Best RV Parks & Resorts near San Simeon, CA

What a find! Mostly level, mostly gravel and grass, mostly pull through sites. Water, and 30 amp and 12 V available. Not sure about 50 amp. Good cell service, bathrooms, showers and a dump station round out the on-site conveniences. Firings and picnic tables with a choice of well-shaded or solar-friendly sites. A nice walking path, circles the campground and is well used in the mornings and evenings by locals running or walking dogs and babies. The first half of the park has a rustic agriculture, museum, and lots of old farm equipment on display. There are also spaces to rent for parties and events with their own parking area separate from the campground. King City has grocery, gas, some restaurants and some shops just outside of the park.

We have visited this place at least 3 times .  It is a dog friendly camp sight with pull through campsites.  The cost of the pull through is 25 $.  They have 30 amp/50amp available. They also have overflow camping available for 5 $.  Please beware that overflow is I. The grass area and does not have hookups.  You can tent camp in those.  If you do park your rv in the overflow there is a dump site for those. They have clean facilities on site, bathrooms with hot showers.  You can bike, walk the base.  The area is kept very clean and at night there is no noise.  At 10 camp goes silent.  They have a table and brick fire pit at each pull through. Bring you own firewood. This is a military base so don’t forget your military Id  or civil service Id.   There is a small commissary (store) near the campground, but hours vary.

We go here with our kids  and love it as it’s clean secure and close to (15min) to the beach. 

Note reservation maximum 30 days ahead.

We just returned from a stay at Pismo Coast RV Resort, and unfortunately, it did not live up to expectations. Check-in was fast and easy, and on our first full day, the weather was perfect. The kids enjoyed the pool and arcade, which was a great start. However, several advertised amenities were either missing or in poor condition. We went looking for the mini golf course that’s promoted on their website, only to find it completely ripped out and blocked off— very disappointing since it was one of the reasons, we booked this resort. We also searched for the ping pong tables, which appear to have been left outside and are badly warped and unusable. Another letdown. The basketball and tennis are combined into one court, so only one activity can be played at a time, and we never did find the horseshoe area. Our group included eight people and two travel trailers. We had told the kids all about the resort's amenities, which played a big part in our decision to book. It was disheartening to find that many of the features we looked forward to simply weren’t available. Dinner at the on-site restaurant was equally frustrating. Service was extremely slow, and there weren’t enough umbrellas to provide shade— we ended up sitting with the sun in our faces. One of our guests wasn’t even asked for their drink order before the server walked away. When we finished eating, it took over 25 minutes just to get our bill, despite the restaurant being nearly empty(maybe 4 tables outside, 2 inside). We felt completely ignored. The first night was peaceful, as it should be. But the following day, large RVs surrounded us and parked so close they encroached on the grass behind our spot. Some opened their toy haulers, making it feel like we had no privacy— just 5 feet from their setup. That night was extremely loud until 11:30 PM, even though quiet hours start at 10 PM. With on-site security, we expected better enforcement. It wasn’t just one or two campsites being loud— it was several, with shouting and laughter like it was a private party. If you’re looking for a quiet, family-friendly place where you can count on the advertised amenities, this is not it. We had high hopes that this would become an annual trip, but based on this experience, we won’t be returning. Really disappointed.

Washburn Campground is one of two campgrounds in Hearst San Simeon State Park, the other being San Simeon Creek Campground.  We stayed in both campgrounds. The two campgrounds have different amenities and features, with the Washburn one being more "primitive" even though neither have hookups.  

Coin operated showers are technically available to San Simeon Creek guests only, though I'm not sure how anyone would know or care if a Washburn camper went over to shower at San Simeon Creek. 

There are pit toilets available in Washburn, as well as trash and mixed recycling dumpsters.

Washburn is $20/night, with an $8 reservation fee when making reservations online.

There is practically zero verizon service, very weak AT&T service, but decent T-Mobile service on our hotspot.

There is a path over to the beach, very convenient (goes under Hwy 1).

Elephant seal viewing is nearby, as well as being close to the cute town of Cambria and San Simeon.

Warning: the map is wrong!  We picked site #226 based on the map showing that it wasn't next to the toilet.  The toilets ended up being directly next to 226, which was fine but not our favorite thing.

There is a dump and water fill for RVs located in between the campgrounds, and they are available to guests of both (or $5 to use for people not staying at the campgrounds).  Firewood also available for sale from the host, but check out the hours before heading over to buy wood.

We stayed here in mid-March, and the campground was beautiful and green and peaceful.   The landscape may turn brown later in the year.  

The sites are nicely spaced out for the most part.  Each site has a picnic table and steel fire pit.  Some sites have some trees for shade, but most do not.

We really liked it here.  The $20/night compared to the $35 at the busier and more active San Simeon Creek makes it a no-brainer that Washburn is where we'd choose to come.

