Sned-Acres Family Campground

We stayed at Sned-Acres for the month of December 2022, and then returned again for the month of March 2023. We paid the monthly winter rate, which includes all utilities (30/50A, water, sewer). The water remains turned on, although if the temperature gets below freezing management does ask you to fill your tanks and unhook.

Sites are mostly level, although a few will require a bit of work on your part. There are a mix of pull through and back in sites. about 70% of the park is occupied by seasonal camping units which all appeared tidy.

This park is incredibly quiet in the winter. There were several other rigs hunkering down here over the winter, as this is one of the only RV parks in Central/Western NY that offers winter camping. Most amenities are closed during the winter season, but the little camp store remains open and stocked, and the bathrooms, showers, and laundry is accessible.

Management at this park is great. They were flexible on our arrival dates and kindly and unexpectedly did not charge us when we arrived two days earlier than we reserved (after calling to confirm this was okay). They also supplied us with a delicious mini loaf of Bill's bread - its really good. When Bill (the winter season caretaker) found out we didn't get any bread during our December stay he made sure to bring us another loaf.

Mail can be sent to this park, and the management will call you once it arrives in the office.

We enjoyed walking from the park down to Elm Beach Road each day. If you're up for it, you can even make a pitstop at the Thirsty Owl or Cayuga Ridge Wineries, which are roughly a mile walk from the park along Elm Beach Road. This is Amish country, so a walk up South Cayuga Road will treat you to horse drawn buggies and a farming community. A quick drive into the town of Ovid provides a small grocery store, post office, chinese take-out, gas station (with a diesel pump but no DEF), and Dollar General. Ithaca is a lovely 30 minute drive South. Taughannock Falls and its peaceful and short trail to the falls is a 15 minute drive.

Starlink works well here due to lack of overhead tree coverage.

While we can't judge the summer season, we truly appreciated this gem of a winter campground.

Large park with overnight sites and long term. It is very dusty with gravel interior roads. Our site was fairly new with large gravel that was soft due to rain. We left some pretty significant “dents” from the levelers. It was a long site with a gravel spot on the side for the car. It was somewhat level but not a problem for the auto levelers even with boards down. Sites are nearby with a strip of grass between so there is no privacy. Quiet at night and busy during the day with lots of people coming and going. Satellite worked great in our site and Verizon was 4g 2 bars. The WII FI didn’t work so we used our phone hot spots. Trash cans and recycling overflowing on a Sunday afternoon. The new laundry had a funky aroma and an almost full trash can – kind of smelled like a dirty diaper and maybe it was! The staff is very responsive. We encountered electrical issues on a Sunday, and they worked for 2 hours to resolve the problem. It’s challenging to get to this park with narrow, bumpy roads and bridges with low weight tolerances. Spouse says no on returning but love the proximity to wineries, Ithaca, Watkins Glen and Corning. We shall see!

Sned Acres is a great campground in the middle of the Finger Lakes wine country. Staff was extremely friendly and the Finger lakes region is very beautiful in Summer. Wi Fi was spotty but had good AT&T signal for my BIX Wireless connection for watching TV. Just the drive into Sned Acres from the North or South on route 89 was worth the trip for the views of Lake Cayuga. They have a no external light policy at night in order to see the Stars on clear nights. You could actually see a faint view of the Milky Way on clear nights. I imagine in winter it would really stand out. You also have 2 state parks one to the north and one to the south for lake access.

Do not stay at this park. They have a known issue with their power. From Lynn (owner) when we called to notify him that we had lost power: “we are at the end of the power line, and on hot days, you won’t get power. It will come back later as it cools down”.

This park takes reservations and charges you for electric knowing they cannot possibly provide it. We were in the middle of an open field, it was over 90 degrees, and we had no power. It kept trying to come back on, but would only stay on for a few seconds, then shut off again.

Every site in our row lost power. It would come on for a few seconds and then go out again. Several RV’s were unattended, and we witnessed their AC going on and off repeatedly.

Don’t waste your time or money. We left after one night and would have left sooner if it hadn’t been after 6pm by the time we got set up and then realized there was a problem.

Had we arrived later after it had cooled down and not realized the power issue and gone sightseeing the next day, we’d have lost power while were out, and would have lost all the food in our refrigerator/freezer and had potential damage to our electrical system/AC compressor.

When we called the following morning to say we were leaving because we couldn’t stay without power, Lynn said: “You understand this isn’t my fault. The power company has been out to try to fix this issue. I will only refund you half because it isn’t my fault.” While it isn’t Lynn’s fault that the power company cannot fix it, it is Lynn’s fault that he isn’t open and honest with people about this problem at booking or at check in. He allows you to pay in full, find the problem on your own, and then says he will only refund you half of what you paid, which is already too much since you aren’t actually receiving the service (electricity) you’re paying for. One day of vacation wasted packing up and moving to another campground, and money wasted giving it to Lynn for nothing.

I do not have any photos or review of anything else there because our entire evening was consumed by this issue and finding a new reservation.

