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Casini Ranch
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
19 reviews for Casini Ranch
Before I get started on my review, I should make a disclosure. My husband's cousin's girlfriend works there, and my husband's cousin does side jobs for them although he works full time elsewhere. They live on site. We pay for our campsites just like anyone else except for the first night of our last stay when we pitched a tent outside their permanent campsite in the employee camp area because we had a family gathering there.
I have now been there twice. The first time was in June, and we camped 2 days in one of the little cabins. Those sites are ok, the cabin has platforms to put your air mattress or pads down, but nothing else is in the cabins. Just the platforms. The site had a picnic table and fire ring, but we never used it because we hung out with our cousins at their site most of the time in the evening. like I said, the cabin was ok, but we prefer our tent. Be sure to bring a broom to sweep the grit on the floor, and a little rug to put down. Both items would have been really nice to have had during that stay.
The second time was a five day trip starting last weekend, and ending on Thursday. This last time we reserved a site based on campsite numbers we had written down that looked good. We arrived on Saturday, and planned to spend the first night at the cousin's place. The camp site we wanted was booked by someone else until Sunday, when we would move to it. We decided once we drove by it that we had written down the wrong camp site number, and asked it we could change.
The reservation people were very accommodating, and let us pick another site, providing it was not already booked. We stayed in 44C, and lucky for us, since school started and the campgrounds were not busy from Sunday on, we did not even have close neighbors. It was a great site. There was a very private shaded area in the back of it, and we put up a little table and chairs back there. No one could see us from the road.
We went on several outings during the days, and left the campground a lot of the time during the day. There are wineries galore nearby for wine tasting, the Russian River right there in the campgrounds for rafting and tubing, Lake Sonora a short drive away for boating, and the ocean and beaches are only 6 miles away. We had a great time doing all those things.
Casini's has great security. For a place that can have the population of a small city on busy nights, they do an excellent job keeping everyone safe. The security people patrol the grounds on golf carts all day and evening. They mostly just wave to you when they go by, but if they see any loud rowdy people, or someone besides you in your camp ground, they will question it. The speed limit is 7 MPH everywhere in the ranch.
They really do mean 7MPH, and if you seem to be going a little faster, someone will call out to you or wave you down to tell you to go slower. This happened to us by one of the employees, and we were under 10MPH. The quiet hours are enforced, and if they hear you, they will drive by your campsite and tell you to keep it down. I think you would have to be really disruptive for them to actually evict you from the premises. Most of the employees we dealt with while there were really nice and helpful.
I would go back, but will always plan it during a slower time because I'm really not a people person and prefer it less crowded. I've seen it both ways. I like having the river all to ourselves and not having to wait for showers. We'll let the families with kids have it during the busy times, and we will go when they are not there. It's a really cheap alternative to paying for hotel rooms when staying in the area.
Just spent the entire weekend here. Second time here, had a blast. Lots of fun things to do with the kids. Saturday morning we went on a scavenger hunt, then around 5 we went on a hay ride. They offer a huge bonfire by the river but we passed on that and had our own. I felt very safe here, felt safe to let the kids venture off.
Security rides around making sure things are going good. Hot showers and bathrooms are close by, oh and they have a few playgrounds. I also saw a gated dog park. Huge field to play any sport you fancy.
I will say the prices are very high but worth it if you value safety.
The weather was ok.. it was very windy where we stayed but the river was nice and calm. Bring your own water toys cuz the snack shack rents out a ripoff of Kyaks..
Overall happy kids=happy mama!
To everyone else who had a shitty craptastic time... that sucks for you! haha
We stayed up until 1am even later and had no complaints.. we had the radio going over 30 people in our party and never once was told to lower our voices.. the security guard came over and chatted a bit but never did or said anything bad.
The guys at the snack shack were even laid back.. we booked the kyaks and they let us use the day sites free of charge.
Id say the only negative experience was when my boyfriend was asked not to eat in the food mart.. SIGNS SAID NO EATING.. lol that was our bad..
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Avoid at all costs -- unless you're into Civil War reenactment (and root for the South). Yeah, seriously, they host Civil War battle reenactments. But more importantly:
The people who run this camp are loony and incompetent.
First off, when we arrived we had to wait 30 minutes in a line of cars waiting to enter the grounds - for no other reason than that they're super anal about tracking every individual who enters and exits (and at an extortionate $15 per night per person, I'm sure it pays off).
Second, after staying a single night, the staff approached us in the morning with a made up a story about how we'd misbehaved and been loud the night before and therefore had to vacate the site. It was completely out of the blue and truly incredible. They claimed that a security guy had told us the night before that we would have to leave in the morning, totally didn't happen (but it also wasn't that we were mistaken for another camp site, we spoke to several people in the office and they confirmed it was indeed us they wanted to boot out).
