Campground by the Lake

Campground by the Lake in South Lake Tahoe has the worst management ever. Not sure why you let your management be so rude to your paying customers, it opened my eyes to why your campsite made this the worst camping experience in my life. How can you sleep at night knowing you rip off your campers on numerous fees, and still say that I owe you $ when they were paid for by two of my guest when leaving the grounds. In which you collected the same fee twice on both of my guest then tell them to never return. I bet your pocket feels a little bit fatter today. Can’t believe that you made two of my guest pay for a fee that didn’t exist, then try to get me to pay for it a third time. Management didn’t even apologize when I proved that he was in the wrong. I work in customer service, and I take care of my customers… right or wrong… they are still a customer. I even feel obligated to go out of my way when I know a mistake was made on my end. Just think about all the customers that get jerked around by their staff who don’t complain. Hopefully they read the bad apples too.

There wifi sinks, you would think being in campground in the city they would have better service. Witness twice homeless coming into the campground and begging for food. Don’t stay in loop C didn’t feel safe. No Security… Only thing good about this place is its close to the lake.

After seeing this campground, during a trip to Tahoe in June 2015, I decided to plan a weekend there in 2016. I reserved back in January for June, just to be sure we could get a spot. We were in A loop, which has power and water (no spots have sewer). I was really impressed with the sites, they are huge. Also I was concerned about noise, as the campground is right on the highway, and it is a very busy campground. Again I was impressed with how quiet it was. I am a very light sleeper, and slept just fine there. We did have to pay for bringing our dog, oh there are lots of dogs there, but they were all well mannered. If you have kids, we have two, there is a great playground right outside the campground. Also the great beach across the street. I am hooked on this place we will be back. The only semi negative was that the dump station didn’t have an end on it to attach it to our back flush so we could rinse it out. Hubs figured that was because not everyone has a backlash and they want the hose to be contaminated. Not a huge deal… if that is all that is bad, I can deal with it.

Great location (close to things) | Tons of rules and fees | Campground for glamping | SMH at drunk people — 8pm quiet time
$$
Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long and thorough review. There’s a lot of pros and cons to staying here, but overall we enjoyed our camping experience with Campground by the Lake. Nothing extremely special about this place though. (Important to note, we went during Memorial Day Weekend)
The folks that work here are on top of their stuff. You’ll immediately be greeted by someone smiling at you and getting your attention as you drive up to the kiosk at the front. That person is checking whether you have any business to be here, and if you are checking in they’ll direct you to park at the front and pay at the kiosk. At the kiosk, they ask for your driver’s license, car information, and the number of people/​pets per campsite. This is where you get hit with ALL THE FEES you didn’t expect if and when you made reservations online.
***Side note about reservations: I made reservations for two campsites, 8 people per site. I paid $ 55 per site for the deposit, and I was expecting to pay a remaining balance of $ 17 per site when I show up. Little did I know that they didn’t include these fees– pet fee, extra car fee, reservation fee, extra persons fee, and park fee. Their information between their website rates page, confirmation emails, and reservations page are misleading. I included 8 people in the reservation, but apparently the reservation charge was only for 6 people. Check the fine print on your emails because that’s when I realized they didn’t include these extra fees.***
EXTRA FEES:
Pets — $ 2 per pet per night, 3 max per site
Extra persons — $ 6 per person per night, 2 extra people max per site to equal 8
Vehicles — $ 6 per night, 1 extra vehicle allowed at your campsite
**TIP: park extra cars at the Tahoe Library, which isn’t too far.
We picked huge campsites, though close to the road, C12 and C14. C12 could accommodate well over 2 vehicles and 6 people. These folks are making money! These campgrounds are right next to the bike path and main road. BRING EARPLUGS.
Great location only because you’re a two minute drive away from Safeway, you’re right across the street from the lake, tons of places to eat and drink nearby, and there’s some fun activities to do either on the campground or at the lake.
Facilities… Camp store was closed during the time we went. Water spigots were not too far from us. Trash seemed to be located only at the entrance of each loop. There’s restrooms all over the place, but the ones with sinks and showers are closer to entrance of the loops. Other restrooms just have two stalls. The bathrooms seem to always run out of toilet paper too. However, it is a plus that they have outlets to charge your electronics, they’re well lit and warm. If you’re showering, the water is warm, the stalls are small, and the drain gets clogged so bad that the shower water floods the place a bit. Highly recommend wearing water shoes/​sandals when showering here.
The thing that everyone seems to be complaining about, and yes – I thought it was lame too, is the odd quiet time at 8pm. Since we were close to the road, we never had anyone come up to us and complain. Road noise seemed to cancel us out, haha! However, most of the folks here are in their RVs.
Something to think about:
To be fair, I know why they enforce an 8pm quiet time. Since it was Memorial Day Weekend, a lot of people were ‘partying’ and drinking. My husband said he was walking the dog on the bike path and the loop near the ice rink, there were a bunch of obnoxious bros. One guy must’ve been incredibly drunk because he just whipped it out and started pissing in public facing the road. Outstanding people. Later that Saturday night, my friend and I were walking to the bathroom and this guy, who seemed to be inebriated, was yelling and swearing at a woman in her campsite. He was upset that she or someone in her group kept walking through his site and not on the main path. SO, I’m pointing out that while the quiet time is awfully early, there’s a reason why. Otherwise this place can get out of hand.
Would I come back here? Probably not. Only reason why we booked here is because they’re open year round. Convenient but overpriced.

