South Carlsbad State Beach

Campground is on a bluff above a nice popular beach. Dogs are not allowed on beach anywhere. The campground is very popular with families so plenty of kids on bikes all day patrolling. There is a very nice store area with food and beer/wine and when we were there a guy playing guitar for people enjoying food and beverages at sunset. Overall a nice campground for Southern California beach camping.

We stayed here for a quick photoshoot in Carlsbad and loved the idea of being right on the beach. The view is beautiful so we’re glad we went for one night but probably wouldn’t go back. The sites are small and packed next to each other and there are no hookups so it's a nice view but not worth the price.

We don’t recommend it if you need to work because there’s no electrical connection and the cell service isn’t reliable. But definitely go here if you are on vacation and just want to hang out by the beach.

T-mobile: download = 10mb / upload = < 1mb

✅ PROS
On the ocean - great views

❌ CONS
No privacy
Chain link fence blocks the view
Sticklers about 2 pm check-in (we rocked up 7 minutes early and they wouldn’t let us in)
Small lots
Bad cell signal (t-mobile and AT&T)
No hookups
Pricey for no hookups

Love this campsite!! Definitely will try for a site on the water side next time for the view. The stairs leading down to the sand are like 3 stories in length and pretty spread out, so try and get a spot close to stairs. The showers are token operated and the only token station is at the checkin kiosk and cash only. It’s a big campsite so bring a bike or get the tokens on your way in! Loved the site. Many of the SoCal beach campsites have the train tracks super close but this doesn’t! You hear a bit of street traffic, but mostly just the rolling waves!

This is a state park, right on the water. The premium sites are literally on the bluff of the ocean. Some of the sites can accommodate up to a 45 foot rig from the fence to the road. The sites are all about 40 to 45 feet wide. Great cell coverage on both AT&T and Verizon. Was getting about 50 Mb per second on AT&T. Generator hours are strict from 10 AM to 8 PM. You can hear the crashing waves all day and all night, so that drowns out any generator noise pretty well.

The Pacific coast highway is right next to the campground, so you do hear road noise day and night. I’m sure it’s especially loud if you’re in a tent or a soft sided RV.

The good; location, views, bathrooms/showers, beach access, clean beach.
The Bad; Over priced, VERY difficult to get a site (esp on the beach side), traffic and train noise, allot of theft (lock up your stuff), on the weekends there is allot of partying going on. Just sayin', now they charge for the dump station but that's CA taxation for ya!

You have got to stay here best place and no more walking up and down the stairs from h*ll if you stay at this end. no hookups at the end but dump tank is 100 feet away bathrooms are pretty good.

best thing dog beach at this end and wildlife reserve with a channel you can actually surf when tide goes out. walking to stores and neat little shops and a high end restaurant also.

train goes thru several times buts its Amtrak, so its fast and gone in minutes.

Coming from Colorado, this was a really magical experience for me. I was in site 183, and it is right up against the cliff. The site seemed a little bigger than some of the surrounding sites, and had convenient access across the road to bathrooms and a shower (with tokens $1/4minutes). Sometimes I worry, being this close to facilities, about foot traffic and noise, but I don't think there are many spots in this park where those factors would be significantly different, and the convenience of having them so close meant I didn't have to fill up my waste tanks. It is close to the end of the park. So less trailers moving in and out and there is an entrance to the beach nearby.

I will say, I hadn't expected it to be such a rocky beach. Be sure to check the tide forecast, so you can catch the two hour windows of sandy beach once or twice a day at low tide.

Great, clean campground. Helpful park staff. Friendly neighbors. All around, I loved it!

We turned up 40min before 2pm check in and were turned away despite there being free sites. Do not get there before 2pm because they are very strict about this. They told us it would be easy to park along the beach a few miles down which was not possible. We ended up parking at the outlet mall which cost my husband more money.
Our site was road side which was very loud.
Sites are all quite large.
Clean flush toilets and coin operated showers.
Potable water is free but its $15 to dump.

Used to camp here as kids, we remember it being a lot more strict. The park has great views, especially the premium spots. The only issue we had were people speeding passed our camp. Some literally at freeway speeds. For a camp filled with little children, this ruined the campground for us. The camp should either patrol more or install some form of speed bumps.