Candy Hill Campground

Just off North-South Interstate 81 and major East-West Route 50 on the perimeter of Winchester, Virginia. Convenient to a major medical center and the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (must-see). This is a family owned and operated campground. Small. Neat. Organized. We like it despite the cramping and could stay here a whole summer, and I would recommend it to Pro Medical Travelers since the Med Center is a stone’s throw away. Though site spaces are shoe-horned to make the most of what they’ve got, the business end of it’s run like a top. Everyone pitches in like crew members on a Naval Expeditionary Force. The store is well-stocked. Staff is friendly (and harried). There’s propane bottle pick-up service at your site (and returned). Full gamut of RVs, from dinky micros to giant land yachts. Green. Trees. Shade. Good drainage. Pool for the kiddies. Hard pads, gravel pads. WiFi ok, better with paid plan $30/month. This campground is on our List to Return when traveling through or stopping to visit family in the area. Thumbs up. Bravo!

Reasons why we will never be back.

We made reservations for a one night stay in advance and I was charged $50. No site was assigned. When we checked in, I was told I had a balance of $20 plus tax, for a total of $79. I was not informed over the phone that the site would cost more than $50.
 
When we arrived to our site, we plugged our surge protector to the 50AMP service, and my surge protector indicated a fault on the “neutral connection.”  I then checked the 30AMP service on the same power pedestal and my surge protector showed no issues with the 30AMP power source. My surge protector is an all-in-one Hughes Autoformer/Surge Protector. Some campgrounds do not permit the use of a Hughes Autoformer/Surge Protector however, the literature from this campground was silent on its use.
 
When I called the office to report the fault at the 50AMP plug, the owner arrived to our site. He was clearly irritated. He was belligerent toward me for having my unit plugged into the 30AMP. He proceeded to physically disconnect the rig’s power cord from my Hughes. With my power cord in hand, he was about to plug my camper power cord - unprotected – directly into the same 50AMP post that was reading a fault.  I halted the owner mid-stream so that he would STOP from plugging my trailer power cord directly into that faulty 50AMP post. I repeated that the 50AMP service is throwing a fault at neutral; the 30AMP is not. The owner proceeded to take out his multimeter to “prove” to me that the service at the pole is “fine.” The owner did not identify himself as an electrician and I do not believe he is. This is the so-called “expert on electrical” at this campground.
 
I am not an electrician, nor do I pretend to be. That is why I purchased a device with indicator lights to warn me if the power at the pole can be trusted.
 
We have been camping for 28 years and have been full-time campers for over three years. This is the first time an owner of the campground ignored information I had obtained from my power protection and physically moved my power cord at the pole. Indeed, he was prepared to plug in my rig directly to shore power - unprotected - without my permission. Never in my years have I ever experienced a more asinine move.
 
The owner proceeded to tell me that the Hughes has been recalled. We called the manufacturer to confirm our Hughes has not been recalled. The owner then told me that my Hughes is illegal. Hughes Autoformers/surge protectors are not illegal. The owner then told me my Hughes was faulty. It is not; we successfully plugged into 50AMP at our overnight stay last night with no fault indicators.  

I am deliberately omitting the owner’s comments that can be easily categorized as belligerent and misogynistic; we’ve all experienced unpleasant interactions with these types of individuals in our travels. (Examples: “Why are you plugged into 30AMPS??!” and “That’s not even the right name; it’s not a ‘snake;’ it’s called a power cord.”)
 
It is worth noting that when I arrived to check-in, the owner told me I was being placed in a “luxury” site. I did not ask for a luxury site; we are not “luxury” people.  The owner replied that that was the only site available.  There are half-dozen empty sites in this campground. I had a friend of mine call for a reservation; she was told there are five open sites for tonight – all large enough to accommodate our rig. After my experience with the owner and the faulty power pole, I have to wonder why the campground didn’t ask me in advance if I wanted the most expensive site on property.

For those that are wondering … the definition of a luxury site: 1) closest to the highway, 2) a filthy grill, 3) mismatched, odd numbered patio furniture askew with bird droppings.

I do not recommend this campground. I will never stay here again.

About our only complaint was the gravel pad. Wish it was cement. The pool was nice, kids loved the arcade and bike rentals. The site we got was situated awkwardly and we couldn’t park right in front of it. It was on a dead end street which made it kind of a pain to get into and out of but we made it work. The free Wi-Fi was worthless so we had to upgrade and it worked fine for working and school. Staff is a little overbearing. Like they need a hobby other than watching us! 😆 We full time and have never seen anywhere like it but we didn’t have any real issues.

Our site: Spacing quite small, open site, gravel parking, grass for patio, picnic table on site

Communications: WiFi available ($), Cellular Verizon 3 bars

Water system is locked out at 36 degrees. Cable advertised but doesn’t work on our site. Digital signal allows for a half dozen channels that break up. Overnight site while traveling so it was fine for us. It appears there are many fair weather amenities. Our site was “premium” and less than fifty yards from a busy highway.

