San Benito RV & Camping Resort, Paicines, California

     We arrived here at San Benito on a Sunday morning after a very twisty drive from Coalinga. (west on CA-198 and then north on CA-25) The road was in good repair but has absolutely no shoulder and some of the sharpest corners that I’ve driven the coach around.  The campground is tucked in behind a huge farm and is a few miles off the highway.  Once there we found a quite large campground with a good mixture of open space and treed areas.  We paid an extra $5 a night for 50 amps, but then really didn’t need it as the weather had cooled.  The campground has the normal amenities that you would expect to find in a Thousand Trails park like a family pool and an adult pool, a family lodge and an adult lodge (which is in poor repair), a dog walk area, volleyball court, miniature golf, horseshoes, and more.   We enjoyed how large the campground is (walking the circumference is about two and a half miles) and the wildlife there.  Every day we saw a dozen plus deer, squirrels, and quails by the hundreds.  One morning we watched a family of six bobcats playing in the sun next to the dog park.  Apparently, a common occurrence here, as none of the cats paid Jackie, the dogs, or I any attention.  We were told at the gate when we came in that we may see lots of tarantulas in the campground as it was mating season but only saw one in the park and one up hiking in the Pinnacle Mountains nearby. 

      There are a couple of natural negatives about the campground to be aware of.  Poison oak is very abundant outside the campground which kept our hiking to the road and then there are small stickers all over the ground (goat heads) which stick into everything.  I can’t tell you how many we and the dogs stepped on, the problem is bad enough that we had to take time to pull them out of your shoes every time we went inside and we didn’t use our bikes for fear of flat tires.  There are also some not so natural issues as well.  Be sure to have your vehicles registered and insured.  The campground rangers did have friends across from us leave because their registration was expired and only gave them two hours to get out.  This was after they had been in the campground a couple of days.  (The campground has a fenced in area for RV storage, but also allows some RVs to be stored around the park and we noted that most of them had expired registrations some as old as seven years expired.)  The park advertises its want of “annuals” to live here full time.  Because the park is open to the public, it has non-members who live here month to month spread out through the campground, which to me, takes away from the campground feel that we like.

      We came this far north this late in the year to meet up with friends here despite it may get a little colder than we prefer, it was certainly worth it.  With friends camping next door and meeting a few new friends while here, it made up for the campgrounds faults, as well as its lack of phone service and poor internet.  Only Verizon works in the campground.  There is an internet provider here and we paid $20 for the two weeks that we stayed here.  The $20 covered Internet for only one device at a time and sharing a hotspot it with other campers left us with very slow speeds and some evenings, not enough speed to use at all.  We wound up buying a Verizon prepaid phone and plan so that we weren’t totally unreachable by family and friends.  Overall, the park has more positives than negatives and I’m sure that we will return here in the future, hopefully with friends again. 

See wildlife & natural attractions from a Monterey Bay RV campground

     California is a fantastic state for camping. That's why Thousand Trails offers a variety of California campgrounds. San Benito RV & Camping Resort is particularly special since it offers all the beauty you’d expect in a Monterey Bay RV campground, but also an impressive array of amenities.

     With comfortable year-round temperatures and a pristine location just 14 miles south of Hollister, California, San Benito RV Resort provides plenty to do and see. Explore bike trails, cast a line, take a dip in the pool and enjoy our variety of planned activities. Off-site adventures are easy to come by with a visit to the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. Plan your stay at this beautiful Monterey Bay RV campground. Our modern facilities and accommodating staff will ensure a memorable trip.