Lakeview Campground
This campground is certainly a 3.5 star campground however it could easily be a 4.5 star campground within a year with the changes that are being made. (This is on a 5 star scale I had been working on at the time)
Lakeview Campground in Branson Missouri was just a lovely place to stay and if the wifi would have worked at our site we might have stayed even longer. However, since I found this to be an exceptional campground I wanted to share with you the things that made this a quality place to stay.
First of all let me share what could have made this campground the first 5 star campground we have found yet. Here were the problems we found that kept it from being such. First off the website advertised it as a "family" campground and said it had a mini-golf course. We got here and found there was absolutely NOTHING for the kids to do on grounds. The mini-golf course was no longer in working order and having no playground or pool took away from it a lot for us. However the reason I did still give it points for being kid friendly was the owners. These people ARE amazing and so nice. My son got along wonderfully with them and the kids who were here in the park ran around and played together without anyone getting upset so they did gain some points from us there.
I did discuss this with the owner and she informed me that sometime next year they do plan to take out the old golf course and put in a playground. That will certainly change things a bit here. And this would be one of the few campgrounds that had a playground and was in fact kid friendly. Many that have playgrounds don’t like families staying with them and I’ve actually had problems before anyone even met my son just because we have one. That will make this place unique all on it’s own.
Our Next issue was online access. There was wifi but it only seemed to work at the office or within close proximity thereof. No wifi at our camper lost them points and drove me a little crazy. When I work online I like to do it from the comfort of my own home, not have to walk down to the office and sit there to do it.
Once again I did discuss this with the owner and she has tried very hard to get this working correctly and rectify this situation, after all it’s not a huge park, but for some reason the company she is working with can’t seem to get it right so for now it’s office only access which is fine for many but not for me. So this situation did unfortunately lose them a LOT of points.
The next problem, and actually the first problem we encountered, is the entrance. The driveway is very steep and difficult to get up. We actually scraped our bumper coming in and the truck was a little angry about the climb. The owner did let me know that next year they are going to be fixing that up a bit and lengthening it so the steepness is less and there will be less difficulty hauling a large RV or Camper in here.
Now for what did earn this place it’s high status.
First let’s talk about price. They offer nightly prices, weekly deals and monthly rates. The campground is rated for 2 people and not 4 which loses them some points on my system. However when we first got here we had 6 total people in the camper and 2 vehicles, which is a problem at most places, and they treated us wonderfully. They chose to not charge us for the extra people or the extra vehicle even though we didn’t belong to any camping clubs. In my mind that earns them some points and status.
When our plans changed and we had to stay a few more days, we decided to look around the area for some monthly rates and places with wifi. We were sorely disappointed. If you are going to stay in Branson for any period of time Lakeview has the best rates in town and people with THE best attitude.
On our search for another place to stay we encountered a place that charges $475 a month with a $75 dollar deposit and extra per person beyond 2 people. Not only that but when I mentioned I had a 17 year old son the owner looked at me and said "May I suggest another campground". I was so offended and upset but his loss because I will not be including his campground in my recommendations either online nor in my guide as I write it. (update on the guide - probably won't happen but I do enjoy blogging about the places we stay) This place did in fact have a pool and a playground but, in my opinion, they are most certainly NOT kid friendly and I wouldn’t stay there after a question like that even if the place had been perfect otherwise.
Another place we checked into had fairly decent rates and the owner or manager that I met was a relatively decent guy but they charged extra for cable and for wifi and the wifi only worked on some lots. That campground might have been ok but I felt that even though their rates weren’t too bad with the extra charges it was still too much for the fact that there were not really any other amenities like a playground, pool, or even a store.
After that we made a couple other phone calls and then decided to remain where we were for the few more days that it would take to wrap things up in our own life situation. I went down to the office here at Lakeview and paid for 2 more nights which got us 3 because they have a deal of pay for so many nights and get the next free. Since we had been here already for a few days the 2 more I paid for got us the free night as well. I felt very good with that.
Along with the great attitude of the people running the campground and the general friendly atmosphere here at Lakeview, there is a restaurant. It’s only been open now for a couple of months but it is very handy to have on site when the day is hot and you don’t want to cook inside the metal box of a camper that you are living in.
The restaurant is called "Crazy Cajun Citchen" and offers a good assortment of Cajun foods as well as a dish called "I Don’t Do Cajun Dinner", which is chicken fingers and a side. We had that along with some of the Jambalaya and it was all just wonderful. The lady who runs the place is friendly and talkative and just a general joy to be around while waiting for your food. They offer takeout or you can enjoy your food at one of the many outdoor tables provided on the porch.
I also truly enjoyed the general setup of the campground itself. The majority of the camper lots are circled right around the central bath house/laundry room. We got parked right in front of it, which for us is wonderful because our son does not like using the camper bathroom and this makes night time trips much faster and easier for him.
And the bath house is amazing. Not only is it one of the cleanest bath houses I have ever run across but the bathrooms are each private. It’s not one of those with stalls for showers and stalls for toilets, but each bathroom, of which there were 5, is a separate room with a locking door. Beyond that they are air conditioned, or cooled in some fashion, and are very comfortable to be in during these hotter months.
The laundry room as well is very clean and well maintained. From the small amount of laundry we did during our stay it seemed that all the machines worked very well and there is a soda machine inside, which the kids worked the heck out of.
All in all the campground was quiet and comfortable as well as friendly and clean. This place was quite the accidental find but I couldn’t be more thrilled that we found it. As campgrounds go this certainly was an enjoyable stay and I would highly recommend it to anyone who was going to stay for a few days or even a few months. We ourselves would have stayed longer if not for my intense need for reliable internet access.
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