Santa Cruz Campground — Carpinteria State Beach

Facilities are run down. This places needs a major make over! Bathrooms are dirty, showers are gross. Sinks to wash dishes are disgusting & right next to dumpsters. You have no privacy and sites are right on top of each other…you’re basically in a parking lot. Barking dogs right next to you can get pretty annoying pretty fast. NOT WORTH the $70 a night fee. I would only stay here here as a LAST resort

My family camps here everyone year for as long as I can remember. The beaches are always nice. The trail that goes to the end of the campground is always fun bike ride. Carp itself is one of my favorite little towns. When camping, we also stop at Robitaille's Fine Candy shop.

Great location, spots are so close to the beach with no bluff and stairs. Spots are very snug. You can get stuck waiting for a while if your neighbors don’t know how to park their unit. Only downside is the neighbors sewer is in your site. Also we had some grumpy neighbors which sucks with the smaller sites. Seals and dolphins all around while you swim or surf

$10 per night per person, max 2 nights and 48 hour wait before you can come back. Max 5 times per year.

Took my son here for a weekend to explore Santa Barbara. There is no overnight parking in the park unless you have a previously reserved car camping campsite. We walking in with our belongings and there was three other campers on their bikes. Short walk to the Amtrak Surfliner, restaurants, dogs are allowed on a leash on the campsite. There is a dog beach a few minutes walk away.

There’s 3 fire pits for H&B campers, a Food box and a bike rack.

Snagged a cancellation at Carp Santa Cruz site C233 to celebrate our new trailer and our Labrador’s first birthday!!! Doors opened to the west (that’s a good thing!), and it was easy to back into. Site was flat, but in the back. Heavy foot traffic on sidewalk that connects the different campgrounds gave us little privacy. Still, any time we get to spend in Carp is time well-spent!

Pros:

• Location—next to beach, great restaurants, excellent ice cream (Rori’s), solid beer scene, great bluffside running trails!
• Large site—not the parking lot like San Miguel and Santa Rosa tend to be. 
• Camp host was friendly. 
• Clean bathrooms and showers. 
• Easy to fill water tank at dump station before parking. 
• Easy to dump at dump station. 
• Close to town—easy bike/walk. 

Cons: 

• Tar on beach. 
• Next to railroad tracks. 
• Site backs up to sidewalk, offering little privacy. 
• Dogs not allowed on beach (I know… but my labs don’t get it!)
• Smoking neighbors. 
• Lots of fox tails on site.

The spots are just so small, especially the ones with full hook ups. You can park your car on the next loop over, but you will barely have enough space sit in your chair

Great location at the beach. Beautiful little town with many shops and good food. Camp spots are crowded together closely in the anacapa loop. I had to park my pickup in the overflow parking since it wouldn't fit in our tight little assigned space. Many things to see and do here from the beach to hiking trails to tar pits right nearby.

Location and beach access: 5

Spacing of sites: 2 ( If you have a small enough unit, get beach front - a must. If you have a high sitting RV, the second line of sites from the beach will give you a view.

Bathrooms and showers: 1. Their cleaning is minimal. White bricks are dirty, dusty on top ledges. Shower floors have not been scrubbed in ages. Stains on walls could easily be cleaned off. Really is disgusting in our loop. The Santa Rosa loop looks to have newer facilities

Great campground, get a burger at The Spot.

This campground had more of a tailgate feel due to the parking lot camping spaces provided.

Santa Rosa Loop #309

Check in 2:00 pm Check out 12:00 pm

The parking spot was two vehicles wide. The backyard area was Sandy ground equipped with a fire pit and wooden bench. Plenty of space if you want to add tents.

Night two we switched locations to San Miguel Loop #421. This space was more compact with a smaller backyard area. It was one of the rare spots that had a tree that provided plenty of shade. We did not need to setup our easy up.

Bathrooms were decent. No soap provided. Showers available and coin operated.

This campground was extremely busy during the weekend in July I was there. There is a great brewery walking distance (10 minutes) for a quick bite, live music and drinks. The downtown area is very walkable for this campground so you can plan your meals in advance if you don’t feel like cooking.

A little crowded, we arrived just after 3 pm. Lovely beach scenes!

The back row of sites furthest from the beach is up against train tracks so be advised. Sites are paved parking lot style stacked in with a bit of dirt for fire ring table and tent. Not much more but the beach you get is amazing.

