Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve

This was our second time staying in Santee Lakes. The campground offers a variety of site options. Most sites are on a sandy, dirt level surface. There are a few paved, pull thru sites. Sites are wide and some offer trees for shade. All roads are paved. The campground is extremely quiet. The campground is located within the Regional Park which offers several lakes and makes a great walking route. There are a variety of watercraft available for use on the lake. Staff is very helpful and friendly. WiFi worked well during our visit. Cell service can be iffy because the park is located in a valley. The park is gated and very secure.

We had several rain storms during both of our stays which makes the site surface quite unpleasant. The sandy dirt doesn't dry out very fast. We also had an ant problem. We solved it by taping our water hose up on a pole. We noticed several other people had done the came thing.

The campground location is near the Mission Trails Regional Park with hiking and mountain biking trails. Getting into San Diego is an easy drive.

This was also our second time staying in Santee Lakes - West Oak Loop #217. As the prior review pointed out, the campground offers a variety of site options. Most sites are on a sandy, dirt level surface. There are a few paved, pull thru sites. Most sites are wide and some offer shade. The campground is extremely safe, quiet and is located adjacent to Mission Trails Regional Park which offers miles of hiking and MTB options. Facilities are very well maintained and bathrooms are spotless. RV sites are broken into seven sections (1) Lakeshore Loop - centrally located to the office and lakes however, sites are close together and guest turnover is high. (2) Mulberry Loop - Still lakeside and close to entry/exit gate. Sites are close together but paved. Mostly monthly guest. (3) Sycamore Loop - Small unpaved loop with some shade trees. Mostly monthly guests. Close to entry/exit loop and new bath house. (4) Willow Loop - Larger unpaved loop with more spacious sites close to pool, laundry, rec. room. Some sections of this loop are reserved for larger groups. Some sites require a bit of leveling. (5) East Willow Loop - Mid size loop with large unpaved sites. Sites are nicely organized and do not feel crowded. Mostly monthly guest. (6) - West Oak Loop - Largest of the loops. Sites are very large and unpaved. Can easily accommodate 40' plus a car. Camp host refers to it as "Million Dollar Loop" due to the large number of late model class A rigs that spend the winter here. Most sites are occupied monthly with little guest turnover. This loop is close to the dog run area as well as access trails outside the park. This loop offers little to no shade. (7) East Oak Loop - Mid size loop with large unpaved and semi shaded sites. Mostly monthly guests. Access from Santee Lakes: 20 minutes to Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Del Mar. Cell Service: Sporadic Verizon coverage. Wifi: Free but poor service.

This is almost a taleof two campgrounds. The area you stay in will leave you with a different impression of thisplace.

We stayed in the Lakeshore loop. It is right on the lake,so has the most scenic setting, it is also the best place in the park if you need cell signal. The spots right on the lake are mostly reserved for daily or weekly use. But the spots set back off the water can be reserved for longer stays. The sites here are a little close together,so most of the smaller rigs park here. Some of the long timers here have "bedded in" and have a ton of stuff (some may call it junk!) sitting outside their rigs. This is the main problem I have with this end of the park.

At the back of the park (Willow and especially Oak loops) the sites are bigger and a lot of newer fancier rigs park back here. You don't get the lakeside setting, but you have more space and the area, but the cell coverage is very poor back here.

The staff are friendly here and the facilities are good. The lake is a beautifully maintained park and the birdlife is fantastic. It really is a great setting and an unexpected treat out in surburban San Diego.

The two reasons I won't give 5 stars are the location. For me Santee is just a little too far away from San Diego and the ocean,although the backcountry hiking is more accessible from here. But the main reason is that I really wanted the staff to enforce the rules (which are clearly stated) about having a ton of stuff outside your rig. I don't want to stay where people have crusty old armchairs sitting outside. It ruins the ambiance of the park.

$44/night included 10% tax and $1 per night fee per dog during our stay in March 2015. Santee Lakes was a good home base for us to explore San Diego. It's 30 minutes from the beach, but offers a more rustic, wooded campground feel compared to RV parks downtown. The park is surprisingly large, with 300+ campsites grouped into eight or so different areas/loops along the long narrow park. Each area has a very different feel, with many of the areas being traditional rows and rows of diagonally parked RVs. We stayed in Willow Loop which was older and felt more rustic (large trees, more space, oddly-angled sites). Due to the oddly-arranged sites, some in Willow Loop are great with lots of space, and others are right up against the next RV (not even enough space to open an awning) with the camping area behind the RV instead of next to it. We used their web site's site search to look at the satellite views to choose a site with more space. The WiFi worked well enough for the basics (not streaming), but we needed our cell booster to get a good connection with our hotspot. Given the size of the park, there were plenty of places to walk our dogs, but dogs are not allowed in any of the lakes, even on leash to just get wet. Also, dogs are not allowed in the day use areas, only in the campground areas. Portable fences for dogs are not allowed. There are hiking trails nearby but you have to exit the park to get to them. We would stay here again.

Santee Lakes Campground was the perfect place to spend the winter months in Southern California. The location is great, being only about 20 minutes east of most San Diego attractions and hot spots, yet far enough outside the city limits that it doesn't feel overcrowded.

This is a great family campground. The facilities are meticulously maintained, you can always find a camp host if you have any issues, and there's plenty of other amenities to keep everyone in the family happy and entertained.

