Date:         Thu, 20 Oct 1994 10:50:17 -0400 (EDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         GELATO@vax88a.pica.army.mil
Subject:      Re: Street camping (KOA)

Alexey writes:

>would you stay in a KOA?

Our experiences with KOAs have been extremely
favorable, overall. Conditions do vary from
one KOA to another, but there's a lot to be
said for well-lighted bathrooms, hot showers
with no additional fees, laundry facilities, etc.

Before we camped in the '67 Westy, we made a
few cross-country trips in a couple of cars over
the years. Tent camping was the rule, but we
were *not* die-hards about it - if it was too
cold or rainy, our choices were a KOA Kamping
Kabin or a motel room. The KKs are always more
expensive than traditional campsites (and they
still look at us funny when we go to register
the bus and we don't need full hookups - water,
electric, sewage). Sometimes, a motel room might
be cheaper than a KK. It has to do with availablity,
whether there is a KOA nearby, and if it's late and
we are very tired, etc. 

We have camped at other campgrounds and some of them
have been very nice. We have camped in some national
parks, and you live with tiny sinks (cold water only)
and only natural light in the bathroom - but the
view (overall) is wonderful. We have also camped at
some places where facilities are the pits and I 
would never go back there!

IMHO, KOAs are an excellent choice - but if there's
none in the area, we go elsewhere - but you never
know what you might get. We still prefer them, with
the bus - we still ask for the same site that we
would have had we been tent camping! No extra fees
involved for us. And no, I don't work for KOA! 

Lori