Shipshewana Trading Place RV Park

Our stay here happened to land on a flea market week, we didn't mind because it gave us something to do every day but it also means this place got very busy. The sites share pedestals (front door faces neighbors front door and back to back), this gets tricky to pull a trailer into if you are along the fence. Love the town, everything you want is within walking distance. Good Verizon and Starlink

This RV park turned out to be much better than I expected. It is right next to the flea market and several other shops / businesses. Yoder’s Meat and Cheese is a short walk through the flea market. The park is clean and the hookups are decent. The only thing I didn’t like was every two sites share hookups, so it’s on the camp side for many sites. The price is moderate but very good for this area.

After Oct 15th they only maintain 20 spaces and most are taken by full timers. Nothing open on the market grounds but restaurants in town were open. These 20 sites are right next to the county road on the south side and are noisy all night long. Trucks, horse drawn buggies, etc could be heard well into the wee hours. May be different in an interior site, but stay away from the road you enter the property. Not worth the price when the grounds are essentially closed for the season.

We enjoyed our stay at the Shipshewana Trading Place RV Park. When we arrived the camper that had the site prior to us had not vacated yet and it was 2:00 pm in the afternoon. It took them about an hour, and we were able to enjoy our site. That might be a short coming of this park is that there is no staff on site on Sundays. The Park offers mainly alternating pull-through sites which means you will be facing your neighbor’s door not their street side of the camper. This makes for great buddy sites. It is a crushed limestone/asphalt drives with grass in between the sites. The trees are not mature, so no shade is really offered. This is a full hookup park, and you will need to provide your own fire ring. Even though we did use the bathroom/shower/laundry facility there are clean. The great thing about this park is it offers you access to the Flea Market. They also offer RV repairs both at their facility tied to the park or at your site.

Things we found to do in the area the flea market, visiting Shipshewana, Middlebury, and Elkhart, Windmill Museum, Black Pine Animal Sanctuary, RV Hall of Fame Museum, and the Pumpkin Bike Trail, Michiana Events Center, Blue Gate Theater. Trip the area can’t go without stop to the Das Essenhaus or a new little favorite restaurant in Middlebury On Top of the Hill.

As others have said, this isn’t a “resort” RV park. It’s a very good park with friendly and helpful staff and clean grounds. Power and water are on a nice pedestal and convenient for hook up. Location is convenient to town. All that said, this was our first night stay in our new trailer purchased from a local dealer. So it was helpful to have a pull through site to ease the newbe nerves. We would definitely use again and stay a few days. We were on a hard schedule to get back to the West Coast and stayed only one night.

Directed by Coachmen to the RV service center here. Had some year 1 issues so we went to birthplace of RVs... Northern Indiana. They got us in and out and let us stay in the RV with power and water hookup at the camp for the 2 nights we were there. Good folks, interesting town with the Amish and Mennonite population. Bonus they had the town lights drive through set up.

Chose this campground based on location, which was perfect for exploring Shipshewana and the neighboring flea market (which was just okay...was hoping for some RV vendors but none were there) and accessing the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail to ride our bikes. Nothing fancy about the sites...gravel with grass strips in between and only a few small trees so no shade if needed. Lots of pull-thrus but we chose a back-in site near the laundry/bathhouse ($3/night cheaper too...our rate was $41 plus tax so about $44/night). Fortunately the campground was not even half full the 2 nights we stopped before Labor Day weekend so all was quiet.

Bathhouse (4 bathrooms each w/shower stall so private) were fairly new but could have used a bit of cleaning and one washer (out of 2) we used was not working properly (spin cycle not working so clothes were soaked, which caused us to wring them out and use extra quarters for the dryer). Wash was $3.50 for cold water ($3.75 for hot) and dryer was 75 cents to start for 10 minutes then 25 cents for every 5 minutes thereafter, on the expensive side in our experience (we are full-time RVers).

No WiFi. Easy in/out and there is an RV repair facility onsite (but they were very busy so we couldn't have someone look at our slide). Would stay here again for easy access to town (within walking distance), but there is another campground about 4 miles up the road that looked nicer we would probably try next time.

So.. let me save everyone some time by saying what Trading Places is NOT:
Its not a big rv destination park with trails, playgrounds, golf courses, scenic vistas or a wicked fishing hole.

Now.. if you've gotten this far, let me tell you what it IS:
Its a great place to camp and unwind. Its nestled up against the Shipshewanna Flea Market, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, it gets busier. But, it also gives you a great place to shop for all sorts of stuff. It offers both full hook ups and rustic camping. It does not have fire rings or pits.

Its an OUTSTANDING place to get any repair, warranty, maintenance, or upgrade work done. Service Manager Ryan goes above and beyond, and his team are very thorough. They did my dewinterizing, finding and fixing a gas leak I wasnt aware I had, walked me through dewinterizing (first time for me), installed a tornado tank flush, a new kitchen faucet, and a new on demand water heater. I cannot recommend the service and sales team enough, even in a "pandemic".

What this very basic park gives is a place to pull in and unwind for the night, or pull in and stay awhile. The park is basic, but the customer service is Outstanding. The spots are clean gravel, mostly level, with clean power and water coming in. Sewage is easy to hook up to (4" pipe, so bring a collar), and the posts are even gently lit at night. The service team responds quickly to any concerns or "newbie questions". The only downside is the free wifi is very slow. It will however run your temperature sensors to keep tabs on your pets. Visible and T-Mobile service was very good anywhere in the park and flea market.

What is also new is the shower and laundry rooms. There are 2 brand new sets of washers and dryers, coin operated, and 4 handicap accessible, lockable, individual shower rooms with sink, toilets, mirrors and hand dryers. Showers are free, and plenty hot! Like everything else, the laundry/shower was immaculate.

If your looking for a quick pit stop on your trip, need that summer shakedown trip, or just want somewhere quiet to relax and enjoy some amazing sunrises, friendly neighbors, and caring attentive staff.. then Trading Places is a great place to stop and throw down your chocks.