We enjoyed our week here as it is a safe and decent campground for area visitors. It is not the kind of CG for lounging in your site, etc. The woman running the place is terrific and helpful. The main problem here is that there is no sewer hook-up, so come with empty tanks. If you stay for a week you will get honey bucket service at no additional fee. They come around 9 a.m. on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. It is probably the best deal for camping on the entire San Diego coast. - nmunozjr

Very basic park with gravel drives and sites. Lots of big shade trees, clean and well kept. Quiet even though it was in between a busy street and the 5 Fwy. Owner/Host very friendly and accommodating. No sewer hookups but rest stop north on the 5 has two free dump stations. We stayed here for a dog show at Del Mar fairgrounds. Much better than the full hookup sites that we saw at the fairgrounds. We will stay here again. - MarvMarvs

Simple park, we were told where to park which did not accommodate our trailer due to the trees being too low (a/c unit) and too narrow for space which we could not open awning. The great thing was its close proximity to the beach and highway access. Diesel fuel stations close by not RV friendly. There are no sewer hook ups, but there is a mobile service which visits twice a week. Our trailer was 27' in length and the spot given should be for parking a vehicle. We had to park a certain direction with the door on the left into a tree and the slide on the right inches from the other tree. There were other spots available not sure why we had to be placed there. Parking our vehicle was difficult when other rigs were there. Having to wait on dump service before travel was not worth it for the time we spent. No fire pits all gravel but level. There are no restroom facilities no playground for children. - reymer

This is what I call Sardine camping, when there is an event going on you will be so tight that you can hear your neighbor %*#+. We were here for a car show event, so it was tight to say the least and after the event everybody left and it became more relaxed . One thing I did notice was the people that work here have no respect for the dust that they create or how fast they drive by this motorhome area. The manager said the speed is 10 miles an hour, but I have seen some going at least 30 and the dust boiling. I've said it before; convenience has a price. Since we were going to be in the area, we stayed here another six days. Other than the workers driving by fast, it was nice after the crowds left . Other than an event being here and being part of the event, I would not camp here. Our utilities were accessible; some of the 30 amp plugs were falling apart, don't know what was going on there. Our sewer outlet was convenient, but I know that some other campers could not reach their sewer outlet with their hose. I was told that the RV park is not accessible from late May through September due to workers at the fairgrounds etc. We will probably have to stay here again some time due to the fact we will be part of the event going on. Other than that, I would not come back. - monaco cruiser

We were able to get one of the spots directly overlooking the ocean. There is a chain link fence protecting you from falling over the edge of the dunes. You can walk down the nearby steps and stroll on the beach. My only complaint is that the roads are very narrow, and even our 27 foot RV could not avoid going over a curb when we entered the park. Lots of families with young kids here, and plenty of dog walkers too. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the park. There is a small store and a mini-restaurant with great outside seating. They allow fires in the fire pits and the site was very wide, which was nice. - The Bees

Stayed in site 157, site is secluded with bushes on three sides. Park is very quiet and clean unless your in one of the sites next to the street and railroad. Our site was far enough from both that we didn't notice them. Entrance road is a little tight for long RV's, ours is 35', the longest allowed in the park. If not careful you will hit the curb. Roads in the park are plenty wide enough for long RV's. All site parking pads are fairly level asphalt the remainder dirt. Only a few sites have full hook ups, none that a long RV will fit in. There is a double sided dump station with faucets to fill you drink water tank. We didn't use the restrooms, showers, or laundry the four days we were there. Beach access is mostly by stairs, but at the south end of the park you can walk straight to the beach without stairs. The store is well stocked. We like Bull Tacos inside the park, although a little pricey, tacos are good, especially when they have exotic meats. Their breakfast burrito is excellent. We'll be back in the fall. - National RV Dolphin

