Sunsational Family Campground

Write a Review570-922-2267

There are two parts to this review. First, what to expect. The entrance to the campground looks like a junk yard (abandoned cars and machinery, barrels, trash, etc). The pool appears to be a running joke –as it wasn’t open the weekend we were there and seems to never actually be open. The grass wasn’t mowed. The tent areas were swampy and the owner still sent people there to camp. The RV sites were a muddy, rutted up mess. There are extra charges for EVERYTHING: AC/Heating fees (which we had neither), pay showers, dump fees and a daily Wifi fee! The “dump station” was full on Sunday and unusable. The dumpster was overfull when we arrived and still was when we left. The camp store isn’t open as advertised.

The second part is the human element. The owner is very unpleasant to deal with. I made arrangements with her to rent the pavilion and group camping sites for a weekend for a party. When we arrived, she did not honor the details of that agreement and it cost our party more than $500 extra for the weekend. The pavilion wasn’t ready for half the weekend – we ended up not even using it. The pavilion picnic tables are so ridiculously warped and worn out they should be used for kindling. She bad mouthed my guests and made multiple aggressive and unfounded accusations against the campers in my group. We were all glad to leave first thing Sunday, which is not the way you’d like a camping weekend with friends and family to end.

The creek is beautiful and the location is gorgeous but I just couldn’t recommend staying at this campground (unless you bring legal representation).

Let's start with the website. It's very disjointed and not user friendly to navigate. The reservation process is also kind of a PITA, particularly in this day and age of web-ease. I also want to take a red pen to correct all of the grammatical errors, but that's just me.



First impression was...I'm trying to think of a politically correct was to word this...simply put, trashy. The most aesthetically pleasing aspect of the campground was the pool, which was not opened for use (but it LOOKED quite lovely, particularly if you squinted so you couldn't see the haphazard surroundings).



The sites are quite close together (and we spend a lot of time in campgrounds) and the grounds were poorly maintained (grass was HIGH and grounds were MUDDY; I get that you can't control the weather, but you can adjust accordingly). To be honest, many of the permanent sites were quite run down and reminded me of "Breaking Bad" (though, a select few were beautifully maintained).



Probably my biggest issue is there are ZERO (yes, you read that correctly, "ZERO") trash receptacles IN the campgrounds. ZERO. However, there are MANY receptacles to collect cans from which the owners can profit. I do not want to keep my trash onsite, nor do I want to hike a considerable distance with my trash to the (chained) dumpster on the way out of the campsite. Unacceptable.



Speaking of cleanliness, if you want to shower, be sure to bring quarters, because hygiene has a price here at Sunsational. So, we paid $90 to park our camper onsite for TWO nights. That does NOT include sewage. You can dump on your way out, but there's no hose, just a hole in the ground. Anyone who's ever dumped before knows a hose is requisite for septic dumping. Or you can pay for a guy on a motorcycle to dump you (and for the rest of the campground to smell like septic, which it does).



The owners are also weekend foster parents (respite care?). There were a slew of unchaperoned kids onsite during our stay and our group observed multiple incidences of inappropriate behavior/actions from said (unsupervised) kids. This is sad because these are obviously kiddos who are lacking adult involvement in their lives, so it would have been nice to see them getting some meaningful guidance, rather than just being left to run amok.



Penn's Creek Campgound is on the way to there and I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't just stay there.

This place is a dump and a rip-off. Don't camp here unless you want to pay more than the agreed-upon fee and also pay additional fees for showers and wifi. They don't provide garbage cans anywhere in the camping area, and their grounds are very poorly maintained.

have been going to sunsational for three years now mutliple times every summer. this is a wonderful place to camp!! owners are top notch folks. food from the restaurant is down home cooking and cheap! highly recomended for any one looking to get into the woods for a few days

I will begin my saying we drove 5 hours to get here cuz we wanted to be near Penn s Cave. Irene told me to get there anytime after 2:00 and we did, but nobody was in the office and the camp store and restaurant were closed. I called her and left a voicemail. After 30 more min of waiting I called again. Left another voicemail. While waiting my sons saw the basketball court and went to play but came back cuz they couldn t stand the smell coming from the outhouse. They couldn t play there. We waited outside the office for 30 more min she finally pulled up surprised to see us and said the trailer we rented was already open for us. If we had known where it was we could have gone there instead of waiting an hour for a key and to pay the balance but she never told us ahead of time. Every other place I ever rented actually had keys to the rentals with doors that actually closed all the way. My husband drove the van to the site and the rest of us walked over. When we got there my husband was talking to the man in the next trailer who seemed very nice even though he was talking to his invisible wife and to us at the same time. We asked him where the pool was because we didn t see one anywhere and the website said there was a brand new big pool that was just built... but it turns out there was no pool at all. He also told us that the camp store and restaraunt are never open. As for the trailer, I will just say I did not let my family put any of our stuff into it and told them not to touch anything. They said me if we had to stay they were all sleeping in the car. We were in the trailer just long enough to look at everything... maybe 5 minutes. My daughter-in-law was brave enough to stay in a few extra minutes to take some photos which I will post here if I can. There was mouse poop all over, I know it is a campground and there are animals there but I don t like animal poop on my beds and on the dishes that were there and in the food cabinets. I knew we were told there were no linens and we brought sleeping bags however the mattresses were all stained with how-knows-what and the covers all torn. There was a wall falling down and part of the cieling falling also, maybe from leaking. There were dirty dishes in the stained sink, there was dirt and stuff splattered on the walls and floor and everywhere else. It smelled awful. The screens were torn and covered with dirty curtains. There was hardware and junk lying on the bunks... I dont know if it was curtain rods or what it was. Irene had told me in her email It s clean and everyone likes it. When I mentioned that to her she after we saw the trailer she said there is a cleaning person who comes every week and maybe she didn t get there yet. I don t think she ever got there because it would take years to get like this. I couldn t believe she actually made me pay a security deposit because we could t not make it any worse than it already was. We left in less than a half hour after talking about what to do so since we were in the middle of nowhere. Irene was nowhere around. We really wanted to go to Penn s Cave the next day so we had to drive an hour and twenty minutes to state college which was closer to the cave and found a Ramada Inn with a vacancy to check into... but they had only one night open since there was a wrestling tournament going on around there and the area seemed very crowded. We wanted to go to Reptiland the following day so we had to drive all the way to New Columbia, another hour and ten minutes, and found a Hilton. We ended up spending way more than we budgeted for the trip because of the extra gas, and hotel rooms for three nights for 6 people, plus we had brought our own food and planned to cook on the campfire which hotels don t have so we couldn t cook and spent more money for pizza. I am not picky but I have never been anyplace where I had to tell my family to get out and try not to breath. My photos here https://sunsationalfamilycampground.shutterfly.com/

Come on over and get into the real camping experience to enjoy your self. Lot of activities for the entire family. GREAT fishing, Wonderful Snack Bar to get food at a very reasonable price for the whole family. The owners are fantastic people, down to earth, very nice. They have things to do all the time or you can just sit by your firepit and relax and watch the fire. You get the most for your money. Where else can you go at such a low, low price that includes the family. We will be back this year to get a seasonal site. We are telling everyone. Hope to see you there too. Join the FUN.