CreekFire Motor Rance, Savannah GA

[FL-JOE]

I generally only post on places that are really bad or over priced, or really good and fairly priced.  The CreekFire Motor Ranch is just off I-95 by Savannah Georgia and is pretty new.

We booked a week here on a long pull through site with full hookups.  They give a small discount for GS's and I think it ended up being $60 or so per night.  They have everything, pool, hot tub, play ground, wooded walking trail, and much more.  A tour van shuttle will pick you up for free if you are touring Savannah on one of their daily deals, which is a very convenient and cheap way to explore the city.

[FL-JOE]

Thought I would go on campgroundviews and give a quick review of this place prior to us leaving Tuesday.  It isn't even listed.  Then while on that portion of escapees site I thought I would rate the bad KOA we left last week up in Charleston.  I was shocked no one has ever rated that place as old as it is.  I guess not many are using campgroundviews plus they don't really keep it up to date anyway.

[Kirk W]

17 minutes ago, FL-JOE said:

I guess not many are using campgroundviews plus they don't really keep it up to date anyway.

Really? Perhaps you should ask Joel about it? 

The only way that Campground Reviews or any of those sites can be current if when/if folks like us take the time to post reviews. It is a community effort and only works when we contribute. The same is true for Campendium or any other such site. 

[FL-JOE]

So somehow it is members of escapees fault that a big major CG like Creekfire, located a mile off I-95, it not even listed on that site?  From talking to folks here it appears this place has been open for at least 2 years and possibly longer.  We found it listed on two other sites we use several months ago and that was how we booked it in the first place.

Of course you may be correct about members here not doing reviews.  I have only been an escapees member for less than a year and admit this is my first review on this portion of the site.  However I do review most CGs on RVParky.   So you and all the other regular posters on here that have been members for decades must have never visited Charleston or at least never visited that KOA?

[trailertraveler]

2 hours ago, FL-JOE said:

Of course you may be correct about members here not doing reviews.  I have only been an escapees member for less than a year and admit this is my first review on this portion of the site.  However I do review most CGs on RVParky.   So you and all the other regular posters on here that have been members for decades must have never visited Charleston or at least never visited that KOA?

RV Park Reviews and the Campground Views Website linked to in this forum are completely separate as far as I can tell. I think Campground Views is the newer of the two. Websites like Campendium, RVParky, Trip Advisor and likely others have reviews. The HDT folks from this forum have even created their own RV Park reference guide.

We  have stayed at close to 300 different campgrounds and RV parks in the past 14 years. I have added a number of previously unlisted locations to RV Park Reviews. I know I am not interested in posting reviews on every possible website and I doubt that many folks are. If one looks at the number of responses to many of the travel questions posted on this forum, that number is generally far fewer than the responses to a question about an RV related technical issue. One can speculate as to whether that is due to the fact that some do not travel all that much or whether the increasing difficulty in getting into places (especially without reservations) makes folks reluctant to identify places that they like and want to return to. 

[Kirk W]

4 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

One can speculate as to whether that is due to the fact that some do not travel all that much or whether the increasing difficulty in getting into places (especially without reservations) makes folks reluctant to identify places that they like and want to return to. 

Interesting thinking. To date, we travel and make no reservations except for busy holidays and tourist attractions. Our standard practice is to choose a park in the early afternoon and then call ahead when an hour or two away. Thus far we have never had any problems finding a site and only rarely do we have to try the second choice. We only travel seasonally but last spring we left base in mid-May and returned in late August. In 2017 we left in mid-March and got home about May 1, then did short trips in summer.  I really don't see that much more difficulty now than was the case 20+ years ago.

[trailertraveler]

1 hour ago, Kirk Wood said:

...Interesting thinking. To date, we travel and make no reservations except for busy holidays and tourist attractions. Our standard practice is to choose a park in the early afternoon and then call ahead when an hour or two away. Thus far we have never had any problems finding a site and only rarely do we have to try the second choice...I really don't see that much more difficulty now than was the case 20+ years ago...

We travel much as you describe most of the time. Finding a spot along the highway for a night in route is not normally a problem with some exceptions like along I-81 near Salem/Roanoke, VA where there are very few to begin with. Last spring we ended up taking an additional day because we could not get a spot anywhere in the area we wanted to stop. We travel about 250 miles (4-5 hrs) max and do not stay in Walmarts or other parking lots unless it is an emergency as we do not want to spent 18-20 hours in a parking lot and like to explore the local area which we would not leave the trailer in a parking lot to do. We have stopped intending to stay a night and stayed as long as a week when we found interesting things to see and do. 

