All RVers know that there’s nothing worse than driving to a RV park destination with high hopes, only to have them dashed the moment you turn the corner and see what the park is really like.
To help America’s RVers plan happier journeys, North America’s largest system of family campgrounds boldly categorizes every member park into three KOA resort styles to paint a better picture of what campers can expect.
KOA’s RV resorts cater to vacationers who want full-service amenities on par with high-end hotels. Image courtesy of KOA
When it comes to camping in America, KOA’s instantly recognizable yellow signs are as ubiquitous as smores over a campfire. With more than 485 campgrounds across the continent, KOA campgrounds offer a consistency many travelers enjoy.
The next time you spot a KOA sign on the open road, look closer to see how KOA makes it easier for campers to select the right KOA for their needs. Each sign now says:
- KOA Journey
- KOA Holiday or
- KOA Resort
“These descriptive words are being added to some KOA locations to help define your camping experience and better match your expectations,” explains KOA executives on the company blog. “We want to make planning your next trip as easy and fun as possible.” says former KOA President Pat Hittmeier.
Image: DOW
Whatever kind of KOA you choose, every one provides modern amenities including:
- Free Wi-Fi access
- Kamp K9 pet park
- Laundry facilities
- Playgrounds
- KOA convenience store
The important differences between each of the three KOA categories can help you plan better trips and happier vacations. Here’s what you can expect at each of the three kinds of KOA campgrounds.
KOA Journey: Unwind and relax
If your main goal is finding a safe, comfortable place to park for the night, keep an eye out for the KOA Journey sign. More than 75 of these KOA Journey campgrounds cater to the road-weary traveler by offering convenience as well as:
- Easy highway access
- Long pull-through sites with 50-amp service
- After-hour check-in service
- A large selection of RV and camping supplies
KOA Holiday: Stay and play
KOA Holiday campgrounds are ideal family destinations when you’re headed to popular destinations like Pigeon Forge, TN or Orlando, FL. Use them as base camps for exploring surrounding areas and you’ll find that in addition to all of the conveniences provided to overnighters, KOA Holiday campgrounds have vacation-style amenities including:
- Patio RV sites (oftentimes with hot tubs)
- Swimming pools (many with jacuzzis)
- Planned activities for kids and adults
- Fitness centers and game rooms
- Group meeting facilities and clubhouses
KOA Resort: Get away in comfort
Sometimes all you want is to turn the key and escape the ordinary—and that’s when KOA Resorts make a perfect choice. Perched at the pinnacle of KOA campgrounds, these premium RV camping destinations cater to vacationers who want full-service amenities on par with high end hotels. From Cape Hatteras to the Oregon coast, KOA Resorts offer deluxe accommodations such as:
- Patio RV sites (often with barbecues, garden furniture and more)
- Resort pool (many feature hot tubs too)
- Food service and holiday events
- Indoor and outdoor group facilities
- Planned activities, tours and more
Beyond the de facto amenities KOA campgrounds offer, each destination has its own unique flavor, activities and amenities. The best way to choose the right one for your next trip is to talk to other RVers. Also check out how KOA parks rate at RV LIFE Campgrounds.
As always, the only opinion that matters is yours, so remember that the best way to find out what a park is really like is to hit the open road, choose a campground and go discover it for yourself.
See also: You’ll Love These 8 KOA Campgrounds By The Beach
Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.
I am planning a trip from the Tampa Fl area to Colorado via Washington D.C., Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma (Altus), Kansas (Wichita) then on to Colorado Springs, returning to Florida via Kansas City, Dallas, New Orleans, and finally back to Tampa. I would like a list of KOA campgrounds that I can check out on line. The trip is several months off, and we plan to take about 30 days to complete the journey. Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Hi Bob,
Sounds like a great trip. You have a few options here. You can visit http://www.koa.com that has a directory to effectively search for your particular campgrounds for your journey. As another option you can also visit http://www.rvparkreviews.com to find a campground in the area you are visiting, which also has a list of amenities as well as comprehensive reviews from other RVers.
Hope this helps.
40′ Holiday Rambler Endeavor
Better rethink this, I have stayed at several KOA campgrounds that were horrible including the one just last week. Poison Ivy was like a carpet around the site we had and wifi did not exist. There was no security lighting to be had and the sewer hook up was up hill from the site and the trees had many dead limbs over head. Oh the hosts were super nice but the campground was in need of serious work..
We have stayed in “some” KOA that were nice but there is evidently no standard campgrounds are required to meet to be a KOA member.
