Carmel by the River RV Park

This place is in the beautiful Carmel Valley, which makes it really optimal for camping. The rate of $65 per night is for using a credit card, you can pay $60 for cash. Nice folks running it and they certainly mean will but this is a business and they really pack in the RVs in very tight spaces. Plus, tow vehicles are allowed to park in front of the site. We had a really difficult time getting OUT of our site with our 25' Airstream. Had to ask the guy across from us to move his TV but couldn't find the owner of the next car parked there. Gruesome. We had notified the owners the night before that we needed to leave at 8:00am and they said they would make sure the TV were out of the way. That didn't happen for whatever reason and that's why we gave them just 3 stars. On the way out, one person told us that the owner would park and move your RV and if we come back here again, we definitely will ask for help. Keep it in mind.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this RV park. We really didn't use any of the amenities, but I like the location and the grassy area next to our site. You're tucked in the valley just far enough away from the coast to get into ranch land, but close enough to explore Carmel, Monterey, and even Big Sur easily. And the grassy area was great for our dogs and me when I chose to work outside.

You drive down a narrow sometimes twisty road to get there, but it is there. We saw a few people stopped looking at maps. The lady at check-in suggested that we should have unhooked our toad before going down that road as the park can be tight to unhook, but we were fine. We were in the only tandem spot where you share common space with another RV which is usually a pet peeve of mine. But when we had neighbors, they were all friendly. And the fact the grassy area was like our backyard made up for it. The rest of the sites had tall hedges between them. They seem to be working on a lot of them when we were there. There are also many flowers all over the grounds and jasmine near us which was intoxicating.

There is a game room, a little store with movie rentals, and clean looking restrooms. There is no laundry on site being so close to the river, but laundromats about 5-10 minutes each way from the park. The wifi was pretty usable along with AT&T and Verizon. Unboosted Verizon was 41.26 mbps down and 13.93 up.

Earthbound Farms has a farmstand right nearby with sandwiches. We would recommend the Wagon Wheel down the street for breakfast. Next door to that is the Baaja Cantina which was pretty good also. And the Athena Cafe (turn right onto Carmel Valley near Safeway) made a good gyro and good eggplant sandwich.

The $60 rate is based on cash. It's $65 on a card. You also get the 7th night free and they have a frog card where you get the 9th or 10th night free. You'll understand the frog theme as soon as it gets dark.

We were scheduled to camp here for 5 nights in January. Unfortunately it was during the period when California was receiving torrential rain, one storm after the other. We had paid a $75 deposit by phone and received an email confirmation.

We later learned that the Pacific Coast Highway had been closed at Big Sur due to rock & mud slides so we would have had to take a longer route using 101. Within the campground's cancellation window, we spoke to campers who had just left Carmel by the River and told us the river had overflowed, flooding a large part of the campground.

In their opinion, we would have difficulty getting our motorhome to the upper section where they were relocating campers. Additionally, CHP was issueing alerts for winds and rain and recommending to stay off roads if possible. We decided that we should stay put until the severe weather passed.

We called Carmel by the River and explained our situation and requested a cancellation and an exception to the refund policy due to these factors.

The woman who my wife spoke with was rude and was adamant that there were no exceptions and was evasive when questioned about the campground flooding and accessibility for our motorhome.

It's not like we cancelled on a whim and I would rather lose the deposit than go against published safety warnings to stay put.

BAD ATTITUDE, BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE, EVASIVE

This small family-owned RV park, located in the Carmel Valley roughly 4 miles east of Highway 1, is a true gem. With only 40+ spots, all full hookups (no tent camping), this park has everything you need as your base to explore Carmel, Monterey, and Big Sur.

Clean, well-maintained facilities, plus a helpful and easy going staff. Excellent wifi, and solid phone reception. The Carmel river runs right alongside the park, and there's a small grassy field at the end. Perfect for picnics, dogs, etc. The spots themselves are clean, and a little tight. No worries though, if you need help getting your rig parked, the staff will provide expert support.

To the east there's dog-friendly Garland Ranch Park, full of trails, hills, fields, and a waterfall. To the west there's Carmel, Monterey, and Pacific Grove. Endless beaches, stores, and restaurants. To the south, there's Big Sur. A 26-mile drive along some of the most stunning coastal roads anywhere on this planet. Perfect for day trips.

As with all things in this part of California, things book up fast during high season. Make sure to get your reservations squared away pronto.

We stayed in February 2018. Small park, quiet, very friendly and helpful staff. Some long term travelers. Small lawn with picnic benches, river or stream on one side. I am a newbie and it took me a while to back in a 25’ Airstream but I did it. The sewer hook ups were too far back for our hose - same for the 27’ next to us. We mentioned this the day we left, they allowed us to pull into a spot where we could empty our black before leaving. Overall, this was a very nice place to stay and very quiet.

Access is tricky and I only have a class B van! I scraped my running board on rock wall running beside road. Very clean and there are no choices in area.

Nice spot, quiet except for the cows. Friendly check-in and very clean bathrooms. Different price for cash ($95 vs $105) and narrow road to get there. Showers cut off after about 30 seconds, so you have to repeatedly push the button. Great WiFi and cable. Serene spot near Monterrey, and about the only hook up option.

Very nice little campground tucked in along the Carmel River with full hookups. Spaces are close together but have hedges and fence dividers for some sense of personal space. Small narrow road leading in and i’d sure hate to be coming along that road if some one was coming the other way. Guess folks manage though because even in January the place was getting plenty of use. A good base area for visiting Carmel and the area around. We took the dogs with us to Carmel and walked the beaches. And we went to garland regional and wandered along the trails. The park itself has a short trail to the river but this isnt really a go to area for the park. Nice clean facilities. Nice staff. We’d come back.

My husband and I had pretty high expectations for Carmel by the River RV park simply because of the nightly rate and previous positive reviews. We thought it would be a relaxing place to spend a couple nights to celebrate my birthday. The two nights we spent were nice, quiet and relaxing. However, we payed $300 for those 2 nights and I don’t think it was close to worth it. The amenities were everything you would expect at any reasonably priced RV park: full hook-ups, wifi, shower facilities, cable, and that was about it. No pool, or anything else out of the ordinary - so the $150 a night rate was a little confusing. We both used the showers, and while my husband had a pleasant experience, there were bugs in the women’s shower and the water did not get as hot as even our RV shower, which was disappointing. On the day of our departure, right before the check out time of noon, we noticed one of our tires was losing air and we had trouble filling it. The woman at the front desk seemed understanding, and even offered us use of their tire inflator to make the process easier. A few minutes later she walked over to our site and asked how the tire was doing and noticing that we still had a few things to pick up before our departure, lectured us on punctuality and that it was really important that we were out by noon, and that we should have been 100% packed up before we did anything with our tire. Meanwhile another RV across from us also left after noon with no lecture, or even a complaint from the owner. There were also over 15 other open sites, so it’s not like we were taking up space that was needed by others. Confused by the conflicting messages we received, we ended up rushing out of there with an under inflated tire and feeling pretty crappy. All in all, this is a mediocre RV Park in an overpriced location. If you’re under 30 you might get patronized by the owners who think they know better, and even if they dropped the price by half it would be way too high. Would not recommend.

Very friendly and helpful staff! Nice accommodations and site. Loved our “plus size space that we shared with our brother & sister!
The only negative was the road in and out of the RV park. Single lane and when we were driving in, a truck was headed out and had to back up and wait for our 2 Motorhomes to pass! Could be tricky if we met another RV on the road!