I am writing this review as a direct response to the management of this campground because they ended up charging us for nights that we did not stay. I will explain below, but please let me caution anyone who is even thinking about staying at this place... your time and money is much better spent elsewhere.
I am from Ohio and I have stayed at a few campgrounds, as camping is one of my favorite activities. I first found Covert Campground by searching online for campgrounds on the shores of Lake Michigan. Covert was in my travel radius and from pictures and reviews, it seemed like a simple/quaint campground. Regarding the reviews, the single most complained about thing was the bathrooms. Let me tell you right now, not a single person is lying about the quality of the facilities. I'll elaborate on those in a bit.
Check-in was easy. The girl working the desk at check -in was courteous and explained things to me about the campground in pleasant manner. She was even nice to recommend another beach, about 5 miles away, that me and my family could access because we brought our dog. No dogs are allowed on the Covert beach, no exceptions. We were staying in one of the older cabins, they have 4. They have 2 old cabins and 2 new cabins. Once we unpacked, we went to check the beach down the road to let our dog stretch his legs from being couped up for a few hours. Once we got back, we went to make dinner. Let me tell you, nothing makes you hungrier than the full aroma of weed permeating through the campground. This campground is small, and when a group of people start toking up, you start to wonder if you teleported to a Willie Nelson concert. Despite the people partaking in illegal drugs and blaring rap music from their vehicles, I continued to not let it bother me and went about my night.
The cabin was O.K. The bunk beds was nice as my son thoroughly enjoyed them. However, the full size "bed" is literally sleeping on wood. There is a plastic mattress that is about 3" thick which offers no support at all. We brought our linens and blankets to make the bed comfortable enough to bear. The campground rules explain that you need to bring your own linens and blankets so that wasn't a surprise. That first night we did check out Covert's beach. It was a nice beach with a good path to get to and from. This was the best thing the campground had to offer, a beautiful beach.
The next morning are where things took a big turn for the worse. The 4 cabins are camping cabins, no facilities. There are bathrooms near the office. When my wife went to use them, every single toilet was clogged and full! Disgustingly full. I've used many questionable bathrooms at campgrounds but nothing really compares. The whole bathroom facitlity looked like it has been rarely taken care of with mildew, possibly mold, nasty drains, clogged toilets, and clogged shower drains. There was a shower stall with dirty standing water in it about 2" deep. Naturally, my wife brings this to the attention to people in the office and the first thing that was said to her was "the bathrooms are old, it is old plumbing, and they can't clean the bathrooms 24/7." This is followed by an immature berating; they try to explain that the campground has been turning people away because they are full and how dare we mention anything about leaving and asking for leniency in the form of a refund. Immediately the blame is put on the customer to just deal with this nasty/unacceptable condition. No responsibilty was taken on behalf of the management. Here is the best part. This campground, on a Thursday morning, was holding a gathering for a elderly group in the big cazebo the is RIGHT next to the bathrooms. This group consisted of nearly 80 elders that was having meals on wheels catered in. This gathering had been going on for a couple hours and only when my wife brought up the bathroom conditions, did management find it necessary to address it.
There is a lengthy review from an individual about this place that mentions how management is such a pain to deal with because they treat you like you have the problem instead of them accepting responsibility. That person is 100% correct. The management at this place doesn't care if you find the conditions acceptable/sanitary. They just care about getting paid, which they made it quite clear when explaining to my wife that they were going to refund our money for at least one of the two nights that we weren't staying but low and behold the credit card bill came and not a dime was refunded. Look, I understand a no refund policy but when your managing a campground and your customers have no place to shower or use the bathroom without gagging, then that really doesn't mean it is the customers fault.
I urge you, reader of this review, spend your time and money elsewhere. There are hundreds of miles of Lake Michigan coastline. There are other campgrounds. read more