San Elijo State Beach Campgrounds

I have camped here a few times. I have a Toyota Tacoma with a rooftop tent. This is a great place for camping. The bathrooms are very clean they do a great job.

My biggest advice. Sunset. Try to go when the sun will be out because the sunset at this beach is beautiful. ALSO, if you can get low tide that's a plus and makes for some amazing photos. As far as the camp sites, if you can get a spot by the cliff (above the beach) those are prime spots.

Also because of this they are booked months in advance and more expensive.

Will certainly be back love this state beach!

Terrible staff. Unable to process a site reservation on the spot that is available in their system. As a disabled person would be nice to have some customer service or help going through the process. By the time signed into state park account and checkout at cart, site was taken. Staff at gate were useless.

Great place to do beach camping. You will need to book a reservation at least 6 months in advance or else you won't get a spot. There are options for tent camping or RV camping. Site comes with the picnic table and fire pit.

Pros
- bathrooms are clean and hose down daily. They are individuals stalls.
- showers are pretty clean, both hot and cold showers. 1 token = 2 minutes
- there are also showers to rinse the sand off
- beach is walking distance
- camping site is located in the city. Closed to Starbucks, the market, restaurants and etc
- closed to dog beach

Cons
- the spots are pretty close to your neighbors
- $15 per night extra to park a car (your reservation comes with only one vehicle)
- lots of dust but to be expected
- lots of rocks and pebbles in the beach
- not a lot of spots to hang your clothes or towels. Recommend to bring your own rope to tie against something.

We love this campground and come very often, but unfortunately the people who work at check in were SO rude. We showed up a few minutes early for check in and they were not accommodating or kind whatsoever they demanded we drive back out on the main road and come back. It was probably 5 mins until check in time. They were snappy and just downright mean. We paid a lot of money for this campsite...maybe they should get some training on customer service or just learn how to be nice to other people.

I wanted to tent camp here a few nights and the website and hosts claimed they were sold out. I inspected the grounds and found several sites open-very sketchy.

They charge $40-50 for very small sites. There is a camp store but they also overcharge.

Not recommended

Very rude camp hosts! I have been coming here since I was in diapers and now am coming with my children and family. These camp hosts were very rude to us for no reason at all while letting us into our campsite. Very disappointed in them!

Love this area & the campground. The hosts were awesome. The amenities were nice & clean! The majority of people were nice & friendly. So many great places to run & ride bikes. The eateries are awesome & the markets are so quaint! The beaches were so nice, but a bit of sea weed! If you swim south of the beach watch for sting ray!

We were in site 93. And that's the ONLY reason I couldn't do 5 stars. It's the worst spot in the campground! It's next to the gate that opens to the public. There's a ton of traffic in & out all day. We kept our valuables locked up & it was fine! But we did have a run in with a drunk homeless lady that wandered camp for two days! She verbally assaulted a group of kids before moving on to my kids later in the evening. We let the camp host know & they threw her out. But we had people jumping the fence & gate by us all night long. On our second to last night there we had some people partying & blaring music until 4am. And we're put out when people were yelling to be quiet! So while I love the campground I won't stay at spot 93 again for its lack of privacy!!!

Also camp store was all closed up while we were there such a bummer!

The best campground by the beach!
It is hard to get reservations but every time we come here we had great time with kids!
The water access is at every aisle.
Bathroom is clean
Beach is right by the camp.
Best for kids to play at beach but also as known as the best wave to catch by Surfing.

Beatific place, poorly run park. Campers noisy and drunk idling cars for hours and no park rangers enforcing anything. San Diego deserves better.

I will start by saying the reason I am giving it three stars, end it would be receiving five stars had this rule been different. I think it's insane to charge visitors such as family and friends who are coming to your campsite for a few hours $15 if they stay there more than 20 minutes. I already paid enough for the campsite and instead of charging anyone/everyone for staying for a few hours if they are visiting someone, they should simply give each camping reserved spot/location a specific number of vehicles that can be on that reservation and come into the campgrounds, the rest should have to park on the street and just walk in. This would keep the campground from getting too crowded and would also not rip people off. However, they obviously make a great deal of money off of this surcharge, so I don't foresee anything changing.

Overall, the campgrounds are absolutely beautiful! I make sure and go every single year with friends and or family and you have to be sure and reserve your spot right away because the spots will sell out like hotcakes!