Essentially, the owners and staff run the place like tyrants over their fiefdom. After kicking us out for no discernible reason beyond that they didn't seem to like us 30-something city kids, they wouldn't even give us our money back.
Apparently, my friends and I are not the only ones who have had such an experience at Casini. Seriously, DO NOT CAMP HERE!
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Summer time camping, a family tradition.
For a second, I thought that I'd be the first (think of it!) to write-up a review of Casini Ranch Family campground on the Russian River, but alas, fellow Yelpers have been here before me.
Regardless, this is the campground that my wife and her family has been coming to for decades, and I'm glad the tradition has been kept alive long enough for me to enjoy it too. This isn't a state park, but also not a franchised operation, expect a fairly modern, well-maintained campground catering to just about all the different types of campers, from those in tents, to pull-behind trailers, all the way up to full-time live-in RV snowbirders.
Bring your marshmallows and swim trunks!
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Great campground with awesome river access. Very kid friendly, safe and family oriented. I will come back again and refer others. However I also found the one hour check in to be completely unacceptable.
Overall, I liked Casini Ranch. Private campgrounds are known for packing in the visitors like sardines. But considering that, this place wasn't bad. The RV's are packed in like sardines, but the in-land tent sites were not bad, especially the sites in the #40's and #50's (the tent sites along the river are like a ghetto...but apparently those people consider those sites to be prime sites, so hooray for them).
We were near the river, and we were never bothered by a single bird, squirrel nor raccoon. That was a first for me!
The overall layout of the place is very nice. The "Mall Security" are all over the place reprimanding people for driving too fast and, allegedly, for shushing people after 10pm. I like that, and I give them an extra star for that. The beach is very large and the water seems safe for swimming. Apparently, many of the guests come back here year-after-year, and they make their rezzies half a year in advance.
But be warned, there's a traffic jam at the entrance every day from 2-3pm just after check-in, and there's often long lines for the showers and rest-rooms. It also gets cold at night (I like that) because it's only a few miles from the ocean. But it easily warms into the low-80's during the daytime.
If you like fun and--unlike some of the RV families at this ranch--do not fly the Confederate flag, read on before thinking of booking at Casini:
I second Kristin D.'s seconding of Allison A. & Hayden M.'s reviews. This place is so awful and the staff so fascist, I kept asking them if they had a hidden camera trained on my friends and me because I couldn't believe how they reacted.
Setup: Planned to spend a weekend in Guerneville with a total of 6 friends. By the time I called around, the only two campgrounds with sites left were a "gay-friendly" one and a "family-friendly one." Now, being San Franciscans, we're all "gay-friendly," but when the owner warned me of "light sexual activity" running rampant, I decided to book at Casini instead (and even then only because I was warned that since I was checking in with a buddy a day before my girlfriend showed up, we should expect to be propositioned.)
Incident: I paid over $30 per night, which is a lot for a very tiny site at such a huge campground (I got lost trying to find our site). Then, when the other 2 cars carrying 2 people each arrived, they paid another $30 each. So Casini made $180 on the 6 of us sharing a space half the size of a Motel 6 room but without Tom Bodet so much as leaving the lights on for us!
As little kids squeaked and squealed all over the place, we set up our tents. Then we grilled some sausages, ate some chips and salsa, and cracked open some beers. I say "some" and not "many" because we all had just a few each. Also, we are all in our 30s including a doctor, a lawyer, and some nonprofit-y types. As the night went on, we were the only people still up. The Leonid meteor shower was in effect, after all!
Long story short: A woman came by around 12:30 a.m. (quiet hours start at 10). She stayed and chatted for a few minutes, said we don't need to go to sleep but we need to keep it down, then she walked away. In the morning, a security guard on a golf cart (see many mentions of the Ranch Nazi below) rolls up and evicts us. Tells us we have to leave immediately. He sites the woman (who didn't mention she's also the owner) and that a security guard instructed us to leave at 2 a.m. (Excuse us! We were all fast asleep by 2 a.m., you liar). This is when I think we're on Candid Camera. I talk to the guard (a retired cop, he tells us). We talk to the owner (who was trying to avoid talking to us after her make-believe report). We ask with a politeness I didn't know we possessed to A) stay the night or B) get a refund. When we were told after a series of lectures that we could stay the night but that if we made just one peep, we'd be escorted out by the "drivers of those black and white cars," we packed up and left. This Yelp review is my only solace.
