San Benito Thousand Trails

From check in to our neighbors, everything was really nice. There has been a lot of rain this past winter so the grasses and weeds are growing and need to be mowed but other than that, this place was nice and quiet - no cell reception but you can get wifi it you need at the clubhouse. There are full timers, cabin rentals, tent camping and RV hookups available. There are quite a few spots where the electrical isn't working but when we checked in they were pretty clear on that. The lady also went out with us to find a spot with working hook ups. The campground is very large so there are several bathrooms spread out. The one closest to us didn't have hot water but there was a sign indicating that and another bathroom wasn't too far away. It was definitely a good location to get our feet wet with a new Roadtrek. Tent camping area was a bit more 'active' and loud but where we were there were clearly some full timers and/or monthly visitors who were quiet. It's also a nice campground to take a walk and watch the birds!

So I had just had a bad experience at another Thousand Trails park (Thousand Trails Russian River - you can read my review on that) and we headed south to this park.

Due to the bad experience at the other TT property I was ready to be angry at this one. On check in they said they would drive us around and help us pick a spot. I declined the offer (Don't tell Deseray I shared this but she can get picky at times and it can take awhile to decide so I preferred to go at our own pace). They told me then to not use any space that had a colored tag on the power box as that meant it was having power problems. What they didn't say was that this was almost half the sites in the park.

It really started to irritate me as we drove around and almost every space we liked (in a park of over 600 spaces) that they had the tag on them. Finally we found a great spot with no tag and as I was getting ready to back in the neighbor came out and told me that site didn't work and that the tag had just come off.

Oh and in the office they told us if we picked certain spots that we would have to come back to the office and pay an extra $3 a night because it was an "upgraded site". These sites looked no nicer then the others, some were very small in fact. Apparently "upgraded" means "we recently fixed a bad power pedestal and are trying to re-coupe costs".

By the time we picked a space (which turned out to be very nice) I was really ready to share some choice words with TT.

However as we settled in we ended up LOVING the place over the next 5 nights. The broke sites (most of which had overgrown grass) made it so that we were always 2 - 3 sites or further away from other campers and we were in a site that was already pretty large. So it felt very private. At night it was so quiet and it was awesome to watch the stars and listen to the owls. We even pulled out our gas fire pit and sat around the fire almost every night. Tons of birds around during the day.

We had good Verizon, good enough to work and stream. As we left I reflected back on it and realized that as frustrated as I am at TT for their poor upkeep on their parks, and as frustrating as it was to find a place due to it, we ended up thoroughly enjoying our stay.

Good Verizon, no AT&T.

[Actual stay was 02/28/16]

It seems to be hit or miss with Thousand Trails properties; you never know what it will be like. A lot of the experience depends on the site you get. Towing our 41 ft. house around a property we are not familiar with while trying to find a suitable site can be stressful. We were thankful for the employee that gave us some suggestions and ended up recommending just the right site for us. This is a large resort and there are many sites to choose from, but most are out in the open with no shade and very close to neighbors. We prefer a site with some shade and a decent amount of separation from our neighbor so we don't feel crowded. That can be hard to find, but thankfully we found a site like that here. The site we had was a 30 amp full hookup. With the shade we got along just fine with only 30 amp. They charge $5 extra per night for 50 amp. Verizon 4G worked well, but AT&T does not work at all. There was a section way in the back of the park that Verizon didn't work at all. This park is out in the middle of nowhere; there is not much to do in the area, but it's a nice place to relax if that's what you're looking for. The town of Hollister is only about 20-30 minutes away. Since I travel fulltime it can be hard to find a place to get my hair cut and colored on the road. I went to Attitudes and Images Salon in Hollister and saw Sandra who did a great job on my hair. We also visited Pinnacles National Park which was only about 30 minutes away. The park will allow you to receive UPS and FedEx packages there; USPS does not deliver to the park. The employees were nice and friendly; we enjoyed our stay and would come back to this TT park if we're in the area again.

More of a traditional RV park than a camping park like some of TT's parks. The store is awesome - they have beer, wine, cigarettes, groceries, RV supplies, and more. Lots of deer hanging around the sites, we've also seen a fox, a skunk, wild pigs, and an owl.

They have paid wifi that is 7mbps symmetrical, which is... ok. It would stream some stuff with stutter/buffering but all-in-all if I had to work on it I probably could. T-Mobile is usable with a cell booster (but only with a cell booster), Verizon works well also. I haven't had any luck with AT&T.

Lots of long term RVers here, but also plenty of sites - many with full hookups which is nice. Tons of 50amp spots with 30amp connections if needed.

We'd visit again! About an hour and a half away from Monterey if anyone is trying to visit that place specifically.

This park is pretty far off the path of anything, but nice to get away from things. Primary reason of not giving 5 star is location, but if you are looking to get away, pretty nice place.

Getting there is about 30 minutes away from closest town so just be prepared if you are needing to go into town for something.

Getting into the park too is about 4 miles off the main road and even once you enter the park, it feels like another mile of windy roads. Downhill on the way in, so on the way out you get to chug up a hill immediately.

