Lubbock KOA

I am continually amazed at the lack of corporate standards for KOA campgrounds and the Lubbock KOA is no exception. So, where do I start…well, the lady at the counter when I checked in was marginally friendly, not a good start. Got to my site, hooked up my water and the valve leaked. Since the valve was recessed in the ground, come morning my connection was under water…..not good. Had cable TV but the listing of channels in the KOA handout were all wrong. How hard would have been to give me an accurate channel listing; very frustrating. Bathrooms…toilets were nearly ground level, vintage early 1960’s and the stalls were just way too small. Thank goodness I’m a fairly small guy, have no idea how a bigger person manages. As for the showers, there were no ‘shelves’ in the shower to put your soap or shampoo..what?? The shower curtain didn’t go all the way to the floor so water went everywhere plus the shower stalls were fairly small. On my way out I needed to visit the dump station, big mistake. For starters the dump station was such that it was very hard to get lined up and close enough to the dump. Once I finally did, all went well until I wanted to rinse my hoses and fittings. The water hose connection was busted so…no water..really? The KOA staff didn’t notice this and fix it? Crazy! Lastly, the sign for the KOA is so recessed from the road that unless you are just creeping along, you’ll go right by it; I did. On the plus side, my site was pretty level. Overall a rather poor excuse for a KOA.

We stayed here for 2 nights to attend a football game. The campground is easy to access but the sign for the turnin is hidden behind some trees. They allowed us to check-in early. There is a row of long-term residents with RVs in various states of repair.

The site we were in was reasonably level and nothing was broken. No trash to speak of. No issues with voltage or wiring on the pedestal. Lots of road and train noise but nothing extreme.

It is what it is & convenient stop for a visit to Lubbock but not a destination. ATT speeds were very poor due to network congestion on a game weekend - 1mbps. TMobile was worse. We relied on Starlink and we're able to get 100mbps down and 10 up. Speeds would be better on most days.

We had people who live in the park walk through our RV spot three times in two days. As we walked through the park, we saw that one unit was surrounded by a dog fence and it was full of dog poop. Other units were also not up to standard — air conditioners torn off, junk in yard. The dog toys in the dog area were dirty and broken … two different balls and both were in pieces. They just need to clean it up.

Heavy road noise so use your sound machine. We had a heavy rain that showed a lot of low spots need gravel. Lots of trees but several are dead. Pool is nice for kids. Gives good access to things in Lubbock. We stopped to visit the Natural Heritage Museum. Pull-in site was long and level. Overall appearance was neat and clean. Nice dog park.

So we stayed in a cabin, as we’ve been doing in some KOAs the last few months. As cabins go, it was cleaner and larger than many, but with no kitchen and only a mini fridge.

The positives are that the staff is very nice and yeah, there’s an indoor pool. There’s also a decent playground.

However, as KOAs go, this one is like a dusty moth up against some moderately pretty butterflies. It’s not really camping in any sense of the word, a bunch of tight spots in a dusty parking lot. Tight spots are run of the mill for those who can’t afford enough “Cs” to spell camping but this one is tighter maybe and more industrial Wild West meets constant traffic just driving the loops nascar than we imagine anyone would prefer. But there it was, nearly full the night we sat on our cabin porch and watched it all go by.

And though the staff was nice and the store well stocked, I was a bit put off by the reality that even though we wore masks, they continued to approach us even at our cabin. A woman was planting flowers which were very beautiful and she was sweet and tired and I get it. But if you’re not going to wear a mask (in our experience, the vast majority of Lubbock residents do, despite no mandate requiring it), then at least stay away from those who are. Seems like common courtesy, and even if it weren’t, I really don’t want staff planting flowers at my cabin while I’m occupying it.

The more I think about it, the more I want to change my rating to a 1.5...

We have stayed at this KOA campground in the past. We chose it since we were enroute to New Mexico and wanted to be north of the Lubbock area. This is a basic KOA. The bathrooms were clean, but we did not use the shower area. They do offer cable hookup. There is an indoor swimming pool which was open, but we did not use.

The pull thru was just long enough for our motorhome and towed vehicle.

A Valero gas station is nearby on Highway 84.