We stayed at Traverse City KOA Holiday in Buckley, Michigan. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A fairly standard KOA, undergoing a major expansion.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-05-18
- Check out: 2025-05-26
- 8 nights
Weather:
- Cloudy with a little rain
- High temps 47-62°F, lows 38-46°F
- Some wind, gusts to 26 MPH
Noise:
- Some road noise
- No train horn noise
- Little neighbor noise
- For part of the week, noise from earthworks on new campsites
- Plus compost smells from the topsoil when the wind came from that direction
Site:
- #140, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Mostly level site; a little high on driver side and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 100 feet long by 10 feet wide
- 25 feet to neighbor on passenger side
- No neighbor on driver side; about 15 feed to road
- Just grass between sites
- Patio table and chairs on concrete patio
- Fire pit
- Young trees
- Clean site
- Elevation 1030 feet, front facing NW
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located
- 55 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 218-260 Mbps down, 15-20 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 500-560 Mbps down, 13-16 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi: 30 Mbps down, 3-6 Mbps up, 10 ms ping
- AT&T: 33-77 Mbps down, 0.5-1.5 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
- Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
Amenities:
- Garbage pickup from site
- Pool
- Pizza, firewood, ice delivery to site
- Package delivery to office
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Decent KOA undergoing expansion
While we were in the park, they were in the process of doing earthmoving and site preparation for an additional 60 or so 50A full-hookup sites, some of which will be seasonal. As a result, we had to deal with construction noise and smell for a few days, which detracted from the experience. But the campground is nice, with some extra amenities and touches that made it stand out a bit from a typical KOA (pizza, wood, and ice delivery to your site, for instance). We had a deluxe patio site, which was about 100 feet long, so plenty long enough for our motorhome and tow vehicle (with room for another if we’d needed it). The patio had a table and chairs, as well as another seating area, even though it was too cold and rainy during our stay to want to sit outside much. We camped at Traverse City KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Venture into Traverse City: Rare Bird Brewery offers excellent food and beverages (the Schmackintosh cider is a favorite). The Omelette Shoppe offered delicious breakfast and brunch options.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
A nice patio, that we didn’t use as the temperature was unseasonably cold during our stay:
Earthworks for new sites in front of our site:
Other sites:
Cabins:
Playground:
Jump pads:
Dog park:
Shade garden (which I added as a PokéStop for you Pokémon Go players out there!):
The construction noise and smells were a little annoying, but other than those, this was a nice enough campground; we’d be happy to stay here again in the future.
