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Clearwater Campground
Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 -- Related Regions: New-Hampshire • Lakes-Region • Lake-Winnipesaukee
Meredith, NH -
Leslie gave us this review on 08/13/08. Dates of Stay: 8/08. Will You Return? No. What did you camp in? Pop-up Trailer - Size of Camping Unit: n/a
Overall Campground Rating: horrible.
What stood out? My husband's family has been camping at Clearwater Campground for 30 years and he FINALLY realized it wasn't worth the abuse!!!!!!
Owners and Staff: With the exception of a few employees the owners and staff are VERY rude, unfriendly, always looking for something to get upset about.
Camp landscaping and surroundings: This is a fairly nice campground with level wooded sites and a nice beach.
Overall Site Quality: fair-average
Campsite hookups: primitive tent, electric, water, sewer, cable, wifi Campsite Descriptions: sunny and open, wooded, private, semi-private, close to the road, sandy bottom, picnic table, fire ring, highway noise,
Seasonal Campers and Campsites: snobby seasonal campers, too many seasonal sites.
Clean restrooms and showers? no. Restrooms and showers need updating? yes. free showers. Are restrooms accessible from all sites? yes. Additional comments on restrooms and showers: Some of the bathrooms are better than others but they all have many bugs and cobwebs.
Activities and Amenities
lake, swimming, fishing, boating, boat rentals, docks or moorings, recreation hall, video games, pool table, tv or movies, kids planned activities, camp store, pets allowed, laundry room, dumping station, security gate. Well-stocked camp store with fair prices.
What is nearby? restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores, ocean or lake, amusements, nature trails.
Last comments: My husband's family started camping here 30 years ago when the current owner's parents ran the campground. It has always been an unfriendly campground but it filled my husband's family and now our family's needs so we kept coming. I started camping here with my husband and our family 17 years ago. At that time, I was appalled at the rudeness and attitude of the owners and wanted to find another campground. I think my husband has good childhood memories so he insisted he wanted to keep coming. This past year was the straw that broke the camel's back when they read us the riot act for parking in the overflow parking lot without the proper tag on our window for 15 MINUTES while we unloaded another vehicle. They then made it very clear that we were late getting off the campground while trying to load up a canoe and sailboat after dealing with 8 days of solid rain. (We were off the campSITE at the required time). I'm just disgusted after our family has been loyal campers there for 30 YEARS and they know us by our first names that they can treat us like we are some sort of horrible trouble makers. We have sent many campers there over the years but we will NEVER go there or send anyone there ever again.
Related Regions: New-Hampshire • Lakes-Region • Lake-Winnipesaukee
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Comments
The comment area is open for approximately one year after the review date.
I really want to like this campground. It’s a great location, the campground itself is very nicely laid out, clean, plenty of trees. But I have to agree with you - the owners are downright rude. I would never say anything that strong about a place if we had only had one bad experience. Sometimes things happen and you have to give someone a second chance, but, we have never had a good experience there. I have to agree with you, and I really wish I didn’t!
Posted by NH Camping Family on 08/18/08Now for the rest of the story…
My wife and I own and operate Clearwater Campground. Leslie’s comments fall into the category of not being able to please everybody. As I told her husband as he was leaving an hour and a half after checkout time, they should consider a less structured campground where it would be easier for them to follow the rules. Considering the numerous problems we had to speak to them about during their stay it would appear they are looking for a campground where you can.
1) Have as many cars on your site as you like.
2) Disregard the need to have a tag displayed indicating you are camping here.
3) Have your day visitors stay past quiet time (10 PM)
4) Leave your boat in the dock slip for 24 hours beyond the time it is paid for.
5) Let your dog on the beach
6) Check out late.While there may be a campground that would let you do all this, I know I would not enjoy camping there. We were never rude to them. They just do what they want and evidently think it is rude of us to remind them of the rules. All the rules they violated are standard campground rules that campers recognize are important to create a smooth running, safe, relaxing and quiet campground.
As far as restroom cleanliness, we have people cleaning restrooms continuously from 7 AM to 9PM and have maintained a 4W facilities rating for years.
As far as blaming their late checkout on trying to load a sailboat and a canoe after dealing with 8 days of rain, neither I nor my staff can remember a recent time they camped with us that they checked out on time. Also, I happened to notice Leslie’s husband (she left the day before) sitting in a lounge chair enjoying the sunshine, sipping his coffee and reading his paper several times as I went by their site between 10 and 11 AM. The pop-up and tent were still all set up and the sailboat was still tied up at the dock.
I have nothing against this family or their parents who we enjoyed having camp with us for many years. They are all very nice people; they just don’t seem get the concept that the rules are part of what make us the quiet, safe, relaxing campground they have enjoyed for 30 years.
