RV Park Review – Narrows Too Camping Resort, Trenton, ME

October 13, 2017 by libertatemamo 10 Comments

A large, well-kept (but pricey) campground in a great location to explore Acadia National Park in Maine. Campground is open May 1st through ~third week of Oct.

Link to park here: Narrows Too Camping Resort, Trenton, ME
Link to map location here: Narrows Too Camping Resort, Trenton, ME

1. Site quality = 3/5
   Decent sites here with some dings, depending on where you are located. All sites are FHU (50A/water/sewer plus cable TV) on hard-packed gravel, nicely flat (sites are regularly graded which is really nice) with mostly grassy “sitting areas” containing picnic table and fire-pit. There are a range of sites from pull-throughs to back-ins & pull-ins (*See NOTE2). The campground is bounded by the main street (Rte 3) on entrance (rear) side, followed by a small hill that drops down to waterfront sites on the front side. Most of the camp is open with limited privacy & no real shade or trees except for the bottom right (southern) section of camp which is forested and has some more private sites. There is definitely a wide range of quality of sites here with some so-so sites and some really great sites.
   • Narrows II/Seasonal Sites -> 100 & 200 Series. Most of the folks who come for the entire summer season stay in the sites nearest the entrance of the campground in the 100 & 200 series of numbers. The 100 sites are very close to the main road and very noisy (we did not like them at all). The 200 sites are in a small circle (“Fiesta Circle”) slightly further down the road so they are quieter, but all rigs are forced to park facing in here which means if you’re a Class A your front windshield looks directly into your neighbors front windshield. We were not keen on these sites either.
   • Select Pull-through Sites -> 700 Series. These sites are all long pull-throughs near the middle area (top of the hill) of the campground. Sites are pretty typical side-by-side arrangement, long enough to fit any-sized rig but with minimal separation, no shade and no privacy. A few sites in the row nearest the middle (sites 700-711) and also a few sites up top by the office store (740, 739, 738, and 723, 724 = our tip picks) get teeny slices of water views either on the side or out the front.
   • Best Sites -> 800 Series. These are the basic back-in/pull-in sites in the middle area (top of the hill) of the campground. Mostly open with no real privacy or shade. The 800 series sites have zero views, but a few sites have visibly larger separation, in specific 827 826, 833, 859, 858.
   • Premium II Sites -> 600 Series. These are sites at the middle-bottom of the campground closer to the waterfront area. IMO the nicest sites in this area are along the middle (610-618) and left side (604-609) of camp since they get slices of water-views out the side (for Class A’s choose sites 604-609 or 618-623 so your front window faces forward). Absolute BEST sites are the middle-corner sites 610 & 623 (= our top picks). All sites are mostly open with no real shade or privacy except for sites on right-hand side of camp (627-631) which are in a forested area of the campground. No views here, but nice shade and feel.
   • Premium Sites -> 500 Series. This is a small slice of sites right behind the waterfront sites. You do get “some” waterviews here, but it’s mostly blocked by RV’s in the waterfront sites when those sites are full. The only real exception to this is 501 (= our top pick) since it sits slightly higher than the other sites and thus gets slightly more of a view. Sites 503/504 are right on-top of each other and far too close together (avoid these), but sites 505, 506/507 and 508 are in the forested area of the campground and have great privacy and shade (they’re quite nice and our #2 pick for this section).
   • Oceanfront Sites -> 400 Series. This is a small slice of 7 sites on the left-bottom of the campground right on the water. The draw of these sites is that they have great water views. The big negative is that they are VERY tight together (literally almost close enough to touch). We would NOT be comfortable staying here except for the two corner sites 407 and 400 where you can arrange to park with privacy on one side.
   • Best Oceanfront Sites -> 300 Series. These are most DEFINITELY the nicest sites in camp and they have the price to match! There are only 2 sites we did NOT like here -> 309 and 310 since they share a “sitting area”and so you have zero privacy from your neighbor (avoid these two at all costs!). The other sites (311-318) however are lovely. Sites 315/316 share one “open” side and so are slightly less desirable (you do not have privacy on one side), but other sites are fully private on both sites. Best full frontal water views are from sites 311, 312, 313, 314 and 317. Site 318 has a side-type view of the water rather than full frontal view (but it’s still nice). If you stay here in a Class A you can pull-in to get the view out the front, but bring PLENTY of extra sewer hose since you’ll need to run all your hoses underneath your RV and across the width of the site to your hookups.
   • NOTE1 – BOOK AHEAD FOR BEST SITES. Summer in Maine is HIGH SEASON so if you want the best sites book well ahead! There were open sites in the main area of camp throughout our stay, but ALL the best oceanfront waterfront sites were solidly occupied the entire time we were here (third week of Aug through 3rd week of Sept).
   • *NOTE2 – PARKING DIRECTION. A strange quirk of this campground is that all RVs in the main area of the campground must park facing the same direction (NE). So that means on far right side of the campground (SE side) Class A’s back-in (= what we’re used to doing), but on far left-side (NE side) of the campground Class A’s must park face-in which means your front window looks directly into the back of your site. It’s a really odd (and unusual) arrangement and we don’t really like the sites that park that way. For that reason if we were staying in the main part of camp, we’d ask for a pull-through or a “normal” back-in site. The only exception to this parking rule are the oceanfront sites where you can park either back-in or face-in as you please.
   • NOTE3 – CABINS. There are also several cabins for rent on-site which look nice from the outside. No water views, but pleasant-looking area to stay.
   • NOTE4 – DISCOUNTS. There’s no doubt this is a pricey campground (although that’s true of all private parks in this area), but there are a few ways to get discounts. Passport America offers 50% discount (700/800 series sites only, 5 nights max) except during July and Aug. Thousand Trails offers a 20% discount on the daily rate (700/800 series sites only) if you book through the park, but may offer cheaper (or even free?) rates depending on your membership level, if you book directly through Thousand Trails. So if you are TT members, definitely book through TT! Also monthly and seasonal discounts can offer tremendous savings over the daily rate. Book well ahead for the latter however.
2. Facilities = 3/5
   Flush toilets and showers here. Individual walk-in showers with decent water pressure, separate bench area for your clothes and adjustable temp. Main ding is that the facilities are on the older size (older tub, older shower curtains) and somewhat small. Showers/toilets were clean however. On-site dump station.
3. Amenities = 4/5
   Decent set of amenities here. There is a nice large laundromat with lots of machines ($2.50 wash and $2.00 dry), an on-site camp store (quite large) recreation hall (very large), book swap & lounge area and small (but nice) swimming pool. Plus there is a kayak rental and launch for folks who want to paddle the water. There is also on-site Free WiFi which worked so-so while we were here (it was decently fast, but kept kicking us off so we had to re-login all the time. For that reason it wasn’t very usable for work). Main ding? No kiddie playground or other game areas (e.g. courts or such).
4. Location = 4.5/5
   This is the great location to explore Acadia NP and the surrounding area. You are only 15 mins drive from Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park where you can access miles of hiking, biking and exploration. For car-free outings, the FREE Island Explorer shuttle bus (dog friendly) leaves right next to the check-in office at camp and takes you directly into Bar Harbor, where you can connect to other FREE buses all around the island. You are also just 4 miles from a nice brewery & BBQ (Atlantic Brewing), and just 7 miles from Ellsworth which has all the eateries and shopping (Walmart, groceries, Home Depot etc.) you could ever need. Only slight ding? This campground IS in the path of the nearby local airport where they do sightseeing tours into Acadia, so you do hear take-offs and landings at times during the day.
5. Pet friendliness = 5/5
   Excellent place for paws. Decent space in camp, plus there’s a huge, enormous, fabulous grassy off-leash dog area on the left-side of the park (by site 862). It’s literally the LARGEST off-leash area we’ve seen in any park (anywhere) and really is lovely. Also during low tide the beach opens up for walking and you can take doggie there too. Oh, and don’t forget Acadia NP allows dogs on all of their trails!! Only slight ding? No poo bags.

