Gateway to Cape Cod Campground is pretty typical of the Thousand Trails camps we have visited: large, a little run down, but has a lot of amenities.
We Paid: Thousand Trails Membership for 3 nights
Discounts Used: Thousand Trails Membership
Address (GPS Link): 90 Stevens Road, Rochester, MA 02770
Website: https://www.thousandtrails.com/massachusetts/gateway-to-cape-cod-rv/
Amenities List: Power, Water, Sewer, Camp Store, Games Room, Rec Room, Pool, Playground, Field Games, Wireless (limited area), Bathrooms, Showers, Laundry, Cabins, Tent Camping, Propane, Snack Bar, Clubhouse
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Best Features
- Quiet setting
- Lots of amenities, especially for kids
Worst Features
- Small and uneven sites
- Narrow dirt roads
- Thousand Trails booking system
I forgot to take pictures here so these are from other campers. This is the small pool they have.
The Details
I’m starting to feel like every Thousand Trails park would be better if it weren’t a Thousand Trails park. Their lazy booking system really failed us this time. They don’t book specific sites so you have to go out and hunt one down. So far, in most of the parks, they have a good idea where empty sites are. At Gateway to Cape Cod Campground, every one of the 6 sites they marked on the map for us was occupied. Thus we had to roam around the park’s narrow lanes looking for a spot that was open. We also had to go back to the office afterward to report our site number and recover our driver’s license which they kept to ensure you come back and report in.
Like a lot of Thousand Trails parks, about half or more of the campers here seemed to be permanent or long term residents. For whatever reason, that, in turn, seems to be associated with parks that don’t do a lot of maintenance and upkeep on their sites. Like many other Thousand Trails, nearly all the sites were cramped and wildly uneven. Once again we had to deploy all our levelers to get out Airstream situated. We also had to deal with a slightly up hill sewer, again!
They had a lot of amenities, including a snack-bar called “Admiral Snackbar.” There were a lot of kids in the park and they had multiple events every day we were there for them to engage in. I have to give them credit for creating a good family atmosphere in the park. There are all kinds of field games you can play here, though most of them were showing their age and were not in the best shape.
Tightly packed campers and iffy dirt roads, pretty typical of Thousand Trails for us so far.
The Bathrooms were mostly clean, though the showers were not in very good shape. They have free Wifi but it is not available in all areas of the park so you may need to go to the clubhouse or office to get a good signal. Navigating around the park is a challenge as the roads are quite narrow and there are no set directions. I saw a few folks end up having to back their rigs up when they met going opposite directions. Luckily I managed to avoid having it happen to me.
I do not recommend Gateway to Cape Cod Campground. I’m not sure what the normal price is, but given prices in the East, it probably is not worth it if you are not a Thousand Trails member. The park isn’t outright terrible, but it could be a whole lot better than it is.
