RE: Lake-In-Wood campground Lancaster area, PA (long review)

[campingboaters]

 Website: http://www.lakeinwoodcampground.com/
 
 I ll let the website speak for location, cost and facilities.  I ll tell you about our personal experience...
 
 Area:  This place is located in a beautiful Amish Farm area 20-30 minutes west of the Morgantown Exit off the PA turnpike.  It s an easy drive, even though the road getting there (once you get off of Rt 23) gets a bit narrow -- there isn t really any traffic on that road except locals.  Shady Maple Smorgasbord is about a 10-15 minute drive and the Shady Maple market is SO worth going to on Saturday for the produce and meats. Most everything local in the area is NOT open on Sunday, except for the commercial outlet centers.  This place is about 30 minutes from the commercial outlet center east of Lancaster and only 20-30 minutes back to the furniture outlet mall in Morgantown.  There are some nice farm stands in the area and if you can, get some Hershey s Ice cream while in the area -- it is the best!
 
 Campground in general: The campground is BEAUTIFUL.  The website doesn t do it justice.  The office, store and game room have wood paneling with wood flooring and are tastfully decorated.   We rented one of their golf carts to get around the campground.  My DH and DD just loved that.  The roads through the campground are made of finely chopped roofing shingles.  The roads are compacted by the traffic and are pretty smooth, although they are not good for rollerblading or for scooters.  They have some REALLY neat rental units if you are camping with friends that aren t really into " camping" , but want to do a group weekend with you.  They are a bit pricey, but I would fork over the money to stay in the treehouse or the caboose!  My husband had a sandwich from the Gnome cafe, and thought it was pretty tastey.  They have a cute little 9 hole mini-golf course which was good enough for my daughter -- and cheap enough too.  You could play it over and over again.  There appeared to be a small chip and putt course in front of the lake, but we didn t get to that, so I m not sure on the details.
 
 Campsites:We stayed in the section to the left of the lake.  Most sites are level, gravel, wooded sites.  Each site has a picnic table and fire ring.  They do have a section (to the right of the lake, sites 113-114 area) which is grassy and has few/no trees if you prefer that, but I feel like you are too close to your neighbors and you have no privacy, so we opt for the wooded sights.  They do have some tent (water/electric) sites to the left of the lake which were VERY nice.  I don t know if they allow pop-ups on those sites, but it s certainly worth a question.  It s hard to get into this campground during the summer without reservations way in advance.  Oh, and when you make a reservation, it s for a specific site, so you know what you are getting before you get there -- no bait and switch here.
 
 bathrooms: The bathrooms/showers are nothing fancy, but there was plenty of hot water, it was clean and functional.  
 
 General feeling:We stayed here last October and have two more trips booked for this year because we liked it so much.  It s one of the nicest " resort"  campgrounds I ve ever been to and I ve been to Lake George RV Resort in NY (this comes in a close second), Frontier Town in Md and Big Timber Lake in NJ to name a few for comparison.  Most of the campsites are seasonal rentals -- but the people we came across were VERY nice (unlike SOME places we ve been with seasonal rentals).  We re not into seasonal rentals because we like to have some variety, BUT IF we were to ever do a seasonal rental, this might just be the place we would do it!  
 
 
 

[jpreiser]

 campingboaters
thanks for your great review we are going at the end of the month 27-30th . The lady did tell me they are booked for weekends( fri-sat) until september so it must be great!! Cant wait to go!

[jpreiser]

 campingboaters
Well we are leaving sunday for a few days!! Hopefully this rain will hold off! Or I will be spending a lot of time at the outlets!

[campingboaters]

 campingboaters
And THAT would be bad... WHY!?  []  Make sure you make a trip to the Shady Maple Smorgasbord and/or market.  Lots of great stuff there! [8D]
 
 We ll be coming home from Spring Gulch (same area as Lake in Wood) on Sunday.  I am also hoping the rain goes somewhere else that day.
 
 I think you will really enjoy Lake in Wood!  Let us know your thoughts when you get back!

[jpreiser]

 campingboaters
Thanks,,, we stayed at spring gulch a few weeks ago, and stopped at shady maple on the way home, yummmy!!!!!!!   This time we plan to do the same on the way home from lake in wood..... []

[jpreiser]

 campingboaters
WEll we got back last night from 3 nights at Lake in Wood. We had a great time, site was a pull thru so what could be more perfect just enough trees for shade but not so many that you felt like you were in the jungle. the sites were  not very wide but were level and all had a nice layer of gravel. Everything was clean and tidy. Camp store was large and well stocked.Kids loved the pools and we did not have any problems with loud neighbors even tho the sites were very close to each other they were all seperated by trees or bushes. Bathrooms were very clean as well as the showers. this is one place we want to return to..Only downfall was in the summer they do not have activities planned until later in the week. Seems to be more active closer to weekends. Best campground we have stayed at in the Lancaster area by far!

[campingboaters]

 campingboaters
Glad you enjoyed the campground!  It s definitely one of my favorties!
 

[whitestar505]

 campingboaters
compingboaters,
 
    Nice review.. Have made reservations for this weekend due to your review. In fact I have changed campgrounds to go. Happy Camping![]

[campingboaters]

 campingboaters
Whitestar505,
 I don t think you will be disappointed.  I m surprised you were able to get in!  Someone must have cancelled.  We were at Spring Gulch this past weekend and discussing how we liked Spring Gulch, but LOVED Lake in Wood. Have a GREAT trip!

[whitestar505]

 campingboaters
campingboaters,
 
    It was the last site open for this weekend. In fact they are having some sort of funtion this weekend  with a pig roast. Not sure what it is but got in anyways, site 31.. Lucky I guess. I cancelled reservations at Spring Gulch to go..
 
 Happy Camping!![]

[campingboaters]

 campingboaters
Whitestar505,
 I ve never stayed on that side of the campground, but I can t imagine it s all that different than the other side of the campground and you are closer to the activities, playground, pool, game room, dance barn and store.  Let us know all about your trip!  I might want to get in on that side next time we go!  []

[whitestar505]

 campingboaters
campingboaters,
 
     Okay with me. I will keep you posted here on this thread..

[Unregistered]

This is a great campground!  Nice, clean and friendly!  Love it!

[whitestar505]

Hey campingboaters,

How about that, I got a reservation at Lake-In-Wood Campground for early Sept. They were very nice when I called and did what they needed to do to get me in the Campgrounds. Don't know how far it is for you but it is 65 miles for me. Just right! Have been looking for a place to setup seasonal for some time now and I hope I found it. If this Campground is like anything like you wrote about it will be great

Have site 236 if you are in the neighborhood!

Thanks for the info!

[campingboaters]

whitestar505,
 I think you will enjoy camping at Lake in Wood.  It's a 1.25 hour drive for us, so it's also the perfect location for us.   We won't be back to Lake in Wood until the first weekend in October.
 
 If for some reason, Lake in Wood doesn't work out for you, you should check out Spring Gulch.  They are about 10-15 minutes south of Lake in Wood.  Spring Gulch has some really nice seasonal sites as well.