Brialee Campground Ashford, CT My experience
I camped here June 8th-10th and I had a not so great experience. I usually camp in state forests where you have some privacy. We were stuck in sites right near the pool and rec hall. The sites were small and right on top of each other. The only good thing about the camp sites are the fire pits which are large stones, instead of small fire rings which you usually find at campgrounds. I found most of the staff to be friendly and they have an awesome horse shoe pit area. Now here are the reasons that will not have me coming back.
1. The # 1 reason is who I assume is the campground manager/security officer. We arrived in the evening on Friday and after setting up and eating dinner and putting the kids to sleep myself and my cousin decided to take a walk (we were very quiet) to get acclimated to our surroundings and stretch our legs. It was about 10:45 when we left the site. After about 15-20 minutes on our walk we were passed by at least 20 golf carts with people drinking, smoking, and being LOUD. We were walking peacefully around the campground and we were stopped by a security golf cart. The man was rude and demanded to know our site #'s. After giving our site #’s, I told him we were just taking a walk around to get used to the grounds. We are all adults and I didn’t appreciate the treatment. What happened next really surprised me. In 28 years of camping I have never heard this. "You are not allowed to be off your site after 11 and need to return to your sites immediately." WHAT? Are we prisoners? Are we criminals? This guy was just another power hungry Ass*&^% who just needs to pick on people. BTW the golf carts are only for members and they ride their carts constantly till about 1am with no regard for sleeping campers. OH and the best part is when we got back to our site they had sent the camp diesel pick up/dump truck to make sure we were back on our site. It sat there with its headlights on our site waking up my wife and baby with the engine running for about 15 minutes before speeding off. It was actually kind of scary, like something you would see in a horror movie.
2. The campers are not respectful. We had rap music blasting in the sites next to us all weekend and the parents let their kids continuously ride their bikes thru our sites next to my camper and our tents. Even though I asked them politely on several occasions to stop. The campground is not at fault for these people’s actions, but it does say something to the type of crowd they draw. Mostly rude party people with no respect.
3. The bath rooms smelled disgusting and should have been cleaned better. Didn’t take a shower since I was grossed out.
4. On the first night after we were escorted back to our sites there were 3 really, really, really drunk women parading around the campground (about 1-4 am) They were swearing and screaming and taking flash photography of each other removing their clothing in the pool/playground area. FAMILY CAMPGROUND????? For three hours they woke up campers who were yelling "SHUT THE HELL UP" from their campsites. Not once did this security guard go over and tell them to go back to their sites (seasonals perhaps?).
Overall I think this place has the potential to be a nice campground, but it is not there yet. They have a lot to learn about what it means to camp and enjoy the great outdoors and to be with family. They really should change the name to Brialee Party Resort as this paints a more accurate picture.
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xavier
2012 Forest River 206ltd
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