Stayed here many times as it’s the only RV park in S Lake Tahoe that’s open year around.
Noisy as I-​50 passes right by. Shower and bathroom clean but not exceptional as it clearly shows its age. Dish washing area available unlike many other campgrounds.
Not all sites has hookups yet you still pay the same. See many 5^th wheel and class A mega RC with their big screen TV… While across the street is an awesome view of the lake minus the serenity.
This time spring the bugs are feasting on my juicy bod which makes it unpleasant too.

This campground is across the street from the lake and conveniently located near restaurants, shops, bike & kayak rentals, etc. the spaces aren’t very private and a lot if trailers/RV’s/5^th wheels are parked here making it seem more like a parking lot than a campground. We are tent camping, so felt like the odd ones out in a way. There are picnic tables, fire rings, & BBQ’s with water, garbage service and bathrooms with hot showers.
There are lights on all night, so if tent camping, bring a sleep mask so the lights don’t wake you up.
If you don’t want to cook, or bring a bunch of supplies, there are plenty of places to eat and grocery stores where you can pick up food to cook, or prepared food. With so many trails, water sports, shopping, casinos, horseback riding, etc nearby, this is a great base camp!

This was my second year staying at this campground. Last year, I wasn’t 100% happy because they overcharged me for extra people and car, which I didn’t have, for two nights.
This year, I was overcharged again. I just wanted to let manager know, so I left 4 messages but she never reached me at the campsite or returned my calls. There were no recovery there.
Beside that, the Campsites were well maintained, and it was family friendly. I liked the hot shower and sink station where you can wash dishes & pots. For this reason, I’ll just think the overcharged amount as donation to the city.
There is rental bike shop, the lake, bar, and restaurants right across the street. And you can find Safeway in a few blocks away. It’s in convenient location, but the nearby street is pretty busy, even at late night so just be aware.

A great, convenient camp site. Clean, safe, and family friendly. Highly recommend. Great staff and management. And I’m a local. Just sayin’…

My family and I have been camping here every Labor Day weekend for the past 15 years. We absolutely love this place. This is a tradition we look forward to all year long. Very clean campground and only 2 minutes walking distance to the lake and beach area. Also within walking distance is volleyball courts, basketball, baseball fields, ice arena, shopping and more. Everything you need is right there. Full hook ups for our RVs and not a bad nightly rate either. We highly recommend Campground by the Lake.

Came here for the first time a few weeks ago. The overall online reservation process was sorta confusing with choosing the different «loop» you want and which specific site. We ended up staying in the D loop because we just had a tent, no RV. Each campsite comes with a fire pit, grill, and table. I do like how they tell you online if the site is sunny, ours was shaded by trees, which was perfect. They had a dish washing station, multiple bathroom stalls, and heated showers with lockers! The campground is about 5 minutes walking distance from Lake Tahoe. The staff was nice, the sites were clean, and they even have a recreation center!
Only reason I gave this place 4 stars is because depending on where your site is, you might end up being right next to the street, which kinda voids out the camping feel. If you look at the map online, try not to book a site on the ends by the streets.
ADVICE!!: Each loop has a set price, but there are bigger and smaller sites. Do your research and if you book online pay attention to the lengths of each site! You can end up having 10 extra feet of space for the same price.

It was our first time there, July 2015. We stayed in the A loop. This place is booked a long ways out so plan ahead. Check in was easy. Our space was very roomy with good hookups. We have an RV so I can’t speak to the showers and bathrooms at the campground. We had extra time so asked staff if we could stay an additional day. They moved us to an available spot. Kind of a pain for just one extra day but easily understood, and they were fairly accommodating.
I personally didn’t experience any issues, but I saw other people having a hard time with the staff at the check in booth. They’re a little uptight. One guy I met arrived 2 hrs early. His reserved spot was wide open, since the prior guest left early that morning. They wouldn’t let the poor guy check in until the exact «check in» time. So he sat parked on the side of the road for two hours. A little ridiculous.
There is absolutely NO parking for guests. That’s an inconvenience. Will we return? Yes. Is it the most accommodating campground I’ve ever stayed at? No. Just know what you’re getting into with Campground By The Lake.

Online booking system is not reliable. Calling them isn’t either, because they don’t return phone calls. If you are lucky enough to reach someone it’s too late cus they fully booked. Waste no time with them, go to another camping grounds.

