Newport-Little Diamond Lake KOA

First campground our family stayed at as new travel trailer owners and first time camping with our kids. Sites we have stayed in have some kind of privacy (bushes and trees) which we really enjoy. Sites are close to being level, so bring blocks to get it just right. They also help you find your site so you aren't guessing. You can also select your own site (more expensive) but worth it. We have such great memories here, and this is our go-to camp spot. Prices can vary for rvs starting at 40 and going upwards of 60 a night depending on your site and other factors. If you plan to camp at KOA a lot, the membership is worth it.

Pros: Sites, playground for kids, basketball court, fenced dog area, walking trails, fishing (no license needed), pool and hot tub available, beautiful sunsets, convenience store.

Cons: yellow jackets!! They are everywhere and are reluctant if you bring any kind of meat dish outside. Sites don't have sewage hookups (I recommend getting a portable rv tote tank) they at least have a dump station Pool cleanliness (due to staff shortage) had cleaned it since no one was around and it was riddled with all sort of bugs. Theft!!! We had someone steal our gas tank from our site.

Wow, I (female, retired) have driven to all of the states west of the Rockies in the last eighteen months, camping solo in my van, a 2021 hybrid Toyota Sienna. It has a wood floor, bed, chemical toilet and looks nice from the outside. I travel solo, no pets, and am very quiet. I would have thought I would be the ideal campsite occupant for the night. Leave No Trace and all that. I have never had any problems with camp hosts whether it is a Harvest Host, KOA, Elks Lodge or even a Loves Travel Center to name a few.

I made an online reservation, paid and proceeded to the campground in the late afternoon. There is a gate and a booth at the entrance. I parked, entered the booth. The woman inside (the OWNER, not an employee) saw thru the window what I was driving and accused me of trying to “sneak” in my car to camp in. Wait, what?

Unlike most places this campground does not allow vans -because they are cars- to park in an RV spot, even if you pay. I have electric extension cords and would be happy to run my stove and mini fridge although I usually just use my hybrid car engine. But whatever. They have the right to have whatever rules they want. But the hostility I was met with from her was unprofessional and unprovoked. When I explained my van is rebuilt and is self sufficient she became even more incensed.

At some point she realized I was silent and edging to the door. After all of this she told me this one time only she “would do me a favor but only this once” let me stay in the site I had reserved and paid for. She said it a couple more times quickly as I reached for the door. My head was spinning at this point so I backed out the door and said I would needed to step outside for a moment. I moved my van out of the way and decided to just keep driving away from this awful place.

I have read some reviews online that describe similar unpleasantness from clearly the same individual, the owner.

No sewer connections....at all? There are sewer caps at each site, but I guess the entire system is down? Why? Lots of inoperable sites, i.e. no power or water. Large section unavailable due to "group camping". Why doesn't TT put money back into their properties. The large open fields were overgrown (knee hi grass). Very disappointing.

KOAs are great for families. We are a traveling couple, but didn't mind the kids that were about. Our stay was 7/05-7/10. This is a combined KOA/Thousand Trails facility; KOA side was relatively uncrowded, Thousand Trails side a bit more crowded. 50 amp, water, but no sewer on our site; on site dump facility. Actually a very large RV park overall, in terms of land area. As KOAs do, there was a lead-in golf cart to our site; seemed to be just one employee attending to arrivals when we arrived, so a bit of a wait at the entrance for the host to lead us in to our site. Clean bathrooms/showers. After being at several RV parks, all seemingly right off a noisy freeway, the quiet at this park was fantastic. Little Diamond Lake (a few minutes outside the park) was a cute little lake, looks like vacation homes that families have been coming to for years. Beautiful country in that area. Ours was a pull-thru site, easy in and out, relatively level, gravel site. Trees not dense, but some shade.

Check-in process was quick and easy. Very few people here due to Coronavirus. Staff is friendly. Site is mostly level, water and electric only with no sewer but dump station on site. Quiet area. Close to Newport which has pretty much everything you need.

UPDATE: AT&T service is hit or miss. Sometimes it's 1 bar of 4G, sometimes it's 1 bar of LTE, and the connection is very spotty either way. Once the park filled up for the weekend, mobile coverage greatly diminished. Maybe better with a booster? There is no wifi available in the park other than in or right around the "wifi center", which is currently closed due to the Coronavirus, but you can sit outside the door and do what you need to do.

Would stay here again because it's nice and quiet. Just need to be sure to download some music and video content from home before leaving.

This is a very nice campground and I'm in site 41 for the week in my 43' fifth wheel. It's a TT/KOA mix but most of the sites are listed as TT use. This is a middle-of-nowhere style campground that has all of the basic needs for short to intermediate stays. THERE ARE NO SEWER HOOKUPS, but if you can live with that then you'll enjoy your stay. The dump station has easy access.

They have a very nice dog park, the utilities (for the most part) seem to be recent in some areas, and the roads/sites are firmly packed gravel. The roads are better than most gravel packed campgrounds and if you're creative and have any talent at parking your big rig, you can get some amazing sites. It's late in the season, so the there are not a lot of people here, the store is only open on weekends, and the bugs are nearly non-existent. A fire-ban is in effect so can't use the fire-pit.

They have recently installed a new WiFi (paid) system and it seems to be very good, though coverage is not 100% through the park. AT&T is very slow for data, but OK for voice. T-Mobile streaming is decent on my iPad.
Streaming on Verizon works pretty well, but every now and then (measured in hours) the data signal drops connection for several seconds; voice is great. I'm using the paid WiFi and it seems to be very good.

The place is quiet!

We stayed in the Thousand Trails part of this campground, and the rate ($0) reflects that we are family Courtesy Card holders.
There are very few 50A hookups and no sewer sites in this campground. It is not clear which sites are 50A and which are 30A until you go to each site - it appears that only a very few of the first sites you come to along the meadow are 50A sites. A lot of the sites have the utilities on the "wrong" side - ok in a motorhome because you can pull into the site, but difficult for trailers or 5th wheels.
There is definitely a lot of variance from site-to-site in terms of both length and width of site.
Cell booster definitely helped boost service into acceptable ranges.

This park is a dual park, KOA and Thousand Trails. The amenities are shared, but the sites are distinctively different.

We stayed more nights on the TT side which I will review separately. We had friends that were coming down from Canada that booked a site in KOA for tent camping. Our original plan was to camp in the TT side, but there was a really nice site right next to their site and we decided we would rather stay right next to them so they could let the kids sleep at night in their tent while we hung out by the fire inside the RV.

The sites were level and nicely groomed. A little hilly driving through some of the roads, but the roads are in good shape and I think any rig could go up and down them without an issue.

The restrooms and showers were nice and clean.

Some sites are tight together and some are nicely spaced. Some have trees and some are open, so if you have a preference you might want to book on the phone where you can request what you like. I thought the sites were a bit pricey especially considering that there is no sewer, but I tend to usually think that KOA's price out a bit high.

The pool was in decent shape, but the hot tub wasn't very hot and had weak jets, so it felt more like a small warmer pool.

They do have a disc golf course though I didn't play it, and a lot of open space. The kids we were there with loved running in the open space and did have fun at the playground. There was also a dedicated dog run, though most of the time I just walked the dog around the park, it is big enough that it is good exercise.

You are a little far from anything. The nearest town is that of Diamond Lake but there isn't much there. The nearest community with a full grocery store, etc. is Newport, WA which is about 25 mins away. But we like the solitude so we don't count that against the place :)

[Actual Stay was 08/23/16]