We just finished a 3 night stay at Sned-Acres Family Campground in Ovid, New York. This place was spectacular... it was quiet and secluded and close to all the nice Finger Lakes’ wineries as well as beautiful waterfalls.

The cost was $37.00 a night. They have full hook-ups with sewer and WiFi. They have a pool, a game room, and frisbee golf for the kiddos and adults. They have open fields and a cute pond for fishing and morning/nightly walks.
We will definitely be going back... the co-owners, Reid and Wendy Snedaker, were the nicest people you could meet. Also, I can’t forget to mention the welcome gift of the best homemade chocolate chip bread.

We loved our stay at Sned-Acres! We spent 4 nights there in June 2019 at site #17. It was easy to find, relatively easy to pull in (would’ve been easier if someone hadn’t parked their car in the grass directly across from our campsite), and the staff we dealt with (Wendy and Reid) were just wonderful. Our two-year-old adored playing on the playground just 15’ or so from our campsite and we particularly loved checking out our beautiful lake view while we sat around the campfire. There were tons of wineries nearby, as well as some breweries and a beer garden, hiking, and waterfalls so we weren’t hurting for outside things to do either.

We didn’t use the pool nor the bathhouse.

This isn’t a campground with a lot of frills, but it certainly met all of our needs and then some. The friendship bread given to us at check-in was so touching and sweet (as well as delicious). Our only disappointment was that they have a LONG wait for seasonal sites with almost no turnover year to year. Great for them, but bad for us!

There are two different sections of this campground, a large, mostly seasonal section and then a smaller transient section. The transient sites are all parallel and built on a hill. There is some space between the campers, but no trees or other vegetation to create a sense of privacy. You're pretty much looking at your neighbor's rig. What was frustrating to us was, during our visit, there were very few RVs in the short term section. Yet, for unknown reasons, the owners kept placing people in the spots at the top of the hill, and the bottom of the hill, while leaving all the center spots open. Had they placed people in every other spot, everyone would have had more space and more privacy. As we were pulling out our last day, someone was already waiting to pull into our spot, sandwiched between two other rigs, while 6 or 7 spaces sat vacant in the middle of the campground. Maybe there was a reason for this, maybe there was not. We just found it frustrating.

Additionally, our site quality was not great. We had to use levelers on the front wheels to get level and the sewer hookup was placed in such a way that we had to use our extender hose to reach the drain and the hose was going uphill. This required us to use levelers and wood blocks to get our sewer hose lined up with the drain. The sites could easily be leveled because they are gravel, but I'm not sure about the other issues. Big rig access was fine with wide roads and easy turns.

The campground is located in Ovid, New York which is on western side of Cayuga Lake. You can actually walk to a couple wineries right from the campground, and numerous others are within a short drive. Watkins Glen State Park is about a 30 minute drive, as is the town of Seneca Falls. Ithaca, New York is south of Ovid, also about 30 minutes away.

Customer service is where this campground shines and what makes it hard to leave a critical review. The owners could not have been nicer or more welcoming. They present each guest with a loaf of Amish "friendship bread," which is a type of cake, at check-in and they really go out of their way to provide helpful information. Whenever we saw them during our stay they always stopped to ask us how we were doing and offer advice about where to go and what to see.. They are simply lovely people.

We wanted to love this place because the owners were so incredibly friendly, however, it was hard to look by the fact they consistently placed rigs on top of each other rather than spacing people out, and the site we had was unlevel with utilities placed in such a way that our waste water was constantly fighting gravity. Additionally, while the location was "central" between the lakes, it was also a good 30 minute drive to many of the the things we wanted to see and do. Unfortunately, it all became a bit exhausting after a while. On the flip side, with our Passport America discount, it was a cheap place to stay and a good value for what it was.

Very friendly and accommodating owners and staff. They are welcoming and offer you some friendship bread when you check in. This is is a big campground with lots of empty green space. If you stand in the right spot, you can catch glimpses of Lake Cayuga. They have a small pool that was closed when we were visiting. It is in the country and very quiet. While we were there, we saw mostly adults and few children. The seasonal/long term sites are near/under the trees. The short term sites out in the open, slightly tiered, very unlevel, narrow, and gravel. We had to park our car sideways to fit but most others seemed to have enough room for their RV and car. Electric worked fine but the water pressure could be really low at times. Directv satellite worked great and Verizon had 4g and 3bars. The WII FI worked well or not at all. There are lots of farms in the area. Many are run by Mennonites or Amish. We were lucky to be there during strawberry season, and they were delicious! Ithaca has a huge farmer's market at various times during the week. We weren't there for the main growing season but I imagine it is quite full of produce in the late summer. There are also plenty of roadside stands selling eggs, honey, and produce. One disappointment was the lack of any fresh fish to buy – there are lakes why aren't there fish?? There are wineries, breweries and distilleries. We enjoyed the hiking and waterfalls in the area. It is amazing how many waterfalls that are in the Finger Lakes!