North Shore Camping Company

We stayed for 3 nights. The first night we got there, the person at the desk was very helpful. After that, we had to replace our own jackery and lanterns. They had lights running up the main walkway, which was nice, but since the lanterns weren't replaced at our site, we had to pickup a new one. The cooking set that the website shows we are to get wasn't even close to what we got. It was a hodgepodge of different items. We requested cooking bowls, got 1. We did get 2 cereal bowls, a 8x11 cookie sheet, plenty of silverware, but no spatulas. We got a colander, small pot, and a 9" frying pan. How do you cook bacon, eggs, hash browns, frenchtoast in 1- 9" frying pan? The cook stove was missing a knob and was filthy dirty. My husband had to clean it. The guy that checked us in checked to see if we had the items to wash dishes and seen we didn't have anything, so he went to find a tub and dish rack. Why wasn't our hut inspected before we arrived to make sure all items were there? We were literally the only ones there the 1st night we stayed. We were also supposed to receive tin foil, but didn't have any. The hut was nice, but don't look under the bed! 3" of dust. My husband looked at the propane and seen that both tanks were almost empty. We told the front desk and the guy said he took care of it. Well, the 3rd night was very cold as we didn't have any heat 1/2 through the night. 45° in the hut. 🥶
I did speak to the manager and we were reimbursed a night. I got the impression that she didn't like my feedback on the cookware we DIDN'T receive. The lady at the desk had to go up to the apartment to get us frying pans and dish soap. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Anyway, if we had known they weren't going to supply cookware then we would have just brought our own. I recommend you bringing your own pots and pans.

Fun concept but severely understaffed and a lot of issues.

Two days before my stay I had a question about my reservation... it took me six hours, four phone calls, a text, and finally a call to Cove Point before I received a response from someone at NSCC.

There isn't a staff member stationed at the desk (it seems that staff combine desk duties with other jobs around the site), and we had to wait at least 20 minutes each time we needed to speak to someone. This wouldn't be a big deal if phone calls/texts were answered in a timely manner and if tents were supplied as advertised, but, in my experience anyway, they're not.

Upon arrival at our tent we noticed that our smoke detector was missing (especially important since there's a propane stove in the tent!). At 4:30 pm I called (and left a phone message) and texted requesting a smoke detector. We did not receive a smoke detector until 8:15 pm, and it took three more phone calls, a request at Cove Point, and waiting 80 minutes in the base camp lodge to track down a staff member before we finally received a smoke detector.

Our heater was fine, but we heard the staff members talking about how four tents simultaneously had broken heaters. Seems like they're not the most reliable.

The bathrooms (base camp and the satellite ones) were very dirty--almost no TP in some, hairs cloggings the drains, filthy toilets.

We asked in advance for dishes, which were not ready when we arrived. We were given only one lantern, not three as advertised.

The blankets were dingy and stained.

Positives: The tents are cute and the bed was comfortable. The sheets seemed clean and fresh. The hiking trails are nice.

Friendly staff, and a nice location near a lot of parks to go visit during the day. Quiet, and tents are nicely spaced to have some privacy from other campers. Campsite was nice and spacious, inside and out. Very comfortable bed and plenty of blankets for the cooler nights. Our Jackery lost most of its charge after the first night with the heater running so we had to swap it out. Seems like that's something that staff could do as a default, as I assume most people had to swap theirs out that day. Quality of life improvements that I think could be made, besides this, would be more water fill-up locations than the base camp, quality control on the extra campware (my French press came without all its pieces, no fuel for stove at campsite), and more frequent bathroom cleaning. All this being said, there didn't seem to be enough hands for the amount of work already being done on a daily basis, so I imagine these sorts of improvements are more back burner items than anything. Definitely a step above camping, but I'm not sure if I'd call it glamping. For the cost, it wasn't as convenient as I expected it to be, we had to walk back and forth from base camp a lot to get water, charged battery, stove fuel etc. Still, my partner and I had a great time and it's definitely in a great spot to call home base while exploring the North Shore.

Our site was great! Beautiful views. The tent was lovely, and the cozy bedding and gas stove kept us toasty warm. Prior to our stay, we filled out the form of extra free of charge items that we would like at our site. Cookware, dishes, French press, that sort of thing. None of which was present at our site. We had to make several trips to the lodge to get all we thought we had already signed up for. That was the only thing we found that was a bit disappointing. Great place! We’d recommend!

Overall we did enjoy our stay at North Shore Camping Co! They were very accommodating when our heater did not work and they offered us a discounted rate plus store credit to use on anything in their camp store! Luckily it was still warm enough at night that the heater wasn’t fully needed as we had plenty of blankets supplied as well. The only downside was our site itself. We were given site #1 which had zero privacy. We took a walk around the other sites and they all had a private walkway and plenty of trees or other plants obstructing the view of their fire pit/outdoor area and front door, but our site was the first on the path and everyone who walked by could see our entire site and see us when we were outside at anytime. The front door couldn’t be seen from the side where the fire pit was, but if the lights were on inside and someone was coming up the path they could see right inside as there was not any covering for the front door glass panels. We were also traveling with a dog so the privacy the other sites had would have been so much nicer. Additionally, the site was very slanted, the fire pit cooking grate didn’t stay level and we had to rig it to cook over, the picnic table wobbled, and the chairs were placed facing the path which made for a few awkward interactions as people walked by. Had we been given any other site, I think this would be a five star review, but we didn’t get to enjoy it as much with the lack of privacy and uncomfortable outdoor area. As for inside the tent, things were great! The bed was comfy and we had everything we needed to enjoy our stay, the staff was also very friendly and helpful and the location was amazing for a stay along the north shore! We would definitely consider staying again, but we just would be sure to request any site other than #1.