The welcome at the entrance was good. At first we were given a flooded site with a fence between us and the road. The charge for this was $35, for dry camping. We asked for a better site (not flooded), and we settled into a site overlooking the water, on a bluff, with a fence. The charge for this was $50, for dry camping. Each morning we had to check to see if we could stay in our site that night. We had to move once in a three night stay, but that was easy with no hook-ups. The sites were not raked or cleaned between tenants. The sites overlooking the ocean were a good size, but the sites by the road were very small. We were never offered a site with hook-ups, and we did not see any. (Admin note: full hookups are available) The campers were a nice mix of surfers and everyone else. We would not return because we did feel that the value for the price was questionable. - Vic and Marsha

Right on the cliffs overlooking the ocean! Awsum time!! - Kelly dufour

The campground is in an ideal location on the beach with easy access to anything you need. It was clean and well maintained. However, the water was off in most locations due to the drought. Hopefully with all the recent rain, they will turn the water back on. - Tony ML

We were able to select a site with a view of the ocean and right next to the stairs to get down to the ocean. Felt nice and private. There are washing stations to rinse off your sandy feet as well. The showers cost tokens (which we were totally fine with), were nice and very private.

Generators are only allowed from 10am to 8pm which was unfortunate (we usually cook breakfast around 8am).

Very friendly, nice on-site convenience store (you can even rent body and surf boards).

Lots of people, hardly any vacant sites. The sites were large. - 10 Thompsons

Worst campground we have ever stayed in. Rude staff. Act like customers are an inconvenience, not like they are their business.

Very narrow roads. Hard to maneuver. Very noisy. Highway and train are right beside campground. Dog walk is in the weeds next to ditch with "Beware of snakes" sign. The ditch flooded up into park. No one helped to clean campsites. We had to borrow shovels to clean out mud. Rules are only enforced for some, not all. NEVER would I stay again. - jumbo

The worst campground I've ever stayed at. Almost all long term monthly no landscaping on spots. The dog was weed patch with a warning of snakes creek flooded had to clean our own spot have rules that apply to one but not the other. Definitely was not a resort staff had no clue about camping very rude. Will never stay again! Wish I could give them 0 stars - MikeO

Make sure you have directions to campground because it's hard to find. PPA was only good for 2 of 4 nights. Very tight, but level sites. Train & I-5 noise. Nice pool & spa. Lots of long terms. Doesn't deserve resort name. - russ1102

Nice resort in the city and close to the interstate. Sites are tight, but workable. Not enough room for a picnic table. Pool, restrooms, and showers located by office. If you are staying on the upper level , it's a long way to these amenities. Camped in a 32' 5th wheel. - azrandolph

We have a premium site on the top level and it is great. Easy to back in, level concrete pad, our own area with table & bar-b-que. Really nice. We overlook the hills. No problem with our 45 footer with 4 slides; lots of room. Other sites are well kept and neat. We are coming back again to enjoy this great location!!! - Freedom Bus

We decided to try this park for one night based upon past reviews but quickly found out that this is by no stretch of the imagination, a "resort". We made a reservation and were told it depended on the day we arrived as to what the rate would be. And when we did arrive we found that the space that was assigned to our Class A full slide Motorhome was not near wide enough and backing in would have been a not so good experience. So I went back and got another space on the "upper level". A tad bit longer and wider that the first one we were able to back in and get hooked up. Then we noticed the neighbors next to us who had their laundry out to dry on racks scattered around their RV. Kids bikes and various toys scattered everywhere and one bike I had to move before attempting to back in. No table or bench available and just the basic hookups were there to use. Whatever this park was supposed to have been in the past is no longer what it has become today. A major rip off for what you get IMNO. Will never stay there again and if you are in the area and thinking about staying there my advice to you is to "drive on" and find something else. - BankShot

This location is all about...well....location. A huge parking lot, with wide spaces but rows are tight. You will not be greeted at all, but given a list of rules. Worst internet connection we've had in 9 months of traveling, including tiny little towns. That said, it's a great location. Bike trails and lots of things to do very near here. What really angered me though, was being charged extra to park an additional vehicle overnight with absolutely no warning of the cost. Right after we left, we received an email informing us we had been charged for this. Would have been nice to know ahead of time. Over all, if you are willing to put the horrible greeting, extra charges, and lousy internet aside, there really is a lot to do in this area. My suggestion would be to look at other parks in the area first. - Essiegirl

