Milton-Madison SE KOA

First off…No hot tub or bike rental as it says in amenities.

It’s been 2018 since our last visit. The place has really gone downhill. We’ve been to the Madison KOA at least 4 times.
What they think is clean now a days is laughable.

I will give some advice if you HAVE to stay here but PLEASE READ TO THE BOTTOM.

I usually cabin stay when staying at a branded campground, for $10-20 more a night makes it worth it not to lug my tent and usually tent sites are crap at these places and they have a couple just to say they have some (the ones here are grown over they claim to have 2, one is dug up and from what I’ve read after having my bad experience…they will put you at an RV site with your tent). I camp at all 3 KOA brands, state parks, family campgrounds, and yogi bears etc.

Everything here is dated and it looks like they only have an interest in fixing things when they can’t avoid it anymore. Other places I’ve been have been putting in the upgrades left and right since camping has seen a serge these past couple of years.

Lake-never seen anyone fish at the lake until this past stay caught a blue gill. They have a few small non motor boats no peddle boats so don’t let that mislead you with “boat rental”. You do see things jump so I don’t doubt there’s fish and it’s really pretty in the backdrop.

If you HAVE KIDS young enough to have to keep an eye on the kabins facing the pillow ARE PRIME (kids wait for it to blow up every morning), play ground (basic-not toddler friendly, there’s a sand pit that’s not covered
up at night where they HAD some toddler play stuff), and pool (clean and small but does the job, the try to open it ASAP every year) all the activities are around there as well. If you DONT have kids or have a napper in the family, expect constant noise until quiet time. Get a white noise app or bring a sound machine, the TV you may get isn’t loud enough. Quiet and shade is on the backside of those Kabins in the pet friendly area.

Campstore is sparse, they need to bring it up date and offer more. Make sure you grocery shop before pulling in. They certainly have the room to do more and they would. Ale money off of kids with pocket money going in there to buy snacks.
Camp host family was awesome and usually the lower staff all are.
They never had a gate, car hangers, or escorts as long as I’ve camped there.
Activities have always been cheap and bare bones. They need to get more creative, there’s more cheap things they can do with minimal investment. There isn’t an activities director, the camp hosts run them.

Deals: they participate in Kid Care (May) and Camper Appreciation (September) weekend. Some KOAs don’t, claim they do but can’t actually use it when you try or pickings are slim. At any given time your more likely to find open spots here than other places surrounding Pittsburgh. So that’s probably why then honor those deals.

Even with the deals I won’t be back. It’s not worth it. There is nothing new or upgraded and I’m not passing through or here for other things like some are. It’s ok for a weekend, don’t spend a week here with kids they’ll get bored. If you want to be within an hour from Pittsburgh and need some relaxation/recreation there are PLENTY of options. Uniontown KOA for example 15 minutes further down the road if you want a KOA.

What tipped my scales from PROBABLY won’t be back to ABSOLUTELY WONT be back is….when I arrived my cabin was not clean, there was ultra crusty very dried up insect parts (its the woods, but…no one could have wiped that up? It’s obvious it’s been sitting there awhile) all over the top bunk, a flim/dust on the bed mats. I went to set up the beds and found several coins (from peoples pockets I assume) and an ear pod my toddler could have choked on if I hadn’t looked. A cleaning person should have found that if it were, in fact, cleaned. They sent the cleaning lady, she came in with a duster pad and went over our sleeping pads….no cleaners, towels, or shop vac. After she left, I swept the floor and LOTS of dirt came up. I broke out my sani wipes and did everything I could. I didn’t appreciate paying $90 a night for a tiny kabin to have to clean before my kids could settle in.

Also the door didn’t lock, I didn’t find this out until late in the second day when I went for 10 rounds of bingo and wanted to lock the door. I though it was locked from the inside Friday night when we went to sleep because it looked latched. But after Saturday night bingo I figured, I’ll be checking out at noon Sunday and who is coming this time of night anyway? I’ve never had luck with after hours stuff there. She said I should have told them at check in, she knew exactly the problem before I finished saying what I was saying and that maintenance would have come to fix it. Although I’ve always felt safe there…Non locking door, no security gate, electronic valuables, purse, medications and wife there alone with kids not ideal. Explained that to them, made it out to be no big deal.

Also if you get the small Kabin with a shower, expect a flood and use your own towels to sop it up. They only give you toilet paper, no bath mats. Also be prepared to wet, lather and rinse because a full shower without it going lukewarm to cold half way through is not a real thing. Try not to do dishes or hand wash for awhile before showering, the tank is tiny.

The staff people were indignant and acted like I was imagining it. I was given a dirty kabin. They kept trying to minimize what I was telling them, tried to pass the buck ( she said only 1 coin, didn’t know about the air pod) , and said measures were taken that obviously weren’t.

