White's City RV Park

Stayed here beginning of Mar 2024.
Back-in FHU 50 amp. Gravel pad. Site #P6

General: Close to Carlsbad NP but as bare needs as it gets. We have stayed at lots of parks all over the states in rural and non-rural areas. So, we do understand the environment quite well.

Staff: Check-in at gift shop. They are busy and do their best to balance check-ins and the shop itself.
Sites: Back-in next to road. VERY tight. Basic needs. BUT there are other more spaced out sites on the lower-level. Ask for those but they may be for stays longer than a night or two.
Campground Road: Gravel road.
Campground WiFi: Actually was really good! Could connect and work on vpn with video calls.
Grounds: Clean and maintained really well.
Bathrooms/Showers: Did not use.
Laundry: Did not use but the laundry is right next-door to the campaground and looks nice.
Location: Gas and a restaurant (across street—very good)within 1-2 min walk.
Near highway: Yes. But not an interstate so it is quiet at night.
Near train: No.
Cell using booster: AT&T (3 of 4 bars sometimes 4 bars —4G) and Verizon (3 of 4 bars sometimes 4 bars—4G). Both were strong enough to work on VPN with somewhat glitchy Zoom meetings.

We came here because of the location to Carlsbad Caverns to see the bats fly out of the cave at 7:45pm. We are in a motorhome, so this is our only vehicle to get around, so we wanted something close. We were told we could use the water park at the hotel across the street (it’s 105 degrees today). We arrive and were told they changed their policy.

Was going to take a cold shower, and these are by far the worst bathrooms I’ve ever seen. Although we have a small shower in our RV, I prefer to not use it. We don’t need to do laundry, but I looked inside…wow! Part of the ceiling had fallen down, there was insulation everywhere.

Nous avons choisi ce camping pour une raison : il est le seul à l’entrée du parc national de Carlsbad Caverns, et il est vraiment à l’entrée. Étant donné que nous étions montés une fois, que nous allions refaire le trajet le soir pour voir le vol des chauves-souris, et que nous allions descendre de nuit, c’était plus pratique.
Pour la même raison, à savoir qu’il est à l’entrée du parc national, la deuxième bonne raison de choisir ce camping est qu’il est calme la nuit. Voilà les deux bonnes raisons de choisir ce camping. C’est tout.
À part ça : ça a été tout un sketch pour payer. Pour nous Français, c’est toujours très bizarre que la personne prenne la carte de crédit et saisisse le numéro de la carte, la date d’expiration et le code de contrôle. En plus, il fallait que j’appelle un numéro pour avoir un autre code, qui n’a jamais fonctionné. Au bout d’un quart d’heure, ça m’a soûlé, j’ai proposé de payer en cash.
Quand vous allez sur le site du camping, ils indiquent que c’est le paradis pour les campeurs. Chacun sa notion du paradis. Wi-fi gratuit proposé et annoncé : à 30 m de l’accueil, aucun signal wi-fi. Quand on est allé demander, on nous a dit que c’était à cause de la météo. Lol.
Je ne vous parle pas des emplacements. On avait vu que c’était un petit camping un petit peu ombragé, avec des emplacements sur un parking à l’entrée, sur un terrain plat gravillonner donnant directement sur la route. C’est là que nous avons eu le plaisir d’être installés. Les sanitaires sont à peine corrects. Tout ça, pour la modique somme de 50 $ avec les taxes.
Si vous n’êtes pas effarouchés pour faire 10 km supplémentaires, il y a quatre spots du BLM un petit peu plus loin, gratuits, et je pense que ça vaut beaucoup plus le coup.

(Google Translate - French to English)

We chose this campground for a reason: it's the only one at the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns State Park, and it really is at the entrance. Since we had gone up once, we were going to do the trip again in the evening to see the flight of bats, and we were going down at night, it was more convenient. For the same reason, being at the entrance to the national park, the second good reason to choose this campsite is that it is quiet at night. These are the two good reasons to choose this campsite. That's all. Apart from that: it was quite a skit to pay. For us French, it is always very strange that the person takes the credit card and enters the card number, the expiry date and the control code. In addition, I had to call a number to get another code, which never worked. After a quarter of an hour, I was upset, I offered to pay in cash. When you go to the camping site, they indicate that it is paradise for campers. Everyone has their own notion of paradise. Free Wi-Fi offered and advertised: 30 m from reception, no Wi-Fi signal. When we went to ask, we were told it was because of the weather. Lol. I'm not talking about locations. We had seen that it was a small, slightly shady campsite, with pitches in a car park at the entrance, on flat gravelled ground directly overlooking the road. This is where we had the pleasure of staying. The sanitary facilities are barely adequate. All this for the modest sum of $50 with taxes. If you are not afraid to go the extra 10 km, there are four BLM spots a little further, free, and I think it is much more worth it.

We stayed here in October of 2022 because of it’s location right outside the National Park. It is a RV Park next to a tourist trap but it doesn’t offer much. The sites are bunched together and not well defined. We had difficulty deciding the dimensions of our site in the gravel. The hookups are on the wrong side of the RV causing us to have to step over the hoses to get in and out. They had an extremely small dumpster that was overflowing and parked under trees that made it difficult to get to. AT&T Down: 33.53mbps Up: 19.27mbps Streaming: 3.8mbps Verizon Down: 52.10mbps Up: 49.32mbps Streaming: 3.3mbps

Gravel back in on the road but luckily not much traffic this time of year (February). Water and electric hook up was fine. Sewer was gradual uphill at our site; so debated if we should dump. We worked it out by making our own slope. If we hadn’t needed to dump we would have skipped. Too much work!! The shower/bathroom is an all in one with no shower curtain so the floor is wet! Despite marginal conditions you can’t get much closer to the caverns which are outstanding 👍.

Cute little grocery, general store, laundry but it’s not an RV park. RVs can park next to the store on gravel and have electric hook ups, but that’s it. Gravel parking only. No privacy. No shade, no fire pit, no picnic table. You are literally parked next to the laundry facilities with a road next to you. Only stay there if you have to or if you want an early start at Carlsbad Caverns. It’s a 30 second drive to the entrance to the park.

We chose to stay at White’s because they are close proximity to both Guadaloupe and Carlsbad. Additionally, I need electric hook-ups and good signal to work during the week.

If you don’t need these things, then boondock in one of the numerous BLMs between the parks for free. This place is overly priced and falsely advertises its amenities.

The waterpark and arcade have been closed for long before Covid - you can tell by how decrepit the buildings are, but they still include these as amenities under your price. The “grocery store” is barely a convenient store with mostly expired and some molding food. The “restaurant” desperately needs additional employees. We tried to eat there, waited for about seven minutes, looked around the building, and couldn’t find anyone to seat us. The menu is lacking and overpriced (chips and salsa appetizer is five dollars). We went into neighboring Carlsbad for dinner.

The P sites are right off the highway, and you’ll be packed like sardines: worse than city parks. We couldn’t extend our awning the full distance without crashing into the neighbor’s slide. They’ll also place small campers (we’re 24) between two giant buses, which is terrible when considering ventilation. Most places know not to do this. The sites further back seem nicer, but you can’t access the Wifi from that distance.

This place was definitely a mistake. The website makes it seem much better than it is. Only pros are distance between parks, and good wifi (from where we are).