holliday lake state park

My family and I stayed in a tent at spot number 10. The ground was level and it was a pretty spot, even though it was close to a lot of other people. A negative for the park, which may be considered a positive to some, is that there is absolutely no cell service for a Verizon phone. In our case, it was a negative as we couldn't check weather forecasts and got rained on at about two in the morning. The camp master did a good job of enforcing lights out at 10PM, which has been a big issue at other campgrounds. The bathroom and showers, while clean, probably need to be updated in the next five years.The lake itself was really cool. My kids really enjoyed the floating animal playground features in the lake. The cost of a canoe was pretty inexpensive and there were a lot of turtles in the water to see. Food was relatively inexpensive and the people were pretty nice. My kids really enjoyed the naturalists who help them create "snakes" out of paper towel rolls. It seems like they had double the staff they needed, but maybe they had all hands on deck because it was Labor Day weekend. Overall, it was a really nice place to visit and we had a great time.

The drive into the park is a great scenic drive. We were charged $18 for 2 adults and 2 small children for park entrance and swimming. The beach area is nicely laid out, both of my children had a blast playing at the beach. We enjoyed our time there.

My wife and I have camped at Holliday Lake State Park three times. The camp sites are spacious and well set up. Even the tent sites have hookups for water and electricity, which is convenient. The restroom facilities are very clean (they appear to be cleaned twice per day) and the rangers are very friendly and helpful.The park really only has two major hiking trails. The first is the Lake Shore trail, which is about 6.5 miles long. This is a nice hike while it goes around the lake, but it takes a huge loop to avoid the neighboring 4-H camp, and that part of the hike can be tedious. The other is the Carter trail, and this appears to be primarily for horses. It is 10 miles long and much wider than the Lake Shore. Both trails end up leaving the park itself at times before coming back. There are also several smaller trails, but these are half a mile long or so and not really serious hiking trails. Boats or canoes can be rented at $8 for one hour or $15 for four hours. We found that to make a circuit of the lake in a canoe took us about an hour and a half, so a two hours option on the canoes would be nice.There are a couple flaws to this park. The first is the showers. While the RV side of the park has nice new shower facilities, the tent side does not. The showers are too low, not particularly private, and when we were there this past weekend, they had no hot water. The other flaw is the lack of quiet hours. The camp site theoretically has quiet hours, but no one is there to enforce them, and several groups around us did not do a good job of obeying them. Instituting a camp host system like some parks use might be beneficial for Holliday Lake.Overall, I would still recommend this camp site despite the flaws. It's not on the level of a park like Douthat, but it is a lot closer to cities like Richmond and Charlottesville.

I like this state park, it's well kept and everything isn't crammed together. The sights aren't right on top of each other, but they aren't necessarily private either. You won't get any cell service unless you walk around. You might get 1 bar. It's a hefty drive from Farmville, at least it seems that way. This place is perfect for kids.

We camped on a Monday night in 30 degree weather so there was no one else in the park. It was extremely nice as you didn't have to worry about if your neighbors were going to be the kind that "camped" with a generator running all night. The ranger checked us in and told us were to get our fire wood, then we were left to enjoy the park on our own. We followed the trail that goes around the lake and just took our time and enjoyed as much scenery as we could. When we arrived back at our campsite my brother-in-law built a fire and we proceeded to dance around it for the rest of the night. Trying in vain to avoid a face full of smoke. As I usually go camping by myself it was nice having people to talk to this time. I would like to go back when I have more than just a day to explore.

Love this park! Has a kiddie slide and water toys for kids and also docks for the bigger kids. The beach is always very clean and boat rentals are very reasonably priced! There's a snack shack but also picnic areas with tables and charcoal grills you can use.

We camped here for 2 nights in August in a pop up camper on site #7 in the Laurel Ridge Campground. We had absolutely no problems during out stay, even though the campground was completely full that weekend. Beach is clean and lifeguarded, there is a snack house and boat rental available. Cleanest restrooms in a campground I've ever seen. Maintenance staff is excellent and helpful. A lot of ranger and police presence, but maybe that's because it was a busy weekend, not sure. Either way, we didn't have any issues. Slept with the canvas unzipped all night and could only hear the tree frogs and crickets. Beautiful, clear, starry sky. Close to a lot of other Virginia historical tourist attractions. This is not a place for a primitive camping stay. It's a family campground with plenty of kids everywhere.

Relatively large flat camp sites with water, place to hang garbage (or lamp), nice fire pits and picnic tables. Spots are within site on other campers but didn't bother us. Clean bathrooms. Nice camp overseer. Walk to lake is easy. Lake is clean and not too cold. Nice playgrounds. Several boat type rentals. Clean life guarded beach. Good snack bar. Really nice Forest Service staff with lots of neat information about the area.

Went for the day during Memorial weekend. The sandy beach area was clean and large and the kids area of the lake has lots of play/float animals. They had an extensive menu snack bar and plenty of picnic tables/grills around the lake. The boat rental is reasonablly priced and all the staff we encountered were pleasant and helpful. The lake is beautiful and with the many coves and the wideness of the lake we felt like it was our own lake. Don't know that we'd stay at the campsite because they didn't look very private or spacious but would definitely go back to enjoy the lake!

The park is beautiful, lake is beautiful, facilities clean, but if you are looking for a camping experience that does not feel like the suburbs, this is not the place. The 10 pm - 6:am quiet is not enforced. Rangers ride around endlessly during the day, but are nowhere at night. We got no sleep whatsoever because the tent sites are about 10 feet away from each other on all sides. I went on a trip advisor review that the sites were private, but there is not one private site in the whole place. This is a beautiful park, but with no sleep it's hard to enjoy.

Lots to do, fishing, camping, beach snack bar in summer, convenient to Appomattox National Historical Park

We enjoyed the area with all the historical places. The convenience of the motel to local restaurants and exhibits was helpful too.

We kayaked and hiked around Holiday Lake and it was perfect! It has a oped off area for swimming and lifeguards on duty...the lake is great for kayaking and canoeing!

We stayed at Holliday Lake State Park in July 2012 and had a wonderful camping experience. The sites were large and spaced out enough for us. There are two camping areas: one for tents and pop-ups and one for RVs and trailers. The park and restrooms were clean and the facility was well patrolled by the park employees. The weather was nice so we took advantage of the Friday night campfire welcome and the swimming beach area. The swimming beach area is in a nice setting and has a concession operation. The weekend we were there, it was staffed with lifeguards. There is a play area in the lake where swimmers can choose to play on an array of floats as well as two wooden platforms to do "cannon balls". There were several other available activities. Our son had a wonderful time. We would recommend this state park and we hope to visit it again.