Michigan has only a handful of true luxury RV resorts: parks with paved pads, 50-amp full hookups on every site, a pool or hot tub, a clubhouse, and nightly rates that a 2025 national breakdown put at $90 to $150 or more. Walnut Hills Family Campground in Durand isn’t a luxury resort, and it isn’t priced like one. It is a resort-style family campground, with 80 full-hookup 50-amp sites, a spring-fed swimming lake with a 14-piece Wibit floating water park, the Shiawassee River, two air-conditioned camping cabins, a rebuilt bathhouse and an event every weekend, at a family-campground price.
If you’re searching for luxury RV resorts in Michigan, this guide explains what the label actually buys you, how resorts compare with traditional campgrounds, and how a resort-style family campground like Walnut Hills fits between the two.
What defines a luxury RV resort?
There’s no official standard, but the parks that market themselves as luxury RV resorts usually share most of this list:
- Paved or concrete pads, level and long enough for a 45-foot motorcoach, often with patios.
- Full hookups with 50-amp power on every site, plus pull-throughs for big rigs.
- A pool and hot tub, sometimes with a splash pad or indoor pool for Michigan’s short season.
- A clubhouse or lodge with a fitness room, game room or scheduled programming.
- On-site dining, from a cafe to a full restaurant.
- Park-wide Wi-Fi, cable or streaming hookups, and a gated entrance.
- Resort pricing: the $90 to $150+ range above, higher on holiday weekends.
Many Michigan parks have two or three of these. Very few have all of them, and the ones that do are concentrated in resort towns. A park that has full hookups and a big water feature but no pool or restaurant is a resort-style campground rather than a luxury resort. That’s where Walnut Hills sits.
Luxury RV resorts vs traditional campgrounds in Michigan
The real decision most families face isn’t resort or campground. It’s how much of the trip they want to spend at the park versus out exploring, and how much infrastructure their rig needs.
| Luxury RV resort | Traditional campground | Walnut Hills (resort-style family campground) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sites | Paved pads, full hookups, 50 amp everywhere | Gravel or grass, often water/electric or primitive | 80 full-hookup 50-amp sites; many sites 70 to 80 ft long, up to 45-ft RVs; water/electric sites too |
| Water | Pool, hot tub, sometimes a splash pad | Lake or river access, no pool | Spring-fed swimming lake with a sand beach, 14-piece Wibit water park, the Shiawassee River for floats |
| Food | On-site restaurant or cafe | Camp store | Renovated camp store with scooped ice cream; a food truck every weekend, Memorial Day through September |
| Programming | Clubhouse activities, concierge | Little or none | Themed weekends with crafts, lawn games, DJ dance parties, karaoke and bands at Pavilion 2 |
| Connectivity | Park-wide Wi-Fi, cable | Usually none | No Wi-Fi; most families treat that as part of the point |
| Price | $90 to $150+ a night | $20 to $45 a night | RV sites start around the high $40s on slower dates and go up for holidays and premium sites |
The national ranges are from a 2025 Harvest Hosts breakdown. Our rates are dynamic, so check the Walnut Hills rates page for your dates.
What amenities should you expect at luxury RV resorts in Michigan?
Michigan’s camping season runs roughly May through October, so resort amenities here lean seasonal: outdoor pools open Memorial Day, splash pads and pickleball courts, golf-cart rentals, boat slips at lakefront resorts, and clubhouses that double as rain-day space. The things that matter most to RVers, in our experience, are the unglamorous ones: power that holds up on a 90-degree Saturday when every air conditioner is running, sewer at the site for a week-long stay, and restrooms you’d actually use.
That last point is why Walnut Hills put so much into its bathhouse rebuild: new showers, high-quality sink bays and private toilet stalls. As a campground employee put it, the goal was to make it “nicer than most people’s home restrooms and showers.” Guests mention it in reviews more than almost anything else.
Is Walnut Hills a luxury RV resort?
Not in the luxury-price sense. It’s a 42-acre resort-style family campground with 201 RV sites, 2 camping cabins and 18 tent sites, without a pool, a restaurant, Wi-Fi or laundry. Here’s what it does have that people searching for a luxury RV park in Michigan usually want:
- Modern utilities. Since GatherGrounds took over in 2022, the park’s power grid was rebuilt and sewer was added, so there are now 80 full-hookup 50-amp sites. Our team notes that return bookings have gone up every year since, which is what reliable utilities look like from the outside: nobody praises power that works, they just come back.
- Room for big rigs. Many sites are 70 to 80 feet long and take RVs up to 45 feet. Pull-throughs (site 118 and sites 47 to 51) are water/electric and meant for one-night stopovers. Arrival tip from staff: don’t turn into the car parking lot; drive straight toward the gate, which you can see from the entrance.
