San Benito Thousand Trails

San Benito is a gorgeous site for a somewhat removed campground...it's not close to town or the beach or shopping. (However, you are still RELATIVELY close to lots of incredible places like Monterey.) The last 30 miles are on a two lane road with no shoulder. Go there for peaceful serenity, time to relax, a place to regroup or have fun with your family and friends. Practical stuff: there are some potholes so drive slowly with your rig. Drive the park in a car (if you can) and scope out your site and how you will get to it. Some areas are congested like the full hook ups. But the areas with W/E only are sublime. We needed to get some chores done so we were in full hookups but if I came again, I would skip the sewer and enjoy a larger site and absolute peacefulness. Our Starlink (internet) worked flawlessly. I don't remember which cellular service (4G or 5G) was there but we had between 2-3 bars. However we used wifi the entire time. There is a store there that looks well stocked but we didn't go in there. However, bring all of your supplies so you don't need to trek back to town for stuff. The park is clean and "au natural" and that's exactly what we like. It's winter here in CA and so things are growing fast with all the recent rain. There are areas that will benefit from some spring clean up but overall, it's just lovely. Our site was level but I got a sense that you might have to make adjustments to find the sweet spot and be level in some sites. Our dogs were pretty happy when we found an out of the way area to run. There was no one around so no one minded. Our dogs played ball in a wide open field and were very happy.

We spent nearly a week here while visiting. The place is in fact loaded with ground squirrels, but they posse no issues. Rarely are they near campers. Mountain lions and Wild boars on the other hand were a bit more problematic. We saw only one mountain lion, but it was enough to keep us on notice (as one might expect to be in mountain lion country), the boars were an issue for 3 out of 5 nights. On those nights they would come in a root around for whatever they might be able to find. We chased them out on more than one occasion.

Our cell service here was sufficient to send and receive emails, messages and talk in our phones (AT&T). The staff is very friendly and helpful.

Only wish was that it was closer to the coast and the boar issue wasn’t one.

We are Thousand Trails members so we made this booking for free. We had booked a one-week reservation at San Benito but 2 hours after arrival we left. This campground was a 2-star for us, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work better for you depending on your needs. But I wanted to share our experience so you can make that decision for yourself.

My husband and I both work remotely, so internet / cell service is a MUST. The front office had told us they have good Verizon reception so we thought this campground would work for us. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and circled the park several times with laptops and phones out trying to find a spot with any sort of cell service. We have Verizon and T-Mobile and were never able to find any connection. At one point near the lodge we had maybe 1 bar of T-Mobile that couldn't even load a Google search. We had to go into the lodge and connect to the park wifi just to search for a different campground to go to.

The park wifi at the lodge worked well but we didn't want to go there to work everyday (there were people watching videos and being loud – not a good work environment). Apparently there is a wifi you can purchase to use in the campground but it never showed up for us when we were circling the park. The park worker we spoke to said it was pretty slow anyway.

Besides the internet, another major issue for us that we noticed while driving around the park were the ground squirrels. I have never seen so many in my life. Look in any given direction and there would be 6+ ground squirrels in your immediate view. I am not exaggerating, I wish I took a picture. Normally I like wildlife but this was more like an infestation. Burrows on every campsite. I saw a ground squirrel stand on the front step of someone's camper and others looking up at the belly of campers. I would be concerned about them chewing through something.

Another negative of this campground is the location. It's definitely in the middle of nowhere, which could be a plus for some I guess. The park was also just sort of dusty and felt aged / a bit run down.

There were some positives though. I thought it was cool how there was a pasture with sheep right behind the campground. Also the sites are more spaced out than other Thousand Trails campgrounds. And the 2 park workers that we spoke with were both very helpful and kind!

We especially appreciated their help and understanding when we told them we had to check out early and find another campground with cell service. The worker said he would keep our reservation for the night in case we didn't find anywhere with availability then we could come back. So thoughtful. Luckily, we found another park closer to the coast with availability and great cell service that wasn't too pricey, and we were good to go for work on Monday.

In summary, San Benito had unusable cell service, a crazy amount of ground squirrels, and just wasn't a very nice campground. We won't be back. But if you don't work remotely and don't need reliable internet, don't mind the ground squirrels everywhere, and like the quiet seclusion of the park's location, this could be a nice campground for you.

A Thousand Trails campground, so be aware it is a first come first get a campsite. We had plenty of campsites to choose from, although there were many which did not have power at its pedestal. The staff was very friendly. They offer Friday Night movies by the lodge. There was many ground squirrels, deer and quail. Although they posted for pigs, we did not see any. Bummer! Restrooms and showers in our loop was clean and well maintained.
We went to Pinnacles National Park (both east and west entrances this time). Was fun and enjoyed the drive. Nearby is Mission San Juan Bautista. Great history. Scenes from Hitchcock's Vertigo were filmed at the Mission. Great movie with Jimmy Steward and Kim Novak.
Verizon cell signal was low, but usable.

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.