We really enjoy the proximity to the beach and to Mission Bay Park, not to mention handy for everything you want to do in San Diego. The Snack Shack is GREAT for breakfast, lunch, and snacks (we only wish it was open more!) and we like the extra activities that were going on while we were there - Saturday night outdoor movie, putting lights on bikes some evenings. The security guards were great - helpful with all sorts of things (even not safety and security related), friendly, too. Cable TV and utilities were pretty good. Cellphone signal is marginal and wifi spotty, but we were pretty happy none the less. We have a small (24') motorhome and had no problem with parking nor with neighbors. We did not like the east bathhouse. Toilets seem to be stuck in willy-nilly and some of the stalls are so small you can't even open the door up fully as they run into the toilet. The shower stalls are small and in poor condition. The showerheads don't work well and leak, plus they are NOT ADA compliant (but neither are the shower stalls.) There are little benches outside the showers but the doors for privacy are by the showers, so the benches are out in the open. I cannot bring my wheelchair bound mom here as she couldn't use the toilets nor the showers. And, they weren't very clean. There were a lot of spider webs and bugs about, plus I always found a toilet or two in need of cleaning and/or flushing. Once I left the toilet stall with a spider in my hair. We did not like the fact that pop up canopies were left on the beach, most continuously for the entire time we were there. It made the beach less usable for those of us who did not bring canopies. Most were so closely packed that there was no room in between them. Plus, we had to pull kayaks to the beach and the people under canopies did not like us walking through. Some people's belongings tended to blow around due to the wind, so leaving things overnight shouldn't be allowed. - Katie and Steve

This campground is all about location! It is essentially a parking lot filled with as many RVs as possible. It is very hard to get into sites due to the crowding. That said, the security people were very good and the many trash cans were always neat and ready to use. Restrooms were clean, however the handicapped parking spaces in front of them needed to have a time limit or something so that they aren't used overnight. A truck was constantly parked by the one near our site making it nearly impossible to get our rig parked (it took 4 very knowledgeable neighbors 20 minutes to help us back and fill our way in). - KyKampers

This arguably one of the best locations in San Diego. Beachfront with great facilities, but still close enough to run out to a store or restaurant. It's a great park, just not for us. The sites are extremely narrow and so are the roads. When we arrived, both sites on either side of were occupied as were the sites across the road from us. It took my husband lots of jockeying to manage to get our 26 foot - no slide out - Toy Hauler into the space. To the point where all the neighbors helped spot him and were amazed that he managed to get it into the spot. The sites were set up so that water and sewer were on one side of the site and the electricity was on the other. No matter what, something wasn't reaching. We ended up having to go buy a water hose and not hooking up sewer. The site was only half paved, so the camper entrance was in the dirt, but the truck was on asphalt (and it had to be parked way back to reach the electricity) The park is very kid oriented and full of kids - which is great if you have kids. But, as an adult trying to have a relaxing experience it became a little wearing at times. (Hours of kids shrieking tends to get old for me.) I do think the park would benefit from creating an adult only area. The park, the cafe is good (if slow), they have a great bar, bands at night and is clean. One of the very cool things is the "Super Site" - it's a private fenced in site with it's own jacuzzi and multiple hook ups. - BobbiOh

If you like crowds then this is the place for you. There are all kinds (based on the rates and seasons $45/$359) of site "types". We stayed in what they call "standard". It had full hookups but we were lucky that our electric cord could reach from the utility cab up past the nose of our 33ft RV. WTH? The electric hook up was at the front of the site and the sewer was at the back. We might have been in a "buddy" site, I say this because our door faced out to the neighbor's door, but we didn't know our neighbors and they were smoking cigars. We were packed in like sardines. So, they had a bout 12 people over at a time and we just stayed inside with our guests. Cozy. Our outside cabinets move with our slide and this is the ONLY time that has ever been a problem. Once we were in the site, there was NO way to open them. Our section was full of complete full on partiers. They have a noise curfew at 10:00 but they do not enforce it until 11:00 or so. People left food laying here and there, so watch your pets. Chicken wings, tacos, it was not tidy. They have employ a HUGE staff and they do the best they can to clean up after all the slobs. - beach89bum

