Westside Regional Park

This is a nice, no frills campground that offers easy access to all of the attractions of Bodega Bay.

The campground itself isn't anything to write home about - just the basics plus clean bathrooms - and it's annoying that you have to pay extra to use the dump station, but the location is hard to beat.

The campsites are situated right on the water, with a narrow beach for campers to enjoy. It's a half mile walk/bike ride to the main marina where you'll find two really good restaurants offering seafood, beer, and wine for reasonable (for California) prices. For all of the essentials (groceries, beer, ice), the town of Bodega Bay is just a short drive/ medium bike ride away.

What's most special about this place is the proximity to Bodega Headlands. Definitely visit this park during your stay! There are a few miles of hiking trails, amazing coastal views, and beach access. For the best views, go just a little before sunset to see the coastline lit up with the golden light of magic hour. We visited during April, which turned out to be an ideal time for whale-watching and we basically just had to look at the water to these giants migrating northward.

We made reservations in advance via the Sonoma County website, and then extended our stay by moving to a first come first serve site for a few extra nights. If rolling without reservations is your style, your best chance to nab a space will be to show up midweek as this place was completely full on weekends. The check-in process is a bit unusual as there's no self-pay station and the camp host doesn't handle payments or reservations. Instead you just find your spot, park, and wait for a ranger to eventually show up and collect a fee/ give you a tag for your rig.

This spot features 2 rows of pull-throughs near the water and one row behind the trees. There are also multiple rows of back-in spots. Near the water you can see the entire interior shoreline through Bodega Bay including the Tides Restaurant and Lucas Wharf.

There are clean flush toilets and showers, with lots of handicapped access. The onsite dump station is $7.

This place is popular with locals, non-commercial fishermen, and campers from the California central valley.

There is a nice boat launch within walking distance. Separate fees are collected there. The camp hosts are relaxed about allowing an extra vehicle or boat to be parked near your campsite. "As long as there is a path for RVs to get by" you can park beyond the boundaries of your campsite.

Reservations are easy through the Sonoma County website: http://sonomacountycamping.org.

The reservation page used to show several sites that were first-come-first-served, but those have been removed now and must be reserved online. Many sites are reserved months in advance, especially holidays.

Highway 1 through the town of Bodega Bay is a little narrow for about a mile between the Tides Wharf and turn off to the camp ground, so go slow.

I used my phone to create an Internet hot spot. The cell tower is in a direct line of sight on the hills across the bay (about 2.5 miles measuring with Google Earth). With Verizon, bandwidth was high (10+ Mbps).

After you set up your camp, take a drive out to Bodega Head to whale watch.