Wilson's Riverfront RV Park

The rush of highway traffic from two intersecting freeways immediately next door and above the campground on the mountainside quells any hope of hearing the French Broad River or the birds that call the trees in the park home. The river itself is but one misplaced footstep away from those sites which are directly riverfront. It is beautiful, a wide and slightly mucky river and behind it and for as far as one can see, trees sprout up. The shade in our spot has prevented a freak Halloween snow from completely covering our site. There are shady trees at nearly every spot, some making it a little difficult for the bigger rigs to fit but there are plenty of options provided the park isn't full.

The WiFi is slow, but being in a city our cellular connections are broadband fast.

A trail cuts right through the park, part of the French Broad trail system, and joggers and cyclists regularly take advantage of the route. It's a beautiful one and provides quick access to a bicycle racing track, massive castle-like playground, and plenty of open and wooded areas.

A car could make it to downtown Asheville in ten minutes, to Biltmore Village or West Asheville in significantly less. Taxis come and go as needed. The park is next door to a bicycle and kayak rental shop. After that is an RV repair place.

If one wanted to find a less noisy RV park in the area, they could do so easily at the expense of such a central location. The traffic doesn't keep me awake at night, and I don't choose to spend much of my days here with all there is to explore in the area.

Wilson's Campground is in a great location. Right on the French Broad River. Next to Asheville Outdoors, which rents canoes and kayaks. They will transport you 7 miles upstream and you can float down the river. Located in West Asheville, the funkiest part of this funky town. Plenty of restaurants, bars, galleries. Don't miss Biscuit Head for breakfast or lunch. On a bike, walking, jogging, rollerblading trail. A city park and a county greenway are immediately adjacent to the campground. The West End Arts District, with dozens of art galleries and shops, is a short bike ride away. Downtown in 10 minutes.
On the negative side, the RV park is poorly maintained. They had beautiful ornamental pear trees which were damaged in a storm and crudely cut in half, no professional trimming here. Several sites have had no water for over a year. You have to use a Y-connector to get water from the nearby sites.

It's a pretty basic park but the location was good. Half the sites back up to the river (which ours did) and half to the highway. While the highway was noisy, it didn't keep us awake. There is a river bike trail that runs along the river, through the RV park and beyond. The rate we paid was for Passport America which they honour for 2 nights, so it was perfect. The Biltmore Estate is about 2 miles from here - get tickets at the Visitor centre for a $10 discount. Their free wifi is useless. Our Verizon was fine. The volunteer camp hosts were very informative and helpful. The office is outside the campground area which is a bit confusing.

The exit ramp off the highway runs along side the campground and takes you to the entrance of the RV park which is a hairpin turn. If you're in your RV, you have to drive past the entrance and turn around in the parking lot next door in order to enter the park. (3 stars for access)

There is an office in the parking lot next door, but it wasn't open when we arrived, so we checked in with the hosts. We asked if we could have a riverfront site, and they said no because they had others coming in that would be getting them. I found that odd, since when I made our reservation 6 months ago, I was told we couldn't reserve riverfront sites, they were first come first serve and we would have to see if there was one available when we arrived.

We had a "hillside" site for 4 days, during which time riverfront sites were regularly vacant. The hillside site is right next to the freeway, very loud and ours was under a tree that was dropping big hard pieces of fruit on our rig. The site was also extremely un-level. (3 stars for site quality)

After 4 nights we finally got a coveted riverfront site. While it was still loud, the river-view out our front window was worth it. The view to the side however, was not great, there was junk scattered in the site 2 rigs down. (3 stars for cleanliness)

We had friends with a tent join us for a couple nights on our campsite and they had to pay even though our site was already paid for. The noise from the highway sent them packing a night early. (1 star for noise)

On the upside, there is a fantastic walking trail that goes through the campground. We enjoyed nightly walks in both directions.

This RV Park would be a lot nicer if they put in a sound barrier wall and didn't allow long-term residents to have junky looking campsites.

Verizon - DOWNLOAD: 14.27Mb/s, UPLOAD: 2.65Mb/s
AT&T - DOWNLOAD: 13.68Mb/s, UPLOAD: 2.66Mb/s

We liked this RV park because of its easy access to biking or driving to downtown, breweries, and restaurants. It was fun to stay for a few nights, as we headed south. Our dogs also enjoyed staying here, as a walking/bike path goes directly through the middle of the RV park and connects to two city parks along the French Broad River, which had great “swimming holes” in several spots for the dogs to cool off in. Overall, we liked our stay for the $20/night with PPA discount, but, would probably not pay the full price of $40/night. Happy travels!

