Avila / Pismo Beach KOA

This is our second time staying at Avila Beach KOA, last time was three years ago. Since that time, they have made many improvements. Bathrooms have been redone, so pictures posted in Unilocal do not reflect the current condition on the campground. They have put in a new play ground, redid the pool, check in lobby is bigger with more goods and stays open longer, they put in partial fences in between the sites, have community fire pits and picnic tables. Staff have been friendly and when I called after making reservation online, they were able to get a sites near each other even though our party had a 22′ and 45′ trailers. Yeah, you could argue the sites are somewhat narrow, but you are here to experience Avila and Pismo Beaches, not sit outside your trailer all day! There is a 3 mile bike path that starts near the campground and goes to Avila Beach. Also during summer months there is a free trolley stop outside the campground that takes you to Pismo Beach. I think a lot of people are giving this KOA a bad rap by leaving harsh reviews! Come experience the campground for yourself and make your own opinion, I am sure you will come back.

The 5 stars is an upgrade from a previous rating in 2011, we also upgraded our RV and went back to visit with a 37′ motorhome. They have done substantial improvements to the entire campground and are still in the process of finishing some of the landscaping improvements. The sites are a bit narrow for larger RV’s but there are pull through sites and larger sites available if you are lucky enough to get one… reserve ahead.
The staff is fantastic. Doug, Pat & Melinda all could not have been more helpful, warm and friendly. Even the office/​store has been enlarged and modernized. The hook-​ups all worked great… including the free WIFI and cable TV. Bathrooms are dated, but very clean and well kept. Pool and spa were well maintained. It appears they just built a new playground area for younger kids… and a putting green/​mini golf area is in the works.
Location, location, location… this KOA is close to San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach and Avila Beach. All major draws for a variety of reasons. The SLO farmer’s market on Thursday nights can’t be beat. Avila Beach has great restaurants and bars… along with a fun golf course and beautiful beaches. The free area trolley stops right outside the KOA and will take you to Avila Beach, Pismo Beach or the outlet mall in Arroyo Grande. (Check the schedule… it runs on an irregular basis). The Bob Jones Trail takes you a little over 2 miles down to Avila Beach along a beautiful tree lined paved bike and walking trail. The start of the trail is less than ¼ mile from the entrance to the KOA. The Avila Farm across the street is a fun place for kids and has some delicious pies, ice cream and sweet corn… and a bunch of farm animals to see and feed.
We will definitely be back.

THANKS TO THE STAFF !!!
Customer Service at its BEST like always when you stay with KOA, Our first stay of many to come. The Bob Jones Trail located just outside the park, GREAT bike ride for the Family. 15 minutes to the beach. We did that a couple times, and the eateries at Avila Beach.
We kept on extending our stay account of ALL the FUN we we’re having.
Thanks for the stay,
Familia Tellez !!!

It appears they are doing some work on this location, but the sites are rather narrow especially if you have a large RV with slide outs. The park is centrally located but the rates are higher than other RV parks in the area that have better amenities and are within walking distance to the beach, shops and restaurants.

Merry Christmas! Shitters full! My favorite movie is Christmas Vacation yes… However I’m not joking. The hookups backed up the first night of our 1 week stay. The internet went up and down more than a cheap hooker. If you want to camp right on top of your neighbor this is the place for you. They are TRYING to update the place however apparently they have no sense of customer service. I highly suggest that you find another place to stay. If you cant find something else stay home or keep driving. Here is what worked: The running water. Here is what didnt work: The sewer, the TV, the internet, the showers were closed everyday. The dog walk was all mud. I could go on but I think you get the idea. We are not pleased.

To be fair it IS camping. Scenic setting but right next to the highway~nicely camouflaged by trees but evident with some noise. Bathrooms are adequate/​plentiful showers. Spaces and driveways are way too small and they stack 2 rigs into each slip… we were 3.5 feet from the back of the neighbors rig/​built «on» BBQ (fun when they cooked) and bike rack with bikes. Pool and jacuzzi were in working order. Dog walk is muddy but large. Mgmt is adamant about no fires/​propane only but there were many fires blazing while we were there and we wished we had broken that rule. We won’t go back but if you’re in the area there aren’t many choices and Avila Beach, Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo are worth hooking up here for a few days.

