PA Dutch Country RV Resort

We stayed here because of our Passport America discount. This campground is yet another typical Thousand Trails park. About half the sites are filled with seasonal or long term campers. That means they have all their associated "stuff" with them cluttering the campsites. I found having to stare at all that clutter unappealing.

The roads in the campground are mostly paved. Sites are nestled in the trees which is nice. But because the campground is built on a slope, most sites gravel and are not level. Be prepared for that. Unless you have a high end leveling system, you are going to need blocks.

Check in was strange...at least in the off season. The campground office is a split level house on your right as you pull into the campground. You have to go into the living room and find whoever is on duty.

There is a snack bar and an in-ground pool. Both seem nice..but were closed due to our off season visit.

I was told there was no WiFi, even though I could see a Tengo network. Verizon 4G was excellent. OTA television yielded 10 stations. NBC and Fox were the primary stations. ABC came in occasionally. CBS was non-existent.

The campground borders a gun range. In the evenings and weekends you heard a lot of shooting. If it bothers you, make sure you pick a spot on the opposite end of the campground. You will still hear the shots, just not as loud.

Beautiful and woodsy camping which means a little unlevel. Trees although plentiful are spaced out enough to back in for rvs. Lots of Halloween activities this week although we spent much of our time in Hershey and Lancaster areas. Laundry old but clean. Management very nice and helpful. This is a Thousand Trail resort and only our second time using them. They were getting ready to close down for season so really didn’t use any of the activities. No WiFi but in office and no cable and dish useless but could view tv by antenna. Not many stores nearby so closest is Mannheim.

We spent two weeks here through Thousand Trails. We arrived around 4 on a Sat afternoon and were led to two sites that had been selected for us. We were able to pick our site from the two, so we went for the one that looked a little more level. Oh man - were we mistaken. It was one of the nicer sites in the campground, but it was impossible to level. (This is in the B loop). We used two bags of plastic blocks and made a trip to Lowes for additional pieces of wood, but our auto leveling wouldn't do it. It refused. So we ended up sleeping with the slides in for the first night, and then moved to site A31 (one of the few pull throughs) for the rest of our stay.
This site was also pretty unlevel, but with some moving around of gravel, and multiple levels of blocks, we made it work.
Almost ALL the class A's in the campground had tires off the ground.
The amenities are tired and old. I couldn't bring myself to go in to the bath houses. The staff are very friendly. The campground is pretty full with permanents and seasonals. A lot of gas line working families. There is a shooting range nearby, so you will hear that - a lot!
You can find groceries and other amenities within about 15-30 mins along with a lot of Amish country stores and farm stands. The area is nice. But we would choose another CG to stay in.
Oh, and don't pay for the Wifi! We tried it for a day - $6/day and it was useless.

Getting here was pretty easy. It is right off the turnpike so if you follow the fastest route, you will need to pay that toll potentially.

We picked this park because it was Thousand Trails and close to Hershey, PA. There is a closer Thousand Trails to Hershey but it was full. This park was just fine for us.

Upon check-in we were driven around in a golf cart to look at the sites available for us and that would fit our rig. Our family was traveling with us, so we looked for a spot that had another close spot near by. We did have some options and we were happy they drove us around.

We picked our spot based on an RV of the same model parked next to it - so we can see how big it was. Getting into our spot was not so easy. The main road going through was skinny so backing in made it hard and we had to pull into the site across from us to even back in. We were able to get backed in, but it was a little bit hard to get in the spot and get the truck in a spot that we can unhook - but we did it. After that, we got level pretty easily.

The mini-golf was free and actually some of the better mini-golf we have seen, so the kids really liked it. Laundry had good machines but only 4 of them. No problem for us, but just a little bit less than may be needed at some times in a park this big.

The people working here were nice and even though we were on the last weekend of the season, it was still in good condition, etc. Tons of trees and nature around - great place to be during fall.

Cell coverage was just fine, we did not try the wifi at all.

There is a nearby shooting range so we heard that a lot, but it was not excessive. Since we knew it was coming, we were not bothered by it.

We would stay here again for sure, but if you are aiming for Hershey, there is a park about 10 miles closer. This park puts you 20-30 minutes drive away from the main attractions.

This was our first experience with Thousand Trails campgrounds so we weren't sure what to expect. We arrived on Memorial weekend and as expected it was packed. Upon arrival we were taken around on a golf cart to pick out our site which was a pleasant surprise. Much better than driving our rig around all over to find the right spot. We ended up forgoing full hookups so we could have a less cramped site which is better for us and our dog. We chose a spot on the electric/water loop. We stayed 2 weeks here and during both weeks we had the entire loop to ourselves which was amazing. The very first day we arrived, their dump station had to be closed as well as all the bath houses. However, by the time we left the dump station was back open and functional. It was incredibly disgusting and not at all convenient to get to. It is also in the front of one of the sites which is unfortunate for whoever is staying there. Our site was also downwind from the dump station and anytime someone used it we had to go back inside because of the smell. There is also a shooting range near the campground that is active 7 days a week and was hard to ignore even inside of our rig. There is a hiking trail around the perimeter of the park, however, it is not well marked and hard to find the trail. The bathhouse was functional and clean, but very outdated with peeling paint everywhere. It was also hard to find the adult lounge and the Thousand Trail office as there are no signs on the buildings. Although the campground was not our favorite, there are plenty of things nearby and good restaurants.

