Geneva State Park Campground

I'm originally from Oregon, where trees are plentiful and I was spoiled by the State Parks there growing up, and I haven't had that kind of experience since I left 12 years ago. We recently moved to Ohio, and I've been searching for a place to go camping. I felt a glimpse like I was back having an Oregon State Park experience. We stayed 3 nights at the end of July. Obviously, the midwest has humidity, but the second and third night wasn't humid. We survived camping in a tent. I love that the spaces were shaded and trees. Now, not all spaces are the same. The farther back into camp, the more trees and shade. We were lucky to be right next to a water source and a bathroom. The camp is nicely maintained. We had our dog with us, and FYI, no pets are allowed on the beach.. that was really the only thing disappointing about this trip. The camp store sells necessities.. even dog leashes! (Our dog chewed through two leashes we brought with us.) Camping supplies you may have forgotten, as well as wood, ice, shirts, maps.. that staff is very friendly. The showers were clean. They have a fish cleaning house as well as a laundry facility. The water at the beach wasn't too cold. We enjoyed finding pretty rocks at the beach. I definitely will be going back!

We spent one night at Geneva-on-the-Lake SP as we were traveling from upstate NY to Detroit MI area. The price quoted includes on-line reservation fees and taxes and was for an electric only site. On-line reservations were easy. We arrived after hours and just drove to our site and set up without interfacing with the CG staff. The sites are all fairly level and easy to access but are a bit close together and open for my tastes, despite being in a nice wooded area. Sites near the camp store towards the entrance of the CG are even more open so if you like that choose one of these which might be labeled as overflow. All in all a fairly nice CG but nothing special. The bath houses, located at either end of the loop we were in, were clean and well maintained but not real close to the site we had selected.
The feature which really impressed us about this park is the walking/biking trail easily accessed from the CG which follows the lake shore from the CG, past the small marina, to the town of Geneva-on-the-Lake. The town itself is overly touristy for my tastes (I'm tempted to say tacky but some folks really like it). The trail itself is nice enough to warrant an extra star for the CG.

Check in was easy and we headed to back-in site 19 with 30 AMP electric only. We had carried enough water for this over night stay. We backed into the narrow asphalt site. It wouldn’t be much of a problem backing but the ground was very wet. The site was long enough for our 39’ fifth wheel so we parked the truck across the street since the CG was essentially empty on this Monday to Tuesday stay in October. Nice CG but in the area we were in, suggest nothing over 36’ so you can park your tow vehicle or toad especially if the CG is crowded. This State Park was nothing special, but we have been to a lot of state and COE parks.

Site 1 - 37, being run by Lieutenant General Wide Open Spaces, were less preferable than the second loop, where Private Woods E. Spots was apparently in charge.

Our second state park in Ohio, we knew what to expect and were therefore significantly less let down, which is reflected in the number of stars on this review's Hollywood Walk of Fame.

If you were to somehow hit the sweet spot, where all sites in the two primary loops were occupied but then you managed to snag one of the overflow spots (94 - 100), yet nobody else did as well, then you'd have lake views, massive spots and be removed from the rest of the pack. Said likelihood is quite small.

The main problem we had was--at least during these Summer of 2020 times--that you had to reserve and pay online, so there was no way to know that one loop was more to our liking than the one we ended up in. It also jacks the price up with all the fun of reservation fees, which are included in the price since it is currently not possible to just roll on up and pay.

Verizon was buzzing, bicycle-backed campground loops were excellent and for a stop-over, not exactly shabby.

Nice campground with two loops, 95 sites. Many improvements since our last visit in 2017.

Some sites don't drain well, which unfortunately included ours. Not the Park's fault there was basically 48 straight hours of rain, but I suppose more drain tile is needed.

Really close to the strip of Geneva-on-the -Lake, a ton of wineries, and great golfing. Nice beach and bike path as well.

Maiden voyage of our schoolie, Believeland. Checked in on Tuesday, 6/2 and out on Friday 6/5. We had to be just across the loop from the Olakers (See next review). We had to make a reservation online first, as they no longer accept “walk-ins”. Normally, an electric-only site is $29/night during the week. Our Golden Buckeye Card got us a 50% discount (weeknights only...10% on weekends). We ended up paying $14.50/night plus a $6.50 reservation fee for a total of $50.00 for 3 nights.

We have camped here many times over the last 30 years. Covid-19 has changed a few things. Only the shower house restrooms were open. Very clean (as usual). The other two restrooms were closed. The camp store was closed, and check-in was at a drive-up window. Grass at the sites was getting pretty high when they mowed on Thursday. Some sites can get quite sloppy after a good rain.

Normally, we would spend a lot of time on the strip in Geneva-On-The Lake. Wineries, bars, food and music. Most of this visit was spent at our site planning the conversion of the bus. Except for a stop at Madsen's Dounuts. Get a dozen. You'll LOVE 'em!

Ever since I was a child camping with my parents, I have considered Ohio State Parks as the benchmark for what a good campground should be like. Well planned and well maintained. I hope that the current health and economic situation doesn't change that.

No Wi-Fi, pretty good cell, some antenna TV from Cleveland.

We arrived at this campground a week after Ohio opened up the campgrounds. The park was obviously not maintained during the closure (which was standard across the board) so we gave a lot of grace because they were navigating new territory too. There had been a lot of rain for several days in Ohio before we arrived. The campground put down lots of straw to help with the mud and it worked great.

The bathhouses were extremely clean. We had a 30 amp electric only site. The site was level and the campground is extremely quiet. Lots of bird sounds.

There are 3 loops. The loop we were in had less tree coverage than the other loops. We wanted less shade as we had planned to use our solar if we needed more power than the 30 amp. The other 2 loops had very tall trees to provide lots of shade.

The campground is within walking and/or biking to the beach. My kids loved combing the beach for sea (lake) glass. We also took the self guided tour of the covered bridges. Stores and restaurants were just starting to get back into the swing of things after opening back up. Stop over to GOTL- Geneva On The Lake for some touristy fun. We even had the change to stop and play Putt-Putt.

The only negative thing we would have is that the water fill station is on the opposite side of the building where you check in. So essentially you check in, drive around one of the loops as if exiting the park but you stop at the registration building to fill your water tank. Then you drive out, make a U-turn and re-enter the park going back through the registration line. It wasn’t a huge inconvenience, it was just odd. There is a separate dump station. The laundry was still closed for Covid so we went to a local laundromat that was very clean.

ATT Cell was pulling 90-100 MBs down while Verizon struggled around 8-10 down sometimes less. T-Mobile had a decent signal but speeds would not register at times and when they did 1-2 down at best.