Top Tent Camping near San Carlos, CA

Recent Tent Reviews In San Carlos

648 Reviews of 41 San Carlos Campgrounds

• 

  Alana S.

  Scout

  

  Oct. 27, 2024

  Dumbarton Quarry Campground on the Bay

  Great for first time campers

  The staff was amazing. Tent site was spacious. Not too crowded. Clean bathroom and shower. Several trails to walk. Close to town in case we forgot something.

• 

  Amy M.

  Traveler

  

  Oct. 26, 2024

  New Brighton State Beach

  Close to beach, but still in town

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

• M

  MacClellan R.

  Scout

  

  Oct. 17, 2024

  Olema Campground

  Spacious and Accommodating

  We visited this park earlier this spring. Yes it was wet, but we didn't mind. Liked the spaces and layout so much...we are going back this fall. Plus we love that whole area.

  However, DYRT got some info wrong. While there are plenty of full hookup spaces for RVs, there are no pull thru sites. Only back in for trailers and drive-in for coaches. Many tent camping spaces and RV spaces w/just water and power. The folks are friendly and helpful.

  M.R.

• 

  Jenner K.

  Scout

  

  Oct. 17, 2024

  Enchanted Forest Mountain Redwood Retreat

  I think its good

  I hope you keep giving the community great material age of war

• 

  Amy M.

  Traveler

  

  Oct. 16, 2024

  Sunset State Beach Campground

  Close to beach

  My husband and I love to stay here because of the nice walk to the beach. Restrooms and shower are dated , but clean.

• U

  UT801

  Ranger

  

  Oct. 16, 2024

  Coyote Valley RV Resort

  Buttoned up, formal atmosphere RV resort

  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.

• 

  Laura M.

  Legend

  

  Sep. 30, 2024

  New Brighton State Beach

  Love it here

  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.

• 

  Elizabeth S.

  Traveler

  

  Sep. 30, 2024

  Sunset State Beach Campground

  Quiet nice views

  Campground is quiet except those who run their generators all day and play the radio loud. It is spread out. (But still close, you do see your neighbors.) The camp ground is between fields and the ocean. Site 25 has amazing views but also can be breezy. Or windy. Old but clean bathrooms with coin showers. Water close to sites.

• 

  Tyler S.

  Guide

  

  Sep. 20, 2024

  Morgan Territory Regional Preserve

  Backcountry campsite.

  Feels very off grid. Camp experience was smooth and the sun was shining.

• 

  Tyler S.

  Guide

  

  Sep. 20, 2024

  Wildcat Camp - Point Reyes NS

  Hike-in Costal Camping

  This is an awesome spot, the hike out was absolutely gorgeous. We accessed it from the Palomarin trailhead. Beware, the costal weather can be volatile and you could get flash rain. Also, I highly recommend planning your visit with the sunny weather because it’s easy to pick a day that has endless overcast here, and it’s just not quite as much fun.

  Also be careful what campsite you reserve. Some are absolute gems off on the ocean bluff. Others are more inland and packed in

• J

  Jason R.

  Guide

  

  Sep. 20, 2024

  Joseph D Grant County Park - Horse Camp

  Gate closes 8:15pm

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

• 

  CJ S.

  Scout

  

  Sep. 8, 2024

  Enchanted Forest Mountain Redwood Retreat

  Not great for the price

  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.

• S

  Stacy W.

  Scout

  

  Sep. 8, 2024

  Portola Redwoods State Park Campground

  It sucks. Don’t go there.

  Cold. Foggy. No amenities. Don’t go there.

  -Coastside Local

• 

  Sean Z.

  Scout

  

  Sep. 2, 2024

  Anthony Chabot Regional Park

  Great time inconvenienced by yellow jackets

  We love to camp here for barbecuing, mountain biking and hiking. We always do it during 7/4 holidays except for this year when the park canceled our reservation due to high heat. So we booked for the Labor Day weekend. Temperature was perfect and biking and hiking were enjoyable as usual. This year we had two new types of visitors to the the site. A couple of wild turkeys came to pick up the dropped food on the ground. We were able to take a closeup look at them and they were beautiful birds with big eyes spotting tiny bits of crumbs. They come and go from one site to the next quietly and gently. Very cute and we took pictures with their presence. Then came the aggressive yellow jackets. We never had yellow jackets in our previous 7/4 outings here. Oh boy, they fought for the meat relentlessly. At the end of the outing, both my finger and my wife’s were stung. We reported the experience to the attendant at the gate when leaving. She said the park is looking for a solution. In the meantime, she suggested contacting them early on so they might be able to provide another site. Hopefully, next year, we won’t encounter so many nasties.