Great cell signal you’re right in Amish country even with the toll road next to camp at wasn’t too noisy at all nice trails lots of things to do for people

UPDATE: 09/10/2022
The campground has been improving it's sites and now has a small cafe that serves decent burgers and fries. If you like riding bikes, the main roads in the area have very wide shoulders and there are bike trails that are worth the effort.

Due to COVID, supply chain issues, and labor issues, the Divine Swine has shut down. Everyone in the area is heartbroken and for good reason. That was the best BBQ north of the Mason Dixon line and better than most below it.

VERIZON, on the other hand, like much of the north east that we've visited this year, is basically not usable during the day for streaming. Here in F loop, we get about 1 or 2 MB download speeds during the day, and 4+ during the evening/night. My data account is a true unlimited and I have a really good 4g router, so throttling only comes in if there is congestion and it gets more bars than my iPhone (which is also slow). Since after midnight it's still way slower than it used to be, I can only conclude that Verizon is either not maintaining their towers or not attempting meet base 4g demand in the north east. Since everyone is advertising moving to 5g, I suspect 4g is going to be allowed to wither on the vine in short order (which makes no sense in areas where you can't put hundreds of antennas).

Just more reasons to not allow a few large corps to control an industry without specific requirements on performance. We're moving to FL soon, and if this is happening down there, I'll reduce my 3 cell plans to 1 plan with talk/text/25GB data and then have more than enough to to pay for cable TV/internet or Starlink.

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I admit, I love Thousand Trails. PA Dutch Country is a few miles further out from Hershey and near the turnpike. It's also near a rifle range, so if you're in B loop or part of C, you might not appreciate it. Thankfully the gunshots go away at some point in the evening.

In F loop, the gunshots are not as noticeable. F loop is also recently renovated and set up with full hookup 50 amp service, fairly level gravel pads, and big rig capable. Firewood is a bit pricey, and the store is shut down from COVID but the pool and most of the facilities seem to be open. There are plenty of people in the area that sell firewood at a better price, so that's not a huge issue.

Cell service is pretty good as it's located quite close to the turnpike. Every few days the Roku will pause with Verizon. I have a new, rather inexpensive Verizion hotspot so I'm not sure if it's Verizon or the cheap hotspot.

Not much in way of traffic noise and we've been sleeping with our windows open without issue (except for the occasional thoughtless neighbor.

Laundry facilities are, for the most part, working well. Water pressure is decent, and have had not issues with electric. Of course, it's September, so the high has been in the mid 70's (or lower) for most days.

The Divine Swine is just down the road and if you like BBQ, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

The Pros
Nice wooded lots
Great Wooded hiking trails for dogs. Could be better marked
Personnel very friendly And helpful
The Cons
Small lot very close
Took a long time to back into no pull throughs (33 ft trailer)
Extremely hard to level. Tongue was almost on ground. Had to use all my blocks to level on side
Noise. Gun range is close and people were shorting every day past dark
Close to PA turnpike so you may occasionally hear the noise

Park is kept up nicely, staff seem friendly enough... there is a mixture of permanent resident campers and those just traveling. I was concerned about PA turnpike but never even heard any traffic. I’m a very light sleeper! bathhouses, laundry and pool (empty) closed while we were here (almost post pandemic! Has mini golf, playground, and trading post for supplies. cell service ATT was great, we work full time on road. Sites gravel, most seem level,

Hershey World Chocolate is worth visit, 40 mins, not much to do in proximity of campground but each direction you can find hike trails and some pretty awesome mountain bike trails (Swatara State Park, Hershey Medical - check out Trailforks app!). Lancaster you can see a few Amish persons driving and farming in the community. If you like to eat you’ll find Good n Plenty smorgasbord and Bird in Hand seem popular.

I probably would not return, simply because “been here done that!”

This is a fairly typical Thousand Trails campground -- older facilities with narrow roads and as many sites as possible along them. This was our first visit and though we felt cramped at first, we took a drive around the park and realized we were very lucky to have as much space as we did.

Both Verizon and AT&T signals were suitable for work and streaming; there were several OTA channels. Site was full hook-up so we did not use the bathhouses, but can confirm that the laundry room was closed when we were there last month.

The staff we encountered were very friendly and the access to the Turnpike was ideal. It was a nice enough park (especially since it was "free"), but we would probably prefer to stay at the Hershey campground when in the area.