It’s just not very good at all. As others have reported, the RV spaces are so small, so tight that it’s just the worst. Hearing three different conversations around you while sitting at your picnic table is not good. The facilities need a total update. The pet walk is a joke. Pine trees are dead. After seeing the bathrooms, I just couldn’t imagine going into the pool. Have to wonder how they keep their KOA franchise with these conditions. They do get one star for the WWW marketing genius of anointing themselves, «Avila Beach’s premier resort!» hahaha

I like the location and I like that the hookups for our parking space work but everything else is not good.
The facility is in pretty rough shape. The bathrooms look like they have not seen bleach or any cleaning fluid in months. Look at all the pictures and you will see what I am talking about. The other thing that is bothersome is that there looks to be full time residents here and they create a negative atmosphere. You can tell they don’t want us here. I said good morning to our full time neighbor and he just grunted. I ended up cutting our stay shorter so I could move on to the land of positivity. I also have to say that the women on the phone was lovely and booking the place was very easy. If I had read the Unilocal review on this place I would have just stayed down by the pier instead. I don’t think that this place is worth the money and there is better camping close by. I inquired and in a few days they are shutting down for the full month of January to rehab everything. Hopefully this works out.

We stayed at the Avila KOA in our RV with our dog for the maximum 28 day stay in Sept-​Oct 2015 which is one of the busiest times in the Central Coast area. We had a very difficult time finding a space to park for an extended stay in the entire Pismo-​Avila area but the KOA staff were so accommodating and easy to work with! The management staff were all new and did a fabulous job accommodating our long stay!
Even though we had to move the RV around a bit in the park during our stay, in some sites you could hear some traffic, and there is almost no grass we came to feel super comfy here! Weekends were crowded but they are at all the campgrounds in the area and not noisy like you would imagine. Everyone was friendly and neighbors chat with each other. We met people who have stayed at the Avila KOA for many years and happily come back regularly!
The staff were superb, always available and kept the pool and spa sparkling clean! Bathrooms and laundry were excellent. One of the best features is you can walk or bike to the Bob Jones trail and the Avila Barn which are both major attractions in Avila. Highly recommend this KOA and thank you again Diane & staff for taking such great care of us!!!
The Bywaters

Small campground. Hardly any staff plus not friendly at all … NO activities for kids … Dirty dirty and old bathrooms. Never coming back to this KOA.

