Cultus Lake RV and Camping Resort

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We recently spent 4 weeks at the Cultus Lake RV and Camping Resort located in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada. It is a Thousand Trails campground in a beautiful location with many attractions. For more detail about the specifics of this RV park, sites, and amenities – including pros and cons – keep reading!

Location of Cultus Lake Camping and RV Resort

.Cultus Lake RV Campground is located in Lindell Beach, BC Canada. Which is about 1.5 hours drive east of Vancouver, BC, Canada in the Fraser Valley, just north of the USA-Canada Border. The closest border crossing is in Sumas, WA near Abbotsford where there is also Costco and other stores, about 30 minutes from the campground. 

If visiting from the USA, we recommend you plan ahead for your border crossing by reading our article and watch our video to ensure it goes as smoothly as possible. Two big items to note are to avoid bringing much (or any) fresh produce and animal products (meat, eggs, dairy) across the border. And if you are carrying firearms, you’ll need to read up on the laws and plan well in advance. Again, our tips are here in this article.

Cultus Lake seems to be a very popular resort area with amusement parks and water parks on the north end of the lake. But the campground is situated on the much quieter south end of the lake. You’ll find grocery stores, fuel stations and bigger city infrastructure about 20 minutes away in Chilliwack. The campground is actually surrounded by a residential area with mostly vacation homes, so it is mostly very peaceful.

There are no trains, planes, or heavy traffic in the area. The roads are in pretty good condition but can be a bit narrow and twisty around the lake. Roads feels especially narrow when driving a large RV (ours is 36′). This is especially true if it is a popular weekend in the summer, as many people park their vehicles on the side of the road, reducing the width of the lane. The area is very peaceful, as it is primarily a resort area. Elevation is less than 200 feet and we didn’t encounter any hills getting to this campground during our drive from our campground in Seattle. But we heard that other routes would likely see some big hills.

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Area Attractions

Cultus Lake RV campground is a very peaceful getaway if you are interested in staying local. But the Cultus Lake area appears to be a very large attraction in the area. There are multiple amusement parks and water parks nearby as well as a large, beautiful lake that is open to boats and many other water activities. There are multiple other campgrounds and day use parks surrounding the lake. So it is a prime location for summer activities.

We also enjoyed the fact that, being within Canada, we did not need to cross borders to visit the beautiful city of Vancouver and our friends who live there. One of the advantages of being so close to Vancouver is you’re able to head in and explore the big city (and spend a night in a hotel?). Or even snag a last minute cheap cruise deal – which is what we did – setting sail on a last-minute 7 night Alaskan cruise from Vancouver to Seward. That was absolutely fantastic. More on that in separate, upcoming post and videos.

There are many mountains to hike and other lakes to explore in this area as well. The roads on the back side of the lake where the campground is, have very limited shoulders and some blind corners, but some of the back roads are nice for advanced cyclists.

Amenities and Activities at Cultus Lake RV Campground

The pool pavilion has a beautiful pool and a large lodge area with multiple rooms for watching TV, or playing games, including an area with a pool table. ping pong and shuffle board. The main lodge building also includes a small store and a laundry room with four washers and dryers. There is a large open area with a centrally located playground which makes it convenient for keeping a fairly close eye on your kids from many of the RV sites.

Cultus Lake RV Resort also a large covered area nearby open with picnic tables for large group activities. There are two buildings with restrooms and showers. They also had excellent recycling which sadly, we find to be quite rare in most campgrounds. There is also an RV storage area on site (for a fee) if you need to leave your RV un-attended for extended periods.

Learn how we camp for (almost) free with our Thousand Trails membership

Mail / Packages

The campground does not appear to accept mail or packages for short-term guests, but they may for annual guests. It is unlikely that most Americans would want to be paying the extra fees to ship items into Canada for a shorter stay anyway. If you want something shipped to the area, your best bet would be to ship it to one of the many shipping stores just across the USA border in Sumas, WA.

