Circle M RV & Camping Resort

We selected this camp for its locality to see the Amish community but for us the experience stops at the front gate. As you drive in there are beautifully mowed lawns and you think this will be a great place. There is no booking a site it is drive around until you find something. On the way in you pass an area of what looks like to be a storage area full of old vans. When you get to a site you then go back and inform the office. When making the camp they could have spent 5 minutes longer with a grader and made the sites level. If you go there make sure you have a good supply of leveling blocks. We needed 6". Amenities are great for the children. 2 pools Indoor & outdoor. Cut down basketball & pickle ball courts. Internet is only available in the office. 30 & 50 Amp & good water pressure. The best thing about this camp is that it is a member of Passport America.

Circle M discriminates against the LGBT community...
We made reservations at this property for September 14th for three nights. I arrived with our RV ahead of my fiance due to his work schedule. I checked in by myself, everything went fine, the lady behind the counter called for someone to escort me down and find a site. When I mentioned to her that I "may not be able to back in until Gary gets here". She then inquired: "who is he?". When I informed her that we were engaged, and who he was - she shut me down with a curt: "you can't come in here". When I inquired as to why, she told me nothing other than "you need to wait for Gary...you can wait outside or in your truck". I called Thousand Trails 800 number for customer service as did Gary, the customer service agent spoke to a supervisor who in turn didn't see an issue. The customer service agent called Circle M and informed the woman at the front desk there is no issue and that I was permitted to check in. Unfazed the woman at Circle M still refused. After another family finished their check in, I again went inside to speak with the woman, showing her our Insurance and Registration which has both of our names and our mutual address on it. To my shock, her response was: "that stuff means nothing to me, I don't recognize that sort of thing". Saddened and appalled I asked if he could circle the building to leave the property. The woman informed me I would have to make a u-turn in the small parking lot. I responded: "OK, I guess I will leave". Unbelievably, the employee said "good, we don't want your types here anyways".

As Thousand Trails members, we've stayed at several TT campgrounds and most of them are good, however, this campground really shines and is what most people hope for when pulling up to a TT park. The campground is well groomed, the staff is very professional and the sites are spaced out very well with a site to suit anyone's needs. They offer both an indoor and outdoor pool, covered miniature golf and a video arcade as well as being on a river.

Sadly, the Verizon signals here are not very strong. We both had two bars on our phones. WiFi is available for a fee but we didn't try it out. The campground does offer hotspots near the pool house, and possibly other spots but we didn't try those services either. We had a fantastic time here and will DEFINITELY come back.

It doesn't hurt that you're in the heart of Amish country and all it has to offer. Definitely, don't miss this park. Very nice.

The campground is okay. Nice pools and nice people. Only one bar on Verizon.

This park has several areas with full hook-ups, the lower area of the property is near the river and when I arrived I got placed there initially. The river area has no sewer and has a faint smell from the water. Moisture and the many leaves added a mildew smell to the river smell so I couldn't wait to move after the weekend. Most folks really liked the river area and I don't think anyone had issues with the smell like I did. You can park parallel with the river for an outstanding water view; I chose to park back from the water where the spots are very large and long just horribly unlevel (see picture). This campground offered a free honey wagon 3 days a week, you just had to call in for it.

After the weekend I moved up to the full-hookup, sunny locations in the park. The spots here were also horribly unlevel, I attempted no less than 5 spaces before I selected the most level. Then at that spot the water hookup was busted, luckily staff had put a splitter on the adjacent site so I had water.

There was a nice indoor heated pool, propane fill anytime the office was open and the cleanest facilities I've seen in a long time. Bathrooms and the laundry room were spotless. Staff were very helpful and kind.

The location is great if you're adventures are around Lancaster, but it's a bit far to reach the Hershey area.

We stayed 4 nights here as part of our Thousand Trails membership. Full hookups (50amp, water, sewer). Lower water pressure topping out at just 42psi.

Check-in was quick and easy. Then we drove around looking for a spot. We ended up scraping our bumper going through a couple steep dips and hills so be careful it you have low clearance. While we were camped we noticed many people circling around 3-5 times trying to find and compare open sites. That backed up traffic at times as people were waiting and circling.

Many of the sites we looked at were not very level. We tried situating our rig a few different ways until we finally found an angle that only required a few blocks to assist in leveling. But we ended up in site B9 right under a large tree that helped add shade on some hot days.

We enjoyed day trips around the area, especially some Amish country stops. Verizon hotspot was weak but AT&T was solid.