I read the reviews before I went, and I gotta say, I *almost* backed out because the reviews were so horrible.
When I got off of Highway 101 and turned into Avila Hot Springs RV, I was like, «It’s true… it’s all true… this is a parking lot, the pool is impacted, there’s barely any room for me to drive through this place let alone park,» and I was starting to have a panic attack, but I never saw any KOA signs anywhere, so I snaked out of that crowded place back onto the side of the road and I called my dad, who had made the reservations. He said, «No, that’s the hot springs. Go down the road a few more feet and make a right onto the next street, we’re 250 yards down on the right. See you soon!»
When I saw the KOA sign, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. TONS of SPACE. QUIET. CLEAN. And the best part? This was the FOURTH OF JULY weekend! If there were a time I could see a vacation spot at its worst, this was the time. Instead, it was awesome! I stayed in the deluxe cabin, but I think next time we might stay in the cabins that allow dogs as I’m sure they’re fine. the only extra amenity we needed were towels, and I brought a Pack n’ Play for my toddler who LOVES fans, and so I set the PnP up under the fan in the main space and he was in heaven all weekend. I couldn’t believe how well my son slept!
In the morning we got up for flapjacks, eggs, and sausage, and I met the staff who were flipping flapjacks for us. I asked if they knew someone named «Lisa,» and they said that there has never been anyone by that name working at this Avila KOA, and I said, «Maybe Lisa works at that Hot Springs RV Resort place? I’d be willing to bet she was there! I’d be willing to bet that most of these bad reviews are people who are mistaking the KOA for the hot springs place.» They said they worked very hard to keep the place clean and that was their guess, too, but there was nothing they could do about the reviews. (No, but seriously, go check out their reviews… they’re suspiciously similar to some of these reviews.) The staff at Avila KOA was extremely kind, reasonable, and accommodating.
My dad rented out an RV spot for his camper, and 4 deluxe cabins for his children and our families. We all did fine meeting up at my dad’s camper for dinner each night. We brought extra tables and there was plenty of space in the picnic table area to set up a dinner gathering and hangout spot for FIVE families next to his camper, without disturbing the other guests – in fact we had some good conversations with our neighbors and they were super friendly. I asked if we needed to keep it down any and they said that we were not a problem at all. Their dog was SUPER sweet.
I took a moment to walk around the park and just look and listen. There was fencing between each ample RV space, the hookups looked legit, and we were away from the highway enough for it not to be a noise issue. It was just quiet, which absolutely amazed me because where I live, we experience a lot of fireworks, trash, and disrespectful people especially during the 4^th of July, and I didn’t have a single problem with any one of these things at this campground the whole weekend, which was truly a vacation for me. I. did. not. hear. one. firework! But there was a fireworks show 4.5 miles south at Pismo, for those who needed their fix. I was sad my husband and puppy dog didn’t come with us because my puppy dog would have appreciated this quiet around the 4^th. Perhaps next year.
On Saturday night their outdoor movie theatre was up and running like a boss.
We went on a hayride to pick some berries at Avila Barn after visiting their cute petting zoo, and I bought some delicious fudge and local honey. There were so many other things at the barn that I wanted to taste. I brought a bike seat for my toddler and hooked it up to my dad’s bike, and my sister rented a bicycle built for two with her husband from the KOA’s cute bike rental shop. The 3 mile ride to the beach was ah-​MAZ-​ing. There were some exercise areas and some excellent kiddie play parks along the way, a golf course with some geese to watch, a fun bridge to cross over, and once you get to the main beach entrance there’s plenty of bike racks, just remember the bike lock.
The pool was gorgeous and never overcrowded that I saw, the bathroom looked lovely and clean, which made me laugh at that one review of the stain on the wall. The kid’s play structure was new and awesome and the game room and movie room was clean and our multiple family gathering had a blast in the game room after breakfast each morning as we chatted it up with the friendly staff.
So here’s the thing. If you’re loud, messy, unreasonable, and want to party all weekend, go stay at the hot springs! Lots of partyers to hook up with there! Woohoo!
If you’re quiet, clean, respectful, and want a restful, peaceful spot to vacation, go to Avila KOA. Just remember to pass that first wild RV place, take a right, and go down about 300 more yards.

Highway noise. Sites are way to small and close to each other. Not enough room for parking your towing vehicle. :-(

Please please pass this place by! Stayed here 4 days & every single minute of every single day the bathrooms were gross. Several clogged toilets, no toilet paper, no paper towels & dirty showers. Oh, and someone pooped in the pool but since there was no one on duty to see it people continued to swim with it. To top this stay off there were unruly rude campers combined in one site that played loud music & talked until 1:30am every night
(quiet time 10) but no one on staff available to stop them. Very very very low on our return ever list!!! j

Good location — close too a lot of beaches and attractions. Spots are way toooooooo small and tight. Cable didn’t work (over the air antenna worked better). Pool & hot tub was nice (although the hottub didn’t get hot one day).

This place has a lot of potential, but falls short because we spent over 55 dollars for the amenities of the site such as the pool and it was closed the whole time. When we asked about the pool the employee told us we could go down the road and pay to use their pool. No apologies or anything. The site was near the highway, was a little loud, and the lots could have had gravel instead of dirt. The club house was pretty outdated with a 70’s look.

