Grand Codroy RV/Tent Camping Park – Review

I should have done this review some time ago, as we spent two months at site #28 in this park from July 16th to September 15th in 2018. The park has approximately 80 sites, some fully serviced, as well as a number of un-serviced tent sites.

It is now a family owned campground, but twenty some years ago it was developed as a provincial park so the sites are large and the views are scenic to say the least. Dennis and Alice along with their son Jason run the park, but more family are involved with the daily operation, with Phillip doing park maintenance, and Arlene running the gift shop, and you must stop at the gift shop it is essensial to find local crafts as well as island treasures, the gift shop is not filled with your usual tourist trap items, just Newfoundland crafts and information and you have to get into some of the partridge berry preserves.

This is a true transient campground, mainly because of its relationship to the ferry port. So many people left the park early in the morning for the ferry’s morning departure and there was a line up most evenings after the ferry arrival. So most people were just there for an evening or two, which meant that most of them never got to explore the park or the Codroy valley that had so much more to offer than the first glance would indicate.

Most people do not allow themselves sufficient time to properly see Newfoundland, and although we spent two months there we only seen a small portion of what it had to offer, and will have to return someday soon.

This park caters to a number of RV caravans crossing Newfoundland, and are offered entertainment like “screech ins” which are a Newfoundland tradition, there is a pavilion where local entertainers would preform authentic music, and although the campground offered free campfire wood, there was normally a community campfire each night usually with campers or some locals providing musical entertainment. The campfire gave people a chance to met and talk about things to see and do as there was usually the same number of new arrivals as there was people leaving the island, so there were always lots of “you got to go here’s” over most evenings.

As with every campground the provided Wi-Fi was sporadic at best, and I spent a number of hours sitting near the office to get and stay connected to work, garbage was picked up at your site daily, it has laundry onsite, there was kayaking just a few meters behind our site, local sight seeing information was available at the office or for details and Alice was always close by to help you figure it out.

Usually there are a number of items that I can use as cons to offset the pros for most campgrounds and while I did not want this to seem like a paid promotion spot for Codroy Valley Campground, there just were no real cons to this park other than the Wi-Fi which is a given at most parks, I guess I could say my Rogers cell service was poor but that is because there are no Rogers towers on the east side of the island which makes their service total crap on the island except in the St. Johns area, but Bell the main service provider on the island was strong. And while there were not a lot of park amenities like a pool or pickle ball courts they were not missed because it is mainly a transient park. and there was more than enough natural things to explore to keep everyone busy. Port-A-Basque is the largest town to get groceries and the like but most items were available actually within a few miles if you asked at the office for directions. Like fresh home baked bread that was available most days at the office, there was golfing just a few miles away, as well as the Bay of St. Lawrence with provincial park and a sand beach, although the water always seemed too cool for me, many locals were swimming.

Here are some photos at or near the park:

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