Lake O'Neill Recreation Park

This was really a nice spot for us to enjoy the Christmas and New Year's break. The weather was nice, the park is really clean and we enjoyed the walking trails and wildlife. My only complaint is that the showers do not have any heat support (hot water, but no heater). So, if it's 45F outside, it's going to be 45F inside, too. I can only imagine that's going to be the same in summer when it's hot and humid. So, I would personally only return during the nice months when I know I won't have to leave my vehicle running outside to keep myself from freezing on the way back to the campsite. Otherwise, this was a really great stay for us. The dump station is easy to reach if you opt for a site without FHU, trash bins are available and never overflowing. Be careful about joggers/runners on this base as many of the service folk will be using the main streets to exercise. There are also quite a few restaurants on base that are easy to reach like McDonalds, Panda Express, Hibachi-san, Raising Cane's, etc.

I stayed at Lake O'Neill in February, 2018 and enjoyed the visit so well that I made plans for a week-long stay beginning in late-January of 2022 and continuing through February 1. According to this website when I started planning, reservations for DoD patrons were available three months in advance beginning the third day of the month. However, the policy had changed by the time I called in early October and I learned that I'd have to wait until the 15 of November to reserve a spot in January. So I called today (November 15) and made a reservation. But, I could only make it through January 31 because they don't start taking February reservations for DoD patrons until December 15! To make matters worse, the rate for DoD patrons went from $30/night to $49/night (63%) in three years, and I had to pay for the first night to secure the reservation. The deposit is refundable up to 31 days in advance. So, I'm rethinking my plans and have added a reminder to my calendar to cancel 33 days in advance if I decide to go elsewhere (31 days in advance is a Sunday!) It's a nice campground, but I'm used to paying between $20 and $30 a night at similar military campgrounds. And some of those are even nicer than Lake O'Neill.

I avoided Lake Oneil previously based on horrible reviews. It's actually a nice campground, very clean bathroom facilities, a nice lake you can rent boats or launch your own boat on (5 mph speed limit). They have full hook up sites, sites with water and electric only, dry camping sites, and tent camping sites. Lots of the sites have awesome shade.. Staff was nice but the check-in building has the road away from it blocked-I'm glad I sent my wife in our TOAD around the lake to check in- my 38' motorhome with the toad attached NEVER would have been able to turn around! All the sites were reasonably level EXCEPT 19-33. 19 has a mild slope but by the time you get to 33 it's a ridiculous asphalt slope-I'm guessing a 2 foot elevation drop in 35 feet. We were in 31 and to get level would require all 4 tires on my rear axle to be almost 5 inches in the air with hydraulics barely touching the ground by the front tires. I elected to camp walking on a slope in my coach rather than risk having NO parking brake while camped on a slope that's sloped towards a lake! I would stay in all the other campsites at Lake Oneil but we will never camp in 19-33 again. Lake Oneil is 15 minutes from the main gate complexes with MCX, commissary, liquor store and tons of shopping. But if you turn LEFT on Vandergrife coming out of the campground there is a HUGE "mini market" that has most everything about 5 minutes up the road on the left. The impact range for the Marines practicing shooting artillery is close enough to be fairly loud-since we consider these sounds, and the sounds of helicopters and Ospreys recovering to the MCAS airfield a couple miles away to be the sounds of FREEDOM they didn't bother us-but they are noisy!! Enjoy your stay here!!

