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.

We stayed at Thousand Trails St Clair in St Clair, Michigan. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice Thousand Trails campground.

Dates:

• Check in: 2025-05-11
• Check out: 2025-05-18
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Mix of sunny and rainy
• High temps 67-81°F, lows 44-61°F
• Some wind, gusts to 27 MPH

Noise:

• Some freeway noise
• No train horn noise
• A bunch of neighbor noise (kids)

Site:

• #C21, pull-through, gravel
• Buddy site, with neighbor passenger side facing us on both sides (ugh)
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
• Fairly level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
• Gravel driveway about 70 feet long by 8 feet wide
• 35 feet to neighbors on both sides
• Just grass between sites
• Picnic table
• Fire pit
• Some tall trees
• Somewhat clean site
• Elevation 620 feet, front facing due west

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 50 PSI very hard water, conveniently located
• Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Starlink: 130-300 Mbps down, 7-30 Mbps up, 30-40 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 380-430 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 75-210 ms ping, unreliable
• AT&T: 128-142 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
• Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 0.5-7 Mbps up, 60 ms ping (our SIM has 5 Mbps max)
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Pool
• Package delivery to office, at no charge (uncommon for Thousand Trails nowadays)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

A Nice Thousand Trails Campground

This place was typical of an older Thousand Trails campground, but the communal areas looked new and well-maintained. Like all other TT properties, they have switched to assigned sites, which I prefer. A word of warning, however, because the map they have online when you click the link in your confirmation email is highly outdated. Our original assignment was B2, which, on the old map, was a 15A site, which would not suffice, and we had some angst about what we’d do if that were the case. Thankfully, the map on the website itself was an updated version and showed it as a 50A & water site. When we checked in, however, the lovely lady at the front desk informed us that we would be in C-18, which was a full-hookup site. I wasn’t too happy about it since all the pull-throughs are buddy sites (I’d rather not have a sewer connection than have a buddy site). However, she very sweetly moved us to C-21, which was still a buddy site but had larger grassy areas between the sites, so we weren’t cheek-by-jowl with our neighbors, so it all worked out.

One of the best things about this campground is that it is one of the few Thousand Trails campgrounds that 1) still accepts packages for guests, and 2) doesn’t charge for them. It’s also one of the rare TT campgrounds that provides the actual gate code in the pre-arrival email. This is because you need to let yourself in when you arrive and then check in at the welcome center. I’ve been conditioned by past experiences at TT campgrounds to be skeptical of those emails, so it came as a surprise when I needed the gate code upon arrival. We camped at Thousand Trails St Clair in a Motorhome.

Campground map; it says C18, but the check-in person told us C21 was better:

An interactive map:

Our site:

It was a buddy site, which we normally hate, but this wasn’t too bad, since there was a fair bit of space between the sites. Plus it was too cold to want to sit outside, so didn’t bother us too much:

Utilities:

Dusty truck (we did take it through a car wash after this, though it was dirty again a few days later from rain):

We added the Michigan sticker to states map, filling a hole:

Just the little NE states left:

Our original site assignment was here, next to that annual site; it would have been fine, but no sewer:

Other sites:

Office:

Playground:

Community campfire:

Little library and game:

Mini golf:

We’d be happy to stay here again.