KOA Kampgrounds
When I was a kid, we never would have considered staying at a KOA Kampground (forgive me, I find it had to spell campground with a K!). It was the woods or nothing for us! As I have grown older and wiser and lazier, I find campgrounds camping pretty appealing. I WANT a shower, I WANT a pool. I want to be comfy! I don’t want to have to plan every single last thing I would need to survive in the wild! Read on to see how KOA is working on making my dreams come true:
Created to make camping with the kids and having fun easy, the KOA Family Zone is a new online resource for families. Entertaining and useful, it contains almost everything to make fun happen without the planning time normally needed. From timely advice and useful checklists to campfire-tested recipes and family activities, just browse, decide, download and go for the fun of it.
The website includes categories that make sense to parents or grandparents who are in the vacation planning mode. Browse the categories: Camping 101, Camping Activities, Campfire Stories, Camping Recipes, Family Activities, Post Cards and a Trip Book.
Knowing that camping skill levels vary, the site begins with Camping 101, obviously not for seasoned campers. Camping 101 explains the benefits of KOA options including tent camping, Kamping Kabins, Kamping Kottages, and lodges providing a checklist for each camping option. There is even a series of articles about RV Camping. Sub categories include advice from experts on safety, packing camping with kids, and camping with a pet.
The Family Activities section is useful for anyone with kids or grandkids. It includes games for the trip, activities at the campground and clever ways to engage cooperation from all ages. Printable for the car trip activities include license plate bingo, name the state, trivia games and dot-to-dot pages. Campground activities include how to play scrabble by moonlight, create a campfire theater, and encourage group storytelling and instructions for making shadow puppets.
The obvious advantage of camping is the chance to enjoy natural beauty and introduce kids to nature without the aid of TV or a DVD. The KOA Family Zone has a section devoted to experiencing nature with children. At the Nature Discovery page download the instructions for making a star finder; get a list of sky clues for weather watching or setup an orienteering adventure.
The Campfire Stories section contains camping stories, some scary and some with unexpected endings. User friendly, this section has the option to print the stories or download the audio recordings to play on your MP3 player or burn onto a CD.
More than s’mores and baked beans from a can, the Camping Recipes section contains main dishes, side dishes, snacks, and really cool choices for breakfast. Forget breakfast cereal from a tiny box; instead get the ingredients for French toast casserole or Mediterranean torta. Make pizza sandwiches for dinner or grill quesadillas over a campfire. Learn how to make apple-pie-on-a-stick or create tempting dirt cups. Actually this section is a terrific source for interesting recipes with or without a campfire.
As an added bonus within the KOA Family Zone download and print postcards for the kids to color or download the components for a family trip book. They have thought of everything to make camping easy to do with kids.
From pancake breakfasts and pool parties to nature walks and trail rides, KOA helps families experience the outdoors in a safe, friendly environment. They know from experience that just the chance to break away from the ordinary routine makes all the difference to families. The bonus with KOA is the opportunity to learn new skills, experience the outdoors, and enjoy downtime while building memories. For busy families, KOA Family Zone makes the doing part easy. Get the full KOA Family Zone picture at www.koa.com
And did you know? Kampgrounds of America is installing Wi-Fi wireless Internet access at its campgrounds across North America. KOA will be the first system of family campgrounds to offer its customers wireless Internet from the comfort of their own campsites. Oh my hell, I have died and gone to heaven. I can camp AND have my laptop connected to the interet? YES!!!!!!
They are everywhere. KOA Konnect provides the widest possible coverage throughout the U.S., Canada and parts of Europe and Asia. Because their network is fully meshed, KOA Konnect members are able to access the Internet wherever there is a dial-up telephone number available. More about KOA Konnect at www.koakonnect.com
Check out the bargains. The KOA Value Kard is for families wishing to be rewarded for being loyal. The benefits increase as the return visits increase. At their website a continually changing list of bargains is posted weekly.
No tent? No problem. To enjoy a KOA camping vacation even if you do not own a tent order a directory and then look for Kamping Kabins. Clever, compact and fun, the log units have electric lights, lockable doors, and wood-frame beds with mattresses. All you need to bring your sleeping bags and a pillow. Even more posh, at some locations they have Kamping Cottages, units with kitchens, private bath and a little extra room. Still another possibility at several locations is to rent one of the RV s that is parked onsite. What could be simpler? It’s a way to go camping with someone else’s gear.
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