Twelve miles south of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria camping offers a mile of beach for swimming, surf fishing, tidepool exploring and camping. Although dogs are not allowed on beach, we have a great picnic area where they are allowed to enjoy the outdoors as well. Lifeguards patrol the beach year round and lifeguard towers are staffed roughly from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. The Spanish named the area Carpinteria because the Chumash tribe, which lived in the area, had a large seagoing canoe-building enterprise, or "carpentry shop" here. This was because of naturally-occurring surface tar, which was used to waterproof the canoes.

 Seals and sea lions can be seen in the area December through May, as well as an occasional gray whale. Tidepools contain starfish, sea anemones, crabs, snails, octopi and sea urchins.

Carpinteria State Beach

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.

A great campsite for a family to enjoy the beach!

This is a truly unique campground that my family has been visiting for decades.  You can walk into town and eat at the amazing restaurants quaint Carpenteria has to offer.  Or you can listen to the waves roll in from your campground as you cook something up over the camp fire.  A great home base to explore Santa Barbara or Sloveng too.  

Town meets Beach Camping

Match made in heaven.  Beach camping meets cute beach town.  Great restaurants and breweries in Carpenteria all within walking distance from the beach camping sites here.  This is truly an unique experience that is great for kids and families alike.  If can reserve early go for the Santa Cruz loop on the water!

Cute beach town meets camping

This is a great beach to spend time camping near. The campgrounds are pretty large and a lot of people take advantage of the near year round perfect weather. Facilities are clean and there's a trail nearby that leads to other areas along the cliffside part of the beach. There is offshore drilling that creates tar residue laden areas so it's best not to walk barefoot there. It's a weird thing but the lights from the offshore drilling are kinda cool looking. All sorts of people camp here so I would say there's a good mix of the populace and the vibe is entertaining and unpretentious. This is a heavy touristed area so the place is crowded year round and the day area busy, although we were still able to stay here and get great beachfront space around Christmas time when hords of folks come to enjoy 70 degree temps. It's a nice spot, and everyone knows about it...

Always great views, weather and sunsets

Okay, the sites aren't anything special at all, but the view! Fall asleep to the sound of the ocean. Often hard to get a spot, and kind of expensive compared to other camp sites, but totally worth it.

What a View!

Nestled between Ventura and Santa Barbara just north of Los Angeles is this picture perfect State Beach campground. This location has both full hook-ups as well as tent camping
right up to the coast  This campsite also has showers availa le and restrooms  There are plenty of miles of bike trails as well as hiking tails to the Bluffs that overlook a sea lion protected sanctuary  But the most glorious reason to come here are the breath taking sunsets viewable from your own campsite  




Beautiful ocean sunsets at this quaint campground

This is a nice little spot, close to town, but not as close to the train as some of the other Southern California state beaches. The campground hosts went above and beyond to keep the bathrooms clean and even provided nice soap. The tent camping spots were a pretty good size for beach camping.

Nice State Beach Campground

I stayed at Carpinteria State Beach this past weekend and had a great time. The staff were super friendly at the entry and the camp host was as well. We had a spot on the far side of the camp from the beach but were still only a couple minutes walk away. The facilities were nice with individual shower rooms and restrooms. Only reason I’d remove a star is due to the train tracks right next to the camp. However thats out If their control and I didn’t notice a train horn between the hours of 2200-0530. 

Right on the Beach

Carpinteria State Beach Campground is a one of our frequently visited “staycation” spots. We live in nearby Santa Barbara, but will use Carp State Beach as a midway meeting point when friends from Southern California and Central California meet up. 

The campground is pretty large, and caters mostly to RVs and trailers. There are loops within the campground that are essentially just asphalt lots with small dirt spaces for fire pits and picnic benches - these are intended for RV campers, but we have tent camped there in a pinch. Since we are tent campers we do prefer to camp in the grassy tent sites, but they are limited in number and tend fill up quickly. Because of the moderate year-round weather, Carpinteria State Beach Campground stays pretty full all year long!

The campground has full hook ups, clean plumed bathrooms, and coin-operated showers. There are grocery stores and conscience stores within short walking distance for anything you might need. Train tracks run directly behind the campground, so there is some noise pollution from the passing trains. 

The campground is at the very end of downtown Carpinteria, right next to the ocean. There are no “ocean front” sites, but the beach is a quick 1-minute walk from essentially anywhere in the campground. Some small sandy dunes separate the campground from the beach, and there is an accessible paved boardwalk running along the length of the dunes. There are beautiful tide pools just south of Carpinteria State Beach Campground that are a must see. Check the tide charts on the internet to visit the tide pools at low to mid tide. 

While we really enjoy camp cooking, we tend to opt to walk into town to eat when camping in Carpinteria. Linden Avenue is right next to the campground, and is the main street in downtown Carpinteria. There is a wide variety of restaurants, breweries and coffee shops downtown. Island Brewery CO is a local favorite just on the edge of the campground - while I don’t think they have food available (yet), their beer is GREAT! Their avocado beer is a must try - I know it sounds weird, but it’s delicious (and doesn’t taste like avocados)! Rincon Brewery is a few blocks up from the campground, and also has great beer, and TASTY FOOD! 


**CAMPSITE SPECS**

**Fees:** $45/night (normal campsite)

**Plumbed Toilets**: Yes

**Drinking Water**: Yes

**Showers**: Yes (coin-operated)

**Picnic Table**: Yes

**Firepit**: Yes

**Cooking Grate**: Yes

**Shade**: No

**Cell Service**: Yes

**Animal Bins/Food lockers**: No

**Trash**: Yes

Carpinteria State Beach Campground

Awesome beach campground 

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.

Good spot.

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. 

Things as Usual

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. 

Sardine in paradise 

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. 

Great Camp

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

Very Beautiful

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

Beautiful Beach

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

We love this beach

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.

It’s the Beach Location that counts

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

Clean Showers & Bathrooms

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. 

Tailgate Camping

Awesome view, nice staff, clean bathrooms

Parked right on the beach :-)

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 

Wonderful Sound, Close Quarters, Poor Showers

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.

Beautiful beachside camping

Anacapa campground is the ideal spot for a family.  The terrain/layout is easy for small kids to ride their bikes and still keep an eye on them.  Walking distance to the beach, eateries and a local brewery.  Love it.

Beautiful and convenient

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.

Santa Cruz dry camping

$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&amp;B campers, a Food box and a bike rack. 

Hike & Bike 

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