Most rules are not for the benefit of the campground operator, but for the benefit of the camper. All of the rules Leslie’s family disregarded during their stay with us are rules that when not followed can end up causing problems for other campers. As an example I have given some of the reasons we have each rule which they did not wish to follow. (The numbers below match the numbers above)
1) Excessive traffic, crushing underbrush by parking off the edge of sites.
2) Car tags are necessary for us to know who does not belong in the campground;
They may want to steal from you or worse.
3) 10 PM is our quiet time and having visitors coming and going after that time is
disturbing to those wishing to enjoy the quiet time.
4) Inconvenient to the camper who has rented the slip.
5) Children sit and play in the sand
6) Inconvenient to the arriving camper who has to wait for the site.As campers ourselves (18,000 miles and dozens of campgrounds in the past couple of years in our motorhome) I have been irritated by the occasional loud or rude camper next to me, but I would be more irritated if a campground employee drove by and did nothing about it. We may get criticized by the minority who don’t want to follow the rules, but I can think of dozens of campers this year alone who were very appreciative of us evicting a couple of problem campers. There were many more who probably don’t even know about problems we took care of that would have ruined their vacation had we not spoken to a camper who was not following the rules.
It is true that we probably are stricter than most campgrounds in enforcing our rules, but I would rather err on the side of protecting the majority’s quiet, peaceful enjoyment of our campground than allow the minority to do what ever they want at the expense of everyone else.
I hope my comments have added a balancing perspective to Leslie’s.
Thank you,
Jon MackiePosted by Jon Mackie on 08/19/08I have to say, I have called both clearwater and Meridith wood to make reservations and was told rudely they were filled. It turned me off completely. I have also heard from others that the owners are unfriendly.
Posted by Millie on 08/19/08Well, this might be a case of how things are being said verses what is being said. It’s not what you say but how you say it. If things are approached with a just want to let you know attitude rather than a what the he** are you doing attitude then they might go over better. When booked a comment like we would love to have you camp with us but unfortunately we are booked that weekend… things might be more relaxed. Just a thought.
Posted by GaryWT on 08/20/08I agree. It was like “No, were booked!“ in an rude manner. I think if they had even responded with a “No, I am sorry, we are all booked this weekend”, I wouldn’t have been so turned off. The manner was just so abrupt and put out. First impressions are important. Jon, you might want to talk to the people who make reservations. Tell them to be a little politer. Just a suggestion.
Posted by Millie on 08/20/08Millie,
I agree. Our staff should akways to be polite even when they can’t give the camper what they want. If by chance you remember the date and approximate time you called I would know who took the call and could give them some pointers.Thanks, Jon
Posted by Jon Mackie on 08/21/08All I can say is “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.“ Read the other reviews on this site - a common theme emerges quickly. The staff tends to be rude, their focus is not on making their campers’ stay more enjoyable, but rather on laying out dragnets to catch violators of their many rules.
Jon claims that during our trip we brazenly violated the rules. My responses follow:
1) Have as many cars on your site as you like.
and
3) Have your day visitors stay past quiet time (10 PM)Regarding both of these claims, We never had more than 2 cars on the site, except for one brief instance. We had day visitors, my sister in law and her husband, and went out to dinner. They returned 15 minutes before we did. I assumed “no problem” since they would wait for us in the parking lot - they didn’t have a gate card. Well, they hadn’t read all the rules and when they arrived, they found the gate stuck in the open position. They innocently drove in and parked at our site. When we returned at 10:15, I realized we were violating the 2 car rule. I unfortunately wasn’t even thinking of the 10 PM cutoff, so I dropped my kids off and quickly backed out of the site. All of a sudden the night watch emerged from the dark and quite rudely told them to leave immediately. Without any professional courtesy, he abruptly stomped away. It’s ironic that later that night, two sites on either side of us had loud campfire gatherings that went on well past 1 AM. The scowling guard was no where in sight to quiet these people down. He undoubtedly instead had the front gate staked out looking for cars with expired day passes. I guess my 9 month pregnant sister in law and her husband, along with my sleeping kids, were a threat to the tranquility of the campground.
2) Disregard the need to have a tag displayed indicating you are camping here.
I made sure the tag was either on the mirror or up on the dashboard whenever I was on campsite property. However I do take it down the second I’m off the site since it’s dangerous to have a huge tag hanging off your mirror blocking your view of traffic. My wife arrived the first day after I had already checked in. I registered her car and had the gate card and window tag with me at the site. When she arrived, she parked in the entry lot. She explained to the security what she was up to and walked in to get the card and tag from me. She returned 10 minutes later and actually found a campground “parking violation” stuck to her window. Violation? Parking without a pass! This isn’t some form of madness?
