Westside Regional Park

Bodega Bay is a beautiful place. The hikes, the food, the small town vibe...all of it is wonderful and will play host to our family again, no doubt.

The RV Park is paved with water hook-ups, bathroom facilities and a dump on site ($7). The bathrooms are basic, but clean. They could use some updating, as it seemed they had quite a bit of traffic during our stay. The paved sites were level and easy to access. The entrance to the dump was a bit narrow, but not too tricky.

The RV park is a quick bike ride away from the Marina. It is also very close to Sanoma Coast State Park where the hiking trails are easy, and the views are stunning. The town boasts an adorable kite and candy shop, a few places to eat and a small market. SUP boards can also be rented in town for those who want to take advantage of the wind and high tide in the bay.

One point of frustration was when we tried to extend our stay. The camp host said that we had to call the reservation line to add nights, however when we called the line, they told us to reserve with the camp host. This took an hour of phone calls and relaying messages back and forth between the host and reservation line. It almost wasn't worth two extra nights to deal with the disorganization. If not for the access to the incredible State Park, we would have bailed on our plan to stay longer.

If you plan to stay, and expect to use your generator, be prepared to be asked to turn it off. Though the generator hours are posted, all it takes is for a neighbor to complain. The camp hosts call the local ranger (totally unnecessary) and not only do they shut you down, but will come back to check several times. When we challenged the instruction to stop our generator during generator hours (it was mid-afternoon), we were told that complaints trumped postings. Seemed rather silly to us, but there wasn't much we could do about it. This might not be a big deal for most, but if you work remotely and depend on having 24/7 access to batteries, plan ahead. We suspect that we just had a stroke of bad luck with some cranky neighbors who wanted a completely quiet experience (totally fair, we get it) but because the camp host and ranger honored the complaint, it's good to be prepared just in case you run into a similar situation.

Despite the reservation and generator hiccups, we really enjoyed our stay. The location made up for any frustrations we experienced!

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.

We really like this place, and have been there 7 times now.

It is close to our house and is the perfect getaway for us. This place is popular with locals and non-commercial fishermen. It seems to attract a lot of people from Sacramento, Vacaville, Folsom, etc.

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, but in Dec 2018 there was something wrong with the credit card payment system. The Ranger told us to deal with the Camp Host to pay for the waste dump.

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.

I've read other reviews from tent campers. This is not a campground. It is a grid of back-in and pull-through spots set up ideally for RVs.