I stayed at the Burnaby Caribou RV Park from March until June of 2015. Below is my review of my experiences there.
Location:
BCRV is within a very easy walking distance to the SkyTrain, and Costco is even closer. The park is relatively quiet. When I was first looking for potential parks to stay at, the Google reviews did concern me. There is a train line right next to the park, and Gaglardi Way is on yet another side. The Google reviews all scream about how terrible the place is, and how unfriendly the staff are. I decided to choose this park as it gave me a central location to my clients, and as I was alone, I could deal with some extra noise.
When I got to the park, I signed in, and got my site. I was quite close to the main building, which I what I requested in regards to internet access. This placed me very close to the main entrance.
The results?
I heard the train twice in the time I was there. That was because some idiot was on/too near the tracks, and the train was forced to sound the horn. As I understand it now having been there, the bad reviews come from tent campers. The tent camping section is literally in the corner of trains and highway. Folks, this park is called “Burnaby Caribou RV Park” for a reason. Seriously, who tent camps inside a city?
There is a river walk right behind the park, and I have to say that even though it took longer, I walked it to the main stores I went to. It is such an amazing and peaceful walk. On that note, the closest store is a Mac’s convenience store at the Production Way SkyTrain station. Lougheed Mall is down the way, about a five minute drive, or a really nice 30 minute walk. The nearest liquor stores, and grocery stores are also near the mall, so you’ll be walking if you don’t also have an additional car.
Internet:
There are two providers at BCRV. There is the seemingly standard to RV parks, TengoInternet, and ShawOpen.
ShawOpen is only available if you are an existing Shaw customer (or know someone who can add your devices onto their account). Being a guy who has worked well over a decade in IT (Information Technology), I know the distances of WiFi. The ShawOpen is restricted here, in order to keep you inside the main building. I could occasionally get it to connect inside my RV, but the amount of metal would kill the connection eventually. Even outside the RV, the ShawOpen connection was spotty, and I was no more than 50 feet from the AP (Access Point).
As I work remotely, being forced to go inside the lounge where other people are while working with a client who can hear these people turn up the TV, and talking is really unacceptable.
TengoInternet is the “free” internet. By “free”, I mean they give you a total of four hours per day. That’s not even four consecutive hours. That’s two hours per eight. Tengo also monitors how much you use and restricts you accordingly, not by username, but your MAC Address. Unless you know how to spoof your MAC, you are S.O.L…
Enjoy Netflix? TengoInternet thinks you are a major douchebag. Tengo allows a whopping 1.5mb down, and 0.5mb up. Want to upload photos from your trip to Facebook? hahahahaha. Nope. Well, maybe… If you want to upload them over several hours. It’s just above a dial up connection when anyone else is connected…. Seriously.
TengoInternet does partner with another company called Boingo. For about $10/month you can get relatively unrestricted access to the internet. Your upload is still severely restricted, but you can at least watch Netflix without too many problems.
Skype is really the luck of the draw, as is Netflix. You are sharing the entire bandwidth with everyone else in the park that is connecting. The more people, the slower it is. Getting into June, watching Netflix was no longer an option. In fact, logging onto Facebook was almost impossible.
The Amenities:
BCRV is really clean. The main bathroom’s are coded, so you need to know the passcode to get in. It’s also closed for an hour every day while it’s cleaned. The showers are not coin operated, and the hot water lasts a long time (depending on the time of day naturally). The best pressure is the showers closest to the inside wall.
The laundromat is super clean, and costs about as much as any laundromat would.
The games room is comprised of two pinball machines, and a couple driving arcade games. All but one side of the driving arcade were broken when I went in.
The exercise room is rather basic, but provides what a person would require to maintain a daily ritual.
The playground is simple, and geared more toward young children. My two year old daughter loved it, and I spent a lot of time climbing through tubes to go down a slide for her.
The pool and jacuzzi are both indoors, and very clean. The pool is warmed, but still cool. Both are tested daily.
The Staff:
When I first got to BCRV, the staff were not very warm, nor were they cold. I would say they were indifferent. It was slightly off-putting considering that they are in the hospitality business. They do warm up however, and you can actually enjoy talking to them. It’s a mostly family run business, and they really only get involved in your affairs if there are complaints.
Basically, be respectful, pay your dues, and all will be good.
One caveat to this is one guy there… I never learned his name as I chose to avoid him as much as possible. I learned that people call him the “Bylaw Nazi”. He will not open the lounge a single second before 8am, and I personally witnessed him read the riot act to a couple kids under 10 for riding their bikes on the sidewalk next to the main building.
At the time, I was a smoker, and I was smoking on the deck, which is open to the air. I spent 15 minutes of my life listening about how because the deck had walls on two sides, Burnaby Bylaws prohibit smoking up there, and how much money it would cost if Bylaw happened through.
Otherwise, the staff are pretty cool. Just avoid doing anything other than standing and breathing when the Bylaw Nazi is near.
The Cost:
For my 24′ RV, I paid a touch over $400 every two weeks. There are much larger units there, and I believe they pay around $1000 per month. There are no reservations, as people can choose to stay longer if they like, and just pay. It is a first come, first serve park. Call the day you’re planning on getting there.
Your fee covers 60 kilowatts per week of power, water, and sewer. The propane truck comes by every Wednesday. There is an additional cost for cable, but I don’t watch actual TV, so I have no idea it’s cost. For the propane, they’re usually pretty good. One week, I think I had a new guy filling. Propane tanks should never be filled past 80%, and I vented for four days as the guy filled to 100%… which I had to pay for.
Website:
It looks like someone made it in the free-est web editor they could find, and then hired someone who didn’t know what the internet was, to build it. This could just be me though. I build websites for fun, and I’m a webhost.
Conclusion:
I would and will most certainly stay at this park again. Yes, I certainly recommend the park to others. My only big beef is really the internet. However, my career is deeply connected to a stable internet connection, and your experience may vary.