Next time I want a peaceful, quiet, getaway--the kind that reasonable, responsible adults partake of--I'm staying at the Highlands Resort!
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Been here twice. Great for family. Kids have a blast. can ride bikes and go to the store. it is relatively safe. Swimming in the river is great with rentals available and water being deep enuf to have fun. water temp is fine. probably more family orientated than party but we stayed up late and boozed and had fire going. best location of all campsites i have been to for short day trip drives to various places.
Going again for my third trip. two other families going back for third time too. I don't find the mgmt overbearing but maybe cos all i need is firewood and booze.
A bunch of us really wanted to go camping but left it until just a few weeks before to make reservations. All the state and county campgrounds we were interested in were full so we booked here on a friend of a friend's recommendation. The campsite was pretty and right on the Russian River. There is a handy convenience store on site that sells some camping equipment along with food, alcohol, and firewood. The bathrooms were nice enough for a campsite and came with hot water showers.
The campsite was definitely overrun with children. Quiet hours began at 10 pm, and "security" drove around every 10 minutes or so in golf carts to make sure all were quiet. It was a bit odd to have these really loud golf roads roaming around constantly all night. However, we stayed up past 10 and were quiet and no one bothered us. And I have to admit, I did enjoy that everyone respected quiet hours until they ended at 8 am.
This campsite wasn't exactly my type. It was definitely overpriced and over-regulated for me and my group. However, our group had a nice enough time. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for campsites with lots of amenities and anyone with children. All the kids seemed to be having a blast running around and playing together. I am going to file this place away in my memory and maybe return someday when I have kids and then I will probably really like it.
The sites are packed in like sardines. I was literally 2 feet from the neighboring campsites camper and had to listen to them snore all night. (wow maybe they should be arrested for breaking the 10:00 no noise policy). Although we weren't harassed by the by the gun slinging security, it was a bit unnerving to have them slowly driving through about every 30 minutes all day and all night. As with others here we found that if you weren't dead silent at 10:00 a to call the sheriff could be in order. There were about 50 signs up all around describing what they would do to you if you broke any of the many, many rules.
Anyhow I would skip this campground and head to one of the great ones in the area run by the state parks. The combination of having campsites so close together and some people expecting it to be absolutely quiet at 10:00 just makes for a bad combination. I don't expect to be able to throw a raging party when I go camping with my friends, but I do expect to be able to stay up and talk after 10:00 at night and not fill uncomfortable about doing it.
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Casini Ranch is a full service campground on the bank of the Russian River just inland from the Northern California coast. The campground is a series of subdivided grassy plots suitable for pitching a tent or parking your RV. They have a little village with a general store and a restaurant. The store has small propane bottles in case your friends use all your gas boiling water for tea. They have "hay rides" which is a bunch of chubby people riding on a trailer towed by a big green John Deer tractor followed by 20 kids on bicycles. Casini Ranch also has full service bathrooms. They aren't real clean, but have flush toilets and showers with hot water.
Unfortunately, there are way too many people in this campground. The tents are close enough together that you will hear people snoring and babies crying. The good news is, they have lots of security and sheriff patrols and the rules are enforced strictly. Prices can be a little high for camping though.
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Shoot!! I am a little disappointed in my fellow campers. This place is definitly for families. If you don't want a bunch of kids on bikes having fun around while on vacation this place is not for you. You must like people to stay here! True if you are a serious camper this place would be a little silly, but if you want a chill weekend by the river come here.
Spent Memorial Weekend at Casini Ranch. The campsites were nice, though pretty close to one another. Nice location on the river. Don't go if you don't have kids or if you plan on having a good time. After dark, security will ride you on noise levels to the point of harassment.
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If you want a good RV spot, reserve approx. year in advance. The sizes of the sites vary quite a bit. There are plenty of great tent sites.
The people that run the place are a little high strung. When we were there, someone drove through the gate without stopping and I think half the crew had to change their shorts. There was loud buzz on the walkie talkies of "someone stormed the gates!" and numerous golf carts whizzing by...sheesh. It's not the Pentagon people. My sister tried to rent a canoe (which was listed as something that would be available on their website), there was none. No two person kayaks either. Just single kayaks. She went ahead and purchased two single kayaks. The rental fees = $15 by the hour, $20 for half day $25 for all day. She got down to the river and there were two ladies on the two last single kayaks. The guy explained that he had just rented them out. My sister holds up her receipt and says, "I just paid for them and reserved them up at the store. Like you are supposed to." The whole Seinfield car rental "reservation" episode buzzed through my head. The two ladies that could not garnish a receipt did hand over the kayaks (I wouldn't have crossed my sister at that point either).
