Cherry Hill Vs. Washington DC KOA

[tyler811]

We are getting a late start but are going to DC, so excited to see all the Monuments and Memorials. Dates are middle of this May.

I have looked through the forums and searched for the campgrounds and it looks like it basically comes down to two, Cherry Hill or KOA, so please give some insight to good or bad or indifferent.

If you have another campground feel free to post it. Whatever campground would require bus service to the Metro as I have read in every post how horrible parking in DC is.


I have read reviews on YELP and GOOGLE and RV Parks but still looking for opinions.

[jimla]

We stayed at Cherry Hill last year. It is a nice rv park. If you looked at their web sight you saw that there are shuttle busses and tour busses. It is the closes campground to attractions. If you haven't been to DC, prepare yourself for the traffic. If staying at Cherry Hill, you can take the loop in 2 different directions to get where you want. We were lucky. My son and his wife live in Alexandria VA. so we had our own personal tour guides.

[dbarr]

We stay at Cedarville State Forest in MD and drive/park at Branch Avenue station. I think there’s only 27 sites all with electric and a few with water close enough to refill. It’s always nearly empty during the week and extremely quiet for being in such a largely populated area.
Perfect if you don’t need or use all the frills of the popular parks.

[Jfkmk]

We’ve stayed at Cherry Hill a few times. The cg is very clean, well maintained, and very convenient to everything. The only down side is the hideous highway sound. Nothing you can do about it except close the windows and use the a/c. That’s what you get in a cg so close to a city.

[punkinpie]

We stayed at Cherry Hill. Very nice park.

[dieselbobcat]

Originally Posted by dbarr

We stay at Cedarville State Forest in MD and drive/park at Branch Avenue station. I think there are only 27 sites all with electric and a few with water close enough to refill. It’s always nearly empty during the week and extremely quiet for being in such a largely populated area.
Perfect if you don’t need or use all the frills of the popular parks.

X2 - Cedarville

Stayed at Cherry Hill on a previous visit a few years back. It's a nice park, some sites a little tight. Can be a bit pricy if you just need a home base to visit DC. If you want the amenities they offer (FHU, cable, and a pool) its a good deal.

Our last visit we stayed at Cedarville and drove into the metro Branch Ave - great park, and great rangers. Real quiet, got like 25 channels OTA, good cell service... 10 min to the main drag with all sorts of stores restaurants and groceries. We tend to prefer the woods and quiet - so for us, it's our first choice when visiting the area again.

If your rig is 30'+ check with the rangers at Cedarville... a couple of sites are easier than others to get into with longer rigs. We were able to fill tanks with just a 25' hose from our site.

[hbillsmith]

If your goal is to visit DC, I believe Cherry Hill is the best choice. First of all, the Metro Bus that takes you to the Train/Subway has a stop inside the RV park right across from the Office. Super Convenient and cheap to ride. If you want to skip the bus and drive to the train station, it too is super convenient. It's an easy 10 minute or so drive and that station has plenty of cheap covered parking (parking shares with the University).

Were there last year 2018 and if we were going back to DC, we would definitely go to Cherry Hill.

[CentralMePistol]

We were big fans of Cherry Hill!
Roads are all paved, sites are level- so much so that we didn't need any leveling blocks in our site, it was well kept and clean. Great pools and amenities. Overall this is a well run campground. While it is not the cheapest option around you definitely get what you paid for with their service and facilities.
The only "draw back" is that you can't reserve a specific site. You are able to reserve "having" a site- just not which one. When you get there you can request based on what is available. We were in the 1500's section and felt there was very little road noise- considering that we were in the city. (We are in rural Maine- so just about everything is city to us)

As far as accessing the city- we would drive to the College Park Metro Station. If you are comfortable navigating the subways we really like this option. Ten minute ride from campground to trains and the city is at your finger tips. Google maps will even give you directions to walk/ use trains to get around the city. Even with small kids we felt this was the best option, we took the stroller right on the trains. If you plan to hit the station just after rush hour there is plenty of room- and even during rush hour people were nice about making room.

This is definitely the campground we will return to on our next trip to DC (planning 2021).

Oh- and we had a late arrival the night we arrived, they had all our check in info at the security booth and got us right in. Even in the dark it was no trouble to find our site.

[primo20]

I’ve never been to the KOA, but loved cherry hill. We are booked in for our second stay this July.

Why change perfect for us is my opinion!

[jvalich]

Originally Posted by CentralMePistol

We were big fans of Cherry Hill!

The only "draw back" is that you can't reserve a specific site. You are able to reserve "having" a site- just not which one. When you get there you can request based on what is available. We were in the 1500's section and felt there was very little road noise- considering that we were in the city. (We are in rural Maine- so just about everything is city to us)
.

