Reviews

Cassi Mcfarland

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ **Amazing Family Camping Experience at Santee Lakes** We had a wonderful stay at Santee Lakes Campground! The campground is extremely clean, well-maintained, and has beautiful lakes throughout the property. The staff was friendly and welcoming, making check-in quick and easy. There was plenty to do for all ages, including fishing, walking and biking trails, playgrounds, and pedal boats. The campsites were spacious with full hookups, and the bathrooms and showers were kept very clean. It felt peaceful while still being close to stores and restaurants if we needed anything. If I had one small suggestion, it would be to add a little more shade at some of the campsites during the hotter months. Other than that, everything exceeded our expectations. We would definitely stay here again and highly recommend Santee Lakes to anyone looking for a clean, safe, and family-friendly campground near San Diego.

Tony Cappelli

My family and I have been camping here a couple of times per year since 2007. We prefer staying along the little stream. It’s generally quieter and we have a deck we sit on in the mornings for coffee. The place is beautiful and the staff has always been friendly. However, my wife and I both work remotely and rely on consistent internet. Over the years it has progressively gotten worse. We pay extra for “higher speeds” but every few minutes the signal drops and we have to jump through hoops to sign in again, if we’re lucky. So we come here but have to go to Starbucks or another restaurant nearby to work. It is absolutely ridiculous that a place this nice can’t get internet service for its guests. Maybe they don’t want to offer it so that the local neighborhood doesn’t get some free internet. Ridiculous! We know it’s challenging to get wifi here but we’ve been dealing with it, but no more. After almost 20 years, at least 40-50 visits, hundreds of dollars spent on inconsistent paid internet and way too much coffee at Starbucks, we will not be returning any more.

King Reviewer!

This is not a hotel area. I'm not sure why this survey is asking about rooms. This is a park with campgrounds in the back. I came here for my birthday with my children to celebrate in a peaceful quiet area. I thoroughly enjoyed the place. They are very clean they have people walking around picking up trash and putting it in the correct trash cans for recycling. They have playgrounds in the lake where you can take little boats and feed so you can feed the ducks and whatever other wildlife tends to be there. They have the barbecue grills which is where I was at a barbecuing. I thoroughly enjoyed myself there and you definitely should go there. I have never been to the campgrounds so I don't know how those are. The lady in the front that gives you the pass to go in is super nice. If you want to take your family somewhere take them here.

Rose

We’ve been coming to Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve for years and it continues to be one of our favorite camping spots. We’ve stayed here several times with our RV, and every visit has been relaxing and fun. The kids absolutely love coming fishing here, and the lakes are always very well stocked with Fish. It’s such a great place to spend quality time outdoors and enjoy nature together. They love lakes 2,3 & 5.

Hunter Salyer

It is a great place for families and couple to come, hang out, have a picnic, and go for a walk with they pups. The fishing is not great. Rainbow trout are easy to catch when they’re in season but other than that, it’s pretty slow.

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.