I submitted an ICE review but it never got posted so here is that same review: We have never visited a recreational park that more closely resembles a trailer park than Camp Pendleton's Lake O'Neill Recreation Park. This park in no way passes for a recreational vehicle park. It is mainly a permanent personnel residence with little to offer visitors. There are few full hookups, so reservations for a site with sewer must be made long in advance. We had reservations for a full hookup site the third week of our stay; however, a double booking error left us in our less than desirable site. Our assigned back-in site was made even less desirable because it was 10 ft too small to contain our 40 ft motorhome. A curb at the back of the motorhome forced us to park at an angle in the diagonal parking space. A knowledgeable scheduler would have assigned us a site without such an elevated curb. During our stay we noticed several “better” sites, including full hook-up sites vacant for 2, 3 or 4 days, then someone would be in the site for a couple days and it would be vacant again for a short while. It was disclosed that when reservations are made the individuals making the reservation are allowed to choose their own RV space. This is definitely not good for many vacationers wanting to spend a week or two at the facility. An example is, caller #1 requests site number 1 for 3 nights beginning on a Friday night. Caller #2 requests site #2 for four nights beginning on Monday night. Caller #3 wishes to stay for a week but there are no sites available. Had the scheduler made the site assignment, caller #1 would be followed by caller #2 in site #1, and then caller #3 would have had a site for 1 week. The win in this situation is more revenue for MCCS. The scheduling of site spaces should be by the staff at the campground and not the person requesting the reservation. Our stay was cut short by 15 days because we were frustrated by overbooking and the possibility of having to move from site to site, even though our reservation for full service was confirmed the first week of May 2015. This is another loss of revenue for MCCS. We have traveled to 46 of the 48 contiguous States and stayed at military facilities whenever we could and we have never had problems of scheduling reservations as we experienced at Lake O'Neill Recreation Park. Secondary to this failing is treatment of the veterans who choose to live among the active duty personnel at the park on a full time basis. These folks play musical trailer every 15 days, often moving to the site adjacent to the one they were occupying. This practice is illogical and demeaning to our veterans. Some of these are participants of the Wounded Warrior Project adjacent to the park. A better solution would be to have permanent 3- to 6-month sites for the full-timers and to set aside spaces for casual visitors. For convenience to all occupants, install more sewer sites. There is ample space at the park to have sewer lines for at least 15 new and or existing sites. Additional info not in ICE report: While we were there the sites were approximately 90% full. This is an enormous amount of revenue from RV's. However not much of that money is being returned for any upgrades to the RV park area. We do not like posting negative reviews but feel this information need to be identified.

I drove through the area to check it out one afternoon while staying at Fidler's Cove and subsequently Adimaral Baker. To me, Lake O'Neill doesn't compare favorably the other 2 above. As a matter of fact I was very disappointed. The grass around the pull through site was brown (I understand they have a drought) and not mowed. At the north end of the back in sites near the lake I saw what appeared to be unmovable trailers with an accumulation of "stuff" to put it mildly! On the plus side, I saw what appeared to be fairly new electrical standions with both 30 and 50 amp service. Another plus was seeing a lot of Dads setting up tents with their young children and "going fishin". It was a Friday about 15:00. I'm glad to see that! We stayed there about 10 yrs ago and I thought it had gone down hill. Hopefully my perception is not the norm.

Nice campground anda good value but should be several $ less for dry camping. Currently $12 for a dry spot. Central dump station and you can take water on any where. Have been here a number of times but never wrote a review. Clean and well maintained. About 15 miles in from the ocean but ocean front at camp Del Mar will run you about $45 or so per night. Lake Oneil approx 4 miles to main side campen with PX, bowling and movie and fast food. Nice lake with fishing allowed but catch and release. Marines run PT through the area about 0600 so you don't have to set your alarm. 45 miles to San Diego and 80 to Los Angeles.

We always enjoy our stay at Lake O'neill. I do wish they would work more on getting the spaces level. As I have said before, it is quite obvious spaces 52-61 are NOT level. They slope down toward the south. Not too much of a problem for 5th Wheels, but large (35') class A RVs wind up with the front wheels off of the ground. Normally a fairly quiet park, 24/7, except for weekends, dredging of the lake did tend to grind on ones nerves. This is forecast to be completed sometime in July. Really though cannot beat the price for what you get. We will be back again.

