East Lyme, CT – Aces High RV Resort Review

General Information

Located in East Lyme, CT, just 3 miles from I-95 and close to a number of tourist attractions, Aces High RV Resort is a gated resort which is open all year round. It has approximately 86 full hookup sites (approximately 50 are pull thru sites). Back in sites are located around the perimeter and are mostly water view on one of several small fishing ponds or on Latimer Brook. Roads are fairly wide and easy to maneuver and are crushed blue stone which can generate some dust. Site pads are gravel (in need of weeding) and are bordered on both sides with grass. Each site has a fire ring and picnic table. Several cabins are available for rental as well.

Campground directions say to take Exit 74 if arriving from the north on I-95. We would recommend taking Exit 75 (US 1) instead which is slightly shorter.

Staff was friendly. We didn’t have any problems with our reservation but a couple who pulled in next to us on site #5 did. Arriving in the early evening after office hours they found their long ago reserved and assigned site (#4) occupied. Turns out it wasn’t available because the office allowed the previous occupants to extend their stay without requiring them to move to an unreserved site. This then dominoed into another late arrival finding their reserved site (#5) occupied. Major screw up on the part of the office.

Rates:
Daily, weekly and monthly rates are available here. Best to pay by check or cash as there is a 5% up charge for using a credit card. A $10 fully refundable cash deposit is required for a gate card (the entrance gate was broken when we arrived but they gave us a gate card anyway). Early check in (3:00 pm) or late check out (2:00 pm) will incur an additional fee at a $5.00 per hour rate, but we observed many early arrivals so not sure if that rule is always enforced.

Daily rates seem a little pricey so be sure to check their specials – they usually have good mid week deals ($100 for 3 days/2 nights, $145 for 4 days/3 nights) . It’s not indicated on their website but they offer Good Sam discounts. Not sure if they offer any other discounts.

Overall Impression – 4/5
Located on 93 acres of wooded land, we thought it was a decent park with very large and level pull thru sites. It was awarded Park of the Year in 2000-2001 and 2004-2005. Might not agree that it fully qualifies as a true “resort”, however, for New England it was a notch above the average.

The fairly wide roadways made pulling into our site (#6) easy. Resort was clean and appeared to be well maintained although most of the sites needed weeding.

There is a newer section across a paved bridge on the far side of the brook. Except for site #67 which was right next to the brook and very private, the rest of the sites seem a little more crowded than in the older section.

Although we didn’t use them, we did check out one of the bath houses aptly named Straight Flush – it seemed very clean.

Sites

Size – 4/5
Level very spacious 52′ x 80′ pull thru sites, back in sites were 35′ x 50′. Plenty of space between sites.

Privacy – 3/5
Not a lot of vegetation between sites although each one had a tree which did provide some privacy. Also most sites are steeply angled which enhances the privacy feeling.

Amenities – 4/5
Open year round. Full hookups with 20/30/50 amp electrical service, cable TV, and free wifi. Each site had a picnic table and fire ring. Other amenities include planned activities, hiking trails, a small swimming pool and fishing pond, paddle boats and surf boat rentals, play ground, bath houses, boat/rv storage,camp store, game room, pump out station and L.P. gas refills. They also have a pavilion with a brick BBQ pit which can be rented for weddings, parties, rallies, etc.

Location:

Convenience – 4/5
Grocery stores, Walmart, other retail, medical services and restaurants are located nearby in the town of East Lyme. Also convenient to several tourist attractions – Mystic Seaport and Aquarium, Foxwoods Casino, Mohegan Sun Casino, USS Nautilus & Submarine Base and several beaches.

Physical Surroundings – 4/5
Fairly quiet resort on 93 acres of wooded land with pleasant surroundings. Close enough to town to be convenient but far enough away to give the appearance of being out in the country.

Maneuverability and Roads – 4/5
Big rig friendly. Wide gravel roads, there should be no problem maneuvering a big rig into any of the sites here as long as the one way signs are followed. Vehicles transiting the gravel roadways generated some notable dust clouds, particularly the big coaches.

Peace & Quiet – 4/5
It was hot and humid during our brief stay here so we didn’t spend a lot of time outdoors. We did take a walk around the resort one evening and noticed a little traffic noise from CT-161 nearby.

Utilities – 3/5

Sewer – Well placed but no threaded cap.
Satellite – The trees here are not excessively tall or overhanging, so hitting satellites from most sites should not be a problem unless they have a very low elevation (like DISH 129). We had no problem hitting DISH 62.5/72 from site 6.
WiFi – Free, no password required. Signal strength at site 6 was only fair for devices inside the coach and not reliable, one device could not see the WiFi at all. Using our Pepwave booster/router to repeat the campground WiFi however made it useable for all our devices. During the day we measured bandwidth of 4Mbps download and 1.5Mbps upload. Not great, but OK for web surfing. We wanted more responsive performance so switched back to our Verizon LTE and did not use the WiFi too much.
Cellular signal – 3 bars of 4G LTE with Wilson Sleek booster.
Over-the-Air (OTA) TV – Did not test.
Power – Good. Observed voltages of 114-119 under various loads. No dropouts or errors. Power center has 50A/30A/20A outlets with breakers.
Water Pressure/Quality – Excellent pressure, no obvious turbidity or discoloration. A fairly strong chlorine odor and it seemed somewhat hard. Frost proof underground valves with heat tape – this campground is open year round.