Granite Hill Camping Resort, Gettysburg

When we originally booked this site, we were told that it was a full hook up with cable and that we could use our Good Sam Discount upon checkin. After arriving, my wife was told the discount wasn't valid, since it was considered a "holiday weekend." We decided to let the issue go and enjoy ourselves. Upon setting up our trailer, we couldn't find the cable hook up. My wife asked an employee where the cable hook up was located. We were told there is no cable at the site. We again let it go, deciding it was a minor glitch with booking. When we got to our site and set up, we found out from our friends who were camping with us that the office had sent us to the wrong site and had, in fact, switched us with them. This wouldn't have been a problem normally, but they had a different size need based on the length of their trailer. Again, we worked it out amongst ourselves and didn't involve the office. It seemed like an honest mistake. However, when my daughter went to the camp store with her friends, she was accused of stealing a $2 bracelet that I had bought her earlier as a treat. The employee who checked us out didn't bother to speak up to the manager, the employee who accused her of stealing didn't apologize to her when it was brought to her attention that the employee was wrong, and Ann, the manager, refused to accept any responsibility for her employee's mistake. After providing the receipt that showed that the bracelet was, in fact, paid for, Ann refused to apologize to my daughter for falsely accusing her. When I attempted to get the employee's name from Ann so that I could make a formal complaint to the owner about the employee conduct toward my daughter, she walked away and wouldn't speak to me any longer. I am disgusted by the way the employees at this campground treated my family. I will continue to camp in the Gettysburg area, but I will avoid Granite Hill at all costs. I now understand why other friends warned me against staying at this campground. If you want a really family oriented private campground, take your family and your money to Drummer Boy. It's a 6 mile difference but the staff actually want you to come back and work with you when there's a problem.

Camped Halloween weekend and had snow. The bathrooms were disgusting and staff was unfriendly. Power was out for about 8 hours on Saturday. When the power was out there was also no water. The trick or treating originally scheduled for 4:00 was held in building at around 3:30. Many children arrived at 4:00 to find that they had missed trick or treating. Haunted house was cancelled. Staff at front desk said that power wasn't their fault so they weren't going to issue any discounts or do anything at all for their campers except to keep their money. A much wiser and more customer friendly thing to do would have been for them to issue a coupon for a free night stay next season. They wouldn't have lost any money and the campers who would redeem the coupon next season would most likely pay to stay for other nights. It would have been a win-win solution for all. I left this campground feeling that the owner was very greedy and didn't give a crap about the campers. I will never go back.

Issues we had during the July 6-9 bike week event: We made advanced reservations for my wife, my son and myself and paid a very inflated rate per night and justified it by assuming the strict rules and regulations that were set forth were to be enforced and followed. The first issue that we were a little upset about was that we requested a site ahead of time along the front of the woods and we were told they were sold out weeks before and we also checked the day of arrival and were given another site. As the week went on it was clear that most were open and now I know why, The second issue that we had was that dogs were prohibited yet we saw several dogs thru the vendor area and campground and they were allowed to stay. The Third little issue that came up was the wrist bands for buying beer in the vendor area, we were told we needed to buy one for $1.00 to buy beverages and we did buy them. We found out later that they can not charge for them and needed to be a donation and during the evening when the public was present, most people buying alcohol did not have to have one to buy beer anyway. We watched this happen all weekend and even friends that were at the event never got one When I asked about it I was told it was for a good cause, which was fine, but a good cause does not give permission to take advantage of people. These friends also asked at the office to come back to the campsite to visit and were told they need to pay $135 for a pass to go in the campground with a registered camper. That was originally posted in the rules and regulations but once Saturday came and things got overwhelmed, all that went out the window and the campground became public for no charge. We had people walking thru campsites, peeing on trees, using the bath houses and staying at campsites and had no wristbands and we needed to lock everything up to avoid any other issues. I spoke with Chris Brown Saturday night and told him about these issues and he said to contact him on Monday or Tuesday and he would take care it and hook us up with some free weekends since we stay there anyway. That was all that I could ask, but after multiple calls and voice mails to Chris, I got no response. I also contacted Ann at the office and emailed her the concerns and she did nothing either. Most campers we talked to felt that they were ripped off and not coming back. We then went back for Halloween weekend and thought that things would be better. We had snow Friday night and had large limbs falling from the trees and hitting our camper and others to. We also had the electric pole next to us snap off and fall down and the campground soon lost all power for atleast 8-10 hours according to Chris. Once Chris Brown arrived, he chained the pole to a tree and said that he hopes we have insurance. After having multiple very large tree branches fall on our site, we asked Chris if they were going to issue a refund for the next day if we wanted to leave because of the unsafe conditions, he said no and that if we wanted to leave that was our issue. Between the snow and freezing temperatures and the fact that the campground could not supply water or electric, I thought this was ignorant. Beware! This campground is as others posted just after the money and could care less about anything else. I have been tring to contact the owners to discuss this since July and have gotten no call back. We will spend our money somewhere else!