The location here was amazing. It was less than 5 miles to the main area of Asheville to visit and also walking distance to a wonderful park. It is actually located on the trail of the park (which explained people jogging and biking through campground often).

Access to this park is really difficult. Immediately as you are exiting the highway the park is on the right. You cannot turn directly into it so either trying to turn around in Wilson's RV Service parking lot or potentially going a half mile down to the Citgo and turning around is a must. From there, it is an odd entry to the park where you have to cross the exit ramp again. Even in just our truck, we had a hard time making these turns. Be careful and be prepared as you arrive here. It was also hard because the signs were worn our or had fallen down. I would not consider this a reason to not come here, but just be ready.

There was a bathhouse (which might have had laundry - I cannot recall) but it was closed for the season so we could not use it. Besides that, no other amenities, just close to the park for activities.

Inside the RV area, it was good. Sites were level and concrete and easy to get in and out.

Noise was also a bit of a problem. This is right off the highway and next to the exit ramp, so if you cannot handle some noise, you may look somewhere else.

One other thing is that calling for reservations and stuff you might get a person on the phone who does not sound to friendly. It all worked out and we got checked in. The Passport America they advertise is also tricky because they give only a $5 or so discount and they only give it to people who show up without a reservation. So this is odd compared to all other parks we went to.

We might stay here again but probably we would check some other parks in the area to see if the trade off of location is worth it.

Very hard to get into. No amenities. On the highway!
Stayed overnight and didn’t get much sleep. It’s right on the highway.
Park was clean level pads for sites

This was our second stay at Wilson's - and it was very similar to our first stay. Price is with Good Sam's discount. FHU, back-in sites nestled between the the French Broad River and the French Broad River Greenway Trail.

It snows every (two) times we stay here.

Getting into the park is a bit janky for bigger rigs - you've got to either make a double-back type turn off the highway, pull into driveway of the service shop that marks the entrance to the park and then try to U-Turn, or make a loop up the hill on Short Michigan Ave and through the neighborhood to turn back. Our first stay a few years ago we did the 'neighborhood' turn around and didn't love that due to the ever present super sketchy parking of cars situation that creates super narrow streets in most of Asheville proper. So we did the 'service center turn around' this year and we made it ok with our 40'+tag axle behemoth sans towed.

Park owner is a bit crotchety - and will not always relay accurate info on space availability. But the campground host is very helpful and friendly - see if you can get the owner to pass you off to them if you have any issues over the phone with him.

The campground itself is a more urban experience. You have decent space between your neighbor, but there is constant highway noise.

What makes this park for us is the trail running right through the park and then up along the river for several miles - all the way to New Belgium Brewery (~2.5miles) if you wish to go that far. We have also walked a few miles into Asheville proper - up some neighborhood hills to the older section of town to pop into Biscuithead or Nine Mile Jamaican. There is a cafe, gas station/convenience store and a laundromat within a 1/2 mile walk of the park.

There is an area to launch a kayak or canoe down a bit in the nearby park - or you could probably plop it in via the riverbank in the RV park.

There are tent camping opportunities here if you desire, but the bathhouse is closed from Sept - May.

Trash is picked up at your site multiple times a day by the camp host. While there are cable hook-ups, there is no working cable TV. Plenty of OTA though.

Wilson's WiFi is pretty useless, but cell signals via Verizon and AT&T are decent and not overloaded.

Great place close to down town and the river front arts district, owner was great, propane at a great price. We showed up without a reservation and got a site backing on the River. Sure there is some noise from the highway but it’s to be expected you are beside the highway. As far as getting there no real problem certainly not a reason to complain. We will be back and hopefully for a longer stay

This whole campground is odd. As others have mentioned, it's difficult to get into the entrance - requiring you to drive by and turn around down the street, it's difficult to get anyone to pick up the phone at the front office - we actually had a friend of ours physically go down to the campground and talk to the camp host to secure us a spot since no one would answer the phone, there are random people running and biking on the bike path that runs straight through the middle of the campground all day... It's just odd.

Our site was OK, but had very low water pressure. There are a number of RVs in the park that look like they've been there for 20 years, but everyone was friendly enough. The campground is right next to the highway, so there is definitely road noise, but nothing horrendous.

On the good side, it is very conveniently located in Asheville and located right on the river and next to several parks. So, if you're trying to explore the town and you want to be close in and you want to have access to a nice bike path, it's worth making the effort to get a spot here. Hopefully, you can get in touch with the camp host who is pretty helpful and very friendly. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a quiet, more relaxing experience, and you don't mind being outside the city, there are several other nice campgrounds in the area.

If and when we return to Asheville, we'll probably check out one of the other options.