In the past 3-4 years, it has been my experience that getting a space has become much more difficult, particularly for more than one night. Our destinations are not normally events like Escapade or volunteer assignments where we would have a dedicated spot waiting for us. I can think of several RV Parks, state parks and COE parks in Arizona and New Mexico that are very hard to get a spot with electric as a walk-in or even to get a reservation other than months in advance. We are usually there from the middle of August into October. These parks have been mentioned in almost every post about their areas on this and other popular RV forums. We have experienced the same in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi in February, March and April. The number of RVers seems to me to be increasing much faster than the number of RV sites available.

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, trailertraveler said:

Our destinations are not normally events like Escapade or volunteer assignments where we would have a dedicated spot waiting for us.

If you think that is the only type of travel we do, you are mistaken. Even if it were true I see no reason someone's destination would have any effect on the locating of RV sites while traveling?  It very well could be different in some areas of the country though. It has been several years since we did much travel to the eastern part of the country. 

[Dbl0svn]

10 hours ago, FL-JOE said:

So somehow it is members of escapees fault that a big major CG like Creekfire, located a mile off I-95, it not even listed on that site?  From talking to folks here it appears this place has been open for at least 2 years and possibly longer.  We found it listed on two other sites we use several months ago and that was how we booked it in the first place.

Of course you may be correct about members here not doing reviews.  I have only been an escapees member for less than a year and admit this is my first review on this portion of the site.  However I do review most CGs on RVParky.   So you and all the other regular posters on here that have been members for decades must have never visited Charleston or at least never visited that KOA?

Creekfire opened at the end of October 2017.  Beautiful place .

[trailertraveler]

47 minutes ago, Kirk Wood said:

...If you think that is the only type of travel we do, you are mistaken. Even if it were true I see no reason someone's destination would have any effect on the locating of RV sites while traveling? ...

I didn't say it did. in fact I said: 

2 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

...Finding a spot along the highway for a night in route is not normally a problem...In the past 3-4 years, it has been my experience that getting a space has become much more difficult, particularly for more than one night...

Everyone has different experiences and develops their perceptions based on those experiences. We have apparently had different experiences and thus formed differing perceptions on whether it is becoming more difficult to obtain an RV site. Time of year and location likely plays a major role. To the extent that destination may dictate the route traveled it well may have an effect on locating sites on the fly while traveling. A couple of years ago, traveling through central Kansas, every RV park in about a 50 radius of our projected stop for the night was filled to capacity with pipeline construction workers. Just bad luck for us. Fortunately a state park had sites because they had a 14 day stay limit.

My perception based on experience/observation and discussions with park managers and staff  is that many RV parks and public campgrounds have seen a substantial increase in visitation even if they are not always full to capacity. New Mexico State Parks and COE campgrounds across the country seem to have been "discovered" and seem to have become increasingly popular in recent years. It is also my perception that many parks have more permanent/long term residents and that there are more traveling workers which results in fewer sites available for the traveling RVer.

None of this has anything to do with CreekFire Motor Ranch, but may influence why folks do not post reviews or identify their favorite parks.

[Kirk W]

20 minutes ago, trailertraveler said:

To the extent that destination may dictate the route traveled it well may have an effect on locating sites on the fly while traveling.

No doubt about that. I was guessing that eastern areas may well be worse than others and the energy boom absolutely impacts the campsite availability. Not long ago it was nearly impossible to find sites in ND but this summer we found it to be much better, although still somewhat difficult in the more active areas. I haven't run into the problem in Kansas but likely because I usually go to the same area where I have family. The area around Midland/Odessa TX has been almost impossible now for a long time. You aren't by any means alone in the belief that it is getting more difficult overall, but as I said it hasn't been our experience. It could be somewhat so and us not notice it I suppose, due to a change in our travel style as we have gotten so that we call ahead in early afternoon via cell phone, where we didn't always do that in years gone by. 

This leads to a question, however. Have you, or anyone reading this had great difficulty finding or failed to find an RV site when traveling? If you have, would you share where and when that has happened? Perhaps it might be interesting to run a poll to see what others are experiencing and to learn if more of us not make reservations ahead 24 hours or more before travel. Food for thought....

[trailertraveler]

39 minutes ago, Kirk Wood said:

...This leads to a question, however. Have you, or anyone reading this had great difficulty finding or failed to find an RV site when traveling? If you have, would you share where and when that has happened? Perhaps it might be interesting to run a poll to see what others are experiencing and to learn if more of us not make reservations ahead 24 hours or more before travel. Food for thought.... 

The situations near Salem/Roanoke VA and in Kansas that I previously described were as close as we have come. If we had not had a list and called ahead at noon, we most likely would have not found a spot other than a parking lot or much farther than we would have wanted to travel that day. As I stated in the previous post in the Virginia case we stopped short and actually added a day to that leg of the trip.