WIFI / Cable

The campground does have WIFI, but we did not use it. We used our own cellular data on our T-Mobile One Unlimited Plans, which switch to the local carrier (usually Bell/Rogers) at no charge! We had 2 bars of LTE signal unboosted which allowed us to access the internet and work just fine without paying a penny extra. One of the reasons we decided to switch our phones to T-Mobile in February 2017 was so we could travel anywhere in North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) completely seamlessly with no need to pay extra fees for voice, text or data when out of the USA.

Our T-Mobile data is ‘unlimited’ when using our iPhones. And we can use up to 10GB per device when using the iPhone as a personal mobile hotspot to connect our laptops. Our Verizon plan does not have the same option and we didn’t see a need to add the international option for the month. So we just switched our Verizon Jetpack off during this trip to Canada to avoid paying the fees.

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RV Sites at Cultus Lake RV Campground

Once you are past the ranger station with security gate, the Internal roads are mostly pavement, and the sites are gravel. All roads are one-way. There is an inner and an outer loop. Like most Thousand Trails campgrounds, sites are allocated on a first come first serve basis. We needed to use some leveling blocks at our site with our gas motorhome. But believe that we would not have needed many, if any in most of the sites we saw.

There were many large RVs in the campground, and most of the roads are wide. Certainly not all sites can accommodate 40+ foot RVs. But would guess that more than half of the sites would be fine. There are about 160 sites, all of which are 30 amp electricity. Most of the sites have sewer connections, but 25 of them are water and electric only. We didn’t see any pump out service, so you would need to break camp to dump if in one of those sites..

There are large trees surrounding the campground, and many large trees within the campground. But there are still about half of the sites that could have sun most of the day. Summers are not especially hot, but with only 30 amp electricity, the best sites in the summer are those with some shade. 

The park’s electrical system can easily get overloaded if large numbers of RVs run AC. In fact, the first week we were there the temperatures were in the high 80s. The campground asked that we run our water heaters and fridges on propane to reduce electric load as they were overloading the electrical system every day.

PROS

  • Beautifully scenic and peaceful area surrounded by trees and mountains
  • Cultus Lake, amusement park and other lake attractions nearby
  • Friendly staff

CONS

  • Older 30amp electrical system gets easily overloaded on hot summer days
  • Need to cross international border if coming from USA, requiring a passport
  • Not all sites are full-hookup

Rates at Cultus Lake RV Campground

We didn’t meet any people paying nightly rates to stay here. So we expect that nearly all guests are Thousand Trails Members, most of whom generally don’t need to pay a nightly fee as it’s included within the camping membership and annual dues. We did notice that a pretty sizable percentage of the sites appeared to be annual sites. However, we were actually quite impressed with how nice most of the annual sites were kept, with wooden decks, flower beds and well-manicured areas.

This is a nice change from some other annual sites we’ve seen at other TT locations. There was clearly a lot of pride in ownership in these as many of them have multiple-year stays. People probably treat them like a vacation home and care for them accordingly. We also noticed that despite being so far north, the campground is open year-round. Winter sites are available for $2,500 for the full six months. Shorter stays, of course, are more expensive on a per day basis.

There is a nightly fee for RV storage. If you leave your RV unoccupied overnight, you MUST advise the ranger, provide the dates you’ll be away and get advance permission. Otherwise you’ll be charged a $35 per night fee if you leave your RV for the night.

Learn how we camp for (almost) free with our Thousand Trails membership

Summary

Cultus Lake RV Resort is a pleasant campground in a great part of the country for summertime and fall visits in particular. The campground is very well maintained and had really nice easy going guests (mostly Canadians), which makes it a great place for a relaxing stay. We feel the Cultus Lake area would be super fun for a family with all of the amusement parks and related activities. For us, it was a convenient and inexpensive way to spend some time in Canada and also provided a great base for our Alaskan cruise.

