Best Campgrounds near Paicines, CA

raccoons….everywhere…. seriously leave your car locked, these little buggers were not afraid of humans. otherwise, good showers, clean bathrooms. private sites. very convenient location to trails.

Nice campground, not very big. Beautiful views of Salinas Valley and San Juan Bautista. Great star gazing too!

Very close to the beach, quiet, excellent friendly staff always happy to help. Had some helpful neighbors for my first time in the travel trailer. They have activities daily and things to do which are sent out daily in a text. The store has many items that may be needed and some souvenirs. It was a great visit!

We stayed here for a week due to it's proximity to the beach and Monterey/Santa Cruz. This park is very well cared for, and management responsive. Showers, laundry and store are all clean and well maintained. Sites are close together but paved. Beach is super close and sea life plentiful. Surfing beaches very nearby. We visited in the off season and most local shops were closed, but the fresh seafood and coffee shops were open. Other shopping is a drive away. Sites are tight but paved.

First, knowing nothing about this area of CA I looked for a spot to set up for a few to dry out, we'd just dropped out of Shasta Mt b4 heavy winter storms. Arrived late afternoon to set up. Problem is the ground is covered, literally, with all the casings, glass, human trash everywhere 😮‍💨 🙏 please, always pack out a bit more than you've created in an area. These pics are the cleanest spot I could find. 😪

Location is great. Easy access. Noise from the freeway. Heard sirens.

Camped with family over Memorial Day weekend. Park was busy , but amazing. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. Our camp neighbors were awesome. Bathroom and showers clean. We camp here at least twice a year. Can’t wait to come back.

High priced. Nice people at desk. Damon who helped us park was very friendly. Almost entirely high-priced big rigs, some of whom seem settled here but it's clean, 'orderly,' very quiet. Rigid rules keep the order; nice that no political flags/signs allowed. 2 dog parks and lots of grassy areas to take for a walk. Showers in locker-room/bldg, bathrooms nice and clean. Green grass. Also has laundry with 2.50 wash and.25 dry for 8 min. Skunk wandered by site in the night. Cool train sounds from nearby tracks at night. Was probably the most convenient to San Jose, otherwise we likely would've been in mtns. and too far away from town for our needs at the time. Would not be a regular choice for us.

Camping spot was clean and a tall fire pit a good distance from the water and bathroom at site 22. Was hot af was the only issue for us, 103 and the sun just hurt. There were plenty of fish and fishing folks on the shore and boats all were catching.

There are a ton of reviews for this place already so I will try to keep it short and only add info that I didn't see mentioned in previous reviews.

Showers are $0.25 per min ($0.50 min to start).  You don't get to adjust water temp, but it was pleasantly hot. Showers are non-gendered and individual.

Dump station is no longer free; all California State Parks are charging $10 to dump now, even for campers.  You pay at the dump site with a credit card. There are 4 dump holes and a potable water fill as well.

We love staying here as it's so convenient to Capitola. We were able to park our RV in Capitola and walk to the shops. We got last minute reservations (it's really hard to book a site here in the summer), but had to move sites in between days, and so we used that 2 hour block between noon checkout and 2pm checkin to drive the RV to Capitola. It seemed like it would have been too much of a hassle to try and get to move to the new spot before checkin, so this worked out fine.

We love all the state parks along the beach in California, and I'm sure we'll be back at some point.

This place always comes through for us when we need a quiet place to stay when traveling in the area. It's $20/night, there seems to always be room, and it's always been nice and quiet when we stay here.

Sites are hit or miss, so drive around until you find one that suits you. One of these days we'll nab one of the sites to the right of the fork when you enter the campground, but they always seem to be taken.

Good cell reception, pit toilets, trash dumpster (no recycling).

Nice bathrooms no tokens needed, hot water, clean sink for dishes. Lotsa shaded oak spaces. Good trails.

The pictures here are very deceiving. Driving in, the first 4 campsites are occupied by broken down trailers, an overturned couch and broken BBQ pits. We stayed in site #6 which was probably one of the best sites. Great shade and car was able to be parked nearby (you walk down non-maintained "stairs" with rotted tree branches as the steps).  

Overall, I had high hopes based on the description here especially reading: "Our onsite staff will go around and enforce the rules." but this is clearly a non-maintained campground that was probably very nice 45 years ago. No hiking trails are maintained, the bathrooms are "rustic" which is fine--nice to have running water when you've got little ones to clean. But the floors were rotted and I was afraid we'd step through the floorboards. 

If you are a true car camper who can lock your doors at night, this is probably the spot for you. Running water, showers and washing machine. If you are a tent camper with small kids like me, this is not where you want to stay. I'm disappointed I paid the price I did to stay here, I'd pay $25/night because this is essentially a parking space in a poorly maintained campground.