Cutty’s sits in a prime location, just a stone’s throw northwest of popular West Lake Okoboji. This membership-only, family-oriented park has a duck pond and small lake for paddle boaters (free for campers) and LOTS of recreational activities inside the park, such as miniature golf, basketball and tennis courts, croquet, sand volleyball, shuffleboard, horseshoes, indoor pool, spa, ping-pong, video arcade, playing fields, and playgrounds. There are many planned activities, including outings, youth and teen crafts, card parties, tournaments of all kinds, breakfasts, and socials. The lodge, community rooms, and restaurant/snack bar were bustling with people all day long. Tree-shaded and grassy, most RV sites are quite nice, but the 14 lakeside sites are real plums. There’s also a motel-type lodge and rental cabins, as well as three shelter houses with showers, phones, and a couple of washers and dryers each.

We were amazed on our first day to see a garbage-collection team come rolling by, grabbing sacks campers had placed roadside. We were even more amazed when we learned they do this twice a day, at 10am and again at 6pm. There are two recycling bins and two big garbage dumpsters in the park, aesthetically concealed behind wooden enclosures. It wasn’t hard to get used to setting out the garbage!

In spite of all the amenities, my one major pet peeve was their gate policy. In this large RV/resort, there are three entry/exit gates. The main one (west) is manned 24 hours a day. The south and east gates, with access to the lake and marina, are card-controlled. If you’re not a Cutty’s owner and want to walk to the lake, you’re outta luck. You either have to walk out and in through the main gate on the other side or climb the fence.

On our second day, we went to see about getting gate cards. The young women at the service desk told us this was impossible for Coast to Coast members who weren’t also Cutty’s owners. A couple of days later, after I’d walked the park circumference outside, a brisk 45 minutes, I spoke with manager Ruth. She said it was "board policy" to restrict gate cards to Cutty’s owners, due to the fear that non-owners wouldn’t return them. Then "anyone" could swarm into Cutty’s, overrunning the facilities. It leaves me with a sour taste. Most parks don’t operate this way. These lakes are full of resorts and motels that are as easy, if not easier, to crash than Cutty’s. It’s like saying, "We don’t trust you. You might pretend to lose your gate card and then let all your riff-raff friends and acquaintances in whenever they feel like it." I felt like telling them, "Gosh, your resort is nice, but not THAT nice."

Our next stay was at sister RV park Cutty’s Des Moines. The VERY FIRST thing they did at registration was ISSUE US A GATE PASS in exchange for our Coast Deluxe card, without us even asking. They told us they’d been doing it for years, with no problems.

• Campground Type: Private
• Campsite Type: RV
• Price Range: $0 - $10
• Cleanliness: Excellent
• Campground Facilities: Excellent
• Recreational Facilities: Excellent
• Campsite Satisfaction: Very Good
• Family Friendliness: Very Good
• Service: Very Good