Martin Lake Resort

This is long, but you're gonna wanna read it.

Do not stay here. Do not subject your children, your spouse, or your pets to this dump. I called a couple of months in advance for a month's long reservation. I was surprised that they had availability - no one else in the area did. The price was right $540 including tax and electricity. I was so stupid. I ALWAYS check the reviews first, but forgot on this one. I was so excited they had availability that I let my guard down. A friend and her husband wanted to join us on this leg of our trip and maybe stay a week or so. She told me after doing some research that this park had horrible reviews. They use the bath houses, we do not. She said there's no way she'd use the bath house at this place after all that she'd read. I panicked inside then told myself "How bad can it be?" and "We can stand anything for a month, right?" There's nothing else in the area available for our dates. So NO. We can't stand "anything" for a month. We were supposed to be there from Jan 21 to Feb 21. We left on Feb. 12 after our catalytic converter was nearly stolen.

Our truck started acting weird on Feb. 10. We had a "check engine" light that kept coming on. My husband took our one-ton dually in to a truck mechanic who immediately saw where someone had tried to get it. I remembered taking the dog out to potty really late the night of the 9th and our dog saw something in the shadows of the street light. He wanted to chase it, and I said no. I thought it was a rabbit, or frog, or something he would eat. Now we think the dog startled the would-be thieves. I realize catalytic converters can be taken in 30 seconds from the Walmart parking lot, however the RV park, as we learned, has a history of this happening. They "thought we ran them out" but alas, nope. No, they didn't. And knowing this, they STILL didn't give us a refund for the unused days. That equaled about $162.

The front office staff is nice, but they do not return calls in a timely manner. They're completely unversed in the procedures of USPS, UPS, and FedEx, which I would think might be helpful in doing their job.

The neighbors....where do I even start? I'm sure most of the people living there are nice. We only met our next door neighbors, who are kind folk just trying to live day to day. 99.9% of the people living there are full-time stationary, and not on vacation. This is where they live, this is where they work, or where they come back to, after work. There are no campfire rings blazing on a Saturday night, having a beer with your best buddy, children riding their bikes up and down the lanes. We were on the back row (A) which is dung heap central. Our view out our front door was the row upon row of run down campers. Dozens of them. And those are the ones that move. Then, there's the row upon row out in the muddy field of beaten down, no-roof, doors missing, tires flat, homeless abodes. My husband did a little snooping to see what was in those campers. Sleeping bags, clothing, food. There are homeless in the woods at the back of the property, and they come to the campers to sleep at night. I wonder what they do for money? Hmmm. Perhaps a catalytic converter or two would pay for food.

The ONLY redeeming factor of this piece of crap RV park (and we laughed every single time we remembered it was called an RV "resort." They've got to be joking.) is the kiddie playground in the front of the park. It is big, beautiful, immaculate, and any kid would lose their mind over it.

The mini-golf, the beach, the lake, the gigantic paddle-swans, the picnic tables....everything else is run down. The recreation hall should be condemned. We understand from talking to a few of the residents that this place used to be a primo destination. Not anymore. Those beautiful pictures you see posted around the internet are from 15 years ago.

The laundry room was so nasty, there's no way I'd even wash my dog's blankets in there. Everything, and I mean everything (except the playground) needs paint, love, fixing, and some money pumped into it. The owner is charging God knows what from each of at least 150 sites monthly. He's not putting one penny back into it at all from what we could see. The road noise is loud. The roads are crappy. The signs are crappy. The roads are named from A to E with different tree and flower names. They misspelled Azalea on one sign. Really? So stupid and trashy. Even the ducks will crap on your stuff. It was, by far, the nastiest place we have ever been, and we will shout it from the rooftops not to ever go there. It felt dangerous, and we couldn't get out of there fast enough after realizing what I almost walked into. Stay vigilant my friends. And stay away from this place.

If you like sites that are ridiculously close together, surrounded by campers that probably belong in the scrap heap, and the feeling that some shady stuff is happening around you, this is the campground for you! It's cheap at ~$22/night, so this could be one of those situations where you get what you pay for, and you accept it. A grouping of campers behind the main campground looks more like a meth growing collaborative or a junkyard we didn't go back to investigate. We stayed one night and moved on. There is a beautiful playground combined with "family-friendly" reviews, and you think it'll be ok. Please don't fall for it; keep looking.

Are the sites close together and mostly occupied by seasonals? Could the laundry and restrooms use some updating and repairs? Indeed!

But the staff and other campers that were encountered displayed a genuine niceness that I wish was more prevalent at other campgrounds. How often have you wished that other campers kept their children and pets under control?

Stacy at the front desk was just a total gem both on the phone and in person. When I walked my dog in the early AM, someone was diligently cleaning the pool. Other reviewers haven't properly conveyed the sheer enormity and apparent newness of the playground. There's also a beach that I didn't get a chance to inspect.
My main critiques would be the number of rigs in view that were 'left to die' and the height of the speed bumps.

Stayed one night at this Preferred RV Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi using our Resort Parks International (RPI) Preferred Gold Membership. The nightly rate was $14.98 for a full hookup site. The park is conveniently located near Interstate 10 and the park was easy to access. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 31.5 Mbps download speed and 12.9 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 25.0 Mbps download speed and 4.6 Mbps upload speed.

If staying in the cabins this place was a pretty good place. It has a wonderful, huge, modern playground. We had 2 cabins and one RV site that backed up to the cabins. We had 15 family members staying for a holiday get together. The CG had everything we needed. They emptied the trash everyday and seemed to be doing a decent job of keeping up with guests. The RV sites have a lot of permanent tenants and would not be a good choice if you are looking for a peaceful wooded campground but all in all, we found the place met our needs!

This place looks great at first sight; the rental cabins, office, and lakeside playground look new, freshly painted, very clean, and well-maintained. Office staff were very welcoming. Once we drove to our assigned spot, though, it was a different story. This place is mostly long-term residents, many very old, poorly maintained RVs. A lot of junk sitting around. The sites are ridiculously close together—our neighbor’s driveway was a mere 18” from ours, and I listened to another neighbor’s television all night. There’s no visual privacy between sites, from side to side or back to back. The staff and residents were all quite friendly, but you’re in the spotlight anytime you step out of your rig.

We didn't use the laundry or restrooms.

Dog’s perspective: There is a semblance of a trail around the large lake, but that’s about the only place to walk, dogs aren’t allowed on the “swimming beach.” The trail leads directly through a group tent camping site, and there’s a broken stile to cross (I had to pick up my 40-pound dog to get her over it). There are houses on either side of the park and across the road, and no sidewalks.