San Benito Thousand Trails

This large campground has a peculiar layout in that tent sites are frequently placed in close proximity to RV sites. Most Thousand Trails parks have a dedicated tent section, but not this one. This made it difficult to locate a quality site after arrival as it seemed like every shaded area was for tents only. Luckily we somehow stumbled upon 30/50 amp full hookup back-in site #507. There was no extra fee for the 50 amp. This site has 2 large trees over it so the amount of shade is excellent. The 30 amp plug on our electrical box was loose which resulted in a poor connection. Fortunately we have a 50 amp adapter. Warning: the 5 mph campground speed limit is strictly enforced! We saw several deer during our stay which was great. The bathroom closest to us did not appear to be in service as there was yellow police tape around the entrance. Country store is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6:00pm. Sadly the shelves are extremely bare at the moment but they are in the process of restocking supplies. Coffee is not available due to COVID. We interacted with several staff members and everyone was nice. My AT&T phone had 2 surprisingly fast bars and my wife's Verizon phone had 1 bar. We didn't try the optional paid wifi. Recycling bins are available.

We have been members for about 4 years and last year bought the Elite membership for 7K. What we have discovered is that most of the parks are old and rundown with a lot of the site having no electricity or sewers. Some parks don't check to see if people are checking out on the date they are suppose to so some people take advantage of this and stay longer. Lots of really old rigs I guess there is no rule covering rigs that are held together with duck tape and tin foil.
This holiday weekend we stayed in San Benito park and it is turning out to be the worst experience yet. Two trailers came in at 10P.M. one trailer had no problem parking in a open site the other family however first parked in a space that the electricity wasn't working, so after 20 minutes they moved, they then tried to park between two trailers where there wasn't s site, why they thought they could park there is beyond me. They finally found a spot next to the family they came in with. While they were trying to find a site their children were running around yelling and hollering to each other with flashlights this went on passed midnight.
The next day they put up 4 tents and numerous other sun rooms etc. While they were busy construction a little city their children are running around running into our rig with their Hoola hoops and then two of the older children decided to play baseball in our front patio. The parents allowed the children to go through other peoples sites as if they owned the place. I love children had 4, it's the parents fault.

Now other people started to arrive parking anywhere and everywhere. Then the music started, now why they would think that everyone wanted to listed to the booming of the base is beyond me. So let me bring this all together 2 sited beside each other with 2 trailers, 4 tents and three other tent like structures, 6 to 8 children running through other peoples sites, and at least 15 to 20 adults and we listened to the music, kids and adults hollering and carrying on until midnight again.
Now you might ask why we didn't complain, well several of the park people had driven by this newly constructed city many, many times one time the park person even waved at the people and 2 of the parks people also have sites very close by so there is no way the park people couldn't have known what was going on.
My thoughts the park people in charge seem to be very young with most of the workers being older. So were the people in charge friends? Just didn't care I don't know or didn't know how to deal with the problem. Everyone is given a sheet with the rules, I think these people set a new record and broke everyone of them. . This is Saturday and I am sure this will continue until Monday. Anyone want to buy a membership?

3 bars ATT with Netgear nighthawk router in posted. With WeBoost Reach RV omnidirectional, I'm getting 27 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload with 36ms ping times and 5 bars.

This hardware is the best on the market (at the time of this review) in terms of reception, so adjust your expectations accordingly. The latest phones might not get any signal at all.

Amazing property and they're clearly doing their best on a limited budget.

Everything is pretty on par for our Thousand Trails experiences so far. Clean, dated restrooms and showers. Its about 10 minutes to a convenience store and 20 or so minutes to a grocery store. Deer, birds, Turkey vultures, Hawks, squirrels and even an occasional wild pig roaming around. Spacious, fenced dog park that's a little bit of a walk from most of the sites. Playground and bathrooms open, everything else still closed for the season or covid. Barely a Verizon signal. Wifi is iffy but gets better the closer you are to the store or clubhouse.

We got a free TT membership when we bought our brand new trailer. We hadn't stayed at any because they weren't convenient to anywhere we wanted to go. Then something on our trailer broke and we had to wait to get it fixed. We found this San Benito TT near the RV repair. I wish we had another place to go. There's only so many times you can hike at Pinnacles. Hollister is boring. The only good thing is the coast is only a hour away. San Benito TT is crowded and you have to pay for wifi which doesn't work. There's absolutely no cell service for AT&T or Verizon. This is not good for people who need to work while on the road. We have to drive a few miles out to find any cell service. If you want to hunker down and not do anything San Benito TT is fine. They have big shade trees, a dog park and a laundry. As a matter of fact most of the people there live there. They have very good rates if you just want to live in place like this.

