This campground is rated as one of the best in the country, and it's right in our back yard

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We had a 10-month wait between ordering our RV and actually taking delivery. In that time, we tried to be productive. We got rid of a lot of our stuff, watched tons of RV YouTube channels, and read a lot of books. The first book I read, I just happened to find during a quick search on Amazon: A Beginner's Guide to Living in an RV: Everything I Wish I Knew Before Full-Time RVing Across America. I was soon to be a beginner full-timer myself and looked forward to learning.

The author of this book is Alyssa Padgett, a name I hadn't heard before, but now has become household in our tiny home. Alyssa and her husband Heath have made names for themselves in the RV world, mainly due to their pioneering efforts to unite fellow nomadic entrepreneurs, and due to their bravery for stepping into the unknown and RVing abroad – with their two kids! But, in 2020, Alyssa wrote about her journey before kids, and before crossing the Atlantic. She broke down many of the places she and Heath traveled in their first year of RVing and offered lots of tips for those just starting out. She keeps readers eagerly turning the pages by letting us know that, at the end of the book, she will reveal her favorite campground of all the places they stayed. I couldn't wait to hear her recommendation, so I could put it on my list of campgrounds to visit as we roamed the far ends of the country.

This blog post contains spoilers, of course, but trust me when I say, the real spoil went to me. I invested myself through 200 pages to discover that Alyssa's favorite campground in the entire country was located 35 minutes away from my house in Massachusetts. My first thought was, "How am I supposed to get excited about traveling far and wide when the apparent 'best campground' is right in my state?!" My second thought was, "What makes this place so special anyway?"

The place is Normandy Farms, located in Foxborough, MA, just up the street from Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots play. Turns out, Alyssa is not unique in her opinion of this campground. The list of accolades speaks for itself:

• Ranked top 13 in the world by the Travel Channel
• Best Luxury RV Park by Yankee Magazine
• Rated in the top 10 of urban campgrounds AND top 3 luxury RV resorts in the country by USA Today
• A perfect 10 rating by Good Sam
• Listed in Newmar's Top RV Resort Guide
• Featured in Time Magazine
• Voted RV Park of the Year four times by the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds

I tend to have strong adverse reactions to trends. The more popular something becomes, the less I care about it. Surely, I would find my own favorite campsites, and most likely I would need to leave my state to find them. Over the next 2 years, I did just that.

But now, in our 3rd year of RVing, we were spending more time in New England than we had since we sold our house and became full-time RVers. It was finally time to see what all the fuss was about. I booked us two separate stays: One in August during peak season, and one in November leading right up to the campground's closing day.

Despite all the high praise, Normandy Farms would be a tough sell for us. We're simply not the target demographic. We're from MA, so the draw of being close to Gillette and Boston was completely lost on us. We're digital nomads, which means we mostly like campgrounds where we can hunker down and get work done. Normandy Farms clearly caters to campers looking for a vacation experience. They also cater to families, boasting multiple playgrounds and tons of events and activities for kids. Granted, they have amenities for adults, too, and maybe we should give the place the benefit of the doubt. After all, Alyssa didn't yet have kids when she gave the campground her top vote. Only, we're not "RV resort" people. Give us a cozy campsite in nature with a walking trail nearby, and we're happy campers – literally. We would have to see if Normandy Farms could change our minds.

We should also point out that, when it comes to RV campgrounds in MA, we have been less than pleased. We love our local state park, but actual private RV parks have led to our proclamation that this state is the least RV-friendly. That description continues to hold true every time we camp in an RV park here – even the ones that are well-loved by the RV community.

So how has Normandy Farms successfully risen to such high status in a state that feels like they'd rather do away with RVers entirely? History has been on its side. We're talking true Revolutionary history. The name Normandy Farms originates from the province of Normandy in France. Francis Daniels, a French Army soldier, was attempting to sail back to his home country after falling ill, but his ship was captured by Colonials, and he was brought to Massachusetts Bay. He spent the first months as a prisoner, but eventually was offered pay to help the jailkeeper's brother, William Hewes of Wrentham. After earning enough wages, Daniels purchased the property from Hewes and built a farm. This farm became part of the community of Foxborough, now the neighboring town to Wrentham.