If you are a TT hater, then just keep going.

Was here 4 years ago and hated the sewage pump house making terrible noise... FIXED! Can't hear anything coming from it now.

AT&T signal is only 3 bars, but the speed is nothing short of amazing... over 80mb down!

Verizon signal is also 3 bars, but there are just too many people on the system (early June 2020) so during the day the Verizon can fall below 1MB download speed... almost as bad as Orlando during the winter. Night time the speed picks up, but usually streaming quality isn't possible between 8am and 10pm. During the day, it's hard to keep a decent connection going for work.

OTA TV is a joke... 6 channels with bad signals. The other TV only sees 3 channels. We're down in a bit of a small valley so that may have something to do with it. Luckily we don't care if there's a TV signal, but some might. They have pay-for cable, but we're just not interested.

The WiFi is FastWave and I really wish Thousand Trails would find something better. Speed is usually around 4-5mb, which is fine, but it sometimes drops below 1mb for a few minutes. When I pay $40 for 3 weeks, I expect at 4+ MB speed ALL.THE.TIME., and not just most of the time. As usual, FastWave fails to live up to its name. I'll gladly give up 4 devices at once and go with 2 if that means it's going to work at a consistent speed in the 4+ MB range. I'm using a really good WiFi extender that I've used for years with great success, so I know it's not my equipment.

The amenities appear to be open now, though there is a signup at 9am for the indoor pool. We need to check out the Ice Cream shop as they sell Hershey's Ice Cream.

The roads are paved and the sites are, for the most part, well maintained. We didn't see any bags over the utility poles, so the park is keeping up on its maintenance. Haven't run into any electric issues with 90+ weather, so that's another plus for the park.

The park is hilly and well groomed. It should not take a lot of work to correct for level if you don't have leveling jacks. The only eye sore is the RV storage area, which I think looks rather trashy. IMNSHO, they should follow Orlando's lead and get rid of the storage area and put in more sites.

There is plenty of retail in the area and one of the best dog parks we've ever visited is 15 minutes away. There is plenty of good eats in the area, but don't forget that the Divine Swine is only 20 miles away and serving the best BBQ north (and better than a lot south) of the Mason-Dixon line.

This campground is part of the Thousand Trails system. We aren’t members because this isn’t the type of park we’d usually choose, so we paid full price ($88). The price is steep, but we were in a pinch and they had availability.

Our stay started out pretty annoying because, though you have a reservation, it’s not for a specific spot and you have to drive around the huge park looking for one. The multiple one lane loops are lacking signage so you don’t know which way to enter, and the the connections aren’t on the same side for all the sites so you don’t know which way you’ll need to enter until you see the site, meaning you have to exit, find somewhere to turn around and go back the other way. Pretty frustrating. In addition, all the sites are close together with no privacy and tight parking. Our spot was a little unlevel, but not too bad.

As such a large park, the traffic of vehicles and golf carts is fairly heavy, at one point we even had a motorcycle and a car drive through our site to the road on the other side. In spite of this, the staff was very friendly and helpful and as we walked down by the river, we could see the charm of the place. Lots of good opportunities for kayaking, tubing, or paddle boarding, and the scenery is beautiful. This park has a lot of activities and is probably great for families. Just less great for couples who want a relaxing, peaceful camping trip.

Join us on a tour of Circle M Camping Resort and the Thousand Trails standard and Getaway Cabin rentals available there. We show you the best campsites at Circle M Camping Resort and visit both the indoor and outdoor pools, hot tub, miniature golf, and laundry. We give you a glimpse of some worthy local attractions and complete the video with a walking tour of both the standard and Getaway cabins. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 0.66 Mbps download speed and 1.10 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 105 Mbps download speed and 3.93 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 92.9 Mbps download speed and 6.05 Mbps upload speed.

This is not the first time we've stayed at a campground that did not issue site numbers upon reservation. From now on, we won't!! They let you pick your own site when you get in, cuz they are so small, unlevel and difficult to get into, I bet the office does not want to be responsible for the crummy site they assign you! We hauled our rig all around, looking at sites on their "32-36 foot" list. None of them were big enough or accessible, especially those on the various 'camp circles'. An employee passed us and we asked him about a larger site that was not on the list and he said "sure, you can park there" so we did. Boy, was the gal in the office steamed!! She wanted us to unplug everything and move. We stuck to our guns and stayed anyway. We definitely won't be back though, just passing through...