happybooker1

Just got back from 4 nights at Garner and it was wonderful! Our first trip there & we originally planned to stay 3 nights but my son begged for another night & they didn't have any problem granting our request.

We arrived on Tuesday & had booked through Reserve America. All they had left when I booked a month ago was in New Garner (Rio Frio area). We arrived around 4:30PM & had our choice of sites. We got #475 close to the bathrooms & completely shaded! There were PLENTY of vacant sites around us on Tuesday/Wed. By Thursday a few more had filled up. Thursday afternoon around 5PM I went to ask if we could have another night & got one. Friday nearly all the vacant spots were filled & by Sat. AM you couldn't stir 'em with a stick, as my Mom says! There was even a family waiting for 'our' spot as we pulled out around 10:30AM!

Old Garner is more of a 'party' site, with lots of teenagers, families all around, dogs, etc. It wasn't obnoxiously loud/noisy, but 'busy' all the time. Every spot was filled & the sites are MUCH closer together than in New Garner. The day campers filled up whatever space was left each day.

My son LOVED the rope swings at O.G. so that's where we ended up each day. I floated on the river & he swung about 500 times! We'd go back to our pop-up during the heat of the day to have lunch & rest/naps.

N.G. -- the sites are more separated & there's less of a 'party going-on' atmosphere. The river is still within walking distance, or you can drive a short way (2 blocks?) to a parking spot & carry your stuff down. There's a nice beach area right down from the Rio Frio site that we went to one day. Tubing was good there for a short distance (2-3 blocks maybe?). But an adult will still get 'stuck in the shallows' occassionally, since the river's down.....

At the Pavilion there's a snack stand/cafe that makes *wonderful* hamburgers! On Friday/Sat. nights it's really rockin' as the campers all come to CW dance there. The cafe's hours are from 10AM-10PM & it's really good for lunch or snacks.

Ummmm, that's all I can think of at the moment. If you want a campfire, try to bring you own wood as 5 little 'logs' are $4.50 at the convenience stores around there. The bathrooms are very clean but one night we ran out of hot water......

I'm thinking if Reserve America didn't have any empty sites listed you could call the park directly & they could check on their computers......

[quote=dwalsdorf]Campermon (and anyone else with info):

Thinking of hitting Garner in a few weeks. Never been there before. Taking several kids (6-6-7) for tents camping, and the fishing access there looks pretty nice. What are your thoughts on Old and New Garner splits? SP website shows a lot of the best sites (waterfront-ish) given to RVers...