Honcho Rest Campground - Campground in Elk Rapids - 8988 Cairn Hwy, USA

We stayed here for four days during a family reunion. They have a large area for RVs with a large number of seasonal campers that leave their RVs there. Very quiet and friendly for kids. Almost like a neighborhood. There are a number of sites that are right on the lake. There is a nearby marina and restaurants. We would absolutely stay here again. We rented one of their RVs instead of bringing our own. Very pleasantly surprised at how nice and spacious it was. Had no issue sleep our four large adults but could have slept more if needed. Really a nice find if you are looking for a campground.

Honcho is always great! We're a seasonal rental, and confidently invite all family/friends to visit or rent the cabins. There is so much to do for both adults and kids in the area. Highly recommend.

This campground was one of the quietest places I have ever stayed, complete with sunset views over Bass Lake. Many seasonal campers occupy about half of the sites, but they are well-kept and tidy, with nice decks, landscaping, and flowers. Campers sit quietly around their fires or around their picnic tables, and the kids really enjoy the playground, plus I was happy to see campers respecting leash laws for dogs of all sizes. The sites are level and the hook ups are well maintained. The bathrooms and showers were very clean as well. Very peaceful campground, I would stay again.

This campground attracted us because it is full hookup for our RV and is close to many attractions in the northwest area of Lower Michigan. While the campground is clean and the staff is friendly, we have never in our 45 years of camping been in at a campground that has had sites jammed in and as close together as this. The cement pad for our RV is literally 3 feet from the next sites pad. We could practically touch the next door RV while sitting at the smallest campfire ring we’ve ever seen! In one of our party’s 3 sites, the fire ring was on the road! Several of these are like that in this jammed campground! The charge per night at $53 is way too much for what you can get at other facilities. There are many seasonal sites which were empty during the week but come Thursday, the place was full, noisy and very tight! We came up to tour the area and enjoy the changing season so fortunately were away most days but the evenings were crowded and noisy at the end of the week. This campground is just too packed in to enjoy and we won’t be back, especially for the cost of the sites. There are too many other full hookup campground that have larger sites and are the same price.

Lots of trees for shade, quiet, driving slow at 5 mph is strongly encouraged. On a small lake, near Elk Lake, Torch Lake, and Grand Traverse Bay. Close to groceries and fuel, close to nice town of Elk Rapids, and close to Pearl's, a great restaurant. Has a laundry we did not need to use, has ice on site. Has cable TV, did not use as my cord was too short but was able to get many stations thru the air. Entire front row on the lake are long term seasonal rentals, everyone we met are very friendly. Very peaceful and relaxing. Rented a boat this morning at local marina and cruised thru the chain of lakes to Torch Lake today. Lot of fun and both Elk and Torch Lakes have a beautiful color like glacial lakes. Plan to return for a longer time to explore Elk Rapids.

We stayed here in a pop-up camper from July 19-21. It is small campground with tight spots, most of which were occupied with permanent camper-homes. Surprisingly it was quiet at night. It was a good location for going into Elk Rapids and Traverse City and easy to come and go, whether in the car or on bikes. For as clean and tidy as the grounds were, the bathrooms were very poorly constructed and dirty all of the time. They are not cleaned on Sundays. They had nearly non-existent lighting, broken toilet seats and lack of paper products. They advertised a "beach" but all of the waterfront was stacked with boats and canoes. It was difficult to find a way to enter the little lake except via a boat dock. The staff were friendly and overall the campground did have a lot of privacy even though it was packed with people, RVs, dogs and babies.

We stayed at Honcho Rest for 3 months this summer and really enjoyed it. It's one of the best run, well kept campgrounds we've been to. The owners are super nice brothers that "take care of business" and work hard to keep the campground well maintained. The campground is located on Bass Lake (a small fishing lake), 1 mile from downtown Elk Rapids (a cute little resort town on the water), and is an RV campground (no tents). The campground has a row boat and canoe free for campers to use. There is a great playground for young kids, as well as a basketball court and horse shoes for older kids or adults. The bathrooms (8 individual) are clean and well maintained. The sites along the waterfront of Bass Lake are occupied by long time seasonal campers (some here over 20 years) who have beautiful flowers and small, manicured yards. All of the sites have a concrete parking pad for your RV, with a picnic table and fire pit. They have free WIFI and cable. You can sit by Bass Lake in your chairs or on one of the 2 piers and watch beautiful sunsets. Before we arrived, we read on Tripadvisor about a guy who yells at people to slow down and that the sites were too close to one another. Our campsite was right behind the man's RV and we didn't hear him yell even one time. We got to know him and he's a nice guy (with a cute little white dog that he walks several times a day). We have a class A, 38' MH and thought our site was huge. The location of the campground is great, being close to Traverse City and Charlevoix, as well as driving trips in every direction. We would definitely stay at Honcho Rest again!!! Great campground!!

Clean campground and showers/bathrooms. Full hookup was good. Sites were too close for my taste. Quiet hours were respected. Lake is pretty cool. Don't remember it being dirty. Close proximity to other lakes and shopping/activities is the real draw to Honcho rest for us. Overall good experience other than the old man about 3 sites from the office always yelling "slow down" when you pull into the campground. Apparently he has nothing better to do than peer out his camper window and wait for families to go 6 mph instead of 5 mph so he can get his jollies by yelling "slow down".