We would absolutely recommend Santee Lakes Campground for anyone hoping to find an affordable, spacious, peaceful place to camp in South California.

This is a beautiful, if pricey site close to San Diego. There are five or six separate lakes and lot of activities: fishing, pedal boats and carts, a nice little shop and a great dog walk. Tons of families.

I was in site 148 and there was zero cell coverage. WiFi is available and good but at a price - $10 a week for one unit.

Site had full hookups, which was convenient.

As I walked around the park, I noticed lots of rigs with Ajax or Comet laid out around tires and other access points for ants. Since I was only there for 2 nights, I thought I would be safe but no. The little buggers invaded via my water house and ate all my marshmallows!

I'd camp here again if I didn't need cell service.

PS I drop by here to dump my sumps from time to time - easy access $15.

Expensive. But almost all California parks are expensive. It’s OK mostly dirt surrounding the lakes. Just outside of city. Check in people were very nice. Facilities clean and well maintained. Day use area looks very nice, however no dogs allowed in day use area. Dogs only allowed in campground

We recently stayed at Santee Lakes and have a very mixed review. The short story is if cellular signal was a non-issue, we would absolutely stay here again. It was a beautiful location, allows for long-term stays, and the park is really well-maintained and quiet. Because we stayed for a month, we were put at the back of the park with the long-term residents. We had a very large pull-through site with easy access to the dog park and dumpsters.

The Good
- Super convenient to San Diego proper, shopping, and interstates, yet very peaceful when you're in the park. The best of both worlds, so to speak.
- Staff was friendly and responsive.
- Long-term residents were friendly and respectful, great neighbors.
- Awesome laundry facility that offers credit card payment - hallelujah!
- Gated and felt very safe and secure.
- Very nice playground areas for the kids, pool was nice, but a little boring and no kids allowed in the hot tub.

The Bad
- They gave us a great monthly stay rate, but there were lots of "nickel and dime" costs: "Kid tax" of $40/kid/extra person, $30 per dog fee, $175 deposit for electricity, which they refund the difference between what you used at the end of the month. Our electric bill was only around $40, so not a huge deal.
- This is the bad that will make us unable to visit this park again, unfortunately. The cellular signal (we have hot spots with 3 major networks, so this was across the board) is not only bad, it's totally unpredictable. I've never seen anything like it. We would have 3 strong bars with our WeBoost, be sailing along fine with about 15-16 mbps down and then BAM! everything drops out and doesn't come back for hours. Same thing with phone calls on AT&T. About 15 minutes into any call, the call would just drop and I'd have to call the person back. It was like clockwork every 15 minutes. They do offer a fee-based wi-fi connection using Tengo Internet. When it was working, it was fantastic. But it seemed like it did the same thing our cellular hot spots did...worked great and then all of a sudden the bottom dropped out of it and it was useless. Also, we noticed that around 3pm every day it became useless as well. We assume because that's when kids get home from school. Just a guess, though.

well, we tried to get a mini vacation....Went to Santee Lakes. Don't recommend them one bit. We got there and I noticed houses on the other side of the lake... I went hmmm. there goes the natural view with a beautiful sunset... but dealt with it. Then the next morning we were greeted with pounding and noise of hammers, nail guns, saws, etc because there were a couple of homes going up just on the other side of the lake. Then there was someone cutting the moss on the lake for a few hours with a noisy machine. I enjoyed the ducks, not the ants as there is a Sycamore tree on the plot of land we rented. But I have to say, the ants were much worse to the gentleman in his motorhome next to our little plot.. We were putting up with that because of the much needed break after 5 years of no relief due to deaths, dementia, druggies, health, surgeries, doggy issues with paraplegia, multiple tax returns, home repair and rental to help mom, etc. But the kicker was today. I received a phone call from the office while I was cooking breakfast. My dog was outside and kept whining at the door because I was not outside with her but I was talking to her. She wanted outside, so I pulled off her diaper for the last time for the day. She has a bladder infection and we are giving meds to her for it. The caller proceeded to tell me my dog was in the street and she needed to be on a 6ft leash. I told her the dog wasn't in the street because her cable was fixed so she wouldn't be. I told her it was a lie. I told her about the bladder infection and it was not a concern to her.
When I read the rules online before purchase, I assumed my dog going for a walk would be on a 6ft leash which we did. not on the 40 x35ft piece of land we rented. That is dog abuse! So I got ticked off because of being lied to and I couldn't do that to my dog. I then looked at the print out of the rules that were with my receipt. NOTHING about a 6ft leash was printed on it! I am so done with people lying....so we are home a day early with no rest.

We decided to stay here to extend our stay in San Diego. Out of 5 different locations we stayed at in San Diego, this was by far the best! Very well cared for facilities and friendly staff, and there are over 300 spots available, the majority of which are well spaced. There are a number of long term staffers and RVers there, but their pride and regulations show in how clean their camp spots are. It also felt safe enough to let the kids go off on the bikes for hours at a time, like we used to be able to do as kids in our own neighborhoods. Our kids made new friends, got some scrapes and bruises, and learned to ride their bikes better than ever. Almost unheard of today…

Oh, our dog also got bit by a rattlesnake, while there, but he’s ok thanks to the Mast Blvd Pet Hospital about 7 minutes away. One of the few pet hospitals in the area with antivenin.

We highly recommend Santee Lakes and will be back!