Summer nights at Lake Rudolph wind down with golf carts rolling back from the shuttle stop, swimsuits drying over camp chairs, and kids still arguing about the last coaster at Holiday World. The campground is in Santa Claus, the Christmas-named town east of Evansville, and the theme park and its water park, Splashin' Safari, are why families come. On days off from the park, the resort keeps the water going with slides at Santa's SplashDown, the Blitzen Bay pool, and paddleboats out on the campground lake.
The motorhome barely moves on a Holiday World week. It stays leveled on its site from the first night to the last, the air conditioning runs through the humid southern Indiana afternoons, and a toddler can nap in a real bed while everyone else heads back for one more ride. Breakfast happens at the dinette, dinner happens at the picnic table by the pad, and nobody packs a suitcase twice. Every RV site at the resort has full hookups, which is what lets a family run the rig like a rented house all week.
Holiday World days and Lake Rudolph nights in Santa Claus
As of October 2026 the resort runs a complimentary shuttle to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari, with terms flagged on its page, so the rig stays plugged in while everyone rides to the gate in wet flip-flops. Golf carts beside the pads cover the runs to the pool and the lake, and the motorhome only leaves the site on the last morning.
Lake Rudolph's RV season runs May through October. Back in Evansville, Burdette Park keeps RV camping open year-round on full-hookup and water-and-electric sites, so it works as a first night in town before Santa Claus and as the off-season stay once the resort shuts. It's a small campground, with 28 RV sites, and reservations open one year to the date.
When the resort is booked, Lincoln State Park in Lincoln City is the state-park version of the same week, with 150 electric sites around a CCC-built lake in the woods of Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home. As of October 2026 its swimming beach and boat rental are closed while Lake Lincoln refills after dam repairs.
Patoka Lake, north of Santa Claus, is a lake week of its own, and the Patoka Lake RV page covers it. The rest of the state's rig trips are on the Indiana RV rentals page.
Harmonie State Park and New Harmony on the Wabash
Harmonie's campground spreads across shaded ridges with ravines falling away toward the Wabash, and evenings tend to end at the boat ramp, watching the river slide past wide and brown. The days belong to New Harmony, close by, where an afternoon on the Rappite-era streets is a slower kind of family outing after a week of coaster lines. The rig stays put on its site and the evenings stay quiet.
The park is 25 miles northwest of Evansville, with 200 electric sites booked through the state's ReserveAmerica system. A couple heading out for a New Harmony weekend may not need a full motorhome at all, and Indiana campervan rentals fit that smaller trip.