Oceanside Harbor - cheap beach camping!

Don't come here for the camping - it's literally a parking lot with no hookups. But the beach is gorgeous. You can't beat the prices - spaces are only $5 per day and $10 overnight (you have to pay every 12 hours). Spend the whole day at the beach, walk around the nearby shops and have a bonfire with your rowdy neighbors, because you're not going to be able to avoid the noise anyway. Don't let your vehicle, including slides, extend past the white lines in the parking spaces, or you will get a ticket. There is a boat launch, but this is the ocean and very different from tooling around Mission Bay in a power boat or sailboat.

Dos Picos

Talk about a stay-cation! Dos Picos is only 15 minutes from our house in Poway but it feels like a different world. The RV sites are nestled among big oak trees. Dos Picos has a very woodsy feeling. Great hiking and beautiful scenery. The RV sites are not pull-through, so when you make a reservation ask about a site that would be easier for backing in. Not all the sites are level, either, so hopefully you have an RV or trailer with levelers. Partial hookups (water, electric, no sewer). Take a day trip into Julian and stop at Dudley's Bakery on the way back. Make your reservation on line with San Diego County's great reservation system (http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/parks/index.html).

Campland on the Bay

Voted best campground in San Diego every year.  We love going to Campland when we want to go wakeboarding. We tow a boat behind an RV, put it in the water and anchor it just off the beach overnight. Then we go out at sunrise and the kids wakeboard and dad waterskiis on "glass" on Mission Bay.

The campground has everything - a store, a restaurant, shuttles to local attractions, bike and personal watercraft rentals, a sandy beach on Mission Bay, and an unbeatable view of the Sea World fireworks every night. They have live music and dancing in the summer, kids activities, and more.

We rarely stay for more than a night, but on a longer trip, you can catch a ride to Sea World, or down Grand Avenue to the beach with real waves and the boardwalk. A longish bike ride would take you to Belmont Park to ride the rollercoaster and a few other rides.

The place is extremely crowded, with the streets clogged with golf carts, bikes, skateboards and the like. The spaces are rather close but there's some greenery.

This is still our first choice for an RV trip involving wakeboarding.

Spring - time to go RV'ing!

Spring is here (in San Diego, anyway) and now is the time to go out in the family RV - or rent one!

You'd think the Rice family goes on lots of RV trips, but we don't have much time, especially in the summer, with our busy dealership.

But every time we get in a new rental RV, we have to take it out for a short trip to acquaint ourselves with it so we can show our customers how to use it. We like to try out new campgrounds around San Diego for these short trips so we can make camping suggestions for our renters. And now we will share our recommendations for family RV camping in this blog!