Palm Canyon Hotel & RV Resort

We hadn't planned to stay here, but due to a minor emergency while in Borrego Springs we needed to find an RV park with full hookups for a couple of nights and this what was available. The staff was helpful in checking us in without a reservation, though we found the price to be surprisingly high for the very basic (sand/dirt), narrow site ($53 after Good Sam, before tax, weekend rate). Our site was a pull-through and was plenty long, but pretty narrow. The back-in sites are only 30 amp and are even closer together, and only a little less expensive. The RV park is relatively small, but since it's adjacent to the hotel it has amenities like a pool, hot tub, and restaurant. Behind the park is a wide expanse of desert with some simple trails that were good for walking our dog... just watch out for the many cactuses! The park is in a good location with most of Borrego Springs a short bicycle ride away. They offer free Tengo WiFi, which worked reasonably well for a while, then would go down for an hour or so, then work well for a while, etc. We had decent Verizon LTE and AT&T 4G signal, but both were pretty slow when we used them for data. Since even the weekday rate of $47 seems high, we likely won't return. If you're interested in the swimming pool and other amenities, the price might work for you, but we don't use most of the amenities.

Our engine died just as we came down Montezuma Valley Road (long, steep, beautiful view). We made it to our site but the car was towed away the next day (for an engine replacement). Point is, we stayed here longer than we planned because we didn't have a tow vehicle. Location for Anza-Borrego was good. The sites are close together when it is busy and for the amenities offered, it is an expensive park. While we were there, the RV hot tub wasn't working and the one for the hotel wasn't hot enough and was scummy. The fitness room stunk of mold and sweat. The bathrooms are dated but showers offer an abundance of hot water. The laundry machines were the most expensive we've encountered - 4.00 for a wash, 4.00 for a dry and they didn't accept credit cards while we were there (which they are supposed to). I get that there is no abundance of water in Anza Borrego, but WOW, that's crazy expensive. On the plus side, the staff were helpful and accommodating, the restaurant makes a good burger and salad, the resort is mostly pleasant, there are good communal fire pits and you are bordering trails. The price reflects a weekly rate and since I'm doing this review weeks after our stay, it may be a little off.

There are many other parks in the area that are better priced with similar amenities. Further, there is a ridiculous $8/day resort fee, which they said was for typical RV park amenities: laundry room (with outrageous cost. Much cheaper at laundry mat in town); pool, but the heater went on the fritz; toilets and showers that were "meh" at best; and I'm not sure what else. I paid close to $75/night. I'm willing to pay More if the experience is special. This was definitely not special.

When I first arrived, on Dec. 21, there were very few campers, so lots of space on and between the dirt sites. As more folks came nearing Christmas weekend,.the additional RVs were placed immediately adaject.to the few campers already there. In other words, they could have easily spaced folks apart but they did not. The sites are close together, so when bunched up, you lose most of your access to the sunlight, which goes down quickly in late Dec.

Unfortunately, my rig's hot water heater broke the first day there. I was able to get a maintenance appt in Phoenix, 300 miles away. Several days before my check out date I asked if I could leave a day early and get a refund. "No refunds." Seems totally out of step with every other park operating during Covid. Due to that I flexibility, I would never return. Another beef, although only one isolated instance, was a noise violation on Christmas night. A group of car campers hooted and hollered until well past the 10PM noise curfew. Appears there was no park security to remind these guys of quiet time.

On the plus side, the maintenance team seem like a good bunch of guys, and the food from their restaurant (burgers and salads) is quite good and very convenient. The location is great right at the base of a comparably small mountain range that makes for a terrific 2-hour hike along its ridge. And while dogs are not allowed on the main trails in the larger state park, there is no "no dog" signs in this trail area directly adjacent to the RV park.

These are very tight sites (extremely narrow.) Our site was very unlevel and the dump connection required an uphill connection. We were on the west side (closest to the road leading to the Montezuma Grade) and we had a fair amount of traffic noise from all the truck traffic. Our table was completely covered with bird shit. The owners seem not to care much about the RV side of this facility.

Better sites can be found at a nearby RV park called The Springs at Borrego. We would have stayed at that other RV park but they didn’t have space available for our dates.