Reviews of Sand Hill Park (Park)

Olena EmCe

Terrible Experience. The Sand Hill itself is very beautiful. However, if you are under 40 without kids this is not the campground for you. We went with 2 other couples for a relaxing camping weekend away from home. The staff didn't speak to us at all, even when just purchasing coffee in the morning. Throughout the weekend we kept to ourselves and turned all music off at 11:00pm to comply with their rules. When we were at the beach, a family had alcohol and when the ranger came down he accused it of being our cans of litter and told us no alcohol on the beach (we only had water and in was in fact a married family beside us). Our second night, the rangers came over to us multiple times accusing us of being loud, we were simply sitting by the fire talking and it was in fact the camp site adjacent to us being loud, but they were over 40 so they didn't get spoken to. He accused us of leaving our campground because he didn't hear us there during his last round, when we in fact had not moved - he was adamant that we had been 'touring the park being rowdy'. It was disgusting to be judged and treated as if we were teenagers and not adults in our late 20's. I would not recommend this site even if you are a family, the bathrooms are dirty, trash cans were overflowing and the staff is extremely rude. Would not return, and by the looks of these other reviews, this is a common experience at this shoddy camp ground.

Christopher Konarski

It's a wonderful spot..park is clean..nice park for the kids..the hills are alot of fun..

justin ferris

Great place, glad to be there 15 years. Park is clean and safe managers are great but a bad value for seasonal, owners do jothi g new or at all for them or people who stay and support the park

Bear Priest

Great place... friendly people...sent a number of years there, but retiring so leaving area....many thanks to staff

Adrian Leyds

Very disappointed in the management. We have visited the park every year for the past 17 years on the May 24 weekend. It is our yearly tradition camping every year on exactly the same site. We bring with us a number of other campers and day pass visitors during the weekend - essentially a great amount of business. We have weathered the electrical issues and the bathrooms with no lights and the many cost increases over the years only to conclude that it still a nice place to visit. This year an issue came up which that got me a little upset - well maybe more than a little. Having spoken to part of the management team, who did say that the amount of business I bring every year without fail is appreciated - the team still failed to address my issue despite me actually saying the words "I am not happy". Whether I was right or wrong is immaterial - the fact that no one over the course of the weekend came forward to address my complaint is disheartening. I was genuinely disappointed. It has me rethinking our yearly tradition.

Greg Procunier

If I could give it less than 1 star I would! Racism at its finest! NEVER CAMP HERE! This weekend several of my friends and I stayed at Sand Hills Park in Port Burwell. The weekend was going great and everyone was having a great time. We made new friends with campers around us including other weekend visitors as well as some seasonal campers. We spent time at the beach, took our kids to the park and the store and enjoyed the animals. We were having an amazing weekend when it all came to a crashing halt. We were sitting with our new friends and camping neighbours when 3 camp ground attendants aggressively approached a 14yr old kid that was with our friends. They got in his face and were wrongly accusing him of misbehaving. This poor kid never left the site or was out of eye sight of an adult. And regardless, he is a minor, they have no right to approach him, there were plenty of adults on the site they could have addressed – about 20 or so adults. 2 of the adults approached the “park rangers” and told them not to be in the face of a child and to direct any of their concerns to the adults responsible for him. At this point the “rangers” were being rude, yelling and demanding we shut it down at that site. We did as they asked, turned out the lights, cleaned up and shut down at their site for the night. At this point about half of the adults went to bed and we moved the rest over to our neighbouring site to sit by the fire – no lights, no music. The rules state that quiet time is at 11pm – not bed time. We were at our site sitting around the fire talking, laughing and having fun but not being disruptive to anyone around us. My own 2 kids as well as 4 other children were asleep in the trailers on either side of our fire so we know better than to wake a sleeping child. Out of no where the “park rangers” comes up to our campsite yelling that he has had enough and then demands that my husband and our friend need to leave immediately. In a group of at least 10 people that were all around the same fire doing the same thing, the only 2 people required to leave were also the only 2 black people on our site. Keep in mind we had been drinking, no one was belligerent, but we were in no safe way able to drive. He refused to allow them to stay the night and even tried to force them to pack up the trailer that moment and remove it – again clearly not safe to do so and with 4 sleeping children and his sick wife in it. I got upset and was defending my husband and our friend as it was clearly a targeted race issue based on the fact that everyone else was allowed to stay, at which point I was also told to leave as well, including being required to wake my 2 young children in the middle of the night to leave the property. This was in no way necessary, he approached us yelling and causing a scene, this all could have been avoided if he wasn’t racist and had he just come and spoke to us like adults. He then took it one step farther and called the cops, when the cops arrived, he lied and said my friend physically touched him to build a better case which was completely false. In the end he forced me, my husband, our friend and my 5 and 7 yr old children off the property. Being that it is a rural community it took until about 3am for the cab to arrive. There was no need for any of this to occur, no one complained, we weren’t doing anything wrong. I am raising to beautiful mixed-race boys and it breaks my heart that their father was discriminated against simply for the colour of his skin. In our family we are proud of who we are and where we come from, we are proud to be Canadian and just as proud to be Jamaican. I can’t believe that in 2019 we can’t even go camping with experiencing racism. I will never go back to Sand Hills and I hope after reading this, many others won’t go there either. I wish I had have read the previous reviews regarding racism before I subjected my friends and family to this.

