CA Recommendation For Campground Near San Diego?

Hi! We will be visiting our daughter in San Diego at THanksgiving time. We are looking for a recommendation of campgrounds near San Diego and up the coast. If you have any you have visited please let us know!
Thanks!

 

Where does your daughter live in San Diego? My son and his family live in Mira Mesa and I’ve spent 2 weeks visiting during the Christmas Holidays in 2016 and 2018. San Diego County has several regional parks that are very nice (www.sdparks.org). Also there is Santee Lakes that I’ve stay at twice ( santeelakes.com). I travelled south from Washington State to San Diego in 2016 so I can give you recommendations if I know how far up the coast you will be going.

 

William Heise County Park near Julian
William Heise County Park

If you do stay there, be sure to visit the Julian Pie Company!
Julian Pie Company

 

Our daughter lives in the North Park neighborhood. We don’t really know how far up the coast we will go. We are both retired. Our kids will tell you we are known for not planning (drives them crazy)! It may depend on how the weather is at the time. We have made a commitment to be in San Diego with our daughter for Thanksgiving so figure we should at least plan to find a campsite near San Diego!

 

Wow! Even if we dont stay at the campground we may have to visit Julian Pie! Thanks for the recommendation!

 

You might want to try Campland on the Bay (campland.com) it’s about 20 min from North Park or Sweetwater Summit Regional Park (sdparks.org) which would be about the same distance.

 

I like the MOON Outdoors California Camping Guide. They have detailed descriptions by region with a scenic rating for each campground that we've found as good way to start comparisons. There are print and digital versions.

Their listings in San Diego include:

near La Jolla - Campland by the Bay - 558 sites, scenic rating: 6
also - Santa Fe Park RV Resort - 129 sites, Scenic rating: 3
North/East of SD - Mission Trails Regional Park, Scenic rating: 7
South/East of SD - San Diego Metropolitan KOA, Scenic rating:2
15 Chula Vista RV Resort, near the bay, 237 sites, Scenic rating: 6

also North on the 5 frwy:
near Cardiff by the Sea - San Elijo State Beach, sites overlooking ocean, 144 sites, scenic rating: 9
near Carlsbad - South Carlsbad State Beach, half sites overlook ocean, 222 tent and rv sites, scenic rating: 9

 

Just now reading that you want to go up the coast. Where to start?

- We've done Carpenteria State Beach and doing it again this December. Hard to get reservations but if you can get on the beach side of Santa Cruz loop can put the TD right on the Sand. Don't do the big RV loops. I may have done a trip report on this and will try to provide a link.
- Great campgrounds near Santa Barbara, El Capitan State Beah, Emma Woods State Beach, Refugio
- Further North are campgrounds along Santa Yenez River, Pismo Beach, etc.
- If wine country is of interest, Boothe Napa State Park is surprising find in the heart of Napa. We met AlCat there once. May have a trip report on that as well.
- The drive up from San Francisco North to Big Sur is spectacular. Highly Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park camping among the redwoods.
- AND almost to the top of California....Jededia Smith Redwords State Park! Smith River is wide and wonderful. Worlds largest Redwoods. We camped in early spring when hardly anyone was there. It was cold at night still, but the campground has good bathrooms with lovely warm showers. The worlds largest Redwoods are here.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions! We are looking forward to the adventure!