4) Leave your boat in the dock slip for 24 hours beyond the time it is paid for.My wife assumed we’d load the boat up the day before I left. She wasn’t trying to get away with anything, and I never even talked to her about it. It was a rainy Monday, so I’m guessing we didn’t displace anyone. Again, our mistake, but not intentional. And we paid for the extra day anyway.
5) Let your dog on the beach
I was standing within 3 feet of the road with my daughter who had our dog on a leash on the road. The dog stepped over the curb and 12” onto the beach for about 30 seconds when one of your fine agents bellowed out the window of a passing car “NO DOGS ON THE BEACH!!!“ in the sort of tone that would make a drill sergeant blush. Ridiculous. Not to mention it was raining and the beach was empty. It was our 2nd year camping with our dog, and we had been perfectly compliant with that rule. Our dog never even barked the 2 trips she was with us. If that 30 second lapse of focus makes me the equivalent of a camping Whitey Bulger in your eyes Jon, then I’m sorry.
6) Check out late.You have me there, Jon. I admit, we typically end up leaving a few minutes late, and this time it ended up that we left our site exactly at noon, on time, but it took another hour to load up the canoe and sailboat. But for you to state that I was sitting in the sunshine on a lounge chair sipping coffee and reading the paper while I should have been breaking camp is asinine and insulting. And from 10 to 11?? So how did I manage to have the site manicured and vacated by noon? First off, I don’t even own a lounge chair and I’m not someone who sits around. As you busied yourself spying on my personal behavior, you must have noticed me running around like a lunatic with my kids packing up, loading the truck, etc. Since I’m a contractor and often get calls even on vacation, you may have caught me on a business call reading a file, but regardless, your comment is ridiculous.
I’m not happy about leaving this campground. We all grew tired years ago of the crabby employees and the increasingly obsessive police mentality, but we never grew tired of the beautiful sites and the beach. We’ve been loyal customers for over 30 years. We have never been “trouble” campers who had loud parties, sloppy campsites, noisy dogs or ill-behaved children. The big list of violations that Jon can come up with is a mostly fabricated or distorted list of minor infractions. After 30 years?? If this is what it takes to incur their wrath, then we undoubtedly have made the right decision.
Posted by Ron on 08/22/08I find the dialogue by the unhappy campers from Clearwater to be like reading the script of a TV Soap. I have known the campers and his parents for many years since my wife and I have been at Clearwater for 36 years.
I also, the past few years, have worked part time in the campground and one of my functions is to Thank the campers for staying with us, acknowledge the departure time and request that they complete the questions on the car tag concerning their stay. I do not recall that these individuals ever filled out the car tag or said they were unhappy!!
This individual’s parents were wonderful campers and so was he and his family until recently when they seem to have developed this attitude that because they have camped here for such a long period the rules do not apply to them. There have been departure issues in the past and issues with getting the boat out of the water on time. The owners have been nice enough to ignore those issues in the past where I would not have done that.
My wife and I just finished a 15,000 mile trip with our motorhome this week and stayed at many CG’s along the way. Funny how when you follow the rules and we always read them from start to end as soon as we register there are never any problems. We have over 70,000 miles on a 2002 motorhome and understand that along with the good time there are rules to follow-every campground has them-do we always agree with them-NO-but we follow them or just move on.
There is no way we would have ever stayed this long at Clearwater if the owners were rude and as described by this individual.
My personal experience and that of dealing with the hundreds of campers is that we all keep coming back year after year because of the owners and the rules. We have many campers that have been coming here for 25 or 30 years and now the second generation come each year. HOW BAD CAN IT BE?
This disgruntled camper is ticked because the “rules applied to him” and as far as I am concerned he and his wife are barking up the wrong tree.
I do not like posting without everyone knowing my name-I do not have to hide when being honest-it is Frank McGovern.
Posted by Frank on 08/22/08I read an interesting article regarding the problems that companies are facing with the proliferation of chat rooms, blogs etc. Many major companies now hire people to spend their day surfing the net looking for false statements maligning their company and their products and then responding to them. Small businesses like us obviously can’t afford to do that. While free speech is great and the concept of honest reviews written by real campers is great, it unfortunately gives a wide audience for the disgruntled camper with an ax to grind. I welcome honest opinion and evaluation, but when a camper just doesn’t want to follow the rules and then maligns us because we enforce the rules, I have a problem with that.
Reponses to Ron’s responses:
“Laying out dragnets to catch violators of their many rules” We have neither the time nor the inclination to do that. If we see someone violating a rule we speak to them. If you ignore one camper breaking the rules, then in fairness you really should ignore them all. At that point you might as well not have rules which of course would lead to chaos.
1) They were spoken to on 3 different occasions during the 8 days they were here for having 3 cars on their site. Not all times were with the campsite renter; some were directly to a guest.
2) The car was there for 2 hours before we put the sticker on it.
