Westover ARB FamCamp

All sites appear to be first-come/first-served. Entrance, after hours, is at 2555 Westover Road, Chicopee, MA. There is a post gas station on the way in and within a few miles of the RV camp. Concrete pads for the 30/50amp setup, which were fully booked or restricted to rigs needing 50amp. We pulled into a "pad" site after hours and used our 50amp-to-30amp dongle to hookup. Noticed that quite of few of the adjacent "hard pad" sites were also using dongles for the tow-behinds to convert from 50-to-30amp hookups, so not too original. Overflow area has 30amp/water, but is grassy area without pads. Dump station available and gas station/bowling alley close to RV park.

It will do! We travel this way a lot and stopped heading south for the first time. Very convenient to our camp in Maine. A little close when heading south but will be perfect when heading north as it will give us plenty of time to open up camp before nightfall. Directions are a bit misleading as the exit when heading west off I-90 is #49 not #5. Otherwise good. Cannot stress enough how convenient the gas station and mini mart is upon your arrival…go straight so the gas station is on your left…pull thru pumps and then leave by the exit in front of you slightly to the left and take a left to get to campground. Pick your spot…it they are full, there are plenty of boondocking sites and sites with just electricity behind Mwr building…go to office and pay if they are open…m-f, 9-3…or leave payment (check) in envelope and place in box. We were at site #13. Nice and shaded, 50 amp electric and water. There is a dump station. There are a few homesteaders, but nice and tidy sites. Lovely, friendly young lady at the office. We used our Verizon hotspot for internet…worked great.

Fine for a stay overnight or to visit things in the area. No reservation system. MWR Office onsite closed on weekends. Pick an empty site and pay by leaving a check in a provided envelope and put in dropbox. Sites need a little more upkeep ( blow off pads, trim dead branches above).

The office staff have no idea who is there and when they are leaving, even though there is a 14 day max stay. Most of the campers listed on the board are beyond the listed departure date and when I asked if someone will be leaving soon to open a site up I was told " I don't have a crystal ball so no I don't know". I'm not sure why they even write down departure dates when they completely ignore them anyway. They don't know whos there or when they will be leaving or how long they have been there, Staff was preoccupied with MWR rentals and completely disregard the campground. I waited at the desk to check in and fill out the appropriate paperwork for 15 minutes while being ignored before I just left. Horrible customer service and complete lack of professionalism. The bathroom was clean but everything else was a negative.

This is a very nice facility, convenient to I-91 for seasonal travel to or from the northeast. A very good value. My only negative comment has to do with the difficulty in communicating with the FamCamp management. None of the posted material lists anything other than a single phone number to communicate with the FamCamp/MWR personnel. However, you can spend days trying to speak with anyone. The system would not accept a voice mail message today, and shunts you to a directory "tree" that doesn't provide any useful option, and that you can't get out of without hanging up. There is no e-mail address that I could find. Finally, IMHO, all military campgrounds should have a system to make and cancel reservations, and pay for those online or by phone. The Navy has such a system and it works very well.

Excellent location. Arrived on a Sunday. No host and office was closed; instructions for self parking were adequate. We took spot 16. No satellite reception because of trees. MIFI signal was poor. Spot was level, but so unkept. Grass was overgrown; dirty rug left on ground; fire pit full of trash, etc. Bathroom was adequate, but filthy. Several "homesteaders". This fam camp could be such a gem. It just looked like nobody cared.

We had called the day before to see what the possibility of getting a site would be because reservations are not accepted. We were told to come on in and they'd find us something - even if it was backing up to the building and plugging in to power there. We arrived on a Saturday. The gas station is the first facility you encounter on the way to the FAMCAMP. Made it convenient to fuel up before going to the FAMCAMP. There was no one working at the FAMCAMP when we arrived. Fortunately, there was one space remaining (# 13). My MIFI worked well in this space but we could not get our satellite TV to receive signals because there were so many trees around. The next day, the people in space 20 left and we moved into it. When I parked on the small concrete slab, the TV would still not receive signals but then I moved 6 feet forward off the slab and the signal came in great. However, my MIFI did not work as well. I parked our car out in the open and placed my MIFI in it and then got a good reception. The FAMCAMP host is also the outdoor recreation office manager. This is the best equipped outdoor recreation I have ever seen. That is the good news. The bad news is that the manager is so busy with outdoor recreation sales he had little time to devote to the FAMCAMP. However, he was very receptive to any problems we had. The FAMCAMP is centrally located in the New England area. We made day and overnight trips to Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. There is just so much history that you could spend months here and still not see it all. My biggest dislike was with the shower room. The shower was large and had good water pressure. However, the only privacy you had was when you were in the shower. I'm not too good at dressing and undressing just in the shower. When you step out of the shower, you are in a big open room. I did manage to stay clean though. We had a really good time here and would come back.