We just returned from 3 days at Campground by the Lake and had a great time. You can not beat the proximity to the lake. The lake is literally across the street and is a very short walk. We camped in a travel trailer and the spots were large which made backing in very easy. We camped in an electricity only site but the water was close (with a long hose) so we could fill our tanks. There is a dump station on site which is convenient. Our only complaint was the hose at the dump station was broken. We are looking forward to coming back to Campground by the Lake!

It was my first time going to tahoe but not my first time camping. Honestly this did not feel like real camping because it is so close a lot to cilvilization. There is a library (the wifi is a lot better there than on the campsite), swimmimg pool complex, ice rink, and camp store. The highway is also super close so it is quite loud when you are trying to sleep.
The bathrooms did not have soap so bring your own! There are a lot of outlets in the bathroom.
Honestly I did not know about the pine pollen but it was super bad. It looked like yellow dust flying everywhere.
Because the campsite is quite in town you do not need to worry about bears at all.
I went by tent cabin and seriously the tent cabins are way too close for my liking. While I was trying to sleep I was able to hear a someone from another tent cabin snore through out the night.

Great facilities. Clean. Great staff. A true get away in the city. Across the street from beach access and bike rental. There’s even a great playground. Easy access to market. We stayed in D23. Great shady location. Do avoid sunny spots.

Our stay would have been perfect had it not been for the stupid vehicle rule. An r.v. Counts as one vehicle and you have to pay for a second. So at night, you can only have one car on site. We were told we could park our car at the casino down the road (yea, I want to park there where my car can get broken into). I’ve been camping since I was a baby and have never come across that rule in 28 years. This has put a huge damper on our trip because each night the camp host would come by and hassle us for having our car parked on our campsite that we paid for. You would think that there were more important things to worry about! If you have a RV and only one car, this campsite is nice. If you are trying to camp with friends, I would go somewhere else. This place isn’t worth the hassle.

The location of this campground is wonderful, right across the street from Lake Tahoe and that alone is why I’m giving it 4 stars. It was an ideal location for sunset walks to the beach and walking our dogs along the paved paths.
However, the price was a bit high given the electric only campsite we were initially misled into believing was a full hookup campsite. Multiple sites in the B loop share a water spicket, making it so we had to haul water to our RV and watch how much we used so as not to fill our tanks. We don’t mind going without a full hookup, but we expect to pay accordingly — $ 40+ per night for electric only isn’t reasonable.
The showers were not private enough for my liking. The walls/​door are a good 3 feet off the floor. A fellow camper brought her small children in to shower next to me and they could see right underneath so she ended up leaving and must have come back another time. The used shower waters and suds all flow to the same drain, as well, which is rather unsanitary with strangers bathing next to you.
As another reviewer noted, we were warned by a local that bike theft is very prevalent in the area, so make sure to lock up your bikes!

Campground by the Lake used to be a place our family visited annually. BUT after our visit a few weeks ago, we will NEVER return.
Why? Because they knowingly allow a racist camp host to terrorize their guests.
On our first night our group was up until 11pm. We had normal conversations, but no music or yelling.
The next morning, a camp host from the other side of the campground came by and the first question she asked was, «Do you guys speak English». Say whhhhat?（We are Asian so I suppose an ignorant person would have a hard time figuring that out…)
She then interrupted our breakfast and accused us of being up until 3am, that we «giggled» while walking to the bathroom, and our baby cried all night.
1. We didn’t have a baby.
2. Who the heck «giggles» all the way to the bathroom? And how did she figure it was us? Did she use google translate?
3. We were definitely not up until 3am.
4. Did I mention she busted in with not a hello but «do you guys speak English?»
We explained it wasn’t us, so she threatened to call the police if we weren’t quiet by 8pm. Huh? Smh. We complained to our actual camp host. He apologized, but then said that’s how she is. She could have simply reminded us of quiet time. But she chose to approach us with unnecessarily rude and racist remarks.
Now this is an nice campground as far as location and amenities. But, no place, no matter how nice, deserves my business if it condones such behavior. They were clearly aware of her antics but have not done anything about it.
So in short, yeah, I do speak English. Quite well in fact. Well enough to write this review and well enough to tell everyone I know to never camp here.

Pros: across the street from the beach. In the city limits. Affordable. Has wifi.
Cons: traffic noise is loud. Dirt lots. Not all sites have full hook ups. Their reservation system is atrocious; we’ve actually made reservations before and they’ve told us they double booked sites and we couldn’t get the site we paid for. The manager, Susan, isn’t the nicest lady, a bit lacking on the customer service skills.

Like most of the other reviews, I will say that for a non-​camper such as myself, it was ideal; for hardcore campers, this probably not so much for you.
It was a bit noisy on Saturday night (no relaxation to be had for sure) and had rude neighbors coming through our site, but that’s not the campgrounds fault.
The free hot showers (i’ve been to some campgrounds that need quarters fed to it to turn and stay on for your shower), flushing toilet, camping-​in-​the-​woods feel, casinos down the street, parasailing on the lake, made this campground ideal.
We will be back!