Veterans Memorial Park Campground

Great, quiet location in Monterey. $48 per night with the $5 seniors discount. Cash only. Potable water throughout campground and at the sani dump. 5 minutes drive to the downtown, wharf or Cannery Row. But don’t think you can walk downtown, the campground is high up on a steep hill. Nice, but steep, hiking trails from the campground at Huckleberry Hill. Shower house and washrooms were clean. Sites not that level. Do not arrive after dark, very little lighting in the campground. Park host greeted us and gave us info and they are enforcing the 20’ length. Star gazing was awesome.

We have been coming here for many years. The prices now are higher than they were years ago. But now they let you stay for 3 nights maximum. The campground used to play taps every morning at 6 AM, they stopped that a few years ago. It is lovely, quiet, and the staff has always been friendly. While you can walk to town it is a long hill back up to the campground. If you have an RV we recommend parking near Dust Bowl Brewery - Monterey does a great job providing RV parking. The showers are hot, but they are used by many homeless with vehicles in the area. We have never had any problems with anyone here.

This is a first-come, first-served campground with noon checkout. We were there for three nights (the maximum allowed) the weekend of the Big Sur Marathon. I expected all the sites to fill up on the weekend, but there were still spots available. Many of the sites are too small for large RV’s (maybe a 21 ft limit??) but space 19 was flat and large enough for my 16 ft. trailer, and three cars (I had company). Ranger Chris runs a tight ship, but seems like a reasonable and friendly guy. No campfires after 10 - it was very quiet. Paid $44 plus $6 for trailer and $12 for the extra car. Two clean bathroom buildings, one with showers and dish washing facility. No hookups, but water spigots and a dump station. This is located in an awesome little park with playgrounds and some hiking. A steep hill down to Monterey downtown.

The best part of this campground was its proximity to everything in Monterey. While I had no real attraction to the campground, I also had no complaints.

The campground: Located uphill from the rest of Monterey, the campground has lots of trees and deer. The bathrooms and showers were clean. Fires were prohibited when I visited. The staff were friendly.

The area: There are multiple roads you can use to access the campground; if you have a large RV I'd recommend looking at them ahead of time, because one was curvy and narrow. I had no difficulty navigating it in an SUV. It's a quick trip into downtown Monterey from this campground, and not much longer to the ocean. I really enjoyed driving down to the coast and sitting on a rock watching the sea otters float over the waves. Monterey is a lovely town with plenty of things to do.

Booking: In November, I showed up here pretty late in the evening and had no trouble getting a spot. Just stop at the front and pay once you know where you're staying for the night. It's a little pricier than I'd like for car camping, but I couldn't find anywhere else nearby.

First time camping here at Veterans memorial and it’s been great! My husband and I stayed here with our 10.5 month old son and 11 yr old dog in our camper van. There is a great playground for the kids and a wide open space to play fetch with your dogs. Spot comes with picnic table and fire pit although no fires allowed at this time. Through the trees you can see a small view of the bay since this camp spot is located on top a hill. Beautiful trees all around.

Designed for small rvs and tents. Most spots well shaded. Many spaces not that level. Quiet, ranger on site. Very narrow windy road to park, not suited for rvs over 30, smaller is better. Restrooms have 1 toilet (mens) and 2 showers. Marginal, but better than nothing. Anyone can stop and use restroom, not just campers. There is a second restroom at entrance, no shower. Dump at entrance for easy in and out. Park located top of mountain above Monterey. Good access to town and close to Carmel Big Sur and pacific grove. Not intended for long stays. 3 days then over to fairgrounds and then you can come back for 3 more. Get there early 11am to claim your spot.

No doubt about it, we'd stay here again. The bathrooms were reasonably clean. The showers were nice and hot. There was warm water for the dishwashing sink. The sites weren't all that level so bring blocks. If you have a taller and longer rig, head for the shower area. The sites "in the woods" are hard to get to and INto. Lots of low branches.
$5 discount for NPS Senior Pass holders and other access/military passes. The base price went up to $44 per night starting April 1st.
If you're not a paid camper, dump station is $12 and to use the shower is $4. There is a military base very close so you'll hear Reveille at 6am and Taps at 10PM. We were getting 5G cell reception, 2 bars w/o WeBoostRV and 4 and 5 bars with WeBoostRV. VERY convenient to Uber to Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We came here for a few nights on a three day weekend. It is first come first serve and we got here around 11am. They had several sites to choose from which was nice. Site 19 was large and pretty level so we didn't have to do anything to level our rig. The Verizon cell service was really poor with 1 bar of LTE. It was really nice and quiet! We walked down the hill to downtown and had a blast looking around. It takes about 30 minutes to get down and 40 to get back up. We also rode our bikes and it was a lot of fun! Will definitely be back.

Nice park up in the hills above Monterey. Nightly rate of $40 plus a $5 RV charge! But given prices in the area this is a bargain. Max stay is 3 days then out for 1. I would guess this helps with availability as was our experience. Dump station requires serious manipulation if your pulling a TT… Showers are free for guests. Sites are tight. We have a 25 ft Airstream and could have fit in a number of sites but site 5 was nicely separated from neighboring sites. Really nice playground and open grassy field for your four legged friends to romp. The Presidio bugler (over the hill and over loud speakers) starts and ends each day - kind of fun!

As one previous reviewer noted, take HWY 68 off HWY 1 to get in and avoid the narrow switchbacks on the other roads.