• 

  Martin L.

  Traveler

  

  Aug. 23, 2024

  Olema Campground

  Great getaway spot

  Ok, I was originally hoping for a cabin, which is included in my search, but this CG is either tent or RV only. Luckily, I also brought a tent.

  I was there 2 weeks ago. It's a fairly large area and flat. Lots of space for kids to play including a play area.

  Sheep roam freely in one area towards the back.

  It's a great place for families. Showers are great. Includes a small shop for goodies.

  I love it there. Only negative is there are only portapotties. Except for a couple that are constantly in use.

• 

  Vincent B.

  Guide

  

  Jul. 23, 2024

  New Brighton State Beach

  Good spot with availability

  Despite the website showing every site booked, we drove in about 4 pm to a decent number of sites. Entry ranger was available pretty late. Site was $35 I believe, and has paid showers and restrooms. Site had a fire pit, paved parking for a larger vehicle, table and decent amount of shade. Lots of families and lots of kids. Cool weather along the beach, can't ask for much more.

• M

  Monica M.

  Traveler

  

  Jul. 9, 2024

  Enchanted Forest Mountain Redwood Retreat

  This was an excellent getaway

  Booked this as a last minute escape from the heat where I live and it didn’t disappoint. Towering Coastal Redwoods provide for tons of shade and really nice campsites. Definitely a dry time of year but there were still some beautiful wildflowers to be seen. There’s a lovely easy trail that takes you to a stream along a mostly shaded path. I imagine that during the spring you’ll get a greater runoff but it was still really nice. Saturday was pretty bust with campers but Sunday was almost all vacant so it felt like I had the whole place to myself and the wildlife showed up. The hosts were communicative and descriptions and directions were great. Zero cell service with Verizon but it was nice to just unplug. I would definitely recommend this one. Happy camping!

• 

  Laura D.

  Traveler

  

  Jul. 6, 2024

  Manresa State Beach

  Right on beach!

  First time visiting, We stayed at site 63 for two nights June 30 and July 1st. Sites are very private and seperated by bushes and trees. The loading zone was a short walk to our site. It was an easy 5-7 minute walk down to the beach. Beach was clean and not crowded. Beautiful sunset views. Only complaints are that the bathrooms were filthy. One of the showers wasn’t working and robbed us of $2. They need to put a quarter change machine for coins for the showers. We had to drive to KOA to get change to shower. We will definitely come back !

• L

  Leonard H.

  Traveler

  

  Jun. 30, 2024

  Pinto Lake City Park

  Small City Park... Good Option for short and/or Longer Stays

  Small city park with RV Parking on grass between lake and baseball fields.  Sites almost level; however, might need to use a few blocks.  Park was busy with locals using pavilions for birthday and other parties when we visited on a Saturday in June.  Adjacent baseball field was busy on Sunday morning with little league game and parking lot was full.  Cars were being parked in unused RV spots.  Many people were fishing from the shoreline.  Many Candian geese (with poop) were in the dock area and alone the shoreline.  Some ducks made themselves at home in the shade under our RV.  Temperature was considerably cooler versus the very hot temps only a few miles further inland.  Nice that each site has electric / water / sewer hook-ups.  Two rest rooms (one by lake and one by baseball field) were a little dirty due to heavy use.  Unfortunate there are no showers and that you can only walk around perhaps 10% of the lake shoreline.  Quiet at night as they lock the park gate... they give you an access card ($25 deposit req'd) if you need to leave and return after gate is locked at night.  Called and requested my $25 credit after refund was not automatically received a few days later.  Credit was immediately made.  A good option especially if parks along the coast are booked and you want reasonably cool temperatures.  Would stay again.

• 

  Michelle W.

  Ranger

  

  Jun. 17, 2024

  Coyote Lake Harvey Bear Ranch County Park

  So many animals and birds

  I had a big spot and no neighbors my entire half of the campground on a Monday night in June. I was under 2 big oaks that were buzzing with bird activity.
  The bathrooms were clean and I had water on my site. I had some AT&T service.

• 

  Sonya S.