Daniels passed away in 1813, but the land continued to grow and evolve. The Daniels family continued farm operations until the early 1970s, when they converted the property into a small campground of just 25 sites. Now, the property boasts 400+ RV sites, cabins, and glamping yurts and tents. The campground is now 9th generation family owned.

The history is impressive, but we've noticed that sometimes these family-owned campgrounds overlook the important needs of RVers, due to the fact that 7th, 8th, and 9th generation families are not often RVers. However, when a campground is this big, there is lots of staff, and we were pleased to discover that many of the employees are RVers themselves.

We saw the appeal of this place as soon as we arrived. Staff awaited us right at the gate, ready to grab our information and show us where to go. We didn't even need to leave our vehicle! Everything was extremely organized. We got emails leading up to our stay, which contained our parking pass. This pass had a bar code to scan whenever we needed to get past the gate. On our summer visit, Tanner got a pet goody bag from the gate attendant. It contained a Milkbone and some doggy waste bags. Actually, Tanner got two goody bags because we registered both pets, so he got Lily's as well. This made up for the fact that he didn't get one during our November stay. Maybe they had run out by then.

For both stays, we chose campsites toward the back of the campground, in a water & electric only loop. We were close to the dump station and equidistant from the pond/farm and the Recreation Lodge. We'll talk about those amenities a little later.

Upon arriving to our site in August, I was flummoxed. Clearly, I was missing out on the family destination that is Normandy Farms, because I didn't grow up camping. I hadn't even heard of this place until reading Alyssa's book, but word was definitely out with the families here. Some had out-of-state plates, but many were local. Children happily ran and rode their bikes in the campground roads – something that always scares us when big rigs are in the vicinity, but we can't deny the joy we feel seeing kids make core memories away from their screens. Our campsites were generous in size and nestled among tall evergreen trees. The campground is located just up the street from one of the town forests. Unlike the majority of New England RV parks that are literally embedded in the woods, Normandy Farms gives the woodsy vibe but still manages to keep the campsites easily accessible. Even beginner RVers could find sites here that are a cinch to maneuver into.

First impressions were that Normandy Farms was a well-oiled machine. Staff were always available if we needed help. We noticed a little bit of trash here and there, but for a 400-site campground, it was quite clean.

Hands down, this resort is true to its description. So many "resorts" in the RV community are anything but, but Normandy Farms is bona fide. We immediately got caught up in the hoopla. On our first evening, we ordered munchies from their on-site food stand, Kamper's Kitchen. You know, because we weren't already paying enough to stay here. #vacationmode

So let's talk about this insanely long list of amenities. The food stand is located next to the Recreation Lodge and offers takeout or seating at its large pavilion. The Recreation Lodge is where you find lots of the good stuff: The event hall, game room, gym, indoor pool, two outdoor pools, family-friendly loft, adults-only loft, and the wellness center, where you can book a massage appointment with Jennifer, their in-house massage therapist.

Down the hill from our campground loop was a fishing pond surrounded by a walking trail. Other more wooded walking trails connected the pond to our campground loop, which we only noticed on our second stay, because the trail led right from our site. The front of the property houses the farm animals. Normandy Farms has horses, goats, donkeys, and sheep. Visitors aren't allowed to pet or feed them, but we can go say "hi" whenever we wish. I took most of my morning walks past there.

Up the hill is the office building, which has an information/business center and campground store, in addition to the reception desk. Past the entrance is another pool, a basketball court, and a tennis/pickleball court (thank you Normandy for offering both, as it is a huge pet peeve of mine to see all the tennis courts being converted into pickleball courts). This is also the location of the main playground. A smaller playground is located in the middle of one of the campground loops.

The very back of the campground has disc golf, a remote-controlled car racetrack, a bike park, and the dog park. The list goes on. I haven't even mentioned that the campground is dotted with not one, but two softball diamonds and a soccer field. Then there's the events calendar that has every form of entertainment you can imagine, from performances, to craft workshops, to yoga classes, to bingo, and beyond.

