Welcome back to another edition of our campground review series! In this edition we will provide a campground review of Waters Edge RV Resort located in Vinita, OK.
This was our first visit to Waters Edge and it was a location we were really looking forward to visiting as the thought of spending a month on the shores of a beautiful lake sounded wonderful and relaxing! But as we have said before, you never know what you are going to get until you arrive at the campground and get settled. Hopefully this wouldn’t be a case of a skilled professional photographer making a questionable place look like a 5 star resort!
Waters Edge RV Resort is located just south of the famous Route 66 which runs through Vinita, OK. While the resort has a Vinita address it is actually located in the small town of Langley off of SR 82 with the also small town of Ketchum just north of the resort. Both are nice little towns with some local stores, fast food and gas stations, but there isn’t much past that. Vinita is a nice size town and just a short 20 minute drive from the resort. This is where you will find all of your shopping needs during your stay.
Getting to the resort can be a little tricky as once again our GPS failed us and took us into Ketchum. Then it wanted us to take a dirt road to the resort which wasn’t going to happen. Since we were towing there was no way for us to turn around and we ended up taking a long and winding country road about 20 miles out of the way until we hit Route 66 and made our way back down to SR 82. Because of this we recommend entering the address in the iPhone maps which gave us the correct directions.
Even after we got pointed in the right direction it was still a little difficult to find the resort as the roads are narrow and there isn’t much signage. In fact, when you go down the road towards the resort make sure you go slow or you will miss the turn and going straight on that road is not an option for an RV and could put you in a difficult situation. Once you get into the resort the roads are gravel and fairly wide, but caution is still warranted as they are one way streets.
Amenities
Campsites – The resort aims to take advantage of its excellent location on the lake so almost all of the sites are dual purpose and how you park will depend of the type of RV you have. This means that if you are traveling with a 5th wheel or a travel trailer you will be backing into the sites and if you are traveling in a class a you will most likely be pulling into the site. There are also some sites that are strictly back-in, but they are located off the lake front. All of the campsites are full hook-up, but it should be noted that because they are dual purpose sites you might need a long extension in order to run your electrical line to the outlet. This mostly applies once again to 5th wheels or travel trailers.
Additionally, you could end up sharing a common space between the sites with your neighbor, like buddy sites do, if one of you is pulled in and the other is backed it. Since we are in a class a and our neighbor was in a 5th wheel we shared the space. They were great folks so it wasn’t a problem for us, but we could see how if might become one if your neighbors is less than friendly.
A great perk of staying at Waters Edge is that each site has a private deck overlooking the lake. Some of them are covered depending on the site you choose, but if you get one that isn’t you can simply use an ez-up for shade. Make sure you strap it down otherwise it could end up in the lake on a windy day.
The resort offers complementary wi-fi which we would classify as just ok. The resort has rules for usage when you sign up for the wi-fi service and they let you know that it is for email and web browsing only. They do not want guests to stream shows or play video games while connected so that was a bit of a downer.
Another possible issue arises if you have a roof top satellite dish, like we do, as you could have some trouble connecting due to the trees in some sites. This probably applies more to class a RV’s as they pull into the sites which puts the satellite more into the tree line.
In addition to RV sites the resort also has a number of cabins for rent, some of which are located in prime spots at the end of the peninsula with beautiful unobstructed lake views.
Common Areas – This is a very large campground and it is very well maintained. The main part of the resort is a loop around the peninsula and in the middle is a very large grass area. This is a great space to take your pets or just walk around in general. They also have a volleyball net set up on one side if you want to get a game going.
Other common area amenities include a swim dock at the lake, a bath house, laundry room and a clubhouse. They also offer private boat slips if you would like to bring your boat and enjoy the lake more. And if you enjoy fishing like we do, just walk down from your site and drop a line!
While the resort has a lot to offer it does lack an off leash dog area which should almost be a requirement in this day and age. There is also a pool on site up by one of the buildings, but it’s not listed on the resort map and it’s across from a house so it doesn’t appear to be available to RV resort guests. More on that house later!
Cleanliness
The resort is kept very clean and tidy. The office is nice and welcoming, as is the staff when you arrive. There are an ample number of dumpsters at each end of the resort and they are easily accessible. On busy weekends they do fill up but never to the point of being an eyesore.
The main reason to come to this resort is for the lake and the shoreline. It is clean and beautiful so it’s important that everyone take extra care to keep it that way by making sure to properly disposing of trash and also making sure stuff doesn’t get blown around when the wind picks up.
Customer Experience
When we think of customer experience sometimes we automatically think of things like amenities or value added services. That doesn’t fit when it comes to this location. For us, what this resort lacked in overall amenities it more than made up for in location and environment. Waking up every morning and opening the front shade to an amazing lake view and small animals running around was the perfect way to start each day. And while we like to stay active it was sometimes difficult because we were so happy just sitting outside on the deck and enjoying the relaxing environment every day.
There are plenty of places to go and things to do in the surrounding towns or venturing down Route 66, but we found ourselves more content to just stay at the resort for most of our stay. Why leave the perfect setting if you don’t have to?
One thing to take note of is that a large number of sites and cabins are occupied year round as the resort has a leasing program. In our experience we found that most of these sites have people coming and going for weekends or holidays. There are also quite a few that appear to be more seasonal and the guests were only there in the summer. So most of these RV’s were empty most of the time or locked down for the season. Only a few people actually appear to stay on site all the time. To us it was kind of a benefit because we always knew who our neighbors were going to be and we never had to worry about being put into a bad situation. But some people might see this as a negative so we thought we should mention it.
Cost
So you are probably wondering what it costs to stay at this little slice of heaven? It must be expensive, right? Wrong! It was actually the most affordable campground we have stayed at since going full-time. We hesitate to even put this out there because we don’t want them to jack up the rates and we might never be able to get a spot there again because the resort will be full.
So here it is, for our 1 month stay we paid just $500 plus electric. That’s $250 below our budget to stay at what was probably the best location we have been to in almost two years! If you are looking to stay on a daily rate the prices range from just $27 per night for an outer edge site to $46 per night for a premium waterfront site. That is a steal of a deal for this location! Please, don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret!
Conclusion
What more can be said at this point? We have been to some great campgrounds and have enjoyed every one of them. But, once we got to Waters Edge and finished getting all set up we feel in love with the resort and the lake front location. Once you factor in the very reasonable pricing it’s no wonder that there are so many people there that choose to do an annual lease and never want to leave the resort. And trust us, we thought about doing the same thing in order to have a great place to always come back to.
If you are looking for peace and tranquility, mixed with a good amount of weekend fun, at an affordable price, you just can not beat Waters Edge RV Resort.
Without a doubt we will be returning to this location at some point.
Bonus
Earlier we mentioned a house on the north end of the campground and that there is a nice pool across the road from it. It turns out that this house is rented as an Airbnb by the resort. We assume the pool is a part of the package and the house is quite large. It also has a wonderful deck in the rear with a fire pit, bbq and amazing views of the lake. Additionally, it comes with what looks like a private boat and jet ski dock for the renters to use.
We are not sure of the pricing, but if you like to rent houses through Airbnb you might want to put this one on your list.
We hope you enjoyed our review of Waters Edge RV Resort and found it useful. If you have any questions or feedback please leave them in the comments below.
See you on the road………………………
Joe
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