This is a campground you pay for location which is at the center of San Diego on Anza Bay. The nightly rate change according to the day of the week so is signing a set price per night is difficult . It has numerous amenities and is really designed for families. We brought our four-year-old granddaughter and it was perfect as there were many children,two pools and a sandy beach area. In addition there are numerous activities for older children including a skatepark, game room, ice cream parlor and basketball court. Our site itself was cement and had no room for any outside activity or sitting at all. Our particular site did not have a fire pit, although many did. Some of the back and sites would have worked for larger units and they did have grass areas . The entire park was very clean and there were numerous workers constantly changing garbage and cleaning. Wi-Fi was marginal. Cable TV was excellent with a large number of stations. The bay area itself is good for children or people who would like to paddle board or learn to kayak as there is no surf. There is little place to walk pets, but there is a large fenced-in leash-free area. during the summer months they have a free shuttle to the Balboa Park area which would be very convenient as parking there is very difficult. We would stay again if we we brought grandchildren but would stay elsewhere if it was just the 2 of us. - bbmidwife

The park is approximately 5 years old, situated off Melrose Dr, perhaps a mile from the freeway (highway 78) centrally located for many of the attractions offered in San Diego. My spot was #12, a drive through. Sites are close to the next site and have a good slope downward. The park has left blocks to aid in leveling. here is a winter - summer rate. - retiredatc

We have found California RV parks, particularly in coastal areas to be a very poor value compared to other western states. But everything in California is more expensive, and you would have to expect to pay more in locations with proximity to beaches and coast. This place is no exception. Way over priced relative to what you get, but if you're going to stay in southern California, you gotta pay up. we paid just more than $850 for a 3-week stay. The Good: Front desk staff was friendly and helpful, main building/club house very clean and bright, small pool/spa (we did not use). We did not use bathroom facilities, so cannot comment on them. The bad: Sites are severely out of level, broken landscape sprinklers in random sites cause mud holes, tight parking for tow vehicles, NO REFUND policy, lot's of rules and many are not uniformly enforced.

It took 3 attempts plus a trip to lumber yard and Camping World to find the appropriate materials to get our coach level and find a way to get in and out the front door. Plus the twisting and stress on coach chassis. We inquired about cutting our stay short and was advised no refunds would be given.

We would not stay here again, nor recommend it to anyone in a motor home. The sites are just too un-level; I'm guessing most have a 6% - 7% slope to them. - Bruins_in_the_Bus

Paid for a week and left a day early - only stayed that long as we had plans with friends in the San Diego area. Sites are OK in size, but we had a choice of a pull-thru or back-in and were convinced to do the back-in as it would be quieter. NOT!! Just on the other side of the park wall live very noisy people with barking dogs and loud voices plus it looks like a shanty town with laundry hanging all over their back patios. Cable service was awful - tried to talk to office and they wanted to blame it on our TV's, but both TV's were having the EXACT SAME PROBLEM?? We finally put up our antenna and got the local channels that way so we could watch news and sports. Would not stay here again. - denvercats

Mobile home park that is closing and still about 10 old trailers left. But great location two blocks from a very nice beach with a large city playground and $10-$25 less per night than other area RV parks. - rvbruce

Having read a review for another Oceanside rv park that mentioned in passing that Catalina was "an armpit" I went there with caution. Maybe not enough. The park is small and hard to maneuver around in. Half the sites are occupied by old mobile homes. Recent rains made some of the sites soft. I got stuck in one and had to get a tow truck to pull me out. After all that I managed to get a site and got hooked up. Utilities were at shared posts. I had to go over a fence to plug in for electricity. There are no restrooms or showers. The laundromat was clean. Most of the neighbors were friendly enough, although the wife heard a lot of screaming from an adjacent condo complex. Only good reason for staying was due to weather and the price. Other RV parks in Oceanside were over $40. Our rate was for Passport America. I would never have paid full rate for this park. If you have a small rig and don't mind the trailer villa atmosphere then give it a try. Just watch out for the wet spots. - Onemoretrail