About our stay

We visited Cultus Lake RV and Camping Resort in September 2017 and stayed for almost the entire month. Our initial reservation was for 21 days. We can stay with no nightly fee as part of our membership. But then after disappearing for 10 days to go to Alaska, we decided to exercise our “extra week” option to extend our stay. This is one of the privileges of our upgraded camping membership,. It allows us to extend our stay to 28 nights twice a year for a total of just $29. The last (and only other) time we used our $29 extra week was in April when we stayed at TT Palm Desert, CA.

On the day we arrived the weather was beautiful in Cultus Lake, but then smoke began to fill the valley from nearby fires. We were perfectly safe but it did get hazy and affected the air quality in the first week. Fires can be common in Canada during the summer. The only real annoyance about our stay here at Thousand Trails Cultus Lake RV campground was the seemingly constant barking of a dog in one of the neighboring residential homes. 

It was not inside the campground, and was presumably left at home unattended. We realize it’s hard to criticize the campground for this as it’s out of their control and this kind of thing happens in suburban neighborhoods everywhere, but I (Julie) was glad to leave that noise behind when we left.

Overall, we had a really nice time here and would definitely come back to visit, especially as we have friends who live in this area. And are able to stay 3-4 weeks with no nightly fee because of our Thousand Trails membership. If interested, you can learn more about how this membership saves us thousands every year HERE.

Contact Information

To find out more or to make a reservation, contact:

Cultus Lake RV Campground,
1855 Columbia Valley Road,
Lindell Beach, BC Canada V2R 0E1.

Tel: +1 604-858-3932

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any RV park, campground, or RV resort, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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6 thoughts on “Cultus Lake RV and Camping Resort”

  1. I came across your blog googling for TT TC info and see we’ve experienced many of the same things. In 2015, also crossed at Sumas on our way to the Cultus park. Having TX plates we were asked a dozen times various phrasing about fire arms. I guess the agent thought everybody from TX carries. Our first night arriving at the park was so full that we had to park our 45 footer in a 15 amp tent site (that was an interesting experience and I’m sure the tenter next door loved us as we managed to squeeze in … Note, we had made our RV reservation about 90 days earlier and it did note our size). Then we prepared to grab a “real” rv site the next am as people checked out. We did note the many annual sites with rigs but no people in them (maybe they had already gone back to work as it was mid week). Loved the pool with the great view of the mountains. On the US side we liked Grandy Creek for all the blackberries to pick. We also stayed at Tall Chief, Hood and others as you have. I find your blog interesting. We also started off trying a zone pass (as it didn’t cost much more than a full tank of diesel) and upgraded within a couple of months as we experienced the east coast parks deciding they could work (park to park) for us. We have visited over 60 TT parks (and a few Encore) since and feel we have gotten our investment back many times over. I’m considering adding a TC option in a month.

    Reply
  2. Was wondering where you guys left your motor home when you did your Alaska cruise. Been thinking about doing something similar. Did the park allow you to leave it on a site for the 10 days, or did you have to put into storage with no electric hook-up? Would love it if you would do an article on how you found the cruise, getting into Vancouver on the day etc. etc. You guys are such a wealth of knowledge – I keep refering newbie rv’ers to your site – especially the buying a used Thousand Trails membership ????

    Reply
    • Hi Linda! Yes that is actually our next blog post/video! On this occasion, we got special permission to leave our RV on site for 10 days but that is unusual – typically that is not allowed – keeping it onsite (at least at TT, other campgrounds are usually ok if you’re paying for it. IN the past we have stored our RV at a TT campground for a few dollars a night or taken it to a shop for work to be done while we have been traveling. Thank you so much for referring people to our site! We appreciate it. Stay tuned for the cheap cruise deal article with more info, coming next week 🙂

      Reply
  3. Holy smoke, you almost need a flow chart to try to understand all of the different levels of the TT membership, the cost of each level, and how it applies to a individuals habits. Good try though. Maybe in your spare time you could make up this flow chart and sell it to TT so it would be easier for their prospective customers to understand.

    Reply

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