Something for everyone. Friendly rangers. Bathrooms with hot hot showers and a very relaxing environment

Very Nice Beach could use a little cleaning up as far as landscape around camp site specially around Camp Santa Miguel

It's a beautiful place to go camping ! Right off the beach! And then the small city is walking distance. There are interesting little shops. Big grocery stores and lots of different restaurants to visit I've camped there in the sumner months and loved it I've camped there in the winter. And it poured!! It was beautiful!!

The Pacific Ocean is the winner here. Sites are small but if you consider the beach part of your site your golden. No dogs on beach though. Town is fun too.

My family has been camping here for 50+ years... should say enough! Best camping trip (with family, friends, solo, whatever!) you’ll have, safe area, very accessible. Bathrooms have power outlets, token-powered hot showers, and super close to town. Make sure you pack your food away at night.... raccoons are present!

Very Friendly,And Clean.You can surely see God's Creation

Camp hosts are friendly and they enforce the rules which I like because it was quiet at night and nobody was taking over my space. However, it is not a campground it is a parking lot where you camp. Bathrooms are dirty, hot shower doesn't always work, ground was full of some gophers who were digging holes so you have to watch your step and it is very wet and muddy. Spots are very close to each other, neighbor was less than 10 ft away. Location is great though, as the beach is right there and it is short walk to town with shops and restaurants. Otherwise this would be one star review. It is too expensive for what it is offered.

I've been going to carpentaria since I was 5 years old. It was always our family "end of the summer" camping trip. I've had so many amazing memories and traditions. We always get up early at low tide to collect sea shells and sand dollars and watch the sea lions sleep on the rocks. And everyone has to eat at "The Spot" which is walking distance from the campground, along with vons and rite aid. Also the brewery is above chill place to enjoy the fine art of drinking. Just a cute and amazing town . I have yet to have a bad experience there. And love meeting people from all over the united states and talking with other campers. Everyone is just super friendly. Also my family in recent years have been going in the winter season and it's amazing still. Slower paced, but still amazing. I can't push this as a must go location, even just for a day.

The sites are just parking spaces with picnic tables. Very little greenery or shade. The restrooms and showers were out of order, and they had a single portapotty for our entire half of the campground. Everything was in serious disrepair and dirty.

Me and my gf came to Carpinteria for our first car camping experience. We paid extra to stay on the beach front spots near the south side of the site. Was totally worth it. We had a great time with amazing views. The beachfront spots didn’t have fire pits though so we ran to the local grocery store and bought one. Overall great site and had a great time.

This campground is between the beach and Amtrak train, but if noise doesn't bother you, there are some really amazing things, especially if you love camping or glamping with your dog! Directly behind the campground you must keep the dog off the beach, but two blocks away is the entrance to the Salt Marshes and the beach entrance there where you can rent sea kayaks and boards in the summer is a secret many don't know...a 1/2 a mile where fido can run free off leash and play in the surf. One of the safest beaches in CA due to the proximity of the channel islands, you won't have to worry about sharks here. And the end of the this beach is the Salt Marsh water inlet and when the time is low you can walk the deserted beach for miles and miles. Just get back before high tide or you will find yourself crossing an extremely powerful river sea. In the summer there is movies in the park which a an ample lush green field for playing frisbee or ball that separates the campground from the main palm lined street Linden. Famous for it's avo cado festival which draws nearly 80,000 people from around the world. Linden Street has a grocery, brewery, pharmacy, and diverse cuisine, everything from a burger stand, Thai, sushi, and a famous grill your steak sit and dine. There is also a lovely little Mexican bakery and candy shop for the kids. You can buy t-shirts, get a haircut, tattoo, or latte to go. There is even the local health food store with a smoothie to go bar in the back for a pick me up or detox with a straw! Carpinteria is a dog friendly town. You will dogs and bikes everywhere which incidentally, you can rent not far from the 2 campgrounds. There is a driving through lot for day travelers or RVs. You must book early online to get a camping spot because of the site's popularity. Othewise, it is a first come basis. It has showers so bring lots of quarters, especially if you want to do your laundry at Linden Street laundry mat. Fire pits and a table are at each site. Expect to also hear generators running as the sites tend to be close, but you can count on having lots to do. Cool nights, warm days, cold water. Sea glass, shells, and cool rocks. Not far from this beach is Rincon Point or what the locals call Bates Beach where surfers are there everyday. The large tide pools and stone is otherworldly, and again, bring the pooch, they are going to love it! We do! Returning! And a good time was had by all...