Once in the park, the first come first serve system is annoying because of the large amount of space, but we got a 50AMP spot by a bathroom (wifi antenna) with FHU.

Lots of stuff was a bit aged, but people working there were great. Pool was refreshing but no hot tub in family pool area (need to go to adults area if you want).

Landscaping was spotty but probably based on lack of water in the area.

Wifi was paid and worked great.

In our opinion, this is by far the best Thousand Trails campground between Seattle and the Santa Cruz/Hollister area. It's huge with great space between sites, tons of wildlife, a good camp store, two pools, a good-sized lodge, a cafe, and friendly staff. Pinnacles National Park is 30-60 minutes away (depending on where you want to explore.) Our Verizon phones had semi-decent 4G, but phone calls did get a little garbled sometimes. Our AT&T didn't work at all and our Verizon Internet worked only barely, even with our WeBoost; so we had to pay for the Tengo access. It was only $25 for the 21 days and was decent though not awesome. It was good enough that hubby could work and I could do my online class (no video.) Streaming videos only worked when we reduced the resolution fairly low. Hollister is about 20-30 minutes away and Gilroy (with all the big box stores) is about 45 minutes away. Oh...make note. Amazon won't deliver there and will send anything you try to ship there to the local Paicines Post Office, so you might as well just have it all sent directly to the Paicines Post Office. USPS will deliver your USPS mail to the campground, as will UPS and FedEx; so all those types of delivery will get there - just not Amazon (who apparently uses their own delivery people now at least in this area.) We honestly wished we could have stayed here longer. It's very relaxing and beautiful!

This is a huge campground with lots of spaces (600 I think they told us). We are here at end of January so not full at all and very peaceful. There are lots of deer and wild pigs (although we haven't had any pigs around our site, but we see signs of them elsewhere). Birds are everywhere and make for beautiful morning awakenings. This place is only an hour or so from the coast (Monterey or Carmel) and so makes for a nice central base camp. It is about 30 minutes from Hollister (closest groceries). It is a great spot for R&R and getting away from it all. We were also able to work easily with a booster and even without it had about 1-2 bars of Verizon LTE. AT&T is dead in this park. Staff is very friendly and helpful. The only downside we could see is that there are some annual sites that people just have let go downhill and are junky looking. Really takes away from some of the areas of the park. We parked far away from any of them so was okay, but there were some nice sites near some of them, but we avoided those for that reason. I think TT should have some enforced guidelines for people that use these spaces for long term. Overall, was a good experience though.

Stayed for 3 weeks with my TT membership for free. Surprisingly the CG was not near full and could be why I enjoyed it so much. 50 amp FHU service. Sites are pretty level. You have a choice of open or treed 30 or 50 amp service.The bath houses are fairly old but in decent condition.The main road in paved with all the feeder roads gravel. Can be dusty but not near as dusty as other California TT CGs. It gets VERY windy every day in the summer so you may not be able to leave your awning out. Nearest town is Hollister and that's 15+ miles almost 30 minutes. Walmart is another 15 minutes from there but Hollister does have a Safeway and another market with a number of places to eat. Verizon had a strong signal throughout the CG. No ATT signal with any booster. TMobile has a signal with a booster only but location may dictate your experience even further. Lots of deer, ground squirrels, pigeons, quail and wild boar. The wild boar is the bad part. They defecate all over the place and the smell can be horrid (at least that is what I think the smell was). It's not all over or all the time. They only show up at night and I did see a large one on the side of the road dead. You're in the valley and hill of central California here. Lots and lots of farms and vineyards which I do enjoy. 30 miles to the east entrance of Pinnacle NP. The west entrance was a couple hours away. Big Sur, the PCH and Monterrey are also an hour+ to just get there and if there is traffic you can expect a couple of hour drive (there always seems to be traffic in CA IMO)

We work from the road, no att service and only 2-3 bars Verizon 4G but speed tests were too slow for our needs. Still able to stream (poorly).

The cell service is definitely affected by the number of users. There just isn't enough bandwidth out here for lots of people streaming their shows. Weekends are terrible. The WiFi is hit or miss. You need a good booster antenna on your laptop and hunt around for the one node putting out good bandwidth that day. Again, it's probably a function of how many people are using each node, but the park has not been more than half full. If it weren't for the fact that my antenna let's me see most of the nodes in the park, I probably would have hated the WiFi service.

Now, the campground is nicely laid out, while there appear to be several sites with electrical issues, they are clearly marked and as of the end of December, there are a lot of choices. During the busy season I can see how some people would bet upset with the number of converted tent sites. I expect that TT has this place on it's list and will get to it as soon as prudent.

The dog park is in good shape. The spa closed for maintenance. The roads are a bit rough but they have people out filling holes so I can't complain but so much about that. The staff appear friendly and knowledgeable.