Agreed! I stayed at a KOA in Fort Pierce, FL on US 1 with the freight train next door, it was horrible! It was a dusty parking lot, 36 RV spots, 2 showers and 2 washer/dryers. No other ammenities. I didn’t have TV or internet – they blamed my new RV for that! Very expensive, almost $70/night, a month was $2007.!! Management was nice.
I have found KOA’s to be consistent in only one area – being WAY over priced. I think it’s a total ripoff to be charged 65-75 per night for usually nothing more than a dirt lot, and 12 hours of access to water and electricity.
I just completed a cross country trip and stayed at KOA’s a lot, too much. Sometimes it was just because I wanted a confirmed reservation. Typically you will find poor to non usable WIFI, very low water pressure, inadequate in most places, a gravel or dirt lot, very undeveloped, and not close to level. I have given up asking them for a SAT TV accessible space, you only get stupid looks.
Sad that in an industry with as much growth potential as RV’ing, the major players, from manufacturers, industry trade associations, and the service entities, are all seemingly focused on short term thinking and solutions. The entire RV industry is just one big rip off.
I agree 100% with your comment. The name change is a desperate attempt by KOA to attract a new demographic of camper. They are way over priced for the same old same old. There are a lot of KOA franchise owners giving up on the franchise because of restrictions imposed by the parent company, to meet these three new service levels. Franchise owners cannot sustain the additional expenses of this triumvirate change and have no choose but to pass those expenses on to the camper. KOA hopes that the new generation of camper will just accept this as the cost of doing business, but they are putting the “mom and pop” franchise owner out of business. Cudos to those owners who are tell KOA to pound salt. We want to run our campground the way we feel we need in order to keep our lots full and provide a more realistic financial expectation to our customers.
Right now we are in one of our favorite KOAs Denver west/Central City outside of Denver Colorado. It is superior! But we have been in some that weren’t wonderful. Read the reviews. Good Sam has some great campgrounds too. But consider State Parks too. Some of them are rustic but so quiet usually. We volunteer at Westmoreland State Park in Virginia on the Potomac river. Olympic sized pool (being renovated soon) trees, trees, trees! Yes it is old 1936 but your kids and you will love everything you can do. How about ancient sharks teeth? You can take them home! Get online and check it out. We will be there in August.
When we looked at what KOA parks charge, we decided that staying in a hotel was cheaper, plus we got free breakfasts. All we wanted was an overnight. As to confirmed reservations, we get those using Passport America or Good Sam parks at half the costs of KOAs.
I stayed in my first KOA in Oregon last month. Everything was wonderful – EXCEPT the layout for the sites. They were made so that you pull into your site from one end and the neighboring site pulls in from the other end. The bottom line is that you FACE EACH OTHER – your door and awning face their door and awning and then you share a common green area. 2 firepits, 2 picnic tables, etc. It was weird and uncomfortable. I hope they are not all like this.
They aren’t! Read the description carefully! Read reviews!
Your article grossly understated the fact that you pay the same rate at the “overnight” place as those who use the “full amenities”
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My wife (of 52 years) and I have 3 kids, 9 g’kids and 4 great g’kids. We all love camping. In 2001 we switched to diesel pushers and are enjoying being on the road about 7-8 months out of the year. We belong to several clubs and campground organizations to include FMCA, Good Sam, SMART (military veterans club), Thousand Trails, and Passport America. We have tried KOA on numerous occasions and like others I find them way over priced. I have been told that KOA stands for “Keep on Adding”, full hook-ups add X amount, oh, 50 Amp add extra, kids – each one cost additional Many are very nice, but just out of my price range.
We had KOA membership for years but as stated above, the pricing got way out of hand and several of the last KOA parks we stayed at before dropping the membership, were so tight together that out slide out was so close to the other rig’s slide out that you could not walk between them. I now read more and more reviews that say employees are rude and uncaring about the RVers who use the place. This company needs to revamp more than the “descriptive wording” of their parks.
Have stayed in 3-4 of them. Pine mountain, GA was pretty nice. Rest of them, especially the one near Clemson University sucked. There was a home game while we were there and the management was putting guests in as close as they could park them. We could not even open our awning. We try to avoid KOA’s if possible. Would stay in WalMart before staying in a KOA
Remember what the KOA stands for.
KOA= Means Keep On Adding. Almost everything that might interest you in a KOA is extra.
KOA= Means if you don’t like our prices…Kiss Our Ass!
The last two KOA campgrounds we checked out were nothing more than noisy ghettos, featuring endless strings of unleashed yappy dogs and loud small children who thought the driveways were playgrounds.
People apparently no longer have manners that were once considered a “given,” so….so-long, KOA; we will no longer be wasting our time, money and mental energy in your atmosphere of stress. After driving all day, I expect peace and quiet and will look elsewhere.