3) As security was making his rounds at about 10:30 PM he found 3 cars and too many people on Ron’s campsite. It turned out some of the people were day visitors who should be out of the campground by the 10PM quiet time. Ron asked if the day visitors could stay for another hour. Our security explained that they really should have been out by 10 PM. As to the supposed “loud parties well past 1 AM” our security noted that on his final round shortly before midnight, the site on one side of Ron’s site was dark except for 1 person sitting in front of the fire and that the other site was dark with no one there. I suppose it is possible that sometime after midnight both these campers decided to suddenly start partying. In any case we have a night emergency number campers can call for these problems and no call was made. Also no mention of this loud party was ever made to us by any other camper or Ron until this “review.”
4) Leslie was specifically asked when she extended for another night whether she wanted the dock slip as well as the campsite. She said no, they will be taking the sailboat right out. They took the boat out over 24 hours past the time they had paid for it. The only way the slip rental got paid was by us taking it from their dock key deposit.
5) When we see a dog on beach we politely tell the person that dogs aren’t allowed on the beach. Obviously we have no way of knowing whether the dog was on the beach for 30 minutes or 30 seconds. It was not just 12” onto the beach and unfortunately right next to a picnic table where people sit barefoot. As to “one of your fine agents bellowed out the window of a passing car ‘NO DOGS ON THE BEACH!!’ in the sort of tone that would make a drill sergeant blush” This is absurd. The “fine agents” were my wife and myself. My wife politely reminded him that dogs are not allowed on the beach. My wife has a sweet voice and does not bellow as to make a drill sergeant blush.
6) 90 minutes is not a few minutes and I recall a couple of years ago it was several hours. I am guilty of referring to a folding chair as a “lounge chair.” But the large newsprint covered paper he was reading certainly did look like the newspaper we sold him a few minutes before, but I suppose I could have been mistaken. I was hardly “spying” on his personal behavior; I was driving by while cleaning sites after departing campers. Ron posed the question: “So how did I manage to have the site manicured and vacated by noon?” Answer: His parents showed up at 11:30 to help.
I hope these comments clarified a few things. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Jon Mackie
Posted by Jon Mackie on 08/22/08Jon, I’m speechless. Your approach here is mind-numbing. I don’t want to belabor the point, but I also can’t sit by and be called a liar by you.
1. Except for the one time your guard left the gate open and my sister in law innocently drove through, we never had more than 2 cars on the site. That would have required us to walk a pass out to another car and drive in. We completely respect that rule, and did not break it. You are either misinformed or not telling the truth.
2. My wife arrived Sunday night around 9:15 or so. She walked to the campsite, got the pass, and returned. It was less than 15 minutes - not 2 hours. Again, you are either misinformed or not telling the truth.
3. Regarding the late visitors, the neighboring sites (by the bathhouse path and Site 20) did indeed have loud conversations going on until after 1 AM. It didn’t bother me, because my kids were sleeping and the other campers were having a great time. I wouldn’t complain unless it was getting out of hand or waking everyone up. Again, you are either misinformed or not telling the truth.
4. Your implication that we were trying to get away without paying for the dock fee is absurd and insulting.
5. If that was Sue and you were driving, you know very well that she was clearly very angry and shouted loudly out the window in a very unpleasant tone.
6. I did not buy a newspaper from your store. I was not reading a newspaper. I was not sitting around. I was breaking camp. My parents arrived around 11 AM because we needed their 2nd vehicle to tow the other trailer. Since in this case you are relying on your own personal observation, I can’t assume you’re misinformed. You are simply not telling the truth. I’m amazed that it has come to this, but obviously you have issues beyond these minor infractions with us. Very well. We have moved on. You might consider therapy.
I’m sorry this has somehow become a public brawl, and I’ve always respected Frank McGovern and his fine family. I don’t wish for this to go any further, however I won’t sit by quietly when untruths are being spread about me and my family. We were horrified with the way things ended last week. I wasn’t proud of the fact that we left an hour and 5 minutes late. But I was shocked when Jon confronted us as we were leaving about the “3 cars on the site” violation, and mentioned how we “manage to break a lot of rules.“ Again, I invite you to read the other reviews. We are not alone in our experience.
Posted by Ron on 08/22/08From That’s Camping Admin:
This review and subsequent comments were temporarily removed; at the time I was on vacation, and I didn’t have time to fully review all the comments. After considering all options, I have decided to leave the review and comments, but stop any further comments from being posted.
Both sides have said their peace, and I don’t want the situation to escalate any further.
There are usually two sides to every story, and the truth is located somewhere in between each version of the truth. I will leave it up to our visitors to come to their own conclusions about Clearwater Campground and the owner(s). Read over the other reviews and comments and form your own opinion.
Thank you!
Posted by That's Camping on 08/25/08
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