Best Cabin Camping near Santa Ana, CA

This place was hopping and popping on the weekend. Fishing, loud music and tons of weekend campers and kids. Big resort, open pool and hot tub was nice given limitations.

This campground is so picturesque! It has a camp store, cabin rentals, and camping spots 10 feet from the sand. There are tent only, partial hookup, and full hookup sites available. Other amenities include playground, bathrooms and showers, a baseball field, and even a large gathering hall! The only downside to this location is that it is for military only, but this keeps the crowds down. The ocean wildlife is so cool, and at low tide you can see octopus, starfish, and all kinds of small fish/crabs. The views are spectacular!

We ended up here after a futile search for an affordable hotel in the area. Even though it was not inexpensive, we secured a beachfront site. The sites are in three sections: standard, deluxe, and premium. There are also cabins and a group tent area (on the public beach). 

The reservation process was not easy – you cannot make same-day online reservations and have to navigate a detailed menu on the phone to finally get to the reservation desk.

We arrived after dark, just as the office was closing but were able to get our information packet. Payment is in full when you make the reservation. As we expected, the sites are stacked up next to each other like dominoes with minimal foliage/fencing to separate the sites. The beachfront and preferred sites have a concrete and sand pad while some less expensive sites have just sand. 

There are codes to enter the restrooms, the bike path, and the pool. The restrooms were clean as were the showers, with good hot water and decent water pressure. 

In season, there are many activities and amenities offered including a water park, water sports rentals, a bistro, a snack bar, movies on the beach, and a swimming beach. About the only amenities available in November were the pool, two hot tubs (although one was not working when we were there), and the .75-mile concrete path around the lake. A gentle water aerobics class is offered three times a week. There is also a marina, but we don’t have a boat so we did not explore this. In season, you can rent pavilions, and pool or beach cabanas, all for an additional cost. 

Although this is a fully contained resort, it is not quiet. You will hear road noise and at certain times of the day, near constant noise from planes at nearby John Wayne airport. 

This was an affordable respite for us on a long road trip, but it is VERY expensive in season (about three times the price of “winter” rates). Also, it would be an entirely different experience when fully booked!

We enjoyed the pool, watching the ducks in the pond, and the kids loved the basketball court. Some parts closed on certain days- store, jacuzzi, community room. Big spots with room to set up, but this place is booked and it’s mid week late September. Definitely my favorite Thousand Trails so far… lots of long timers/ leased sites on the other side of the park. Friendly staff and overall friendly neighbors too!

Cool drive to get to the campground. You drive up and down these hilly roads up the mountain to get there. Once there, there's a parking lot that fits about 20 cars. There's about 100 yd hike to the campsites. There's a road that leads to the campsite but it's been blocked off. Only the campsite managers use that road so it's not accessible by RV, just tents. A campsite manager stays in a little trailer overnight so if there's any problems there's somebody there you can go to and ask for help. There's about six campsites and their first come first serve, no reservations. I went during the week and was the only one camping. This place is heavily used for day camping and hiking. There's not a lot of privacy because there's always lots of people passing by who are hiking and biking. You can stay overnight which I did and everything was fine but there's not a lot of privacy. The next day as I was leaving there was another guy sitting up his tent. I bet on the weekends they can fill up pretty fast. It's in Bear country so they provide food storage for each campsite also trash containers too. Each side has a picnic bench and a fire pit. The fire ban has been lifted so you can have a fire. Each fire pit had wood left at it so you didn't have to go searching for campfirewood. Bathrooms included male and female toilets but no showers or water. There's a creek that runs through the campground which makes it very pretty. I saw two to three cabins along the outskirts of the campground that I assume were for rentals. There was one family at one of the cabins the night I stayed. About a 20 minute hike and you can end up at a waterfall which is very pretty. But there are several trails to take for hiking and biking and I saw lots of people doing that. Overall a good campsite four stars. Would have been five stars if they had showers and running water. I didn't see any bears although there was an animal outside my tent at one point in the night I could hear him nosing around. So it's important to keep all of your food and anything with any kind of smell in the bear boxes

This military campground is located within walking distance of two world class surfing breaks; Old Man's and Tressels. This campground has a variety of camp spots from tent, RV to cabins. You have to make reservation thru the military systems to camp here. There's a baseball diamond. The bathrooms are clean. Try to grab the RV spots on the north side of the campground. 

