Best RV Parks & Resorts near Capitola, CA

We happened upon this RV Park as a drop in when our other park was not available. What a pleasant surprise! We’ll be making this our go to spot when traveling through the Gilroy area from now on.

For starters, the staff is wonderful. So friendly. Just an FYI, if they have open spots after the office closes they put out packets for up to 2 pull thru and 2 back in spots for late arrivals without a reservation.

Pros

• Great central location!
• Roomy spaces, by RV park standards.
• Water, sewer, electric, WiFi, and trash.
• Propane on-site for purchase.
• Laundry mat on site. Prices more reasonable than going to a laundry mat off site.
• Showers and restrooms.
• Truly dog welcoming, with multiple dog poop baggy bins and a dog run so your best friend can run leash free. They even gave my dog premium dog treats upon arrival. Wow!!
• A really nice pool.
• Wide back in spots, with wide roadways. Even a novice RVer can back it up with out concern.
• This place can accommodate truly large rigs, there were quite a few of them during our visit.
• There are likely long term rentals, but I couldn’t point them out because all the sites were neat and clean with flowers and landscaping. The park was super quiet.
• Open, lush grassy area.

Cons:

• It’s an RV park, so there is a lot of smooth new concrete and the sites are close together. If you want natural turf and more space, you’ll need to give up the amenities and go to a State Park or Forest.

You are probably thinking "Parking lot? Why did you give it 4 stars?" Because of the location! We stayed here for three nights in our 34 foot travel trailer. We barely fit into the back in site, and had to park our truck in visitor parking a short walk away. Other, smaller trailers had enough room for their vehicle to fit in alongside. The facility has full-hookups and they functioned fine. The harbor itself has trails but no other facilities for campers. No wifi but Verizon had good signal. The weather is perfect and we loved walking to the beach, to get coffee in Seabright, and driving into downtown and the boardwalk.  It's fairly quiet at night, but you do have to watch your stuff. The first night we stayed here we got woken up at 5:30 in the morning by a rattling noise. Open the door and someone is walking away from our trailer. A look at our bike rack revealed that our ties had been cut. I guess the would-be thief didn't notice that the bikes were locked to the rack. Either way, you have to be careful, because this is Santa Cruz and there are a lot of weird folks about. So yes, there are some downsides. But we love Santa Cruz and it was great to be in such a central location.

We rarely make reservations to camp in California Beach Parks, as they are usually filled up weeks or even months in advance. While meeting up with some friends in Half Moon Bay we happened along the campsite and simply enquired if they had an open site for the night. They did, and we ended up staying for 2 nights due to a cancellation.  It never hurts to ask!  

The campsite is a nice quiet stretch of grass, live oak trees, and beach shrubs about 30 vertical feet above the Pacific beach shoreline.  While you get away from the blowing sand, you get to hear the pounding ocean at night. I can’t imagine a more gentle lullaby, frankly. The sites themselves are a little close quarters, but all provide just about enough space for a long camper and a tow/towed vehicle as well.  For a small camper like us, there’s even enough room to have a friend visit. 

The sites offer electrical and water hookups, additionally there is a dump station just as you exit the camping area. Showers and flush toilets are available, but also used by all the beach goers in the area, so you know what they look like....never clean.

The town of Half Moon Bay offers pretty much everything you need in terms of restaurants or grocery stores. Riding your bike, or walking along the path toward town for a well-earned brunch should definitely reach the top of your to-do list while you’re there.  We had brunch at Mavericks Creparie and dinner at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company.  Both are absolutely fantastic!

Beachcombing, sunbathing, swimming, horseback riding, and skim boarding during the warmer months also are great ways to fill up the day. The beach path goes for miles in either direction so you can get some exercise off of the main roads.

Nice parklike campground run by the City of Monterey. It’s adjacent to a day use area with a big playground and some little hiking trails. You can walk to downtown Monterey’s restaurants and shops from here, about 1-2 miles away. The campground is on a hill though, so you’re going downhill the whole way down and uphill the whole way up. 

Cost is $44/night, plus a $6 surcharge for RVs. Sites are dry camping but there’s a dump station with potable water, free for campers, $12 for non-campers. Showers are free for campers as well! A rarity in California. Showers were clean and had good pressure, but the water was only warm, not hot.  

The website and the signs in the campground say there’s a 21ft vehicle limit. But according to other reviews it seems to be hit or miss if you get called out on it by the rangers. We are in a 26ft class C and decided to go for it and had no issues. I can see why there’s a length limit though, as the roads in the campground are narrow and full of overhanging trees. The drive through town to get to the campground was a little gnarly as well. UPDATE: Ranger spoke with us about the size of our motorhome and didn’t kick us out, but asked us not to come back. Fair enough. He was very nice about it. 

Cell service was really weak in the campground, and the cell booster did not help (this was for both Verizon and ATT). Lots of trees in the campground so our solar panel didn’t get much sun. Also most sites are iffy on flatness, but #30 was ok with levels.

Plenty of sites if you have 30 amp. Plenty of full hook up sites. The 50 amp sites were all in one section. If you don’t need to run your A/C you can get by with 30 amp hook up. We loved most of the sites were pull thru. Had good picnic tables. Restrooms and showers were great. Like others have said this place needs a lot of care. A lot of sites were out of order. Nice trails there. Gilmore was a distance for us to restock on supplies. Pool was open but not heated. Hot tub was closed for the winter season. You are out in the sticks so no cell phone service. You could purchase WiFi and patch your phone thru WiFi calling.

Level, concrete pads. Spacing is tight. We had an end space with a nice patch of grass. Small space to walk dogs.

Campground is directly adjacent to the parking lot and marina from which multiple boats sail for whale watching trips. You can also rent kayaks nearby to kayak in the calm waters where you will almost certainly see sea otters.

Easy in and out, but tight turns if you have a big rig. Our 30’ class C had no troubles and there were a lot of much larger trailers and class A’s so maybe tight but definitely doable.

You can easily walk to Phil’s, but expect very long lines. They were not allowing dogs even in outdoor seating area.

It was very quiet at night, but very loud during the day. Everyone there was very friendly. Very nice and helpful people running the office.

I would definitely stay here again, especially if going whale watching or kayaking with the sea otters.