First time at this TT-Park, and the first time we had to show vehicle registrations and proof of insurance?
The staff was friendly and helpful. This park for October / November was only 1/3 full, so make it a very quiet. Halloween night they had a parade around the park for the kids in costumes and collected candy.
Our only complaint was the WIFI, which we had to pay $15 for a week, but our Wifi was very slow and was dropping out all the time. I don't mind paying but Good WIFI but down speeds were at 1.3 and up was at 2.2 Mbps Not Good when you are paying.

This campground advertises 596 campsites, I would guess if it was fully opened and repairs were done it would be much more. Typical of Thousand Trails Campgrounds are older and bought in a state of disrepair. It would take millions to fully bring it up to date. Despite that, I like it here and will return next year.

I enjoy the setting in the middle of a seven thousand acres ranch. The Paicines Ranch was founded in the 1800s and is just beautiful. I found on my visit the hosts and associates were more than friendly and helpful. What facilities I have visited (that were open) were clean.

You can visibly see new repairs being done in a number of areas. Still, a lot of work is needed. The buildings, which were closed due to COVID seemed unkept, but I would expect that considering.

The grounds while a little better than my visit last year, still looked dead (I visited in Fall) but many trees had been removed or in the state of being removed. I am hoping my next visit will show even more improvement.

I’m a 1000 Trails Member and have never been treated this bad in all the campsites I have gone to. Staff Isabel and Manager Joann will do what it takes to make your stay miserable. Water was out when we were there and they wanted to charge an unattended rig fee because I go to work! Pictures are false. There is no greenery only dried weeds.

We sheltered in place here for about 15 weeks, left for one, then returned or another two weeks.

The park is good. Well maintained, but there are a lot of areas that aren’t in use (outside of lockdown restrictions), including a few bathrooms (so check before you set up).

It’s big, with different “feels” in different areas. It has full hookups and 30 or 50 amp electric (50 is limited to one side of the park).

Access is easy but long and quite far away from anything. Though it’s a few minutes away from Pinnacles NP. The drive is scenic. The access road is steep, paved, some vehicles had a hard time hauling their loads out. So if you’re grazing your limit, take caution.

There were two things that we didn’t enjoy - one - no cell service for AT&T (not always a problem for us but we were there a long time!) and their own internet that’s they sell for $20 for three weeks was rubbish and really not worth the money. There’s WiFi in a few spots around the park (adult lodge, family lodge, laundromat).

And second - the “rangers” aren’t very friendly. There’s a few, like 2, that smile at you and talk to you but mostly it was just “Ranger” against visitor and it seemed like they were always trying to catch you out on something. If you’re camping with precocious kids, who love to explore, they’ll see you coming and you’ll be targeted. We were sited for our dog running loose at the time our dog was very sick and we feared he wouldn’t make it (he had a foxtail abscess - excellent to google if you don’t know what that is before arriving). He wasn’t running anywhere, so I’m not sure whose word they took but they were mistaken. A neighbour was kicked out (during lockdown) because his dog often got free. There are also wild pigs and we were told they carry a disease that is fatal to dogs, another neighbours dog died while there. So beware of your dog’s safety. The pigs didn’t bother us much but our dog isn’t likely to chase them and we were mindful of their droppings and such.

The park was quiet. Though it’s actually amid of people who use TT to live and those that just visit for a weekend.

89 is a great site, with a seasonal stream behind it (we think it must flow down from the ranch above, so use caution!) It was a great spot for kids to get out from under the very watchful gaze of “rangers” and have some good ole camping fun. There is poison oak EVERYWHERE and the flies can be ridiculous.

It is close enough for a quick day trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium.

There is wildlife in the park so you will want to keep an eye out.

The park itself could use a lot of work. There is a ton of goats heads in this park, so you will want to have a good size mat. If you park under a tree, make sure to inspect it. A lot of their trees in this park could use a good trimming. The Laundry facility was ok. The lodge was clean and the staff is very friendly.

It seems some people use the spaces to store their RV's. We had a few abandoned RV's around us. We did experience an Earthquake here and I believe this is in an area of an active fault line.

We had little to know cell service here, but they do offer a third party "purchase" wifi. It worked great for us. I would recommend getting a spot near their bathrooms as that is where the WIFI repeaters are located.