Kelly's Brighton Marina

We wound up camping at Kelly's when all of Portland decided to escape the summer heat and every single campsite that took reservations on the coast was full--and it turned out to be a great option.

Kelly's does not have a campground in the woods feel--it has a camping at a marina feel because that'e exactly what you're doing. There are RV hookups and a dozen or so campsites. Most of the campsites are on the north end of the marina on a grassy area with trees where you can drive up to the site. There are also a few unmarked sites along the water on the south side of the marina by the boat ramp.

Every site has a fire pit and picnic table. There are separate bathrooms and showers for campers with a key code in addition to the marina bathrooms. Campers also have access to the main marina which has a giant fire pit and wifi. We opted to sit around the community fire at night in lieu of building our own.

Tent sites were $30 and we even managed to find a place to hang up the hammock on the sea wall posts.

All the crab with waterfront camping

Want to be near the ocean? Love seafood? Don't care about where camp? Then this place is for you. 

Awesome Oysters, Basic Camping

We spent a week Kelly's over the 4th of July holiday weekend and week. Lots of campers in and out, but Kelly brought in plenty of clean port-a-potties and kept them that way all weekend. Showers are old, but warm, and the girls working the crab pit were always happy to serve up some great seafood. Not a remote, quiet place, but that's not it's intention. The view of the bay is lovely, and we could even see a full fireworks show without having to fight traffic.

Great for Crabbing

To preface my review, my husbands family has been going to Kelly’s for over 25 years, and I have been going as long as he and I have been together(7 years). Kelly’s has always been a fun place for our family and we look forward to it every year. This year has taken away all of those memories and deterred us from wanting to come back due to our recent experience. Firstly, after making an online rv reservation and not receiving any communication regarding our reservation, my husband called to make sure our reservation was received. Upon calling, my husband explained that he made an online reservation and was hoping to verify it was received. The individual that my husband spoke to informed him(multiple times) that they don’t rent boats, they’re first come first serve. He was patient and corrected them and when they finally caught on to what exactly it was that he was referring to, they asked about the size of our trailer and informed us they had one open spot that came available for the week, but the first day, we would have to park in“overflow parking”. We planned for this and we’re expecting to“boondock” for one night. Due to our 6 hour treck, this wasn’t a huge deal because we just needed to sleep. When I refer to planning, we have a family pet lizard that we planned to come along with us for the trip and we’re making sure we had accommodations for the lizard’s set up.(While I understand this is a little unorthodox, this is our family, and as mentioned, we made very temporary plans for the first evening) Come time for the trip, when we arrive, there were 6 open RV spaces, so we stopped into the office and checked for openings. We were told they were completely booked for the week. Again, not a problem because we had prepared for a night with no hookups. Part of our party decided to pay for the first night for us, and we found out we were charged for an extra person(even though we only had the allotted number of 4 people) and charged the same cost for a typical RV spot. This combined with the fact that all 6 rv spaces that were open when we arrived, we’re open when it was time to move into our space, was frustrating because we felt like we were being lied to. But we drove on with our time and we’re going to make the best of it. The next day, when we were to move into our RV space, we were met with a site that was considered a tent space, because there are no hookups at the site. When we spoke to the desk and explained to them, hoping it was a misunderstanding and that we would be accommodated to receive a space that we had reserved. We were met with an employee that had not an ounce of empathy towards our situation, and just said they were completely booked and there was nothing they could do. On top of that, we were still being charged for an RV space, even though it was explained that we were in a tent space. At this point, we’re getting frustrated and stressed, because the accommodations for our family lizard we had planned on, were gone. Thankfully, we had spoke to our neighbors, and they allowed us to run an extension cord from their electric box to accommodate our lizard. We were so very thankful for them, and we were sure to tape the extension cord down to ensure it wasn’t a tripping hazard. Additionally, the second night, there were still 6 open RV spaces that were not occupied. But we had power for our lizard and that’s really all we cared about. The next day our neighbors moved out and a new“tenant” took the space. After a day full of fun and crabbing we were met with the new neighbor and an employee informing us that the neighbor did not want our extension cord plugged into their box and we were again told that we’re only paying for a tent space, so we can’t be hooked up to electricity. Again, we are flustered. The neighbor speaks to us and we tell them that we were promised an rv space and given a tent space, and that the people there before them allowed us to run that extension cord for a small bit of power. The neighbor did not care in the least about our struggles and then proceeded to try and make us move our trailer(quite literally impossible because there was no where else to move to) because their fire pit was close to our trailer. They then proceeded(yet again) to explain to us that their awning would hit our awning with the way they were parked(they were in a motor home, we’re in a travel trailer). We then just reiterated the situation we were given and again, no empathy from our neighbor. Additionally that night, the six open rv spaces with hook ups, still remained. Beings our family“only” had a six hour drive, we contemplated leaving that night, as we had had enough and were tired of being given the run around and treated as though we just happened upon our trip with no prior reservations, but we also had family visiting from Southern California and couldn’t imagine having them turn right back around after such a long trek. Needless to say, even with all of our pre planning, history coming to the location, and enthusiasm over the many memories made at this location, we will no longer be considering this location as a place for our family vacations or business. Had any form of empathy, or understanding to our situation been had(for example, the many RV spaces with hookups that are not utilized due to the business using them as“vehicle parking spaces” being given to us to make up for their mistake) we would have washed it off as a fluke and gave it another chance. However, the customer service we received and our interactions with other patrons(not only our neighbors, but people allowing their kids to run freely through OUR SPACE) has given us enough of a terrible experience to warrant never returning to this location. Myself and my husbands family are truly devastated by this experience, but are hopeful we will find a location with better customer service and accommodations than this business.