- Two natural water features. A spring-fed lake, treated with a lab-designed, swimmer-safe program to keep it clear, plus the Shiawassee River with canoe, kayak and tube floats run by Cheff’s Canoe Rental from the park’s launch. Staff call it a “natural dual water feature,” and it’s rare in lower Michigan.
- A 14-piece Wibit. Most campground water parks have one to four pieces. Walnut Hills’ has an Action Tower XXL, two slides, a trampoline, a climbing wall and more. It’s free for campers Tuesday through Thursday and paid on weekends; the weekend fees only cover its cost.
- No check-in line. A license-plate gate reads your plate and opens. Arriving late? Call the store to pre-check in and drive straight to your site.
- Service touches. Firewood delivered to your site, a renovated store stocked with forgotten essentials and RV supplies, golf-cart rentals, and food trucks every weekend (always Saturday, often Friday dinner and Sunday breakfast). GatherGrounds skips an on-site restaurant on purpose so the food stays varied.
- Old-growth trees. The utilities were modernized without clearing the canopy, so the sites still feel like campsites. Sites are flat with rolling hills between them.
- Glamping-style comfort. Two air-conditioned camping cabins that sleep four (bring linens; no pets), full hookups, the Wibit and the rebuilt bathhouse add up to a comfortable weekend without owning a motorcoach.
See the full list on the Walnut Hills amenities page.
Which Walnut Hills sites feel the most premium?
Dynamic pricing means the most-wanted sites cost more, and they book first. Staff point to three groups:
- Lakefront sites 101 to 103, steps from the beach with a view of the Wibit.
- River-frontage sites 27 to 42, right on the Shiawassee. A nimble camper can launch a kayak from the site when water levels allow. (Sites 1 to 26 are river view, 10 to 25 feet above the water, and not priced as premium.)
- The back fence line, sites 74 to 170B. No rear neighbors; behind you is a 30-foot band of old-growth trees and then a farm field where deer graze most mornings. These are full hookup with 30/50 amp, and the larger lots in this row are classed as premium.
For the quietest, most resort-like weekend, our team suggests arriving Wednesday or Thursday: the Wibit is free on weekdays, the lake is uncrowded, and you’re set up before the Friday arrivals. More on how pricing works in our campground cost per night guide.
Seasonal RV parks in Michigan: the resort lifestyle for a season
A lot of people who search for luxury RV parks in Michigan end up at a seasonal site instead, because a season at a well-run park delivers the part of resort living they wanted: your RV stays set up on the same site from May 1 to October 20, you show up with food and family, and the weekend starts the moment you park the car. At Walnut Hills, seasonal sites run $3,000 to $5,500 for the season, with most sites in the $3,000 to $4,000 range; the premium lakefront, river-frontage and back-fence lots are the first to go even though they cost more. Power is metered monthly, winter storage on your site is free for returning seasonals, and decks and sheds up to 99 square feet are allowed under Michigan rules.
Details are on the Walnut Hills seasonal sites page, and our guide to seasonal campsites in Michigan covers how to compare parks.
What about luxury RV resorts near Waterloo?
If you landed here looking for an upscale RV park near Waterloo Recreation Area, Ann Arbor or Jackson, our sister park, The Oaks Campground in Munith, is next door to Waterloo. It’s a nature-first campground rather than a resort: 155 acres with water-and-electric sites (50 amp on short-term sites, no sewer), the biggest sites of either park (35×65 up to 55×120 feet), 120 acres of trails, a sand beach with an Aquag Upgrades are under way, and staff describe it as “premium in progress.” For 50-amp full hookups and the resort-style water features, Walnut Hills is the GatherGrounds park to book; for seclusion and trails near Waterloo, The Oaks is.
Frequently asked questions
What is a 5-star RV park?
There’s no single star standard for RV parks. The most-used rating is Good Sam’s, which scores parks 1 to 10 in three categories (facilities, restroom cleanliness, and visual appeal) after an in-person visit. Online “5-star” labels are usually guest reviews. Read the amenity list and recent reviews rather than the stars.
How much do luxury RV resorts in Michigan cost?
Expect $90 to $150 or more a night at a true resort, based on 2025 national averages, and more on holiday weekends. Resort-style family campgrounds like Walnut Hills start around the high $40s for standard RV sites and charge more for full-hookup, waterfront and holiday dates.
Are luxury RV resorts worth it for a weekend?
If your rig needs 50-amp full hookups and you plan to stay at the park all weekend, paying for infrastructure and things to do makes sense. If you’ll be out exploring all day, a simpler campground saves money. Walnut Hills is built for the first kind of trip: our team’s advice is to stay three nights, because you can’t do the lake, the river and the weekend events in two.
Do luxury RV resorts in Michigan allow big rigs?
Most do, and so does Walnut Hills: many sites are 70 to 80 feet long and fit RVs up to 45 feet, with 80 full-hookup 50-amp sites. Call the store if you’re unsure which site fits your rig.
