NET Hop 5
47 miles via US-1, I-95, US 4 and NH 43. Cumulative tow miles: 362. Truck miles: 426. Cumulative truck miles: 2030.
This wasn’t the shortest route, but it was the easiest route. The other routes involved some sharp turns and traversing dense residential areas. The chosen route was mostly 4-lane highway. An easy trip, except for the 5-minute downpour and the tight quarter-mile through downtown Ogunquit. Traffic was light which was a surprise considering that it was the Friday before the 4th. I guess we got out ahead of the pack.
Our home for the 8 nights in Wells was the Sea-Vu West Premier RV Resort. This is one of at least 3 Sea-Vu campgrounds in Wells. The original, on US 1 in Wells, looked cramped. Sea-Vu South, just south of West, was newer and looked – as far as I could see from the road – about the same as West. West was my choice primarily because of the high ratings in Good Sam.
We would rate the park a bit lower.
Our site
- Our site was large, shaded and backed onto greenery.
- The park was very clean and well-maintained.
- The pool was large with plenty of chairs.
The bad things:
- The office staff was unfriendly and not very helpful.
- The small dog park was at the other end of the facility, past all the park models.
- The park was about 75% park models with seasonal residents who were not very friendly to transient campers such as us.
- The WiFi connectivity – both on the park’s free WiFi and my own Verizon router – was terrible. Among the worst we have seen in 5 years of travel. I couldn’t upload pictures and finally gave up on trying to do anything on the internet. Just too frustrating.
- The electricity went out for over 4 hours one day. While this was not the campground’s fault, they were not very proactive about informing campers of the status. I had to contact the utility directly to find out what was going on.
The seasonal/transient tension is something we saw last year at Apple Island. Somehow the seasonal residents view transients as second-class citizens and tend to either ignore them or, worse, be rude to them. In my case I was walking Rusty to the dog park one morning and a seasonal resident was out watering his little patch of grass. Mind you, I was in the street, but Rusty was near the edge of the grass. The resident said to me “I hope your dog isn’t going to piss on my grass.” I swore at him under my breath and walked on. No sense getting into a physical altercation with a man armed with a water hose.
Speaking of grass, the park seems to have some odd rules about what residents can do to their property. Patios and walkways made with brick pavers were everywhere and apparently are okay. But no concrete walks and, oddly, no driveways of any kind – everyone parked on their precious grass. That struck me as very odd.
The bottom line is that I would rate this park at about 5 on a 10 scale. We won’t be returning.
Maybe others feel the same. I was surprised that the transient area was only about 40% occupied on the weekend – the last weekend in June when most kids were out of school. I think most parks would expect to be booked solid on that weekend.
The surprisingly empty transient area