The bathrooms are pretty clean and the showers have warm water. The river is pretty. Kayaking was fun. The store has most everything you could need. There's a place with coin operated laundry if you are staying long enough to need it. A few playgrounds that the kids seem to dig and a pretty decent arcade. There is also a field big enough to fly a kite or play baseball in. They market it as a "family campground" and it really is. I wouldn't come here if you are looking to party - they are pretty serious about the "no noise after 10 p.m.".
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Although this is a beautiful campsite, the staff was very condescending and put a damper on our Memorial Day weekend vacation. I have never experience a situation where I was reverted back to my childhood days at girl scout camp. We respected the quite hours and were a very mellow group of young adults but the staff had us pegged. I was even threatened to be taken to the sheriff's office for no justifiable reason. The town nearby is quant and beautiful with many gorgeous views to enjoy. I do recommend Russian River camping but not at the Casini Ranch!
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This was the only campsite we could find 2 weeks before Father's Day weekend, which coincides with Blues on the River, a very busy weekend for the Russian River. We've never camped at a 'family campground' that is RV oriented before (being the tent camping nature lovers we are). But you can enjoy tent camping at Casini if you get the right spots, those are the ones in the high 40s & low 50s (see the campground map). They're fairly secluded and offer you respite from the rest of the masses.
There are a few very clean bathrooms with running hot and cold showers, sinks & toilets, a playground (the 4 year old we were with loved it), a store that carries all sort of essentials (including beer!) and well, you are right on the river, good for fishing, swimming and just floating. There are also nice wide open spaces for flying kites, which you might not often think of, but that general store sells those too, because kite flying is a lot like yawning, once you see someone doing it you have to urge to do it as well.
This is really a family camp, for real, there's a lot of kids, they're biking around, they're running amok, but I can honestly tell you the birds are louder than the kids. They have some of those nutty birds that are really out to get your dander up, they're squawking and shitting on your tent as much as possible, clearly letting you know who's in charge.
I found the staff to be very sweet & accommodating, but quite a bit on the slower pace of life, perhaps it has something to do with having to go 7 miles an hour all the time...
All in all, the people around the campground are really friendly, the staff are kind and there are some just fantastic spots to enjoy your nature trip.
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Stayed here in a Travel Trailer......very busy on the weekends, lots of dirt and dust, most campsites have water and elec - but most do not have sewer - what a bummer - about $36 a night - less if you stay longer than a week, good beach access, 7 mph around camp means just that, no motorcycles at alll - no off-road bikes or strret bikes - a real bummer
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I second Allison A. & Hayden M.'s reviews...It's a great campground as far as cleanliness, number of sites and location. My goodness, though, these people need to RELAX!!! Our experience started with being chased down by security person who was in a golf cart because we were going "too fast" and not respecting the 7MPH speed limit. Oh, and it wasn't just a warning, it was a lecture for at least 3 minutes...And, honestly, we didn't see any signs when we first got into the park! So, apparently that gave them a right to stalk our group the rest of the weekend, it was so creepy I felt like I was in a bad horror flick! Including arriving back to our site around 3AM from the bathroom only to find two of the golf carts parked at an empty site next to ours, clearly they were waiting for a reason to approach us. We were completely respectful of the quiet hours, we even reserved an additional space to ensure there would not be anyone around us, but yet the security nazi came out of nowhere "just to see how we were doing". We still had a good time, it was just frustrating to feel uncomfortable when you've given someone no reason to treat you this way. I would highly recommend never going to this campground, the staff was generally disrespectful. The only reason they got one star was because of a gentleman that worked there named Dave who was the nicest guy, even left us a huge box of wood while we were at dinner, and sincerely apologized for the way we were treated. It's unfortunate that the others can't understand what a benefit it is to treat your guests respectfully.
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My wife and I spent four days and three nights at the Casini Ranch in our Tioga Walkabout. It was a blast! The hills surrounding the Ranch are beautiful. We had a killer spot right on the bank of the Russian River. Love the kayaking on the river! The current isn't too strong here so it's not grueling. It's Peaceful. It's also close enough to the Ocean where you can explore Goat Rock Beach in Jenner. Once the day winds down you can have a campfire and cookout. Steak, beer, and a little music in the scenic surroundings. We also like to walk or bike through the campground and talk to the fellow campers and RVers. Where ya' from? People are always in a good mood at the Casini Ranch. The folks who work there are VERY helpful and friendly. They bring wood right to your campsite. There's also a great little store if you run out of anything...like cold beer, pork-n-beans or whatever. Can't wait to go back and rock that Tioga again.