We were there a week ago and as usual had a great camping experience.   The beautiful beach and the nice convenient downtown walking distance from the campground just in case you forget something or just feel lazy and eat at one of the local venues. The campground is under some construction projects adding restrooms and showers. The current restrooms are dated but fully functional. The showers take quarters so you don't have to worry about tokens.  I have camped here for 25 years in each of the different sections of the campground. They offer camp sites for the folks walking on site and everything in between up to full self contained RVs.  However no pull throughs.

Hadn’t been here in over 30 years and it’s still a great camping beach. Beach is clean, swimming is mellow, the tide pools are cool, and you can walk to just about anything you need. There are trains that come through right behind the campsite, but did not seem as obnoxious as I would have thought.

Loved the whole place but one thing. The spots are tight!!!! We felt like we were on top of our neighbors and had to park our car far away. We even had one of the premium spots on the sand (360). Our fire pit and table was within feet of our neighbors stuff. So much for social distancing. Luckily, the camp host, Tom, was awesome! He saw that we got pinched in and loaned us a fire pit that we set up away from the neighbors. Very friendly staff and it appears that they are doing a lot of work on the campground to make it nicer. Just wish they’d make the spots a tad bigger.

I’d go back for sure, but if you are in the mood for seclusion and harnessing your inner introvert. This is not the place for you.

With all the Covid-19 guidelines in place for campgrounds to reopen, I was excited to see what that would look like. I naively thought the campgrounds wouldn’t be open to capacity and I was hoping for camping not so close to other campers. I don’t love how tightly packed everyone is on a normal summer camping day/night. So imagine my annoyance when it was just as tightly packed during this social distancing summer as it usually is!

With that said, people were kind and our small campground worked for our family. The only problem we had was a neighboring campground deciding past quiet hours that it was a good time to start singing and playing the ukulele. Not sure why the camp host didn’t come tell them to be quiet. It lasted until 11:30pm at least.

There is construction on one of the bathroom buildings so there were additional porta-pottys with portable hand washing stations next to them. These bathrooms were very clean! I was pleasantly surprised.

We love the beach access right next to our campsite and the beautiful scenery of the mountains above. It really is a gorgeous place.

Our boys loved guessing what trains (metro link or surf liner) were passing through- because yes- the train is a stones throw behind the sites and the trains runs frequently.

My 4 star rating is for what it is. A great camping spot that will always be booked to capacity because it’s beach camping in Southern California. I wanted to write an updated review for those wondering what covid-19 looks like here. Well? It’s the same. Just some extra hand washing stations and some people wearing masks.

Carpinteria SB is one of our favorite places to camp.  Anacapa and Santa Cruz sections are all dry camping and larger sites.  The other two sections have hook up sites but the sites are very tight.  Anacapa section is right next to a large grassy area and park.  We like to take our dog to play fetch there and we take out daughter to the park at least a few times a day.  Dogs are allowed in the campground but not on the beach, so the grassy area by the park is a great alternative if your dog has a lot of energy.  The town of Carpinteria is super cute with lots of shops and restaurants to walk to.  Island Brewery is walking distance.  They usually have a food truck in the later afternoons and also have a little kids room with toys to keep the kids busy :-)

I would say the only downfall is the train is right next to the campground and it does go by multiple times a day/night

Pretty muddy, but great location. We got the shared spot, and we had tons of room. It was just a little muddy. Walking distance to all the great breweries, and restaurants.

Nice campground on a beautiful beach. Very crowded and expensive $60/$70 a night and right on a railroad track. Not bad for a beach campground but a bit too crowded and loud for my taste.

I have a wife and 4 kids and we spent 3 nights in a tent. We had a blast and I would recommend it. The beach is only a short walk away and you can enjoy all the normal activities that a beach brings. The bathrooms and showers are cleaned daily which is a plus. The fire pits were well made. A good place to ride bicycles with a paved loop through the park. Wind was an issue for us on one day. It was so strong that we couldn't stay on the beach and we had to point our tenet in a different direction. I didn't give it a five star review because I thought the dumpsters were out in the open to much and I couldn't get the hot water to work when I tried to shower.