I did not get satisfaction (a freaking apology) at camp level so I did reach out to KOA HQ who created a ticket. I have yet to hear back, I can only hope this triggers an inspection. This campground DOES NOT live up to KOA quality, imagine and standards.

i had to leave a few days early and they would not give me a partial refund. Most KOAs have no problem giving a refund for the days you aren’t going to be there after checking in. This is frustrating to me only because this policy varies from KOA to KOA. Other than this, I had a good experience. Laundry room was clean and everything seemed well maintained. Cell signal for ATT was strong. I worked remotely there for a few days and had no issues. Staff is very friendly as well. My site was level, and so were most but I did see some that looked to be on a bit of a slope.

Very close to cell towers, close to several nice trails, river, lakes, and public beaches as well as urban areas with everything you’d expect from a small city.

Very small swimming pool and playground for the kids.

Internet was awful using their WiFi but I got full 5G bars with AT&T was able to work remotely with no issues at speeds better than my home cable connection.

We really enjoyed this campground. It’s very large, with both sunny and shaded sites. Permanent/seasonal sites are very well maintained and separated from the weekend warriors.

This campground is fantastic for families, with a pool, two very nice playgrounds, a basketball court, teather ball, a skateboard park, volleyball nets, huge fields for running, kite flying, and even a baseball field.

Laundry room is nice ($2/wash and $2/dry). There is also a small game room and store (with take-out food). No putt-putt and I didn’t see a dog park.

If the roads had paved (rather than gravel), we would have given this park 5 stars.

We stayed three weeks in August 2020. Weekends the place was packed. A lot of people were there to,party.. We had a site on the end of the row on top of a hill, so we had a nice view of some farm land. There was some noise from an Interstate about one or two miles away. The WiFi was weak and not useful. I had to use my WeBoost to get a good signal and we were on a hill. The sites are pretty close together.

Stopped here overnight and stayed at a paved pull through with full hookups near the entrance on the right (193). Happy with our spot. We didn’t use any of the campground amenities. The grounds looked very well kept compared to other KOAs we’ve stopped at. We requested contactless check in to be Covid safe. They picked up your trash at the end of the site on exit.

Grounds were extremely clean and well-kept. The pool was pretty, but really small and oddly shaped. PACKED with kids, could only swim during the 1-hour of adult swim from 3-4PM.
Site small, but our 20’ camper fit just fine.
Campground was geared toward kids (which we don’t have), so I’m sure it would be great if camping with children.
At $80/night, it was too expensive, crowded and loud.

Very, very sad and disappointed with our experience at this KOA. We were SO excited about spending some time at this new location - my 11 year-old son had his days of swimming and camping all planned. I had reserved a site that was full hook-ups for 4 days via their website that stated this site would accommodate the length of our RV, etc. When we arrived and were given our spot we saw that this was the most tight fit we have ever seen at any campground ever — we have been camping for almost 10 years. The sites were literally crammed on top of each other where our neighbors were less than 5 feet from us. We disregarded that inconvenience still excited about camping. Then came the BIG ISSUES! We tried to hook up our extra long sewer hose that we have used on every one of our camping trips only to find out that it was not long enough. My husband went to the office to get some help where he was informed that someone would be out to help us. A service employee came and basically scolded my husband for not having the right length sewer hose. We were never informed that this site would need a specific extra long sewer hose length. The service person told us he would go see what he could do to help us — guess what? He never returned. My husband inquired with the office to talk with the owner and left several messages. No response. We decided to pack it up - we may have considered staying but the staff was COMPLETELY RUDE thus far and we had already paid for full hookups and were told no other sites were available. We decided to come back home. On our way out my husband stopped at the front desk to ask if the owner was there only to be informed that the owner had just left 10 minutes earlier — obviously our camping trip experience was not important since his campground was already full. It appears that the owner only cares about certain campers - perhaps the people that have been there many times before. We just received a call from the owner and my husband described his attitude as condescending and rude. My husband explained our situation and why we left and he said the owner only provided one word answers and was not willing to accept the advice of stating on their website that some of their campsites required extra-long sewer hoses. My husband requested a partial refund for our trip and the owner wouldn’t even hear of it. If the owner ends up reading this, thank you for ruining our vacation and I hope you enjoy our money because we certainly are not.

You can read our full review here, http://travelswithpickles.com/2017/06/22/everything-you-hate-about-your-hoa-but-in-a-koa/

But here are the highlights:

Wi-Fi is beyond atrocious, Pool and Hot Tub are inadequate for the number of campers and seasonal owners, unfenced dog park bordering busy road, rule enforcement is spotty, over priced, road noise is loud, and speeding golf carts.

The only reason we would stay here again is because there is no other option when we go to visit family in the area.