YMCA Camp Sherwin - Girard

Beautiful, well kept, quiet campground with RV parking, accommodating and clean cabins, tent sites. One side of campground backs up against a spectacular vineyard with great sunsets. Be sure to walk to the lakeside and down long staircase to the beach. Breathtaking views Highly recommend Will return

Our scout troop camped here for two nights while passing through the Erie area. This was the perfect location for us. Nice mature trees, well-maintained campsites, a pool and access to the lake. Staff were friendly and accommodating. There was a day of torrential (I really mean torrential) rain while we were there and the sites were well drained so that no water pooled in our tents. Highly recommend this campground!

We booked a seven day family vacation with some friends at YMCA Camp Sherwin. There were 14 adults and 4 children, ages 2-7. 3 RV’s and a rented pond cabin. (FYI the cabins have no cooking utensils, no trash bags, no pots or pans, no stove, no oven, just one electric hot plate,a microwave and fridge/freezer. Also most RV hook ups do not have septic.) We were very disappointed to learn that all the amenities such as the pool, splash pad, bounce pad, basketball court and playgrounds are not accessible to the paying campers or cabin renters during the weekdays because bus loads of local children come for YMCA day camp and are the only ones allowed access to them. Now, the children aren’t the issue. They are in controlled groups and seem to be having loads of fun. We paid good money for our children to stand around in the hot sun all day watching those children enjoy the amenities. The amenities were accessible to us at 3 PM. Except for the bounce pad because there never seemed to be staff available to supervise it. The natural beach is nice but it’s 103 steep stairs down a hillside. There is a nicely stocked pond that we were allowed to fish at all day. The cabin was pretty clean and the AC was cold. The staff is friendly and the sunset lake view is beautiful. Camp Sherwin is pretty close to lots of other fun things to do so our vacation was not a bust, but we are definitely going to look around for a more kid-friendly campground for next year. When you pay as much as we did to stay somewhere, you expect to get what you pay for.

Not recommended for families with children. Camp Sherwin hosts daily childcare groups, prohibiting access to playground, jump pad, bathrooms and public spaces during the daytime. We stayed here with our toddler and unfortunately had to LEAVE the camp to go find facilities elsewhere where she could play. Camp staff are consistently unpleasant and unhelpful. Pool was closed for the entire week of our stay. The bathroom in our cabin was dirty and had visible mold. The shower water temperature would alternate between freezing cold and scalding hot, without warning, making it difficult to shower. I could not allow my toddler to use the shower due to the unpredictability of the water temperature, and instead washed her with a cloth. The bed was uncomfortable and incredibly noisy, making it difficult to get a good night's rest. ONLY positive was the lake access, after taking the 100+ steps down, you did have pretty much exclusive access to the large lakeside shore area. All in all, we were happy to leave at the end of our stay.

I was a bit nervous after reading reviews from the past few weeks, but decided to go in and form my own opinion. The pool IS accessible beginning at 1 PM during the week. I do not know about weekends. We stayed from Monday through Thursday. There is a jump pad that is open from 5-7 PM if staff is available, and they were available for us. The beach is definitely far down. 100 steps and they are very steep. We drove to the peninsula when we wanted to beach it, just because it was easiest with our pup. Our golden doodle was not very stable on the steep steps. But it is GORGEOUS. A note for anyone staying in the tiny cabins. (I don't know about other cabins) the mattresses are like those plastic mats you had for nap time in preschool. They are ROUGH. The first night I tossed and turned and was excited when it was 5 am and I could get out of that bed. Night two we purchased a $30 mattress topper from Walmart. It wasn't like a normal mattress after that but it was actually sleepable. So I would highly recommend purchasing one if you want to sleep. The little store was great. Ice was $2.50 and wood bundles were $5. We brought an ax and split the wood into smaller pieces, so it lasted a while. I will definitely return. It was a great location.