How many of these amenities did we take advantage of during our two stays? Mmmm, maybe .05%? We were a little busy doing other things. In August, we were racking up hiking miles at the nearby Moose Hill Reservation to complete our 100 miles of hiking goal. This was on one of the only relatively-fair-weather days we had during this stay. I also took advantage of being near home and scheduled a doctor's appointment. We hoped to enjoy more amenities in November when the campground was less busy, but we didn't factor that in November, we're more busy. We spent the majority of our time locked inside our rig doing end-of-year work projects. Of course in November, it's too cold to use the outdoor pools anyway, but both were getting refurbished. The back area of the campground was also under construction, and the noise limited how much time we could spent around the amenities back there.

A couple of noteworthy things we did do, though, were attend one of their shows in August, and I got a hot stone massage in November. The massage was good and Jennifer the massage therapist is a fellow RVer who's very personable. I enjoyed my appointment, except that the wellness center shares a wall with the game room, and the sounds of bouncing ping pong balls is not exactly the ambience I want during my wellness routine. I'm a little sensitive to sounds in those circumstances, can't imagine why. Jennifer was very accommodating and even texted the manager at one point to tell the game room peeps to quiet down. I felt a bit like a bougie Scrooge in that moment, but I paid good money for that massage! ($110 for a 60-minute hot stone, which is actually very reasonable for a luxury resort amenity).

And the show we attended? It was one of the many, many performances offered throughout the summer: A juggler. Oh, that poor juggler. He tried so hard to put on a good show, but his non-juggling bits were just so cringeworthy and lame. The kiddos seemed to enjoy him, though...perhaps a bit too much. Summer punchiness was in full force, and the kids didn't quite register that this was not an interactive performance. Well, except when the juggler called up one girl as a volunteer. Unfortunately, the other kids saw this as an opportunity to storm the stage. The juggler tried to ask the kids to sit down, but they wouldn't listen. It was super awkward, particularly when he asked if the kids have parents, and the parents in the audience just laughed. They totally missed the memo that he was asking as a way to nudge the parents to come and get their kids. Finally, 99% of the parents corralled their littles. The remaining 1% became a liability. The juggler was doing his thing, concentrating on his act, and the kid ran up on stage behind him. The juggler almost lost his balance, caught himself before crashing into the kid, but needed to stop his act in the process. This was when staff finally got involved, and it wasn't until then that the mother registered that maybe she shouldn't let her child rambunctiously run amok. This was where vacation mode went off the rails a bit. We love seeing the kids having fun, but not when it's disruptive or potentially dangerous.

This incident was one of only a few things we can complain about, and the others are pretty miniscule. The staff requires wristbands to access certain areas of the Recreation Lodge such as the pool and fitness area, and we loathe wristbands because these ones are not reusable, and once they're on your wrist, they're on forever...well, at least for the entirety of your stay. That meant hiking Moose Hill with it sticking to my swollen wrist in the humidity. Not pleasant. We've expressed our aggravation at the use of wristbands at campgrounds before, and while we understand that places don't want people to take advantage by re-wearing them, we think that's better than feeling like our wrists are imprisoned.

The only other tiny complaint – or more a point of confusion – was during our November stay, when we tried to fill one of our propane tanks. The campground offers propane fills twice a day at 1PM and 5PM, but after dropping our tank off and paying for a 5PM fill, our tank was still empty the next day. When we questioned the staff, we were informed that they do not refill Blue Rhino cylinders because they "have no way of knowing how old they are." Um, except for the literal date on the side? Funnily, they had already filled one of our other Blue Rhino tanks, but the label had been torn off, so they didn't know it was a Blue Rhino. The whole thing to us was bizarre, and it was annoying to need to find a place to fill our propane during a day where heat was a vital necessity. The staff were nice about it, though! And we got a refund on the fill, rightfully so.

The biggest negative of Normandy Farms is that it's simply not our cup of tea. We would rather save money and nestle ourselves in a quiet, rustic campsite. However, we do see what makes this campground special. The locals can enjoy a few days off relaxing on the property, and out-of-towners can have ample amenities but also be less than an hour from sought-after destinations like Boston and Cape Cod. From our experience RVing in MA, if you're looking for a private RV park, Normandy Farms is the place to stay. It's more expensive than other area campgrounds (which are already budget-blowing), but they charge the prices because they offer a lot. Clearly, it hasn't deterred many people; the campground sells out during peak season and was even booked solid on Veterans Day Weekend! So, if you're looking for a camping vacation in MA, look no further than Normandy Farms. But, if you're boring workaholic fuddy-duddies like we are, save your money.