Overall Rating = 3.9
BONUS ALERT: Camp just 15 mins from Acadia National Park!

Video Overview: Want to see it in living color? Check out our ~20 min overview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmdEbreVkNw

Summary: We chose this campground mostly because we’ve known others who’ve stayed here (and liked it), and because we planned to be here for a whole month we decided to shell out the big $$$ and book a best oceanfront site. It was well worth it!! The campground itself is well-kept and friendly, sites are FHU plus cable TV, gravel (everywhere) and mostly open with no real shade or privacy, except for the bottom right (southern) part of camp which is forested. Sites nearest the main road (100, 200 series) are mostly seasonal (folks who stay here for the season) and were far too noisy for out liking. Sites in the middle (700, 800 series) are the “regular” sites and also the only area of the park which gets discounts (like Thousand Trails, Passport America). Not much privacy here, but a few sites do have slices of views. Sites near bottom are the nicest, except for the “oceanfront” sites (400 series) which were FAR too close together for our liking. We ended up in “best oceanfront” which are well worth it if you want a full water view (just avoid sites 309 & 310 as they share a sitting area). Amenities are good with large camp store, laundromat, pool and the biggest off-leash dog-area I’ve ever seen (Polly loved it!). Plus there’s direct access to the water with beach to walk on at low tide. Location is also great only 15 mins from Acadia National Park (or FREE shuttle bus right from camp!), or 7 miles to Ellsworth which has all the shopping & groceries you need. Perhaps the only real location ding? You are close(ish) to the Trenton Regional airport so you do hear the sightseeing planes take off and land during the day. In our case we were both very happy the choice we made to stay here. We absolutely loved our waterfront view (so many great happy hours overlooking the tides and water!) and we absolutely loved hiking and exploring around amazing Acadia National Park. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would certainly return.

This park is popular and the prime waterfront sites get fully booked in summer (we booked 6 months ahead for our best oceanfront site). For regular sites (non-prime, non-view) availability is good and booking ahead is not as important.

Extra Info: Stable cellphone signal although it definitely benefited from a booster (Verizon was most stable at about 2 bars LTE. ATT wavered between 1-2 bars 4G & LTE by the waterfront, but seemed to fade towards the top of the campground. Zero T Mobile ). Free on-site WiFi, and it worked so-so during the time we were here (we kept getting kicked off). Total 206 sites. Site costs vary anywhere from $44/night (best sites) up to $120/night (best oceanfront), with lower pricing at the beginning and end of the season (campground opens May 1st and closes around 3rd week of Oct). Significant DISCOUNTS available for Monthly, Seasonal, Passport America and Thousand Trails memberships, depending on site location & month. On-site dump station.

Extra, Extra Info: OTHER CAMPING: There is plenty of other camping on Mount Desert Island including sites within the National Park itself (20 ft size limit, $30/night) as well as several other private parks (KOA and others) plus a first-come-first-serve/no reservations campground (Bar Harbor Campground, $34-$43/night) for those who don’t like to plan ahead. See Campendium for more options.