Enjoyed this campground a lot. The dog park is phenomenal... extraordinarily big and well kept! The staff is very nice with great senses of humor. Very attentive and just good people! Drawbacks... My Verizon wireless card couldn't get a signal so I had to use the paid Wi-Fi. Wireless costs $6/day and it is slow! Getting there can be a challenge. Admittedly, we have a BIG motorhome and taking Hwy 128 from Cloverdale to Hwy 1 was very windy and then Hwy 1 narrows to the point that you will find yourself taking a bit of the opposing lane when making turns to the right. It definitely keeps you on your toes. Once you're there, you'll enjoy yourselves. Don't miss the Point Arena Lighthouse... it's great! We camped here in a Motorhome.
It's hard to know how to rate this campground. There are some really great points and some so-so points, but even the so-so ones don't seem so bad to really discount it. What we liked about the park: larger sites compared to almost ever other KOA we have ever been in; the pool, and most of all the staff. The people that work at this park, most notably, the manager lady, are just great. You can tell they truly care about this park. During our stay I was doing laundry, when the manager lady came in to tell me they had a water leak and I needed to stop. I asked if they knew the source of the leak and how long it would be. She said it shouldn't be too long, but the washers had to stop and she would refund my money or pay to start them over. She just truly cared about the place: way better customer service than some other CGs we've stayed at. The bad: the roads are not in good shape around the campground, not really paved, they are more dirt or sand. We were also told the beach was 3/4 mile. I swear it was more like a mile and a half. But all in all, we would probably recommend this place again. They have tons of amenities like bocce ball and frisbee golf that we didn't even take advantage off. They also have a group fire ring and other group activities. The Kamper Kitchen was extremely nice, if you need that. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
If you have kids, this would be the place for you. They have a pool, bikes, etc. If you want quiet, this isn't the best park as it's screaming kid-ville. Nice park if you don't mind lots of activity. Maybe quieter on a non-holiday week. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Top dollar. Nice people. Everything worked and the bathrooms were spotless. Not much choice for a full service campground between Ft. Bragg and Bodega Bay. Small casino within 10 minutes with good food and nice people. There's no direct way to get here, but if I were staying for more than a day or two, I'd stay here again We camped here in a Motorhome.
We have stayed at this park many times during the past eight years. We tend to stay here during the off season (spring and fall) because it tends to get crowded and loud during the busy months. The cable TV has only four or five channels and our satellite does not work because of the tree cover. The staff is great and the sites are good but close to each other. More reason to go in the off season. We went in December this year. The weather was great and there was only on other trailer/RV in the park that weekend. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Campground staff was very friendly and helpful. Everything was clean and this was a great spot for our day trips. The roads are dirt/gravel so everything was a little dusty. The beach is worth the walk if you can do it. Internet was only included for about 30 minutes a day. Any more and you had to pay for it. Lots of activities for kids. We spent three nights here. We camped here in a Motorhome.
First the good news about the park, our site was big (we are 40 feet) and the hook-ups where well placed for a KOA, and staff was nice. Now the negatives: the interior roads where awful. There was WiFi but any time over 30 minutes you where charged and the service was very slow. The WiFi crashed once while we were here. There are only 10 cable channels. On the weekend it was noisy, but did quiet down during the weekdays. If you have AT&T it does not work inside the park. The park is over priced at $57. We camped here in a Motorhome.
I guess we can’t complain too much since this is now the only big-rig friendly park for many miles on the Mendocino coast. The Rollerville park a few miles south near Point Arena has recently gone to all park models, so this KOA now has the market. We spent 5 nights here in October and really only groused about the price. The park could use a bunch of gravel and a bit more TLC, but it was an OK spot under the trees and close to the coast. It was almost empty when we checked in, and we thought “How can they charge this much with this few guests?” Two nights later 80 employees from a Santa Rosa electrical firm joined us for the next three days for an outing, filling the park entirely. The place worked pretty well for them with a nice outdoor meeting/eating/party area that was well used. If you aren’t familiar with the Mendocino Coast, don’t forget to bring your sweater (and parka, jacket, mittens, hat and red flannel snuggies), for it can be unseasonably cool on this part of the coast. We will probably stay here again, since it’s our only choice, but it is still too expensive for what you get. We camped here in a Motorhome.