“Luxury RV Sites” not so much I’m not sure why they claim luxury.

 It’s just cement pads on top of each other so no one has any privacy from their neighbors. Definitely not worth the$1600 a month to stay here. You would think for$1600 there would be more and better options offered. 

It is a very clean campground, I will give them that. It says it includes a picnic table at the back in sites and we were there for 3 months and never saw 1 picnic table.

 We are dog friendly people, we did not travel with our dogs, the campground is full of dogs which is great, our daughter loved it. Except there was constant barking from all over the campground. My neighbors dogs barked multiple times a day and multiple times at night, constantly waking us all up in the middle of the night and my daughter during her nap midday. 

They do not enforce their own quiet hour rule. Like I said dogs were constantly barking, people playing loud music, loud diesel pickups and playing loud music driving throughout the campground. 

They offer a great pool area, one bigger pool but it’s always in the shade because of the big solar panels they built. And one smaller pool in full sun which is nice. But it doesn’t matter because the water is so cold there’s no way we would ever try to take our toddlers swimming in those pools. There’s also a large jacuzzi in the shade. 

It is a family friendly campground unless you have kids that nap during the day. It is very noisy. Not to mention it is located right along the freeway so you’re constantly hearing the roaring vehicle and truck sounds from that.

 They had some tiny homes lining the outside of the campground that they were removing, I’m assuming to make more room for RVs. Which is great Monday-Friday. Then they were removing them Saturday and Sunday as well. Sunday is my husbands only day off and the only full day we get to spend together as a family. And we got to spend our beautiful Sunday sitting outside with our toddler playing and grilling, while listening to the banging and hammering and the loud trucks taking out the tiny homes on a SUNDAY. 

They do have an awesome building by the pool that offers use of a play/game room, kitchen, grills, and dining room. Which is great but it’s constantly filled with people who are not staying in the campground on the weekends, so the people that are staying there and paying for the amenities can’t use it on the weekends. 

Like I said, definitely not worth the$1600 monthly fees for long term living. If you’re here for just a night or two might not be that big of a deal. When we first got here we were told it would be$1400 monthly payments and not even a month in we get a call that they are raising the rates to$1600. Quite a joke of a“RV Resort”.

This is a pricey rv park, but great location and very busy. It is competitive with the others around and think it was the best one in the area. There are over 400 sites and so you are very, very close to your neighbor and tight parking at your rv, but the grounds are kept very nice and there are lots of things to do at the RV park. 

Direct access to the beach and can stroll the beach all the way to downtown. Also walkable to state park with walking trails by the water. 

Wifi worked excellent and had good AT&T cell service so easy to work remote here. Laundry on site and pricey, but machines worked well and very clean facilities with plenty of washers and dryers.$2.75/wash,$1.75/dry 

Close to San Luis Obispo. Awesome food at Oasis Mediterranean, the Honeymoon Cafe and Talay Thai!

This is a well established California state park campground, just a mile or so from the small coastal town of Morro Bay. There are 30 water/electric hookup sites (all fhu sites are pull-through), about 100 dry sites of various sizes, and a dump station and clean-water-fill. There are park aides in the kiosk from 8am. to about 9:00pm in summer, and 9am to 5pm in winter, and always a camp host on duty To report problems to, or to buy firewood from. It's one of the busiest parks in the state park system, and it's a good idea to get reservations if possible. Bathrooms/token showers are very aged and function unreliably. Lots of big trees for shade in many areas, and a nice estuary boardwalk close by for a stroll.

We really enjoyed this RV park. For an expensive (to us) place with lots of amenities and lots of rules, it still had a really peaceful, calm, and friendly vibe. The guests were all friendly and chatty, staff was friendly, and the place was really clean and nicely cared for. 

With our Passport America discount, we paid $40 (this included tax) for a standard site (on decomposed granite v. the more expensive paved sites). There are also some cottages / small houses available for rent. 

Sites have a grill and picnic table and 30 and 50 amp power.

Amenities:

- laundry room: $2.75 for wash and $1.50 for dry. Soap dispenser for $1. Iron and ironing board available for use for free. Quarters available in office. 

- Small take a book / leave a book table in laundry room.

- pool and spa: one open, and one closed for covid

- fitness room: open

- clean free showers

- free cable

- free wifi (fast!)

- 2 small enclosed dog yards with gravel and poop bags.

- fires are allowed, but park doesn't provide fire pits or firewood. Must bring own self-contained fire pit

- bulk propane fill at $3.50/gal. Filling hours are currently 10am-noon and 2-4pm

- water bottle filling stations

- dumpster and mixed recycling bin

- we saw a skoolie parked here; no rv discrimination!

- various outdoor hangout areas: bbq, wine bar, etc (closed for covid). 

- small nice store at registration desk with basic food items, ice, camping and rv supplies, gifts and souvenirs 

- playground

No dump station here, and use of sewer connection is for guests only.