Charlottesville KOA

PLEASE PLEASE BE CAREFUL BOOKING THE CHARLOTTESVILLE KOA HOLIDAY CAMPGROUND. I will try to convey my horrible experience with them as concisely as possible. On September 19 2023 we booked a campsite for four nights starting October 29. I used my cc for deposit. Approximately five days later I could not find that credit card so I reported it lost/stolen to WellsFargo. They cancelled that card and issued a new card. When speaking with the WellsFargo representative he asked me about a charge named “Charlottesville Charlottesvile” as it sounded suspicious. I did not recognize a charge by that name. They opened an investigation. I did not know at that time or any time after that until the more horrible chain of events took place that “Charlottesville Charlottesville” was the KOA Campground. WellsFargo requested validation from the merchant and the merchant responded but not to their satisfaction. This took place on October 3, a full three weeks prior to our arrival. At no point did anyone from the Charlottesville KOA Campground reach out to me about the disputed charge or cancel my reservation for lack of deposit. Instead when I checked in on October 29 paid the remaining balance with my new credit card, I received a receipt indicating paid in full and deposit honored. The first night we were outside with friends sitting around the campfire laughing. Approximately 9:40PM a man who works there told us that we were being too loud as we were approaching quite time (10PM). It was no big deal, we put out the fire and went inside. It was such a non-event that none of us even brought it up again. Fast forward to Jan 18 when two police officers came to my door with a non-permitted arrest warrant. This particular type of warrant means you must be arrested and processed as a criminal. The warrant was for “intent to defraud an innkeeper.” I had no idea what was going on and didn’t have a clue what the warrant was about. Thankfully we were out of town so it gave me time to start investigating the situation with WellsFargo. After almost 20 hours on the phone the pieces of the puzzle came together. The disputed Charlottesville Charlottesville charge was the KOA campground. I was arrested when I returned home, processed, fingerprinted and put in lock up with other inmates for several hours. HORRIBLE EVENTS TOOK PLACE WHILE I WAS IN JAIL. This was the most horrific experience of my life. WHY didn’t someone from the campground ever reach out to me in advance of our stay OR simply walk over to our campsite while we were there. They could have called me, emailed me….anything at any point and none of this would have happened. To issue a non-permitted warrant for someone’s arrest over $101.97 which turned out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding is beyond my comprehension. It’s just pure evil and I will NEVER forget this horrible event that cost me $5000 for an attorney and three months of anguish. The case of course was dismissed when the attorney general learned of the details. I have a RV trip consulting business and have stayed at campgrounds all over the US. I would be the last person to defraud an innkeeper. Even after all of this I have never received any form of apology from the Campground Management. If this could happen to me, it could happen to you.

Access to this KOA is down a state road and then a county road. Be prepared for no shoulders, but roads were in very good condition. Pay attention to the signs, the entrance is around a corner! It's a steep entrance, there are lots of gouge marks in the road where campers have hit. The campground is wooded, and trees are cut back well enough. Our site was ok, enough room for us to park the truck sideways in front. Since it was early May, and quite cold, the pool wasn't open yet. They have a nice selection of items in the camp store, and everyone we dealt with was very friendly and helpful. The campground was tidy and the bathrooms/showers were spotless. Prices are higher than we usually like to pay but with our KOA discount and using our accumulated points brought it down to an acceptable amount for a 2-night stay. If you're big like us - 68' connected - be careful leaving. We think we might have tagged the stop sign as we left. We stayed here so we could tour Monticello, so we don't expect to be back, but it's a nice campground and well-cared-for.

We just "finished" renovating our vintage 31' 1976 Airstream Sovereign. Her name is Juneaux. While she's still not fully renovated, we have decided to hit the road and continue to make adjustments along the way. So we have just begun our journey and are now fully living and working remotely in @juneauxtheairstream.

For us, good wifi is super important because we work full time and remotely. We can confidently report that the wifi here has been stellar! We have been on several Zoom and Teams calls this week with no issues. 5 stars for the wifi!!

Also, a huge shout out to the renovated and amazing bathroom/shower combos here! Juneaux's bathroom is not fully finished so having a clean shower & bathroom is key. The bonus at this KOA is that you have an en suite shower/bathroom combination that is kept immaculately clean. Toilets, sinks, and showers all in one private room! Luxurious!

Everyone we have encountered has been super nice. Our space at #36 is super large!!! Though, I should say the spaces in the middle do look a little bit tighter. The store has the basic necessities but you're so close to modern conveniences if you need anything. Super pet friendly with a 1/2 mile hiking trail to let off some steam. Laundry is clean and easy if not a tad expensive. The pool is closed and looks a bit dank but assume that is because it's closed for the season.

All in all, beautiful, spacious, clean, welcoming and easy to work from!

We stayed here a few nights July 2020, the campground is quite small. The pool was tucked away and wasn't used due to COVID-19. While the drive up to our pad was hilly, the pad itself was surprisingly level. Overall, the campground was clean. The road to the campground was a bit curvy, but nothing out of the ordinary for Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a bit difficult to navigate our rig around the campground, but the staff was helpful.

We made our reservations in March, along with my brother asking for sites in proximity. That may have been a mistake. We were assigned two small sites at the end of the row. They were pull-through and had all the hook-ups, but gravel with a picnic table and a tire hub for a fire ring, while beautiful sites, much larger, with terra cotta fire rings and patios, remained empty all week. Perhpas we shoul have asked to be moved, but my brother was already set up and he is new to the RV world, so we set up where we were assigned. There is a great bath house and lovely pool. The staff was very responsive, but stay away from sites 17 and 19 at the very least if you choose to stay there. As a note, proximity to Monticello, Montpieler, and Highland is great.

We stayed during spring break 2017 and came down from Michigan. The big trick was that the GPS kept taking us on Plank Road which has a low bridge for a train crossing. It's 11' 11". This means we had to turn around and find another path through.

We had a site back in the corner, which was nice. And it's quiet and peaceful out as long as you've got good neighbors. We had some folks with a bunch of small dogs that were annoying for the first day or two and when they left it was really nice and peaceful.

As for cell service, I use Google Fi which can use both the Sprint and T-mobile network. I had 3 good bars and it was usuable, but my wife's phone on Verizon was not usable from the campground.

The camp store looked pretty good but closed early at 6pm most days. We went into town and so we were just getting back afterwards. I'm sure it'll be good for most folks though.

We fished the pond and caught a couple of small bass.

The biggest issue is the location. It's a bit outside Charlottesville and honestly we needed to spend a lot of time getting to places. I'd rather stay more on the west side of things.

We'd heard mixed things about this place online, but it's one of the few convenient choices is you want to visit Monticello (which we did), and we ended up being pleasantly surprised. Make sure you follow the directions on the site to avoid some scary mountain roads and be careful not to miss the turn into the campground; if you do that the drive is no problem. We were given our choice of several empty sites and ended up in a very easy to get into pull-through on the end of the center row, with lots of privacy and a huge side yard. Some of the other sites we passed up looked like they might have been tricky to get into. Tiny campground by KOA standards, so not a lot of amenities, but there's a small playground, overgrown nature trail, and a pool. Wifi and cell reception pretty much unusable--to be expected given the remote location. About 20 minutes to Monticello and Charlottesville. We wouldn't hesitate to stay here again if our main goal was visiting Monticello.