Publication
Woodall’s Campground Magazine
Author
Ron Barger
Published
March 21, 2023
Source
One of 14 campground properties owned by Spacious Skies Campgrounds headquartered in New Jersey, Spacious Skies Minute Man in Littleton, Mass., is located just outside of Boston and remains a popular destination campground for those visiting or working in the metro area.
“Minute Man was one of our earlier acquisitions,” explained Kate Thompson, director of communications for the company that specializes in acquiring and running campgrounds on the East Coast of the U.S. “Our most recent is in South Carolina. Minute Man is a popular one. It has a great location right by Boston and is a little unique in the collection of campgrounds that we own, in that it is closer to an urban attraction. But we make sure that the campgrounds that we add to our collections are near other points of interest and local attractions.”
She added that Spacious Skies is finding that people who are traveling, either internationally or across the country, want to make sure they get to see Boston but want to have a nice, quiet outdoor setting and have more of the camping theme to their trip.
“It’s the best of both worlds at Minute Man,” said Thompson. “We’ve seen people come from all over the globe with Boston on their itinerary, who want to stay in this peaceful woody setting. It’s surrounded by shade trees and a lot of the sites are under trees to give a wild feel, yet it’s just 30 minutes from the city.”
The campground has 93 RV sites and seven rustic cabins.
“We have all types of sites from pull-through, back-in…etc.” she shared. “We can accommodate most sized rigs. We have 20-, 30- and 50-amp hookups and each site has a picnic table, a fire ring, water and electricity. Many are full hookups. We also have some tent sites and rustic cabins all conveniently located near the bathhouse.
“Walden Pond is also nearby, and Boston is accessible with public transportation T rides in about a half hour, which many people love,” added Thompson. “When it comes to staffing, we have an onsite general manager who lives on the property and a maintenance manager. They just happen to be married, so they’re both there around the clock. We also have staff for the front desk, housekeeping and maintenance that varies throughout the season.”
She explained that the 2022 season was great and many of the regular campers continued to return under the new management.
“It was humming along, and we had some people who had been campers with the previous owners that had already made reservations,” said Thompson. “They were excited to give us a try and excited to learn that there were other Spacious Skies campgrounds that they could visit.”
Unlike most of its other campgrounds, Minute Man does not have as many season-long guests as it’s mostly short-term or weekenders.
Thompson said that each of the parks the company owns have been upgraded to some degree.
“Some campgrounds, depending on how long the owners had it, might not have kept up with some of the maintenance,” she noted. “That’s where we can come in and focus on reviving the infrastructure and facilities and bringing back the facilities to a standard that we expect of our campgrounds. Minute Man was in great shape. So, this year we put in a gem mine, which is something that all of our campgrounds have now.”
In addition, the campground has a main recreation hall with arcade games, a pool, a playground and various recreational equipment on the grounds including a Bocce ball court and volleyball. “And then we also refined the dog park that was there because it needed a little love,” Thompson said. “Next year we’re planning a standard activity schedule so that each weekend during the peak camping season there will be a theme and events planned that families can either help themselves and do on their own time or some activities that will be led by staff members.”
Thompson said when it comes to camping trends, she is seeing more families who can travel because mom and dad can work remotely.
“We’re delivering on the Wi-Fi front so that we can accommodate traveling workers and families,” she explained. “We have noticed lots of newbie campers and prepped our staff to make sure everyone feels comfortable. If they have some questions or maybe this is their first time out in their new rig, we’re there to answer questions, help them to their site and even talk them through backing up into a site for the first time.”
Thompson stated that her firm is recognizing that this is an industry seeing a lot of growth because new people are trying it out for the first time.
“That’s really in line with the Spacious Skies vision of just getting people together to make great memories outdoors,” she noted. “We welcome new and seasoned campers alike, but we have seen people that are newer to this as a hobby and a lifestyle.
“Minute Man was the one exception that stood out in my head because we were seeing people that were traveling from Turkey, Spain and Greece,” Thompson added. “We had some bicycle campers that had everything on a pack and they were biking all over the U.S. from Greece. All kinds of international campers come to Boston.”