Recompence Shore Campground

Overall Rating (1 to 10) : 8
Location: Freeport, Maine

We stayed at Recompence Shore campground this Labor Day weekend. The campground is close to downtown Freeport, and within walking distance to Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park. There is a farm cooperative on the campground, which is open to the public. The barn is always open, and you can walk right in and feed the sheep, goats, and chickens. They even leave instructions in case you want to help out a little while you're visiting, though you don't have to.

We couldn't have asked for better weather all three days of our trip. Because of the good weather, the campground was nearly full. I had made a reservation for one of the last sites available, according to the main office. Our site was "water view", meaning it was on the other side of the road from the waterfront sites. It was only a few steps to the water, accessible by a steep staircase.

I was disappointed when we arrived at our site -- two large trucks from the neighboring campsites were parked on our site, nearly blocking it. They quickly moved the vehicles, so it wasn't a problem. Most of the campground was filled with tents, but we were the only tent in our area, probably because it was the most open and flat area of the campground. All of the sites around us were taken up by larger sized RVs, which is generally a turn-off for me. I went to the office the next morning, but they claimed nothing else was available (which was a little confusing, since we saw many open sites as we walked around). Our RV neighbors were very nice, quiet and polite, so it turned out OK anyway.


Most of the sites at Recompence Shore are private and wooded, located either directly on the waterfront, or adjacent to it. Our site was located in the only open field area of the campground, but it was still pleasant because of the farm feeling. I was hoping to wake up to sheep grazing in the field, but they didn't let them out of the barn while we were there.

Recompence is an expensive campground, compared to what we usually pay. For the price, I expected better facilities than what we got. We only had a pit toilet within walking distance of our site, and it smelled quite badly by the end of the weekend. They have flush toilets and showers by the main office, but they were too far to walk to from our site, and the sink in the women's room was blocked. For over $35/night, I expected much better facilities, and more of them. We have stayed at plenty of $10/night state parks that had cleaner, far superior facilities.

That said, I would still go back. The views of Casco Bay were fantastic, and you could have a ball canoing and kayaking. Wolfe's Neck state park, which is adjacent to the campground, is very nice, with beautiful waterfront hiking trails. And I loved seeing the farm animals wandering around. Plus, if we found we needed camping supplies, L.L.Bean headquarters was right down the road.