Candy Hill Campground

I don't even know where to begin....we stayed there for 2 months in sept, 2022. We got a chance to see how the owner runs the property up close. He is rude and talks badly to his customers. He's seems to be on a power trip of some sort. He and his a few of his employees will yell at you in a fraction of a second if you drive over 5 mph through the campground. Its ridiculous. you have to be escorted on and off the property when you arrive and leave. We left early as the result of all this and one of the employees couldn't believe that we were trying to leave without letting the owner know. I had a friend come and visit one day and drove onto the property looking for our site before we actually got there. the owner and his posse chased the gentleman and his young daughter down and blocked there vehicle in with their golf carts. Then proceeded to berate the visitor and his daughter for not checking in at the office. yes the gentleman was in the wrong but the owners response was overkill. He then ordered the gentleman to follow him back to his office. My friend apologized and left the park as he was concerned for his daughters welfare. When I finally arrived, I got a talking to about my friend stopping by and the owner threatened not to let me stay there if that was "the kind of friends" that I had. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! On several other occasions I observed the owner talking down to several campers as they were trying to park their rigs. Again, his customer service skills stink! I'm not sure why his is this way because the park has potential but he needs to GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS and let someone else take over.

As for the lots, he does have a few that are cement pads and are level. However, the majority of the rest of the lots in the park are grass or gravel and are NOT LEVEL. Our lot had a broken sewer hookup. The lots are overpriced for what you get. There is so much more I could write about this place but suffice to say that until this owner learns how to treat his customers, I would suggest you go somewhere nicer. There are alot of other places to stay. Safe travels!

We were passing through on our way to Florida. This was convenient from the highway so we only stayed 1 night, but we were really impressed! The site was beautiful and large. We had a large, new fire pit on it. The bath house was clean and warm. It looked like it would be a great campground to stay for a few days, especially if you have kids. Not sure about the reviewer who complained about the staff. I spoke with one person on the phone to reserve it, someone else at check in, and a 3rd gentleman who showed us to our site and helped us back in. Each one was very nice and helpful. Maybe the problem wasn’t the staff.

The double wide concrete pad was as good as I have ever seen but was a little close to the neighboring site. It appears that the sites on this row had been recently updated, complete with a propane grill, glass top table and fire pit though we didn’t use them. There were various other sites available which appeared to be nice as well.
The campground runs a tight ship keeping an eye on visitors. We were visiting friends in the area who came to pick us up for the day. They were interrogated on their arrival as to their intentions. I guess this keeps the riff raff out.
I had a LP tank filled while there and found the price to be fair. (Just stay behind the blue line.)
I would stay here again.

Booked a 3 night stay here, as that was the required minimum. However, we were happy to leave after 2 nights.

The staff on the golf carts are extremely rude and micro-manage your every move in the park. They will not even let you park yourself and they force you to pull your rig up to exactly where they say, which caused issues when we were going to leave, as we almost had to hit a pickup truck on the site across from ours to get out.

We had site D15, which is a pull through site, 30 amp not 50, no sewer even though there's big manhole covers on the site for servicing the septic system of the park, the water spigot leaked the entire time we were there and continued to puddle near the electrical. I found a sizable shard of glass and a metal stake laying along side the concrete pad.

We were in town visiting my family, which I hadn't seen in over 6 years. They harassed us about a visitors parking pass for my mothers vehicle even though we were still only leaving one vehicle on our site as we car pooled to go spend time together in Winchester. This costed $10.

We came back briefly to pickup my wife and my brother followed us to stay with us on our way to dinner, they immediately swarmed his vehicle harassing for another visitor pass. This is not a welcoming campground at all, they have no hospitality whatsoever.

They nickle and dime you for no good reason, as the daily rate isn't a cheap one for the quality of service. The internet is a tiered system where they try to force you to get an upgraded pass to have any connection worth while. They wont let you have a fire ring unless you buy their wood.

The campground itself is well situated for access to Winchester and has a lot of potential, but management is horrendous and will leave you feeling stressed rather than relaxed like camping should be. Would not recommend and will not be returning.

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.