Monterey County Fairgrounds

Often, when we travel using hotels, we are sightseeing all day so just need that clean place to put our heads at night. That is this place. It is a large parking lot turned into an RV campground. We had enough space to put out our slide on one side and lower the stairs on the other. The truck had to be parked in an adjacent cedar covered parking lot. The park was clean. The full hookups worked well. The wifi was not good so used our hotspot most of the time. Never did checkout the bathrooms. My wife said the single washer and dryer were residential style and worked well. There is a golf course next door which provides a nice view. Beyond the golf course is the airport. There is a voluntary flight curfew from 11p to 7am. Most of the time it was followed. The only con was the very bright light on the pole next to our site. It lit up our bedroom at night. Would be nice if it shut off after 10p or 11p. It was the perfect spot to explore Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur. Be careful entering and exiting as the dip at the road is deep. Heard many a scrape and scraped one of our stabilizers on the way out.

As someone who enjoys airplanes and golf this location was great in terms of location.

The rv park itself is fine. Gets the job done. I’m amused at the adult movie theater down the block.

Sites are not level and I had to use 3 stinky slinky hoses to reach a drain.

It is important to note that in my 6 months in monterey I was the only woman that I saw at this park.

10% military discount

As others have said, it is.... fine. There are three lots- paved up at the top which was VERY tight quarters to maneuver in and out, a dirt/mulch lot in the middle, and a gravel lot below. The main entrance was closed due to construction but entrance was clear enough. Not scenic, no tables, benches or anything at sites, but a solid choice for easy access to Monterey. I passed through the Veteran’s Memorial Park to see if it might be an option next time, and will definitely stick with fairgrounds. Besides being able to make reservations, it definitely had a much safer vibe than Veteran’s. Camp host was out and about often and very visible.

It’s a basic paved parking lot with full hook-ups. You are next to a golf course, but you are also nearby an airport so expect to hear take-offs and landings overhead. The grounds are clean and it was nice to have access to a laundry facility. While it is noisey and overpriced there really isn’t much else in the Monterey area. It is a close drive to main streets that will get you downtown and the beach. If you are here just to visit Monterey and not looking for some great escape, this will definitely do.

It's a basic fairground parking lot, but you're in Monterey which makes it convenient. They put most people on the upper parking lot, but if you want to be sure to avoid the golf balls, you can ask to be in the lower carnival grounds. It's not paved down there. We did have a golf ball bounce between us and the neighboring rig. The motorhomes along the fence line all looked like they were taking off as the lot is sloped and the front wheels didn't touch the ground. The other odd thing is you share a power pole and one RV gets 50 amp and one gets 30. Our neighbors already took the 50, but we didn't need A/C in Monterey anyway, so it was ok. Cell service for AT&T and Verizon was fine.

You can walk your dogs around the fairgrounds which are nice. It's a quick drive to all the touristy spots in Monterey and diving spot on the breakwater wall.

My parents live in nearby Pacific Grove and we will bring our Airstream down for a week at a time. We have now stayed here 4 times for a week - both in December and in June. There are not a lot of great options for full hook-ups and while $40 is pricey they go even higher and you are farther away.
We looked at Veterans Park and the price is better, but no reservations and they restrict the trailer length to under 25' - although the ranger said they will allow 25 if you can find a site that accommodates it.
The power, water and sewer are at the *back* of each space and centered between every 2 spaces. So 2 sites use the same place to hook-up. There are separate water and sewer for each site and enough plugs for 2 rigs to plug into power on the same pole. You may need a long sewer hose depending on where you are assigned.
Yes - the entrance has a dip - but if you take it slow you will not bottom out/scrape - we never have.
Pros:
- close in to Monterey area
- full hook-ups
- bathrooms and showers if you need them
- RV area is fenced and locked at night (with gate code)
- each of our visits fellow campers have all been polite and quiet
- a safe place to park the rv, spend the night while in town.
- price is better than other full hook-up options
- take reservations (sites are assigned at check-in)
- dog friendly
- camp hosts are friendly
Cons:
- uh, right underneath the landing path and adjoining the Monterey airport! So depending on which way the aircraft are taking off you could have a jet right over your rig screaming off at 5:45 am. It is not a very big or busy airport but there are commuter and private jets coming and going all day. It bothered us a bit the first visit but it is not an issue for us now and clearly not for the other RV'rs. But this alone may be a non-starter for some.
- yes also adjoins a golf course and they will let you know that you are SOL if you trailer gets dinged by a golf ball. That said, we have now spent 28+ nights there and not a single sign of a golf ball. It seems that while possible, it is not very common. Not all of the spaces adjoin the course so risk is also somewhat dependent on where they put you.
- You can't reserve a space - it is assigned at check-in.
- Some RV spaces are on black-top, others on a dirt lot, always good to request a blacktop space when making a reservation if that is important to you.

Google didn't have the right coordinates for this place, so at first it was hard even finding the RV Park. Once we did, the spot was really tough to get into because there wasn't much space for backing up.

Utilities are shared between two sites, one site has everything close by and the other has to have long cables and hoses. There's also a chance a golf ball could come flying into the park and hit your rig.

Oh, and careful on your way in and out - there's quite a dip and you can see where others have bottomed out.