Livingston / Paradise Valley KOA Holiday

This is a gorgeous campground with cabins, tent sites, and RV sites. It is on the Yellowstone River with an amazing views of the mountains. They have an indoor heated pool, but I was disappointed to see it’s only open from memorial to Labor Day. This didn’t make sense considering it’s heated and indoors. It was one of the reasons we came for the kiddos. They however have a nice play ground, a huge bouncy house to jump on, little 3 wheeled bikes to race around the camp ground with. There is a place just across the road where live music is playing on weekends with some big name bands. Very quaint and a wonderful time with food and drinks. There is a hiking spot up the road to paradise falls, Livingston is close for shopping, you are right by the Chico hot springs, as well as Yellowstone park. We have now made it an end of summer tradition for our family for the last 3 years and will continue to be for years to come.

I have stayed at many KOA and have even stayed at the Livingston KOA in the past, but found this time that it set the bar for worst KOA experience ever. The bathrooms were absolutely repugnant! The main bathhouse was out of order for most of our stay (it was open for 2 of the 5 days we were there). All campers were told to use to use the bathhouses. By virtue of our campsite near the pavilion bathhouse, we saw them clean the facilities maybe once a day? The smell of the bathrooms was horrible. The hair and dirt in the showers, sinks and mats terrible. The walls were dirty, the ceiling and light fixtures covered with cobwebs. Not sure when the last time the doors and handles had been cleaned? Broken hooks, cracked tiles. Prison showers might be more appealing. The jump pad play area made a high pitched fan noise all day long. Camp sites were clean and well cared for. We were there during the latter part of a dry summer, so recognize the grass is probably greener at other times of the year, but there is no excuse for the shower situation. We won't get into the laundry room also not working, and there being no offer for compensation except directions to a laundromat. In fact, at one point, seeing the main bathhouse had been reopened, I stuck my head into the laundry room to see if the machines were also working. A KOA employee who was doing laundry snapped at me, "The Laundry Room is closed, can't you read the sign?" We had to move sites our last day, and when we checked at the office in the morning, they told us they'd text us when our new site was ready. They did not text us, but when we got back to the KOA in the afternoon, we moved to the site the office had told us to move to. The following day we received a note stating our reservation was canceled because we'd failed to check-in? Guess they failed to notice we had our rig in the site all night long? Anyway, we'll likely look for other accommodations for future visits to the area.

Staff was extremely rude. Had trouble with our jacks on the morning of checkout and instead of offering to help the staff became angry and "hit us with a late fee" and threatened to "hit us with another one" if we did not "get out immediately". Staff was telling us this as we were manually cracking our automatic jacks and unplugging power. Half the RV spots were empty and no one was waiting to pull in to the spot we were occupiing, there was no reason for staff to behave as they did. Considering we paid $90 to be parked there for a total of 16 hours plus a late fee I would not recommend this location to anyone as it grossly overpriced for the services provided. Additionally there was a foul septic smell lingering around the camp. Their website indicates that the bath house is closed for repairs so there may be campwide septic failure festering. The one staff exception was the young man at the front desk at check-in he was pleasant and did seem irritated that we were checking in 15 minutes prior to the camp store closing. The staff member who showed us to our spot on the other hand was however noticably annoyed. As a local business owner 30 miles from home just looking to support another local business by staying over for the night following a concert at Pine Creek Lodge I can not imagine having my staff treat customers in this way. Next time we will be utilizing the shuttle back to Bozeman option from the venue rather than being treated with such disrespect.

Drove in with a RV and needed to empty the tank, had an issue and needed a mobile tech. Cannot thank Angela and Rich enough for the help, generosity, and hospitality. Ended up needing to stay the night and were so happy we did. This place is right on a beautiful river too. But the staff is what made it a great stay!

Quick pros and cons list with a more detailed review below: Pros: View/Scenery Cons: Most disgusting bathrooms you can imagine Smell of human feces throughout the campground Nickle and dime Expensive with few amenities This was the second time that I have stayed at the Livingston/Paradise Valley KOA. The previous time I stayed was during the throws of covid in 2020 in a cabin with a bathroom and was an all around positive experience. This time around, my family and I (2 adults and 3 children) stayed in a basic cabin. The only thing positive about my stay was the setting. We chose to pay more to stay on a basic cabin on the river and it was a treat to enjoy the view each morning and evening. I particularly enjoyed watching the boats get launched on the opposite side of the river. Unfortunately, the view was the only positive portion of the trip. At check-in, I learned that a fire ban was in effect for the campground. I understand that the KOA does not control this, but they should inform potential booking members if there is a fire ban during the booking process. We booked on Thursday morning and arrived on Friday morning. This should have been advertised during booking. No fires significantly impacts the camping experience and it also impacts what we brought to make for meals (meals to be cooked over open flame). Next, we were informed that the main restrooms/showers were closed due to plumbing issues. This left two small outpost facilities with 2 restrooms and showers each for the entire campground. The restrooms that were open were the most disgusting conditions you could possibly imagine. We are talking third world country bad. The floor was rotting out of one of the showers and everything was soaked in water. Feces, urine, and spiders covered nearly every portion of the bathrooms. On the second day of our stay, one of the bathrooms was clogged up and remained clogged for over 24 hours. Trying to walk through the campsite to enjoy the view and scenery was also difficult due to the smell of human feces that was constantly wafting through the campground. It seems this KOA has an issue with its septic, but doesn't appear to be doing anything about it. The smell was so strong at times that it would cause my eyes to water. Finally, this is more of a personal pet peeve, but the main office charges $2.50 for a cup of basic coffee. Not only are most of your facilities not working, but you can't even bother to offer complimentary basic coffee? I paid over $130 a night for a basic cabin and the ability to use the most disgusting bathrooms you could ever imagine. It is clear the owners of this KOA do not care about the customer experience. If you are looking into staying at this KOA, I would suggest that you spend the same amount of money and stay at a hotel in Livingston. You will spend about the same amount of money and have access to infinitely nicer facilities and amenities.

No laundry, main bathrooms out of order, other bathrooms very dirt and no where to even hang your towel while you showered let alone put your clan clothes to change into! We were not told about this until after check in and after hours when we called to ask why ALL of the washers were out of order. We were told "you can go into town to do laundry ". We were on motorcycles. Nice views, but... service... not so much!

This KOA is in a fantastic location and the scenery is beautiful. However, there are about 90 camp sites and there were only 5 bathrooms and they were all shower rooms. They had all the bathrooms at the office shut down because of plumbing issues. It was always at least a 30 minute wait to get into a bathroom. When we complained, we were told that if they opened all the bathrooms, they would have to have their septic tank pumped daily. We requested a refund but the manager said the best he could do was 25% off. The whole reason I stay at a campground is so they have access to a bathroom.

Made reservation at this campground months ago and expected to be assigned a site of reasonable quality. Instead, we were given a site (site 74) that was extremely unlevel, no grass or gravel, only black dirt. ||The host team lacks customer service skills and leaves the overall impression that they couldn’t care less. For example, the guide that showed us the site location did not even offer to help my husband back in and when I asked if they had another site with gravel, he answered “it is easier to walk on dirt than gravel.” When I asked the host in the office for another site, there was no “I am sorry..,”; instead, I was made to feel as if I had selected this site.||Our friends traveling with us were given a site that was so tight that could only be entered after their neighbor moved his truck.||I would not recommend this campground.