Dave Mitchell

Great place for vacation, weekend or a day trip! wonderful views and lot of sand and hills to go up and down!

Andrew Hannaford

Best campground around! After 10 years of tenting there, we are seasonal campers now!

Jennifer Tigerlily

I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone!! We stayed here this past long wkd and I can honestly say I am disgusted and beyond hurt that I even have to say that the level of discrimination and racism we received, literally makes me sick! My family, along with my friends family are a biracial group of amazing people! We are respectful, we follow the rules at all the campgrounds we have been going to for years, we have beautiful children that are our #1 priority and we make friends with everyone we are ever around! Which is exactly what happened this wkd...all the neighbours close to our site became new friends! However on our last night, we experienced nothing short of insanity! All wkd we had no problem with anyone complaining of noise, and if we did we would have definitely reduced our volume, as we are all very respectful individuals! Instead what happened was 3 park staff approached approximately 30 ppl out of no where, with nothing but disgusting hostility , foul language and complete disrespect! They made completely false accusation about my husband, they threatened a young child and called the police with no reasoning what so ever! Once the police arrived the ONLY individuals out of 30 ppl that were approached and accused of completely false accusations were the only two black males in our group, along with a wife who was attempting to defend her husband and friend! There was no reason given or opportunity to allow anyone to defend themselves, and instead we were told they needed to immediately pack up their site and leave the park at 1am, with 4 babies asleep in their beds! The blatant discrimination for all who witnessed this take place was so obvious that it literally made many of us sick! This park should seriously be reprimanded for their treatment of individuals, and how the owner of this park has not read the MANY reviews clearly highlighting that racism is a definite on going occurrence, blows my mind!! As a Mother of two beautiful biracial daughters who love camping, I am beyond hurt that I had to try to explain to them that there are just mean people in this world and that their Daddy is an incredible man that did not deserve how he was treated breaks my heart! I try my very best to teach my girls right from wrong, and the way their Daddy was treated this weekend was completely wrong!!!! Bullies and people who discriminate against race deserve to be reprimanded to the fullest extent, they make our world a scary and sad place! Please if you read these reviews, know that this place does not deserve your hard earned money, because if you are like us, you will regret stepping foot into the campground...especially if you are of a different ethnic background! Read the other reviews, this is not a one time thing, it has happened to many other people. All we were doing was trying to make memories for our kids and enjoy our passion for camping and instead we left heartbroken and confused! I pray these people one day no longer exist in this world, but while they still do all I can do is inform people of what we experienced and pray that they take it into consideration, with the hope they avoid the feelings we were left with this past wkd.

Munir Baig

Great day trip or weekend trip. Unique beach and clear water. So much fun. Park was clean and had friendly staff at the entrance and at the snack shop. Will visit again. Well worth the drive from Mississauga.

