Reviews

Julia L

Beautiful spot! Such a family friendly place to spend the day. Highly recommend renting a pedal boat! Really kind and helpful staff too 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

lennie clark

7 lakes for fishing 2 of which are for campers only, beautiful paths for bike riding and nice pull through lots with trees for our big 43ft rv. Will definitely be back next year, who knows may be back this summer to get out of the Arizona heat.

Michelle Mendenhall

Our family & friends went camping st Santee Lakes & campground. Now we know there's a curfew 9pm. Our first two nights was great. But the third night Saturday @ 7:30pm a staff member came to one of our sites (we caravan RV's) telling grown men & women that there's been some complaints. Use of profanity, fire pit which was used the first 2 nights. How dare they tell us what we can & cannot say. We were having our own fun until then. We we're not disrespecting anyone. Now there are people who actually live there. This is a campground not a retirement home. There also was a wedding party in the cabins who partied all night as well as others put having fun. But for some reason they decided to mess with our crew. So for those reasons we'll never go back. We felt disrespected!!!!!

Jennifer Marquez

Reserved a spot for an event. The spot was nice and the lakes are beautiful but the parking situation was terrible. Our guests had to pay 7 dollars per vehicle to park a 10/15 minute walk away from our reserved area. The bathrooms were really dirty and were not being kept up with throughout the day.

Brenda Baker

Santee Lakes is a beautiful, relaxing place to watch the ducks and other wildlife, and many people fish there. There is not a lot of shade for such a warm climate, but there are some picnic tables and benches scattered around. There’s a little store that sells drinks, ice cream and snacks, as well as camping supplies. No dogs of any size are allowed , even on a leash. If you are staying at the campground you are allowed to walk your dogs around all the lakes, which seems unfair to me. It gets very crowded on weekends and holidays with very limited parking, so plan to go early.

Martin Burgos

The man on duty driving the parks truck on Sunday was way too aggressive and driving like a crazy person. He needs to relax and realize families are here to enjoy the park. I hope he’s not armed, he seems unstable. This was Sunday 9/7/25, 3:30pm

Leslie M.

Our family has been coming here for about 4 decades. It's a nice place to take a walk and let the kids ride bikes safely. Lots of parks and overall pretty clean. One thing I have noticed on our last few visits was that it is becoming more evident that people live here full time. I don't care about someone's living arrangements, but it's a bit strange when it starts looking like a swap meet with random kitchen appliances laying around while the rangers tidy up and rake patterns into the lot next door. Also, I've never noticed people smoking before in the camping section, but this last trip, there were several.

Renata

We just go to Santee Lakes for picnics, and sometimes to just walk around. There is an entry fee to park inside, but you can also walk in if you park out on the street close to the entrance. On some weekends it's actually easier to park on the street for free than to look for parking in the lake parking areas, so we usually just stick to the street parking. It's nice here, the lakes look clean, grass is nice and well maintained, and the bathrooms are good. I enjoy coming here.

Benjamin

I've been to these lakes 5 times.. paid the fees to fish and never caught a single fish. I've come on the day after they "stocked" the lake.. or when they claim they stocked the lakes and not ever a nibble. There are way too much grass in the lake and not enough fish. I wonder if they even stock the lake when they say they do. I've fished lake 3, 4 and 5. I've done night fishing when they had it. I've tried all kinds of fishing styles. I might as well have drove up, thrown my money into the lake and gone home.

Alexis Sablan

Great area for family. However they don’t seem to keep up with the playgrounds. They are covered in spider webs. A quick power washing would help this. From the of it it has not been serviced in a while. I would think to prevent spider bites for kids they would. Also 3 big wasp nest in the bathroom. Looks like they haven’t been cleaned from critters as well.

Sawyer Schramm

Idk about the rooms. The staff is very nice and it’s a great park but paying 10 dollars per person to fish. That didn’t feel worth it. Especially since we weren’t able to catch anything. I can understand 10 dollars for a car but not to fish each.

William deSilva

We found this place Absolutely wonderful. The staff was extremely helpful and polite and the spaces were actually groomed. I posted 7 or8 pictures earlier, great place for bird photography . GREAT PLACE!

Randall Spenny

Great park close by. Road runs all the way around the lakes, ideal for easy riding bikes with a new rider. Lots of fish and ducks, geese, cranes and other water foul in abundance. Lots of friendly staff. General store with basics in case you forgot something.

JCSOUTLOOK

This was my 2nd camping trip here for the holidays. Just love Santee Lakes for camping. The grounds are clean, safe and quiet. Great mix for a great trip. The grounds are nicely decorated with lights throughout the grounds. I enjoyed walking the entire grounds everyday as it is about 4.5 miles round trip from where we camped. The lakes are full of wild life and there are people walking the grounds bird watching. This is definitely one of my favorite places in the San Diego area. Our only challenge was not having cell service where we were camping. This made it very challenging to keep in contact with family in the area. But still it worked out.

Randee Ferry

Although we have camped here in the past and enjoyed our stay with no issues. Lots to do here for all ages - playgrounds, fishing, paddle boats, walking area, absolutely beautiful lakes (6), geese, pelicans, swan, ducks, lots of grass, trees and more. We also walk here and ride our bikes when not camping.