The park itself was nice, but it was very loud. Seems like every site had multiple families and groups of kids. It was packed and loud. The park seems to cater to this atmosphere and does a great job at it. The area outside the park has excellent scenery and is well worth the travel. The restrooms reflected the extreme population. They were in good shape, but probably impossible to keep clean with the kids running everywhere. The staff was helpful, but seemed overwhelmed. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Over all nice, older park in a secluded location on the California coast. You won't get here by accident! Sites are grassy and clean. Short drive to Point Arenas area, with a lighthouse, beautiful coast line, and good restaurant by the fishing pier. Negatives are poor wi-fi and very few cable tv channels. Be sure to head the road recommendations on their web site. Highway One to the south is spectacular, but narrow and curvy with sheer drops to the ocean. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Like most KOA, very family friendly. Nice older park, close to the light house and state beach. Staff extremely friendly and helpful. They have a excellent sense of humor, the honey wagon is named sweet lips. Fun place. Somewhat isolated. Stayed for 5 days, and will go back. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Wonderful place. Sites had lots of room. They have a nice game room and four wheeled bikes to rent, lots of fun. Only problem was the person in space 46 had a rottweiler which was very well behaved, but also two cats running lose 24 hours a day. I had some problems keeping the cat off my motorcycle and twice I complained to different campground employees and no one seemed to care. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
Great park very close to the ocean with a view of Point Arena lighthouse. Very clean and with good pet facilities. Large number of trees make it very comfortable camping. There is more than enough space at each campsite to use slides and awnings. The park has new owners and they are working to bring everything up to class A condition. They aren't there yet, for example, the Wi-Fi didn't work if you were very far from their office even though they had a repeater near our campsite. I have a high-gain Wi-Fi antenna and even that didn't help. Cable TV distribution was limited to 3 channels and was inoperative in our campsite. I will go back and take friends. We camped here in a Motorhome.
We made resevations over the internet through KOA. This park came highly recommended, however our experience was not good at all. We would not ever stop there again. The space they gave us already had some one in it. They gave us one next to the one they assinged us with noisy families on both sides all night. No dump hook up and half the park was empty. I am a KOA card holder and were supposed to get the best site available at the time. We were very disappointed and there were lots of very nice large sites with no one in them. Pancakes 1.99 2 sausages 1.50. We camped here in a Motorhome.
This was a lovely park; mature trees, grassy sites. The bathrooms and showers were very
clean. The staff was very helpful both at check-in and throughout our stay. There were only three negatives that have nothing to do with the maintenance of the park: 1) Manchester is hard to get to from the interior of the state, 2) there is not much to do unless you like to walk for the sake of walking, and 3)there are not too many places nearby to go to out to eat. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful stay here and would return. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
Review Rating
[ 9 / 10 ]
2003
$40
This is a great campground. We camped in a tent in site T23. This is the best tentsite (and I believe site of any type) in the campground. It is a little isolated from the rest of the tents and rvs, one pitches the tent in the middle of a group of pines on a soft pine needle surface. One can hear the ocean which it about 1/2 mile away. This is the bathroom breakdown. There are two shower/toilet/unisex single person stalls amongst the tents and some cabins. At the main building there are three toilets and three showers per gender. It got kind of crowded because there were college groups camping at the group site. The staff would clean the bathrooms continously, not just during cleaning hours. EVERYTHING is clean! This is a "do again" park for us tenters! We camped here in a Tent.
Review Rating
[ 9 / 10 ]
2002
$36
One of the best campgrounds we've been to in terms of size of spot, shade, cleanliness and amenities. A little far from the beach (a walk of 3/4 mile). For those wishing to be closer to the beach, there is Manchester State Beach CG, which is in between the Manchester KOA and the nearest beach. Excellent bathroom and good staff. Due to electricity conservation, the heater in the kitchen has been turned off but we used our own so that was no problem. A little pricey (see latest price on their website) but with the KOA card, 10% off made it easier. We don't camp enough so we don't mind splurging a bit. Also checked out the Manchester State Beach KOA. No hookups but there is a disposal site. Seems very nice and there are some secluded spots. Price is right ($7/night if my memory is correct) and collected at a self-pay station. I'd stay there if it's only for a short while and one does not need to hookup.
Overall, we are very pleased with the KOA. They also have cabins which seems fairly reasonably priced. Playground was pleasing to the kids. Did I mention bathroom is clean? We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
We stay at this park often because it is much less crowded than the park next to this park. It is a short five minute walk to the beach and the sites are huge. It is dry camping, but they do provide water to fill your fresh water tank, and there is a dump station. We are set up for dry camping, and we enjoy staying at this park. It can sometimes get windy here, but the wind dies down at night. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
This park is a fine park for over night or to visit the light house. There is a dump station and water available to empty and fill your tanks if needed. The park has several projects going on but they did not bother our camping. We saw several deer, rabbits and birds and had a nice walk on the beach. Keep going past the KOA to find the camp ground. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.