Upper Cullen Resort, Nisswa

My wife and I have been avid RVers for the past 40 years. At the same time we have maintained a seasonal site at Upper Cullen Resort for the past nearly 25 years. When not "on the road" it was always nice to come back to our "home base" at Upper Cullen. We have visited many campgrounds across the country and have seen all the good and bad some of these campgrounds had to offer. The Galles family has provided the best camping experience we have ever encountered. Thank you Bruce,Donna & family. W&J

We have been coming to Upper Cullen resort for nearly 15 years. The resort is run by people who take the comfort of all their guests very seriously. Over the years we have become good friends with the family who runs this fine resort. It’s interesting that that the few negative comments on this site come from people who somehow objected to having the rules enforced. The rules at Upper Cullen are very reasonable and are designed to ensure that ALL guests have a good time. It’s true that the owners strictly enforce the rules (which again… are more than reasonable) and those of us who frequent this resort realize that it is precisely this attention to detail that make this resort a truly special place. So… if you are looking for a fantastic Minnesota getaway in what truly is one of the most beautiful parts of the country on a gorgeous semi private lake teaming with excellent game fish, great fun for kids, and a staff that takes your comfort and safety as priority number one, Upper Cullen resort is the perfect destination. If you are looking for a place to get wild and crazy… find somewhere else. We don’t want you around either.

Upper cullen Resort is a very peaceful, friendly campground to camp at. The owners are very respectful of the campers and are strict about the rules, which is why we love it! They will enforce the rules to keep us all safe. The campsites are wooded and private and the beach is clean and a great swimming area for kids as well as adults! We have looked around at other campgrounds and found this to be the perfect getaway spot! You cannot beat it for a family friendly environment!

After camping as a family for over 10 years, staying at dozens of campgrouds in MN we have never found any resort that beats Upper Cullen. There is a great beach, a store with giflts and reasonably priced essentials, hay rides on Sat. night, duck pond with feed, 2 playgrounds, and nice dockspace for your boat or fishing. The owners make it clear that this is not a party campground, so if thats what you are looking for keep looking ~ those are easy to come by! The owners making the rounds at night are a huge benefit in our book. In 4 years they have never once stopped and "evesdropped" (as one reviewer claimed) or asked us to keep it down, but they will if you are bothering others. This rules enforcement results in a clean, quiet and safe resort that we love to have as our home away from home!

Like most seasonal campers, we visited 4 years ago as a tent camper on one of their lakefront campsites. We fell in love immediately with the lake and it's peacefulness and beauty, the friendly owners and residents, and the wonderful feeling of family and community there. When the perfect campsite for us became available, we came on board as seasonal renters and have loved it there ever since. The Galles family runs a "tight ship", and rules are strictly enforced. But that is why they have a resort we can come to and know we will have the positive experience we expect! We always feel safe and secure, knowing they are watching who comes and goes from the resort. If you need help with something, they bend over backwards to help you. They work HARD keeping the resort beautiful and well maintained. We feel VERY lucky to have found our weekend getaway at Upper Cullen Resort!

We came upon Upper Cullen while on a vacation that was going to lead to Bayfield, about 11 years ago. We came back again the following year, and almost 9 years ago bought our seasonal camper on top of the hill. Our family has grown up at Upper Cullen. We appreciate the family atmosphere, the quiet, the closeness of the other campers. We respect Bruce and Donna very much for having such high standards and never had any fear as to our kids safety as they walked thru the campground or atteneded the hayrides, bonfires, etc. We feel at home here. Bruce, Donna and family have worked very hard to keep their Upper Cullen Resort a high class, safe, family operation. They deserve a lot of credit for that! I am PROUD to be a part of the Upper Cullen family! Thank you, Galle's, for your commitment to keeping Upper Cullen a classy, family-centered resort and campground!

About 5 years ago, we went to this resort to tent overnight. We got a great spot near the lake... However, we forgot our tent poles! We went to tell the resort owners, though they do not do one day cabin rentals as a rule, they felt bad and we were given a cabin for the night. We looked around the resort and the kids played. We discovered there was a camper on a site (seasonal) for sale. We loved it so much there we bought the camper. We have been there ever since, up as often as we can. We have has good service and treatment. The owners run a great family resort where the kids are safe to go throughout the resort area and people watch out for each other. Bruce and Donna assure that people have freedom to have fun, but do not allow late night loud parties. It is a good balance of fun and responsibility that we thought disappeared 20 years ago! Fishing, swimming, walks, biking, ice cream social, hay rides and my personal favorites grilling and reading in my hammock are available, as well as lots of area attractions!

The resort has smaller camp sites - thus they limit the number of cars to one. This makes it fair to everyone. We appreciate Donna, Bruce, and family going around on the golf cart. This ensures a safe, pleasant experience for everyone. The families staying at the camper and tent sites all seem to be friendly and helpful to each other and we like it that way. Thanks Donna, Bruce and family for your hard work! Pat and Jerry

for the past year i have been going there they have wonderful serivce and treat everyone wonderful. they have a wonderful location. like the people said with parking is not true they tell you to only have one car in your campsite because it is the law in there township and they just want to be safe and legal i would recomend this to anyone!!!!!!!

Leaving our camping plans to the last minute, my husband and I, and another couple, were pleasantly surprised that they had one campsite open when we called two weeks prior to the 4th of July weekend. Upon making the reservation, we were told several times that we could only have one tent on the site. When we unpacked on Fri, we ensured that we only set up one tent. There were several campsites around us that had two and three tents set up so we were a bit confused/frustrated but didn't say anything. On Sat. we enjoyed a long day of biking, the great weather and swimming in the lake. We watched some local fireworks across the lake and enjoyed some beers by our campfire. The perfect weekend...almost. At midnight on July 4th, we were approached by one of the camp workers on a golf cart to "move one of our cars because you can only have one per site." We explained that we had all been drinking and were in no condition to get in a car, the woman said that it wasn't very far to move the car to the visitor area and that she still wanted us to. We refused. She then turned the situation around and asked if we had been drinking so much, were we going to be loud and cause problems for other campers. We disagreed and said we weren't like that. About 15 minutes later, the camp worker came around again on her golf cart and said "Do you need me to come around a third time in order to move your car!!" We told her that we were not going to move it until morning when it was safer and LEGAL to drive. She just drove away and didn't come back. Check out was 11am on Sunday and at around 10am, what appeared to be the camp workers husband, came down again on the golf cart and pointed to the three cars near our campsite (two were ours, one were the site next door to us) and asked us which cars were ours and reminded us that we could only have one car per site. We told him not to worry as we were checking out and leaving at 11am. He said oh, okay and drove away. Not hospitable camp hosts at all, it seemed due to the cars that all they wanted to do was push us out!