Summary

• Name: Pine Crest RV Park
• Dates of stay: Jan 13-22, 2018
• Location: 2601 Old Spanish Trail, Slidell, LA
• Type of campground: Private / Independent
• Cost: $44/night with Good Sam discount, FHU pull through site
• Additional fees: none
• Stay limit: none
• Accepts mail / packages: yes!
• Cell reception: AT&T decent
• Website: http://www.pinecrestrv.com/
• Pros: Close to New Orleans, decent site, moderate price
• Cons: limited amenities

Full Review

This campground is well located, a half-mile off of I-10 and only 30 minutes from downtown New Orleans. We wanted a base for exploring New Orleans and the surrounding area, and this location served us well.

The price was in a moderate range (for us) and offered a 50 amp full hook up site on a concrete pad for our big rig. The pad was just wide enough for our rig, so required some careful positioning, and was not quite long enough for the bus plus toad. We had to park the truck sideways in front. But having a concrete pad was nice after sitting on gravel for a few weeks – no slow sinking of jacks over the week! Sites had adequate spacing, typical for commercial campgrounds.

The office is closed from Saturday noon through Sunday. Since we planned to arrive on Saturday afternoon, the office left our paperwork just outside the office door with a map to our site and instructions. We just picked up the envelope, pulled in, and hooked up. Easy. All I had to do was stop by the office on Monday morning and finish the check in process. The office was very accommodating and had no problem accepting several packages for us. Our stay was long enough to order some things we needed after several months on the road, as well as receive our forwarded mail.

It is a fairly large park, with over 160 sites. It looks as though there are many seasonal / full time residents in the back, but our front section appeared to be populated by mostly transient visitors like us. For all of those sites, there was only one small bath house. Presumably since all of the sites are full hook up, the bath houses are little used. We didn’t use them. This is not a “resort”, as there are no organized activities nor a pool. There is a small playground, a lounge area (closed when the office is closed), a laundry facility, fishing area, and LP gas fill station. It was very quiet during our stay; we hardly saw people out and about.

Due to proximity to New Orleans, we got quite a few over the air TV channels and AT&T reception was good.  The campground provided a code for free WiFi through Tengo internet, which most campgrounds charge for. Our normal ATT hotspot worked fine.

One warning that we heard from another camper that has been here before – this campground floods. We weren’t here during rainy season, but apparently it isn’t unusual during rainy times for campsites to be several inches under water. In that case, it is a good stop for a day or two, but maybe not for longer.

Bottom Line:  Good location for New Orleans area exploration, the amenities are sufficient, and the price won’t break the bank – but beware of flooding during rainy periods.