Pros
1. Close to Bob Jones trail
2. Near Avila hot springs where you can purchase day use passes
3. Easy on and off the freeway
4. Avila beach 3 miles down the road
Cons
1. It’s basically a parking lot and you’re stacked up on one another.
2. The water smells like rotten eggs
3. It’s OLD and dated
4. It’s dirty — there is dirt everywhere from the gravel sites. Plus the showers and bathrooms weren’t clean.
5. Freeway noise all day and all night.
6. Dogs… Everyone’s dogs bark at all hours
7. People don’t adhere to the quiet hours
8. You are parked so close to each other that you can hear people talking and moving around in their rigs
9. No open fires.
10. The staff were kind of snotty. The young woman checking us into our site had an attitude.
11. The office /​store closes at 5 pm so if you need ice, snacks, etc you have to leave the campground.
Would we stay again… Probably not. It’s just too old, too dirty and too dated. Plus they pack you in like sardines into the park. Once someone is next to you with a larger rig, you lose all daylight.

Here’s my problem with this KOA. It is in major, and I mean major need of an update. The bathrooms look to be 1970s, they are kind of dirty and very run down. The pool area has not been resurfaced in probably 10 years. There’s no drain cover in the Jacuzzi area and the pool fence is a joke as any kid can open it by shaking the gate. The location is fantastic for families with kids, but the customer service isn’t so much. Even during off-​season their strict rules about parking forced us to have to relocate to a bigger site. The sites here were designed for campers 30 and 40 years ago, not for today’s RVs, trailers and fifth wheels. They need to eliminate about one third of the spots to allow for bigger rigs, put grass in between some of them and the ownership needs to be a little more accommodating. I am still trying to figure out how they received a KOA designation based on my experience.
The positives? In the area this campground is located… A few minutes walk or bike ride you’re on an amazing farm where the kids can feed the animals and the parents can relax and watch, hop on your bikes and take the trail right to Avila Beach. 3 miles from campsite to oceanfront along a scenic, winery laden, beautiful trail.
A quick hop in the car and you’re on Pismo beach, a couple hours to the north is Monterey and the historic fisherman’s wharf.
I would only stay here with the knowledge of what you get in this location versus the typical KOA experience. This feels less like a family-​friendly camp spot and more like a rundown retirement community from the 1970s.
For the prices they charge, they should reinvest in their infrastructure, this place would be an even bigger gold mine.

I cancelled a reservation for a cabin after looking at pics and google earth. This is unlike any KOA I’ve stayed in up and down the Cali coast.
Before this became a KOA, I believe it was an RV park. It still looks and is equipped like an RV park. Nothing like the other KOAs in California we’ve stayed at. I did not feel safe renting a cabin crammed in between rows of RVs parked just a few away from one another.
KOA and reynolds needs to re-​think their business model. This is hurting the RV park and KOA.

Surprised by negative reviews! The staff here was extremely friendly and accommodating! Stayed in a deluxe cabin trailer type deal and had a fun time! No wood fires permitted by law but they gave us a charcoal bbq that made a fire and ultimately truly optimal marshmallow roasting condition! Everything just as described. They even called 5 minutes after we left to let us know we forgot our toothbrushes. Super kind and friendly people. Don’t daydream in the shower, hot water tank not enormous as should be expected. Have fun camping! Avila Bay has some magical landscape nobody should miss.

We are new to the RV lifestyle and hadn’t thought to specifically request a site with shade.
We were travelling with multiple dogs. Our first site was exposed, right across from the showers/​loos and had very little in the way of privacy. Every other camp-​ground we stayed in had so many overhanging trees, we got totally spoiled. We pulled in here, in the afternoon with the sun pouring down on us, and said «uh oh». The couple that runs the camp-​ground accommodated us and moved us to a nicely secluded/​sheltered spot.
A business thing came up and we had to de-​camp early, which was a drag because the site we got moved to was really lovely. The pet relief area WAS far from our site, but it was okay since this seems to really be a pet-​friendly camp-​ground, and most of the other folks staying there either had pets with them or were pet-​friendly. So walking our giant goofballs to and fro was not a big deal, even when they barked a bit.
Overall we liked this camp-​ground, and plan to return with fewer dogs, possibly to try one of their cabins, and to experience the 3-​mile hike to the beach.