Louisville South KOA Campground Website

Date of our stay: October 29, 2015 arrival; November 2, 2015 departure

General Information

Located about 30 minutes from downtown Louisville and in the midst of Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail, this KOA has 100 foot pull-through sites, back in sites with either just water and electric, or full hookups and tent sites as well as camping cabins, deluxe cabins.  With a claimed maximum length of 90′ feet, it is generally big rig friendly.

Rates:
Refer to the KOA website. Unfortunately they don’t have a simple rate page, instead you almost have to make a reservation to get an estimated cost of your stay (something I find aggravating). Depending on what type of site you choose, what type of hookups you want, what size rig you have, etc., rates range from $36 to $69. Our rate for our full hookup pull thru site was $50. We had bought a KOA Value Card earlier in the summer when we had to stay at a KOA in NH so that gave us a 10% discount bringing it down to $45/night. In our opinion, pretty steep for what we got.

Overall Impression – 3/5
To be honest, we’ve never been fans of KOA campgrounds, tending to avoid them. But sometimes there aren’t a lot of options, especially in the colder weather when many of the campgrounds have closed for the season as was the case here in Kentucky. We’ve always found them over priced for what you get, usually with less than ideal maneuvering on dirt/gravel roads and unlevel muddy sites that are too close together. This one did not change our mind.

We were on pull thru site #224 right across from the office, the dog park and the playground – not an ideal location but since it was a quiet time of year it was okay. Unfortunately it had rained recently so right outside our door was a mud puddle surrounded by muddy grass. Yuck! And as expected there was very little room between us and the neighboring site on the driver’s side. But fortunately we had come here to meet up with Betsy and Nancy (RV-A-GoGo) so Rob could help them with a repair on their coach. Since we’re friends, we didn’t mind being close to them but that wouldn’t be the case with strangers. We did have a rather large patch of grass on the living side of the coach providing an otherwise rare benefit.

On a positive note, the staff in the office were very friendly and eager to help as was John W., a super friendly work camper, who led us to our site in the golf cart, delivered firewood and took care of us at the propane station on the day of our departure.

Sites

Size – 3/5
Our pull thru was long and narrow but with the toad still hitched up, it wasn’t quite long enough. Until we unhitched the van hung out into the road a bit. Not a big deal since we wanted to unhitch anyway so we could do some sightseeing. There was adequate room to park the van at an angle behind the coach.

Privacy – 2/5
Although the campground has quite a few trees, there is no foliage to provide any privacy between sites and as mentioned the sites are quite close together.

Amenities – 3/5
Amenities offered include: a pool (open 5/23 to 9/7), free wifi, propane, cable TV, mini-golf, fishing, nature trail, firewood, bike rentals, horseshoes, basketball, playground, a jumping pillow, outdoor movie cinema (weekends Memorial Day to Labor Day), a dump station, a dog park and a convenience store.

Location:

Convenience – 4/5
Located only about 5 minutes away from Shepherdsville’s main retail area which offers a Kroger grocery store, Walmart, other retail stores, numerous restaurants and other services. Louisville which offers lots of sightseeing opportunities is only about 30 minutes from the campground.

Physical Surroundings – 3/5
It is set back from road and is very wooded. Perhaps in the summer, it is quite nice but in the drizzle and cloudy weather we had it wasn’t particularly appealing.

Maneuverability and Roads – 3/5
The road to the campground, located in the middle of a residential neighborhood, was paved but twisty, turny and hilly. Still that was no problem for a big rig. Once at the office, the roads near the office were paved but then became packed dirt/gravel and more narrow. Some of the turns we had to make entering and leaving the site were tight but doable in our 43′ tag axle rig.

Peace & Quiet – 3/5
No noticeable traffic noise although the weather was cooler with showers and some drizzle so our windows were closed during our stay. It did warm up one night

Utilities – 3/5

• Sewer – two sewer pipe fittings with threaded caps. Both were well above grade so it made natural gravity draining impossible for us.
  
• Satellite – on our site, no problem. Able to pick upthe DISH Western arc (110/119/129) but as is typical in this part of the country we didn’t get the locals in HD.
  
• WiFi – offered free WiFi but we didn’t try it.
• Cellular signal – adequate Verizon 4G in and out of the coach without booster.
• Over-the-Air (OTA) TV – Received all the major OTA broadcast networks with no issues.
• Power – Good, 30/50 amp, good voltage, no problems with the box.
• Water Pressure/Quality – good pressure, good quality, no turbidity, no odors.

What We Liked
– Convenient to retail and restaurants
– Close to highway
– Close to Louisville and a couple of the distilleries on the KY Bourbon Trail

What We Didn’t Like
– Muddy roads and sites
– Sites too close together
– High price