In the last three years, we have had some locations like Saint Augustine, FL; Mount Dora, FL; Kingsland, GA; Savanah, GA; and Wilmington, NC where we actually changed our route and destination or could not stay as long as we would have liked because we could not find a spot. The past two falls, there have been COE parks and State Parks in New Mexico that we really like that we have not been able to get into with about a weeks lead time. 

[Kirk W]

Occupancy data would likely be a good indication of the degree of difficulty in finding a site, but such information seems to be very hard to find. Most of what I did is at least 5 years old and most of it older. Most of the financial projections for the industry are good and RV sales have been good for the past several years so that, with the difficulty and cost to build new RV parks could well support your view. I am starting to think that our habit of early stops may well have protected us from the problem. It would be interesting to watch as we travel to see how frequently the parks we stay in are completely full by morning each day. In this past year's travels, I don't recall that many parks as being completely filled, but I do know that at least a few of them were. The day of the week chosen to trave would likely play a major part in the occupancy observed and we also tend to sit still on weekends much of the time. 

Let's hope that others will join in on this and share what their experiences were over the past year or so. 

[FL-JOE]

9 hours ago, Dbl0svn said:

Creekfire opened at the end of October 2017.  Beautiful place .

Okay, good information.  From looking around it appeared that hadn't been open all that long.  They were only about 1/2 full when we checked in but they must have ran a Halloween special because they were 100% full from Friday and Sunday.  The sites were full of locals with kids and they had different stuff planned in the park.  It was really fun to walk around and see families doing "real" camping!

[FL-JOE]

8 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

The situations near Salem/Roanoke VA and in Kansas that I previously described were as close as we have come. If we had not had a list and called ahead at noon, we most likely would have not found a spot other than a parking lot or much farther than we would have wanted to travel that day. As I stated in the previous post in the Virginia case we stopped short and actually added a day to that leg of the trip.

In the last three years, we have had some locations like Saint Augustine, FL; Mount Dora, FL; Kingsland, GA; Savanah, GA; and Wilmington, NC where we actually changed our route and destination or could not stay as long as we would have liked because we could not find a spot. The past two falls, there have been COE parks and State Parks in New Mexico that we really like that we have not been able to get into with about a weeks lead time. 

I guess that is why we have always made advance reservations.  Depending on where we are going each month will dictate how far in advance we will make the reservation.  Take for example Topsail Hill State Preserve in Santa Rosa Beach FL.  It stays booked so we get our spot reserved 6 months out.  Our winter site in SW Florida will be booked a year in advance.  

When we sit down and start fine tuning our 2019 travel plans this winter we will telephone some possible CGs and seek information in advance.  One of the things we initially ask them is how full they are during certain target dates we may be interested in.  When we finally put most of it together for the year we will then know which CGs we need to call and reserve and which ones it really doesn't matter.  

[solo318]

On 10/28/2018 at 8:41 AM, FL-JOE said:

I thought I would rate the bad KOA we left last week up in Charleston. 

Which Koa was it. We have reservations for thanksgiving weekend at one of them. 😡

[trailertraveler]

15 minutes ago, solo318 said:

Which Koa was it. We have reservations for thanksgiving weekend at one of them. 😡

Read this thread.

[solo318]

Awesome. We are in the other one.

 

[bobsallyh]

I don't believe we have ever done a review of a RV park or CG. I feel that people want different things and way we use a cg or RV park could be entirely different than another couple. If we are in a FHU park, we probably never set foot in the bathhouse, so how can we review them fairly. If we don't do laundry the same applies. On the other side of the fence, I very rarely use a review for anything.

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, bobsallyh said:

 If we are in a FHU park, we probably never set foot in the bathhouse, so how can we review them fairly. If we don't do laundry the same applies. 

Which is the reason that RV park reviews and most others have a place to indicate which facilities the reviewer used or did not use. 

[FL-JOE]

10 hours ago, solo318 said:

Which Koa was it. We have reservations for thanksgiving weekend at one of them. 😡

Sorry, I shouldn't keep referring to it as the "KOA in Charleston" when it is actually in Mt. Pleasant.  

[FL-JOE]

5 hours ago, bobsallyh said:

I don't believe we have ever done a review of a RV park or CG. I feel that people want different things and way we use a cg or RV park could be entirely different than another couple. If we are in a FHU park, we probably never set foot in the bathhouse, so how can we review them fairly. If we don't do laundry the same applies. On the other side of the fence, I very rarely use a review for anything.

We never use a CGs laundry facilities or the showers.  If they have a pool or hot tub we may or may not use those, it all depends on how long we are there.  I still check reviews and will post reviews on most of the ones we stay at.  When I check reviews in advance of booking a site I do take what is said with a grain of salt though.