Chinook Winds Casino Resort

It’s right off the 101. There’s a Safeway and a laundromat within walking distance and it’s ocean front. The cost of admission is $20 gambling per night. Last night we turned that $20 into $200, which more than paid for our stay, our groceries and laundry. The beach here is so beautiful and our site so private, we opted to stay an extra night. The parking lot was relatively empty when we pulled in but it filled up within a couple of hours and no one appears to be moving.

Max stay here is 7 nights. You've got to go into the casino, gamble $20 and get a new pass each day but the process is really easy and the staff here is very helpful and friendly.

I'm not a casino person but my husband is. And although I'd much prefer to be in a forest than a parking lot, this has been a great place to stay, regroup and stock up for the road ahead.

We stayed here in late June 2017 for 3 days and 2 nights. The lot is organized in that there are RV-sized spaces side by side and are all numbered. There are plenty of spaces, but on this particular weekend, the casino was celebrating its 22nd anniversary so the lot was very full by the time we got there early Friday evening.

You have to register at the Winner's Circle just to the left of the entrance as you enter the casino. In order to register you must: 1) be parked in a numbered, RV-specific spot in the RV lot (taking up several car parking spots is not allowed); 2) you must get a Player's Club card and earn 40 points by gambling (we spent $10 and about an hour playing $0.05 poker); and 3) you have to do all this by 10 PM.

If you don't get a spot by 10 PM (as was the case for many late-comers), you will be turned away and told not to park in the normal car parking lot.

Security does patrol the lots so it would be good to call ahead of time to make sure there are plenty of spaces, but also have a backup plan in case you get turned away.

The town was cool and the beach is adjacent to one side of the property -- in fact the ocean can be seen from the RV lot. Sunsets are pretty from the RV lot as well! Safeway was around the corner about 1 minute from the RV lot. There is also an RV park (Logan Road RV Park) close by that sells propane.

Overall, we had a good stay other than the crowd. Had it not been for the crowd, it would have been better, but what can you expect for late June when everyone is traveling?

As for connectivity, Verizon was at 3 bars of LTE, T-Mobile was spotty and seemed to fluctuate between Extended coverage and LTE (although I will say that even when I had LTE showing, I wasn't getting any data through), AT&T also had 3 bars of LTE.