Cell Service: Excellent

Although it's a members only you can still get in on a trial it is an excellent place to buy into though I must say so they have activities themes that very from weekend a weekend such as example there was a petting zoo they had a Western one time but you can tent cap you can pull your RV in or you can rent a cab in there they have several different kinds of cabins Little ones and then really big ones just suit your family size they have full hookups you can also purchase cable TV if you wish you can park right on the lake there's two lakes in one pond there's one catfish lake and then a trout lake The legs are stopped on Thursday and there's no fishing on that day The place is very clean while kept the staff is friendly they do have rules and you should have buy them as fort makes everybody comfortable in their camping experience there you can stay there for up to two weeks one time of year you're allowed to stay three weeks 21 days then you must leave for two weeks and you can come back in the daytime but you need to wait two weeks before returning to stay the night they have several pools to have an adult center and an adult pool there's tons of things for kids to do as well as the kid pool and they have a really awesome water park this place is well-built and it keeps growing and they keep adding newer and cooler things every time I rate this place and awesome and I will be returning there and I will be putting more media up as I return

This is very close to home but a nice quick getaway. It is surprisingly close to everything but yet you feel like you are hours away. There are trails, trees, a little lake. For how close it is, it does always have quite a few campers. Not my go to place but a nice spur of the moment getaway.

Mind you, we went on a Saturday morning during Covid to escape our house but so many others had the same idea. First of all the gates for the campsites were locked but that didn't stop anyone from walking their stuff in, including us. Our spot was nice and had lots of shade. The only drawback was the one open vault toilet that was pretty dirty. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go. I thought, dang I shouldn't brought my poop bucket!! If I only would've known!! Who can't pop a squat in the dark though?! It was pretty rowdy at night with someone yelling at the top of their lungs and a dog barking but hey, we were under the stars and not couped up at home or with masks on. I wasn't complaining. I love nature and I'll ignore the drunks. Other than that, there is a little store that Adam and his family run. They are great!! The brownies are bomb, so get one early. They also tent cabins up there so give them a call. Great people! It's definitely convenient and worth the effort!

I had a reservation at Wilderness Lakes, and I was a day early, so they let me in! Off to a good start! Full hook-ups, laundry and showers about 50 yards away, no matter which way you go. Laundry is done with an app, and pretty cheap, $1.75 wash, $1.75 dry. Nice canals running through the park, with ducks and their ducklings trailing behind. I chose to stay at the far end, away from the crowds. I got a great site, with no one on either side, and 2 neighbors across the street. While I was setting up, one of my awning screen poles broke. I called ShadePro, and they were out the next morning with a new one. Management seems very friendly, there’s a store at the front of the park, and a nice one mile hike around the perimeter of the park. Unseasonably warm the past couple days, so used my AC for a couple hours in the afternoon, to cool Riley and I down. The internet pretty much sucks. Good for email, and very little surfing, but way too slow to stream Netflix, etc. I just put on some music and relax, or throw in a DVD at night. Plenty of trash receptacles, playground for kids, mini golf, and much more. They even have cabins to rent. Will definitely come back!

This is a great little campground if you want a quick getaway. We camped here when we were training for our first backpacking trip to test out all of our gear. Because it's not easy to get to, don't camp here if you expect to come and go.

This is my go to spot for a random day when I want to go camping! My weekend getaway. There’s almost always a site available, there hiking trails nearby, the restrooms are decently clean except on major holidays, the lake is a nice 15 min walk down some stairs, there’s a convince store across the street from campsites

I have camped here a few times and it is one of my favorite go to spots. I like that there is a camp store near by just incase case someone forgets their coffee mug🙄 or if you need some more firewood. The spots are inexpensive, $10 per night, most nights. There are lots of trails to hike and things to explore. It's a nice place to go when you need to get away from the city.

Spent the night here and it's not bad at all. The night I went there was a retreat or something that played music through 11pm.

The walk to the lake from this site isn't too bad; it's quiet nice. Around the lake you'll find some short hikes.

If you've ever want to just get away and go unplugged for a day, is highly recommend this place considering it's under $15/night.

Sundown by 6pm for us!