Running my Roku through my unlimited data Verizon hotspot is marginal for streaming at times, but the Roku works just fine using my iPad Pro as a hotspot. I guess I need to save up for a new hotspot router (it heats up and has other issues). Funny thing is that he hotspot seems to work pretty good for work and I can route my AT&T iPhone through the hotspot and have no problems with making or receiving calls. There are a few drop outs and bandwidth issues when I try to make a conference call while doing other data intensive tasks, but it's good enough for 90% of my work needs. Weekends are terrible, and on a few weekdays I hit some rough patches.

The CG WiFi is pretty good if you have patience and a good external antenna. I find that I have to watch the speed so that when it drops off, I then switch to a different AP. I have a signal boosting WiFi antenna so I can reach out and touch most of the nodes in the campground. This is not the first time I've seen this problem with campground WiFi. Unfortunately, while I can see a few nodes on the Roku, connecting to the CG WiFi is laborious so I'm forced to eat up my iPad's quota when the hotspot is acting up.

The dog park is not big, but it's well maintained and doesn't seem to have any problems. The laundry facilities are decent and at $1.50 for washing and $1 for drying, helps the park's rating. The roads have lots of potholes and standing water, but I've seen much worse and there isn't very much mud.

We're here during the winter holiday season and it really isn't that crowded. There are at least two open spots between a lot of the campers so it's really quiet and pleasant. The power is solid and LP here is under $3.50 so it's not bad considering it's CA.

The store was closed during the holiday season for renovations, but it's open now and looks nice and well stocked (for a CG store). They have several of the RV and camping basics, more canned goods than usual, plenty of ice cream, and enough of the basic sodas and snacks to make people happy. Overall, if it weren't for the one thing (explained below), I would definitely consider this a place worthy of returning, time and time again.

Once you head back for Hollister, AT&T and other services pick up with very strong signals. The airport dog park in Hollister is being rebuilt, so it looks like we'll need to go back to Morgan Hill on the weekends. Wong's has decent Chinese food and the Safeway and Nob Hill grocers are well stocked. Fuel is a bit pricier here than in the Morgan Hill area. The main roads are pretty decent and the area is quite nice looking.

Pictures do not do justice to anyplace we've been, so far, so I'll just say that everyone should spend a season traveling the Pacific coast. It's an education on so many different levels and well worth the time.

The wildlife is thick here. Lots of deer, bunnies, birds, quail, squirrels, wild pigs, and other smaller four-legged creatures. We also saw a huge fox and regularly hear the nightly coyote serenade in the distance. Also a few feral cats.

A Note on My Rating System
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Regarding the stars I assign, my definition of access is how hard is it to get to it and how are the roads? 5 means it's probably just off of a 4 lane highway with smooth roads, 4 means it's a country road or a bit of a hike, while 3 and lower indicates some level of kidney damage or potential for driving into a ditch.

Location tends to mean "does it feel like it's away from the city but still have a Starbucks nearby?" 1 star is subtracted if you need to travel more than 30 minutes for a decent cup of coffee and fill your tank. If I give it less than 4, read my review. A really good gas station with decent coffee and some groceries will tend to buoy the rating if everything else is rather distant. Especially if I'm in the mood to get away from everything. One big exception is someplace like Williamsburg, Tampa, or Orlando where there are attractions that we want to be near, and I'll usually mention that in the review.

Cleanliness is simply the state of the facilities and "guy clean" earns you 5 stars... so there's that to consider.

Site quality is all about standing water (or potential), having room to set up my pop-up, depth of mud, and if anything stinks. I usually don't worry about how hard it is to maneuver through a campground unless it's just plain bad. Lots of people think Williamsburg is impossible and I wonder what they talk about as I can swing my 43' 5th wheel through without issue; so I leave it alone unless there are corners that require backing up a couple of times to make the turn or more than one loop forbidding big rigs.

Noise is very subjective and you should mostly ignore my take as I lived within a literal stones throw from the I-95 / I-64 interchange in Richmond VA and had no problems sleeping at night. If I give it a 3, you should consider wearing hearing protection. A rating of 2 means you'll probably be bleeding from various orifices before the end of the week. A 1 means there was a non-stop screaming kid next door or some loud-mouthed jerk (but I'll mention that).

Now for the reason I won't come back. Color me picky.
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The BURRS! I thought people were kidding. OMG! My crocks pick them up like magnets and scatter them all over the floor of the rig. On the first night it looked like I was doing the dance of the sugar plum fairy or something, because I was hopping around half the night when I would encounter another burr. I need to get booties for the dogs, ASAP, and then start wearing something like steel plated shoes. This is my only malfunction with the park and the only reason I would not consider coming back. I'm sure some will think that's silly, but I've never seen burrs to this extent. The grounds are well mowed, so I can only imagine the burrs spring up very quickly and are very low to the ground. Sticking to the gravel areas does nothing as the burrs seem to be evenly distributed throughout.

Give me vampire mosquitoes and clouds of kamikaze horseflies before you send me back here. I can wear repellent and put up bug zappers, but how do you protect from burrs? IMHO, the only thing worse would be to realize there were things outside waiting to eat me.

Since I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on the burr thing, I'm docking only one star and will simply vote with my feet. For those who don't mind or have some secret weapon, you'll find this to be a lovely, out of the way, place.