Our family of 4 camps a LOT and has for many years. We've been to Granite Hill many times but this will,sadly, be our last visit. We've always been able to forgive the sporadic availability of warm showers & the dirty bathrooms. Our kids love the play facilities & activities, after all. And we have a couple of favorite sites & are usually able to get one. But this Labor Day broke the camel's back. It was hot. We were in the "Z" site area that we always like. But we had constant electricity brown-outs from 3pm til 9pm every day. The slightest addition to the electric load made our voltage regulator shut down, so no cooking, no lights, and no a/c. We learned that there was nothing to be done, as the ancient elec line that services the "Z" area has been halved by an old permanent line fault and the remaining single line is unequal to the demand.. So every afternoon we fell back on our gas generator (sorry, neighbors!) when the heat reached the unbearable point and then waited for the elec demand to fall off each evening to allow us to run a/c from site power. Additionally, we had to use on-board propane to keep food cold, rather than the electric power we had paid for with the site. Taken out of "forgiveness mode" by this problem, our eyes were opened to other faults in addition to those above. The campground is very old. I camped here as a much-younger man more than 30 years ago. But Granite Hill is not aging gracefully. The lake & fishing pond are choked with weeds. The mini-golf is very dirty and mostly non-functional. The bathrooms were REALLY dirty. Every Labor Day weekend we have seen more & more empty sites & we now realize why fewer & fewer folks camp there. I know that Labor Day weekend is a busy time but when overflowing trash containers are spilling across the bathroom floors & bagged as well as loose trash is piling up at the dumpsters and blowing around, something needs to be done. The playgrounds & facility areas very littered. I know people are messy but maintenance is part of the staff's job.. The staff were uniformly polite & friendly but were, of course, unable to address our problem. They also seemed aware that they had no power to influence long-term changes. The bottom line here is that Granite Hill is a very old campground that has been allowed to continually deteriorate. Payroll is obviously kept low while the physical plant runs down By now, It would take a large sum to repair & modernize the campground's utilities & attractions. The owners, apparently not willing to put money into their investment, instead seem intent on squeezing the last few seasons & dollars out of the old cash cow before it dies. It is a crying shame, but we will not go back to Granite Hill & recommend that other campers also go elsewhere.

We arrived and were pleasantly escorted to our camp site. We have a very small camper so maneuvering into position was not an issue and a staff person helped guide us. We thought this was standard treatment. We loved our spot, we loved the space between sites. The campsite was very clean. The rest rooms were clean and well supplied (and this is when the campground was at full capacity). The staff was very friendly. We did not play the arcade area or buy snacks from the snack shack (so no comment). We did lose power to our campsite for about 6 hours the first night but it came back on without issue and remained on throughout. We do not have propane back up so I was a little nervous. All the staff was very friendly. Yes, many are young college aged. It is true about a few rather large potholes. We were there for the bluegrass festival which was FANTASTIC. Everyone we spoke to was very pleased with the campgrounds. We enjoyed it so much we are going back Spring 2011. I'll let you know how our second experience goes. Perhaps the bad reviews helped change the attitudes.

We planned a family reunion here back in 2008 for Sept of 2009. We had severalsites and a cabin. My Dad Passed away a week befor we were supposed to go. We called and explained the situation as soon as we could. Then we went on with taking care of my Dad's remains. Only later did we find out that they not only didn't give us back our deposit, but they also rented out the sites as well. I understand renting out the sites again, but why didn't they give us back the deposit? We have called several times, talked with several people and always get the run around and either hung up on, or just abused over the phone. I will never again plan to go here or suggest it to anyone. A serious lack of compassion.

Dislikes: customer service sucks, the lake is cluttered with weeds, the roads were horrible; the turns were very tight, the games were to expensive, firewood was very expensive (6$ a bag), they did not give us a map or direct us to our site, THEY GAVE AWAY our origional site, the campground was empty (that should tell you something), the showers were dirty and littered with bugs, when we pulled into the dump station we blocked 2 roads, it was not off to the side if the road, it was like an H, the dump station being the middle, do they expect a 35 ft truck/camper? or a small van to fit? The mini golf was boring, not to mention there were wasp nests under the benches on the cource and the water features were dirty and had little to no water in them, no net or other way to retrieve golf balls, not that there is a need to, the landscape was overgrown, the different holes were boring, have these people ever heared in investing? Likes: moderate sized bass in the lake, very good pancakes, those got 5 stars, wifi, only 1 friendly employee.

I camp about once a month for 3 years. I have never experienced such poor customer service as I did at check-in. I have no plans to return. "yes I called earlier this week to push back my arrival date." "No you didn't." Middle aged lady at the desk (supervisor no less) was rather condescending, didn't give me a map or explain where my site was.

I loved it out there, we had a spot tucked back so we had more privacy, our's was a tent spot, there wasn't a whole lot of wood/sticks we could find to make a fire with but we managed. We didn't go to the pool or anything but it looked like everyone there was enjoying everything. There was a dance hall with good music going on too when we were there. Nice location very close to travel into town, and good prices I have AAA so it was only like $23 for the site. Bathrooms weren't the cleaniest but we don't spend most of our times in the bathrooms.

Huge/terrible potholes in road (everywhere), overpriced on everything, lack of security, construction noise all day long... ugh!! Horseplay at pool w/no staff controlling. Fishing bad, games malfunction (won't give tickets & way over priced). Misinformed on prizes & beyond cheap. Playground not very good. Mini golf nice but over priced... $5 per person (no discount if you stay there). Our site #92 faced another site, no privacy!! Please listen to the reviews & save yourself the aggravation. Much nicer places to stay in Gettysburg. p.s. we had no cable either.