Elkhart Co. / Middlebury KOA Holiday Reviews

This KOA campground in Indiana was a lovely surprise on what could have otherwise been a disappointing spring break. After our initial plans to head south and Camp with another family were cancelled due to severe thunderstorms, we looked into what else was open for camping closer to the great lakes area, and found this campground. A couple calls later and we were all set and arrived and I have a hard time putting into words how wonderful the staff is. They're genuinely friendly and very helpful! Fortunately the campground was nearly empty and we were able to get two nice sites together so we could be next to our camping friends and we all had a great time. While tent camping would probably be OK too, our small travel trailer was perfect. There were some HUGE travel trailers there, quite possibly the biggest I've seen. But there are a lot of pull-through sites to accommode that and all the sites have a mostly-level drive. There are cabins too but we didn't look into the details of those. The kids enjoyed riding bikes up and down the camp road, and there was a little pond which offered license-free catch-and-release fishing. I was not prepared for this (and even more surprised when my son said he wanted to put down his electronics and go fishing with his friends!) so I had to drive a few miles into town and buy a rod and hooks and worms at a local sports shop. My son even caught his first fish! And our friends daughter stayed occupied catching garter snakes. Not that I'm a huge outdoorsman, but it was a very nice parent moment to see all the kids off their electronics participating in nature. There's restaurants and a great donut shop nearby and lots of horse and buggy traffic from the local Amish population. This was nice as it gave us a chance not to gawk, but rather to discuss with our children about different lifestyle choices and possible rewards/challenges associated with that, and hopefully instilled some acceptance of other people's choices. There are a couple nice hiking trails on the campground as well. They're perfect for just taking a stroll through the woods with one little hill to contend with, and a little minigolf course for the kiddos to play on a bit. There is also a fenced in dog run for Fido to do his business off-leash, just please pick up after your pet. I cleaned a lot of old dog-logs just so I/my dog didn't step in it, and was rather irritated that dog owners wouldnt have done that themselves. I imagine in high summer when the campground is packed, it might not be as ideal for a quiet camping trip, but that also opens up more chance for social interaction and those quirky little temporary camp friendships that kids are so adept at creating, so I bet it'd still be fun, just in a different way. Overall I recommend this KOA (more than any other KOA or certain picnic basket stealing bear campgrounds I've been to in the past!), and will likely return, even if theres no other cancelation to drive the necessity. It was just a good time.