Introduction:
This is a very large, beautifully maintained, lakeside campground with many different types of sites.
Click here to read about our criteria for campground reviews.
The Basics:
Overall Rating: 4.6/5
Price per night / Discounts: $38 / During the off season (between Labor Day and Memorial Day), the campground offers significant discounts. Prices differ depending on the site, but for us, we paid $38 per night for a site that would cost $67 per night during the summer.
Campground website: Holiday Park Campground
Our Site #: 18 FHU
Privacy Rating (how spacious and private do the sites feel):
4.5/5: We had a site in the older, heavily wooded, lakeside section of the campground. Our particular site had fantastic site separation and, in conjunction with all the trees, we felt we had a good amount of privacy. Other sections of the campground are more typical, with sites lined up right next to each another. These feel more open and have less privacy. If you're coming in the offseason, our advice would be to try to get a site in one of the older loops.
Location Rating (accessibility to points of interest or to major highways):
3.75/5: The campground is located about 15 to 20 minutes from downtown Traverse City. It wasn't far, but it also wasn't right there. We never had a problem getting an Uber to pick us up and drop us off, so that helped. Unfortunately, the campground is located on a major road. If you land a site closer to the front of the campground, you will likely hear traffic noise, and getting in and out of the campground required some patience as vehicles travel very fast down that street. On the other hand, having this beautiful, heavily wooded campsite, right next to a lake, just 20 minutes outside the wonderful Traverse City downtown was fantastic.
Site Quality and Big Rig Accessibility Rating (utilities and accessibility of campground hook ups):
5/5: Our site was enormous, level, and the utilities all worked perfectly. Campground roads were reasonably easy to navigate and the trees were all trimmed back appropriately, so we had no issues. If you are in the newer, more open section, you'll have no problems at all. That section features very wide roads and is super easy to maneuver.
Technology and Customer Service Rating (online resources, reservations, campground wifi, and staff):
4.5/5: You have to call to get a reservation, but the folks who work there are very nice. The campsites are privately owned, so when I called, the employee said she was putting me in a less desirable site, but that, in all likelihood, she'd be able to move me to a better site as owners released their sites into the rental pool. Sure enough, when we got there, we learned we'd been reassigned to a beautiful, lakeside site. We appreciated that they kept their word and moved us, and when we asked to extend our stay, they moved some stuff around, so we could stay in our site.
Overall Value Rating (the overall value of the campground; was it overpriced for what it was?):
5/5: Given our wonderful site and the beautiful grounds, we thought the price we paid was more than fair. There were plenty of places to walk the dog, the lake was beautiful, the grounds were well maintained, and we were close to Traverse City. We had no complaints about the value of this campground during their low season.
Summary:
We truly lucked out with an enormous, relatively private, waterfront site at this campground. We loved the heavily treed grounds, the numerous places to walk, and the easy access to downtown Traverse City. While I'm not sure we would pay their high season prices, we thought their offseason prices were a steal! We would definitely return here in the future.