We will be staying there again this year for a week in late June. You can reserve sites at the park. Many are as stated(Standard) but the Premium sites can be reserved. Standard sites are on a first come first served basis. Last year we had a Standard site. This year we chose our site by going the Premium route, site 944. The back-in Premium was $11/day more than the Standard.

It's a great park that has wonderful customer service and is well maintained.

[MCTroy]

We just left Cherry Hill RV park 2 weeks ago. All positive. They were great to work with when we had to change our reservations 2 times - we were scheduling around the birth of our granddaughter just 4 miles from Cherry Hill. They were very understanding and even rescheduled the night tour of the monuments. I highly recommend that tour. The highway noise is constant. I recommend a premium site in the back of the campground as it is a little less noisy there. And get a pizza at the Cafe - that was good! Enjoy your trip.

[mikel68]

We've stayed at Cherry Hill twice. Enjoyed it both times, however I can't give you much insight we were not in that park that much. Evenings and mornings. It was safe, clean, close to shopping and grocery stores.

[RVBuff]

We stayed at Cherry Hill last summer. Previous posters have hit most of the high spots about the campground. I can add, though, that it's convenient to a Home Depot, a supermarket, IKEA, and other stores, so if there's anything you need, it's nearby. X2 on the highway noise, but we were able to live with it. Not a big negative. A few thoughts on the beltway: First, I strongly suggest you scope it out on Google street view, to get a feel for the lanes and exits. It can be hairy in rush hour, especially with a trailer in tow. Second, if you're heading north (from the Dulles area toward Baltimore) the exit for Cherry Hill can be a bit confusing. See tip #1. And, obviously, avoid rush hour if you possibly can. Sunday morning is great.

Have a good trip!

[Ncgrandma]

We lived in the DC area for 10 yrs and our daughter and family still live there. When we go up we stay at Greenville Family campground. It is an actual working farm with full hook ups, pull through sites and very quiet. It is in the Haymarket, VA area off I-66 at Route 15. Easy in and out. From there you can drive to any of the metro stations, park and spend as long as you want touring. Several of the Metro stops are near large malls so you can park in their lots if the Metro lot is full. Metro is the best way to get around DC. Whatever you do, enjoy.

[Ortep]

We stayed at Cherry Hill in 2017 with our grandson. The park has great amenities, pools, café, Metro service, friendly staff, very clean bathhouses... We toured DC for three days so we weren't in the park during the majority of the day. The traffic noise is not as bad as it's made out to be. Yes it can be heard, but it's more like a "white noise" than an overbearing noise. The best thing though is that the grandson loved the park and all that comes with it and that made the stay worth it.

[DaGrinch]

This is why I love this forum.... plenty of suggestions and helpful people. Hadn't heard of Cedarville State Forest, but looks like a decent place to stay. My eldest son and DIL live in PG County, so this shouldn't be too far from them. And Greenville Family Campground sounds like a great place. I'm familiar with the Haymarket area and that would be a great place even if a person wasn't going "into the city".
Thanks to all who have given their input, even about Cherry Hill. I did a little recon on the campground a year or so ago and thought it was the only place close to my son. But, such is not the case. Good to know.
Larry

[skreps]

I have to echo all the comments about Cherry Hill. It has many amenities and is in the area of the U of MD so there are plenty of shops and eateries within a short drive- including Ikea. The transportation to DC is wonderful- by bus to Metro or you can drive your car to Metro within a few miles. It is rather pricey and the noise is awful, but we made it home for 3 months happily.
We keep our RV in storage sometimes at the KOA in Millersville and stay there occasionally. It is a nice place, much quieter, small pool, OK bathrooms, many wooded sites and some in a field out front. You can also hear traffic from Rt 32, but NOTHING like Cherry Hill. They do have transportation vans to DC for the day, but it is a long haul from there. It is also a little harder to find with a funny access. This KOA is also pricey- less than CH, but maybe more than it is worth The traffic from there to the same Metro stop (Greenbelt) is bad all the time and during rush hour is awful. And it is a fair distance.
But have a wonderful trip!

[moff34]

We stayed at Cherry Hill for a week last year. We enjoyed the convenience of the bus stop in the park that will take you to the College Park subway station. The staff at Cherry Hill was extremely helpful in helping these newbies selling us passes and explaining how the transit system operated.

Two details that might be helpful:

Cherry Hill is big. If you get a spot far from the front it can be a bit of a walk to get to the bus stop. There is a parking lot available at the front and you can drive your car to the front and leave it there all day while you are in DC.

Finally, I highly recommend the two apps for your phone that are available from DC Metro. They have a Metro and Bus app with schedules and a Metro map app which we used every day to navigate the subway system.

[tyler811]

Thanks for the helpful tips, I have reserved a spot right by the bus stop. Maybe load but I would rather be near then all the across the park. It looks massive