Our arrival at the famcamp did not go smoothly, it took a long time on a hot afternoon to have one of the outdoor recreation staff members to arrive to open the office, not the member who had posted the sign about to call him on the door. We were given three sites to choose from, except one was occupied but not noted on the status board. We did not want the site in the trees and chose the end site (#20). This famcamp appears to be tolerated, rather than show pride of ownership in its appearance and upkeep. When we went to the laundry there was a female camper sweeping the floor and her husband doing the touch up. She could not stand it any longer. Outdoor Rec gave her the broom. For some reason the laundry door is propped open 24 hours a day. Our site had electrical problems, 30amp and 20 amp service. When the campers in the trees lost their power from a nearby lightening strike we got our box fixed that lasted for one week. The air conditioner would have a very strange sound as though it were stalling out. Who ever was closest to it would shut it off. A few minutes later everything would be fine until the next time it occurred. The neighbor in site 19 originally had electrical
problems when they arrived in March but they were repaired and have worked fine. The rate posted is $20 for the day, $240 for Two weeks, $480 for Four weeks. The laundry is now $1 for washers and dryers. We enjoyed meeting some of the fellow campers. This base is convenient to day trip to all of the New England states except ME. We will return to the base to meet our friends but will stay elsewhere. Besides Masse's restaurant, seek out Bernies Restaurant on James street, just outside the back gate (which closes at 6PM). They are closed on Mondays and give you large portions for the money charged. We had a short wait at 6:30 on a Tuesday but it was well worth it. The Chicopee Library is about 4.5 miles from the famcamp on Front street and is well equipped. We went to the family services building to use the computers to check email, they are set up for smart card users. The USO located there runs a food bank for the lower rank enlisted. We brought them dry goods but they also have refrigeration and freezer space available.

Although they were full due to an upcoming air show, the staff was extremely helpful towards my wife and I. I very much recommend this campground!

The park is small but pretty well maintained. There are a couple of guys who work at the outdoor recreation facility and they are very helpful. None of the spots has sewer so one must drag their campers to the dump site or they will, for a nominal fee ($12), pump your tanks. They do this twice a week, Tuesday and Thursdays, although they will do it if asked and they have two people on hand. There is no WiFi but a trip to Starbucks and friend wife is happy and I get on line. The BX is small and the gas station has some other stuff but not a full service store by any stretch of the imagination. There are large grocery stores very near and some real good restaurants. Masse's is just down the road and has the freshest sea food in the area as they are a distributor and supplier to the other restaurants in the area. The entrance to the base off Westover Road goes right by the RV park. Entering through the gate is no big problem as there are only rubber cones blocking the way if the commercial entrance is closed. Go through the gate and take the first left after the gas station/shoppette and follow the road around, back by the gate you just came through, to the RV park. We were in the area visiting family and very convenient. We would stay again.

The road to the fam camp was under construction when we were there but still easy to get to fam camp. A really nice clean and fairly quite very large sites. We used the famcamp to do day trip to all the New England states worked perfect for us. I would go back has the elec and water hookup with dump station and honey wagon that comes around once a week.

We stayed here for 2 nights in August. Campground is clean with large sites. Had some difficulty getting to the campground after getting onto the base. We found the bath house and laundry room clean. Will definitely come back when up that way.

We stayed for two nights over a weekend. The campground was very quiet with not much going on on the base. The dirt road through the campground has several large potholes that should be filled. The concrete pads on the sites are too short for our 38' class A but the sites were level. The first site we tried had no water which we reported. The laundry facilities were very good and cheap at $.75 for both washers and dryers. The bathrooms were clean. Small exchange, no commissary although the convenience store at the gas station carried a few thing, including Class 6. Gas prices were considerably lower than outside the gate. Not much else to say. It is a good stopping over point if traveling through Massachusetts but not much to do in this area. At $18/night, it was a real bargain as we had just paid $37.50/night in a very dumpy campground in CT.