Waldport / Newport KOA Journey

We stay at this KOA every time we come to the coast. We travel with our dogs and in the past with our kids when they were teenagers. It's a great value with walkable trails down to the beach in the Alsea Bay and a short drive to anywhere you want to be. The office staff is friendly, and most of the folks who stay at the KOA do their own thing and don't make too much noise.

We booked this KOA because it had a laundry however when we arrived the office was closed and we needed change. Despite being after hours the campground host was gracious to help us get some change. Her helpfulness and great attitude was a bright spot after a long and tiring day of travel.

This is a very nice campground. Office staff greeted us warmly when we pulled in. The campground is well-maintained and pretty. The sites are large and level. Lots of shrubbery and plants to help with privacy. Nice playground and dog area. Store is stocked with essentials and souvenirs. The bathrooms/showers were immaculate. There are several one room private bathrooms with toilets, sink and shower. They looked just like home. The laundry room was very clean. The WIFI was solid! And Kudos to this campground for checking/cleaning sites when campers leave (it seems that few campgrounds do this anymore!). When they did, they found a set of keys we had dropped and they called us after we left. They offered to mail the keys to our home, but we asked them to mail them to an address we knew we would be at in a few days. We appreciated their attention to detail to do that! This would be a 5 star review, except for a couple of things: 1.) Although the bathrooms/showers were very clean, my husband took a shower in the evening (not the morning rush) and he said it was the WORST shower in our cross-country trip. He said there was NO hot water AT ALL. He had a conversation with someone else who said that was her experience as well. The next morning we saw there was hot water in the bathrooms, but apparently it doesn’t last long and you have to get your shower in early. 2.) There’s a path to the beach from the campground. It’s marked on the campground map and there are signs showing campers where it is. It’s a nice walk to the beach, BUT, at points, the path is steep, there are lots of tree roots, and at the end, a huge pile of driftwood that you have to walk over, so it’s easy to fall – which I did. I walked away bruised and sore, but it could have been much worse. This should be improved – it wouldn’t be a big deal to smooth this path out a bit and remove the driftwood from the end of the path. We come from a beach town where everyone wants to walk down to the beach. There are TONS of pretty easy and not expensive ways to make a safer path down to the beach. This is a potential liability !, and really needs to be fixed. 3.) The sewer hookup on some of the sites is not at the end of the site, but in the middle, so you may need an extra long hose to connect. We did. 4.) Even though this is a small campground, and we followed the directions from the office person to get to our site, we found it a little confusing, and we would have appreciated someone pointing out our site. Other reviewers have said there are tight turns here for big rigs – yes, there are. Our travel trailer is 27 feet, and we would not have wanted to make the turns in a bigger rig. Recommended, but get a new water heater for the showers, and fix the path down to the beach !! This campground works best for small to medium rigs.

We luckily got the last RV spot for the night and Amanda and John were super friendly camp hosts and helpful. The whole camp ground was Very clean and neat. Bathrooms and showers were immaculate. Definitely going back. Be sure to say hello to the cute orange office cat named, " Henry".

This was our second stay at the Waldport KOA. This time we had a site with a lovely bay view. It was beautiful! One side of the site had a hedge divider but the other side offered no privacy from the neighboring trailer. Our fire pit was steps away from their sewer. The staff were welcoming and KOAs seem to attract friendly people. During both stays I noticed several solo campers and think that's because the campground feels safe. There was the problem of overflowing trash cans and no soap in the bathroom, but I don't know if that is typical. We'll be back because it's a great location to explore the central coast.

The placement of the tent sites at this KOA completely ruined our stay. Every single tent site is directly next to the main entry road, and you hear cars coming and going all night long. It felt like we were camping on the side of a highway, definitely not the peaceful outdoor experience we were expecting from especially for the price. On top of that, the sites are small, uneven, and full of tree stumps, which made it really difficult to set up our tent comfortably. The tent sites are so close and there is no real separation between sites. There were also people smoking marijuana at neighboring sites, which while legal was inappropriate for little kids at a “family” campground. We tried to reach out about moving, but never got through to anyone. Later we were told there’s an emergency number. We won’t be returning, and I strongly recommend that KOA rethinks the placement of these sites. Tent campers deserve better than this.

This KOA is a special one… Management keeps everything from the bathrooms to the hedges in tip top shape! It even has its own little trail down to the bay, and the gift shop is super cute. Will definitely be back!

We checked in and found that we were in need of some serious repairs to our 5th wheel trailer. They were very accommodating to let us stay one more night and allow a repairman to come in and fix our trailer. It was stressful enough, but they made it as stress free on us as they could.

Everything was very nice. Accept no plug-in shower in women's. Everything else was awesome.