Townsend-Great Smokies KOA

This is a "Holiday" KOA so it has amenities for campers who stay away and look for entertainment. It is just outside and entrance to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The "Little River" flows by the edge of the campground then into the National Park. some sites back up to the river. There are many trees in the campground. The bathroom and other building facilities are dated in design but clean, neat and spotless in appearance. I feel the whole campground is well maintained. I have a high-end site, $100/night but I like the space. All sites are gravel. Mine was in excellent condition. Very quiet at night. No AT&T cell service but the campground WiFi worked very well all the time.

We would stay here again, even though cell service was spotty. This is a very green, lush campground with lots of birds and good access to the Little River. There is some road noise but it wasn’t horrible. Sites are gravel. Ours was level and backed into a central lawn area. No service with Verizon and weirdly we got service with AT&T only in the early morning and late at night. Park looked well maintained and we saw the staff around helping people park, picking up the trash in the morning and cleaning sites.

We made our first visit to this campground and from start to finish, things were just great. We needed firewood and a camp attendant went to the campground store and delivered it to our campsite. As soon as a camper left the attendants were on the site cleaning fire pits and removing anything out of place.
The restrooms were very clean and well maintained.
The location, on the Pigeon River is lovely and the atmosphere is laid back and cozy.

This was our first KOA experience and it wasn't bad. They have lots for the kids to do including hayrides, swimming pool, crafts, movies, etc. The playground was super nice as was the pool. There are a few river front sites, though the ones by us (9-15) sit about 30 yards off of the river and the river was super deep and not so pretty. On the other hand, the river sites on the other side of the park (sites 77-84 and 121-126) are prettier, forested and the river is more what you would expect in the Smoky Mountains with big rocks and relaxing river sounds. If you need sun then go for sites 1-8 and 85-90.

You can't beat how close this is to the Smoky Mountains and Cades Cove. The other campgrounds in the area seem pretty sketchy comparatively. If you don't need hookups, Elkmont was a beautiful campground about 20 minutes away.

Things to do:
-Tuckaleechee Caverns
-Tubing (put in at the turnoff for Cade's Cove and float into the campground)
-Only good food options are Apple Valley Country Cafe a few miles down the road

Staff was very helpful and friendly. Check-in was easy and they escorted me to my site and helped me back in. Wi-fi was fantastic. A little distracting...not used to having wi-fi when I'm camping. A bit pricey...I think current prices in October are up into the mid-$80s for premium sites.