager responded to my email and agreed to the refund that we requested. (I hasten to add that I haven't actually seen the proof yet.) It would have been so easy for the management to make the unbearable situation a little better. The main pool had power and they already had music scheduled...why not turn it into free burgers & dogs for those who could not cook? Games and prizes for the kids? How 'bout offers of a free batch of firewood for the evening? How 'bout free coffee & doughnuts for the morning when breakfast might have been an issue? Maybe no one would have taken them up on it, but it would have been worth the PR just to try. As it was, the few English-speaking campers we spoke with felt the same as we did... never returning to this campground."
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