Site D 18 was a very long pull through site with 30 amp electricity and water with a dump station. Very close to the interstate but we were only there for one night. We didn’t stay long enough to enjoy the swimming pool or any of the amenities. There office and store looked very well-stocked. They will fill your propane tanks and they have air for your tires on site. After a 10 Hour Dr. it was nice.

Stopped here on the way back home to NC from New England. Apart from the road noise, it’s quiet and has some spacious sites.

We came in a day earlier than they had reserved and they did accommodate, though we didn’t have sewer at the site (there is a dump station available we used as we left).

Good people, clean campground, nice pool, built for families with kids.

Also has a really nice selection of RV supplies and repair parts, and nice pool tables too!

We averaged $58 / night for W / E50 / S / C / I. An attendant led us by golf cart and assisted backing in to our concrete pad in full sun. Cable provided about 24 channels. The internet service was poor though for about $5 / day faster speed was available. Though traffic on Route 37 can be seen and heard, it did not impede us from sitting outside at night and talking around a campfire.

This campground is easy to get to from I-81 just off Rt. 37. Winchester, VA is less than 10 minutes away. Sites to be seen include George Washington's office, Stonewall Jackson's headquarters, shops and restaurants in Old Winchester, Patsy Cline's childhood home and Museum of the Shendoah Valley.

First, let me remind everyone that I lived next to the I-95/I-64 interchange... literally a stone's throw from it. For 15 years I lived next to one of the busier stretches of road south of DC and learned how to live with it. That said, I'll simply say that this campground needs a good sound barrier as it reminded me of living in our sticks-and-bricks. If you are looking for a quiet location, this ain't it. While my wife and I had absolutely no problems sleeping, many will run away screaming because of the highway noise.

I'm going to pretend that the highway does not exist and tell you about the campground.

Nice. No, really nice. Easy to get to and just a short jog off of I-81. It's a bypass so we didn't even have to backtrack to get back onto I-81. Plenty of retail within a few miles.

We got one of the premium sites and not only did it have FHU and a nice level cement pad, but it had an outdoor furniture set (table, 4 chairs, 2 chase), and a really nice grill. There was a decent dog park, not huge, but bigger than many campgrounds we visit.

Well maintained sites and a good camp store. Didn't have any problems with the management or workers, but didn't have more than a couple of interactions. However, they led us to our site, which is something I always appreciate.

The campground roads are paved and very nice, though not extremely wide. We did not have a problem with our 43' fifthwheel because the corners all seemed to be well thought out. Some of the sites seemed a little tight, but nothing unreasonable. Lots of trees and grass. We could definitely see ourselves spending time there, if we had a reason to stay.

Verizon was quite good as was AT&T. OTA TV had an OK amount of channels.

The highway noise levels of an Interstate rest area. Exorbitant pricing even before considering the endless list of basic services that involve a surcharge. Rude, cranky, bordering on creepy management/ownership. Hookups that were on the wrong side of our rig; for $60/night. Poor access to the Winchester area other than by vehicle.

This is an older RV park, which is appealing to the eye - green and well-manicured. Typical cramming of rigs into spots that are too small. A variety of sites offering different levels of hook-ups; some 30A, some 50A.

They use an online reservation system that allows for surge pricing.

We rolled in without a reservation, but with the knowledge that based on their reservations page, there were 5 sites available for the time period we wished to stay. Apparently, this was offensive to the management/ownership (family) and they were shockingly rude while we attempted to pay them for a site for 5 nights. At one point during the process of check-in/payment, I let them know I'd like to move our rig out of the way of the line that had formed at the check-in area (blocking the entrance - it's not a great set-up). The response was "If you think you can drive that thing." Whatttt? (I'm female, but it doesn't take male genitals to drive an RV.)

Also, there is an early check-in fee, which is why the check-in/entrance area gets backed up around 1 pm.

From that first interaction on, we felt constantly, blatantly watched. At one point, we took our towed vehicle out briefly, and upon return was stopped by the owner/manager walking quickly out of the office straight at me and gruffly and offensively demanding to know what I was doing there because my vehicle tag was not visible. This happened again a day later with the strange confrontational walk-up, except we made sure our tag was clearly visible; the owner/manager just stared us down until we entered our rig. We don't typically worry about management at parks, as we work M-F and rarely use outside space for 'camping' activities, but these folks would not leave us be. We felt a bit better after reading other reviews across the web for this campground; the reassurance that it was NOT 'just us' or that we had done something wrong felt good - but overall added to the story that this park is really poorly/rudely managed and should really be avoided.

We would not come back here, and felt terrible even staying for the length of our reservation (there were no refunds if we left early, but we still considered it several times). We noted that during our stay, most folks seemed to be using this park as an overnight spot while snowbird traveling North. When passing through again, we would stay elsewhere - even the Walmart right down the street, for free, which honestly is a tad farther from the highway and therefore likely much quieter.

Cell service was a bit overloaded at times, but if you do need to connect to the park's Wi-Fi - that'll be +$$.