Lindsey Pullan

We arrived there earlier than the opening time so we parked nearby and was greeted by the owner. We went into the park. I had a Nice Time with my 2 daughters and wife here for the day. It was a new experience with the sand on the hill and some corn field for pics. It is neat. My daughters played in the sand and in the water. We enjoyed it. It is a big place. They have a paying shower for $1 for 4 minutes. Decent. We took lots of pics and saw an eagle and birds living in holes on the sand hill. The staffs are friendly and courteous. We would definitely come back. I would give it 5 stars if they have Free WIFI. Other than that it is a beautiful place.

Tyrel Pieffers

Amazing hidden gem, clean and well kept campground.

Mary Macleod

Amazing campground with tons of people of all ages. There's lots of vegetation and wildlife. There's parks and a beach. There's these sandhills that are 200 meters tall! The view at the top is amazing. The way down to the beach is a slope and there's no cliffs.

Lisa Grightmire

We camped Friday and Saturday night at a tent site next to the kids playground. There was only 2 other campsites occupied at the time who also had kids and the children all enjoyed free play together. It was great! We prefer less-crowded areas and activities in general. We climbed the sand hill a couple of times, leave your sandals in a safe place, they tend to be buried with sand and we lost 2 pairs that weekend. The sand can be very hot mid-afternoon, you may end up with blisters on the bottom of your toes if you climb during hotter temperatures. Two people in our group had blisters. Consider climbing early morning hours to avoid the blisters. I recommend head lamps if you camp, nice washrooms (some flushing toilets and each with a sink soap and hand towels) for a campsite, but no lights inside, which also means less bugs at night which is good. Actually very little bugs, ants are a given with the amount of sand, but swallow birds and maybe bats? eating mosquitoes. We each got a couple bites but didn't feel the need for bug spray so I'm sure they could be easily deterred with bug repellent. Doug escorted us to our campsite, was friendly and helpful. The campground has some goats which were entertaining to watch in their fence. Behind the goat enclosure is an enclosure with a male and female elk. They are grand amazing looking animals. There were tent campsites right next to this enclosure and what a grand view that would be while you are waking up eating breakfast with an elk 10 feet away. Amazing animals. It is a family friendly campground with noise and curfew hours. Some seasonal sites with trailers in one section. Basketball court and net, beach volleyball court, just bring your ball. We would love the opportunity to return.

Jay Walker

It's really nice there the best part the the nice beach

omar sanad

Great place for kids and families. Loved this place as a child.

Tanya Talbot

Went to visit old friends. Throughly enjoyed my day and visits. Clean Park with friendly and helpful staff.

Zenon Paszkat

Nice clean park. Kids loved the bmx track and sand hill. Park could use a pool as the beach was closed most of the time.

R. Lucier

Ok place to visit, extremely hard walk to the beach. They offer tracker ride down on west side, but only when they feel like doing it... People drive fast and the attendants watch certain campers like there dirt.

Justin Bohemier

Went to Sand Hill for the first time today for a day trip. My mother went in to purchase a day pass for three adults. Originally we were going to only drive through to see if she would like to camp there but we decided to spend time at the beach. The lady was friendly and we had told her it was the two of us, plus my 75 year old grandmother and my ten month old son going to THE BEACH. She charged us $30 and told us to go to east beach because they were working on west beach. We walked to the first bench and saw a complete drop off.. definitely not safe for a 75 year old woman to walk... we drove to west beach and it wasn't as steep but it was such a long walk! Definitely not a family beach for elders or safe for babies.... We were in the park for all of fifteen minutes trying to get to the beach, when we drove back to the front desk and said there was no way for us to even get to the beach, I asked for a refund. She would only refund $20... when I asked why she just kept saying "listen I am doing you a favour".. LAUGHABLE... she knew we were coming with a baby and a senior and said nothing about how dangerous it would be for them. If she had told us it was steep or a very long walk we would have not entered. The woman who runs this place should be ashamed of herself.

Willl Djdieie

Great place to camp with my kiddos. Awesome beach.

Nancy Pearce

Amazingly quiet place to enjoy the warm waters on a humid day! Sand is everywhere and so easy on your feet both in and out of the water. Its a bit of a hike out of both the east and west beach but totally worth it. Cant wait for holidays in August to get here, we will br back!

Ray Bowman

Great site for kids! I've had my trailer parked here a few years now.