  Traveler

  

  May. 31, 2024

  Sunset State Beach

  Clean and quite

  This is a beautiful place, camp site behind woods, this, waving sound won’t bother at night.

  Very clean and friendly staffs

• 

  Lori T.

  Ranger

  

  May. 28, 2024

  Mount Madonna

  Great Campground

  Loved everything about this campground! Registration online was really easy as was the check-in process. We stayed in Valley View 1, site 106. There was really no road noise at our site, though a few sites further around the loop did have noise. This particular site has a trail leading directly to the vast network of hiking trails. Huge bonus for us and we were pleasantly surprised that not one person used our site as a cut through. On the subject of hiking, this is a county park that allows dogs on ALL the trails. It’s hard to find that sometimes so we greatly appreciated how dog friendly it was. We didn’t actually encounter anyone else as we hiked, so I can’t attest to whether folks follow the rule that dogs must be on a 6 ft lead on the trails, but they certainly did in the campground. There are quite a few trails that are currently closed due to storm damage, but crews were actively working on them.

  While the sites are a little close to each other, those on the outside of the loop had a great deal of privacy. Inner loop sites have none, but would be great if you were camping with friends. We didn’t use the restrooms or showers, but peeked in them anyway. Like everything else in this campground, they were clean and well maintained.

  The RV sites have both water and electric hookups which was great! There is a very convenient FREE dump station just inside the entrance to the park that we used as we departed.

  Our friends stayed in one of the yurts and it was great, albeit a little cold for them at night. I believe there are 2 dog friendly yurts. 106RV

  What a gem of a campground! We’ll definitely come back!

  Important to note that you can actually get a cell signal if you walk to the dump station!

• 

  Alma L.

  Ranger

  

  May. 28, 2024

  Del Valle Regional Park

  Distance from home was the highlight

  I had a very different take on this place than the others. The RV spot was a fair distance from the neighboring spots, it was low-density, quite, all good qualities, but there was very little see or do near the loop. There were no hikes suitable for young kids as far as I could tell. There was a little store for ice cream and camping supplies and dump station on the loop.  HOWEVER, WARNING: the road around the campground looks wide but there are boulders every 10 feet or so making it insanely hard to back into our spot - and we had only a 22ft trailer! I can't see myself coming back here. The maps do accurately depict the relatively narrow space you have for back in spots. Once we were in, it was fine.  The pedestal and sewer set-up was just fine. No issues there. It's just not worth the hassle. 

  As for the park/water part of the park, well, it was covered in garbage from the day-trippers. It was packed and only accessible by driving to it. Truly not a place I wanted to BBQ or picnic at.  Cars, people, dogs, loud music, and garbage. A gross diaper on the shore.     We took a very nice hike starting at the dog run. That was beautiful, but not worth the trip.

  I didn't bother to photograph our site. There were all adequate, just avoid back in site here. There are so many better places to visit.  I checked this off the list, no reason to return. I don't believe there was reception either from the campsite.

  Last thing, we peaked in on the cabins in our loop. They looks very nice and maintained.

• N

  NOra M.

  Scout

  

  May. 3, 2024

  Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area

  1 Night

  We stayed 1 night and it was perfect. The staff was very nice and the place was clean and quiet. There are toilets and showers on the campground and it only cost 10$!

  the campsite is perfect for traveling through and getting a night's sleep.

• 

  Praveen R.

  Scout

  

  Apr. 30, 2024

  Bicentennial Campground — Golden Gate National Recreation Area

  No parking on the site

  Had to walk all the way down to get to the camp site with all the gear, it was to windy to put up our tent

• 

  Tina M.

  Guide

  

  Apr. 26, 2024

  Thousand Trails Morgan Hill

  Good location

  We liked the surrounding area and gorgeous rolling hills and while we were able to get a good spot it was not a campground that stood out too much to us. The pool is great though it was too cold to use it while we were there. No sewer hook up but dump station was close from our side. Overall happy with the stay

• 

  Tony G.

  Guide

  

  Apr. 18, 2024

  Big Basin Redwoods State Park (Temporarily Closed)

  Closed to camping

  Big Basin is unfortunately closed to camping. You can't even bring a trailer in for day use as parking is very limited. This is due to a fire a few years back that devastated the park and completely burned down all structures, including ranger station, store, and all restrooms.

  It is a shame because it is/was a fantastic place.