The campground is very quite except for Marines and Navy personnel utilizing the campground roads for their morning PT runs. The campgrounds are without cable TV and they don't offer a week or monthly rate, so staying for more than a week is really more costly than staying in some of the local campgrounds in the civilian sector, and is one thing I wish they would change to remain competitive. The location is great as you are conveniently located to main side (about 5 min drive) where the main exchange is located as well as the theater, bowling ally etc. The commisary is located just inside the main gate off of the I-5, and is about a 10 min drive from the campgrounds. The majority of sites are electric and water only, with full hookups reserved to only about a dozen sites, but a dump is conveniently located toward the front of the park. As we have a fully loaded 5th wheel we haven't used the shower facilities, but the kids have said they were in need of attention when they used the bathrooms near the playgrounds. Lake O'Neil offers a great walking trail around the lake which is especially beautiful in the evenings; however, beware, there was a mountain lion sighted on the trail on 8/11/11.

This place could be a Premier RV site but it needs a little work. If they would pave all of the RV sites and make them all the same size, make more spots to fish and open up the boat/bait center earlier during the fishing season would make this site worth the money. I stay here often because I like to take the boys fishing early in the morning and we can wake up and walk right down to the lake.

Put our RV here to get it ready to go to the beach. Had a FHU site the first time that was a bit of an experience getting backed into. Overall good experience, nice facilities- didn't check out shower facilities. Employees are really nice and very helpful. It was kind of hot as the lake is in a valley so not much ocean breeze but still a good location. Close to the hospital if you have reason to go there. As for directions, I would disagree with the directions listed from southbound I5. Going all the way through the base takes a long time & they've had a lot on construction on Basilone road between the Basilone Gate & Los Pulgas Gate making driving an RV a true experience. Time wise and ease of travel, would suggest going down to the main gate in Oceanside (same exit as given for Northbound I5) rather than driving through. If you want to go through the base some, use the Las Pulgas Gate & you'll miss the road construction. The construction was supposed to be done by 31 August but it isn't close to being done yet & there are some really narrow areas.

We are currently stationed at Camp Pendleton and stayed at Lake O'Neil to try out our new RV. We happened to come when the campground was pretty empty and got a lake front spot (#18) which gave us plenty of room to spread out and enjoy the view. Their is a FANTASTIC park for little kids that is fenced in with tons of shade and slides. We brought our 15 month old baby girl and she just had a blast. This camp site is pretty deep into Camp Pendleton (about 10 minute drive from the closest gate) but it is nice and quiet.

We have stayed here 4 times now and agree with many of the comments about the shower area and sites. It is also a bit of a walk to get to the shower areas from many of the sites. This was our first time staying in one of the full hook-up sites, they are gravel, mostly level. Also, there are many lakefront sites that are at a very steep angle and difficult to level out on. The mini-golf/picnic area across lake was fun and not used much and the trail around the lake is nice, although isolated in some areas.

It was the 4th of July and the campground was packed! Considering it is in the middle of Camp Pendleton the location is pretty good. The lake is nice, and lots of good trails for a walk. Even some fishing in the lake. There is a new play ground that my kids loved, probably the best we have ever seen. The staff at the registration desk were great, but the campground host is a bit gruff. Then again he probably needs to be. Now for the bad news. The shower/bathroom facilities were a mess, and for all the sites you would think that one shower would not be considered adequate. This campground needs to have the SeaBees pay it a visit, or maybe some engineers to level the sites and build a better bathroom facility. Very few sites have full hook-ups.

We stayed at one of the full hook-up sites for 30 days and then moved to one of the electric/water only sites for the remaining 11 days we were there. Camp Pendleton is a huge base and Lake O'neill is somewhat isolated from the rest of the base. There are no shopping facilities close by, but you can drive to the exchange and commissary for any needs. I was told by the host that there was a laundromat on rattlesnake road, but I never did find it so we ended up doing our laundry off base. The showers were cleaned every day, but the condition of the floors and the restrooms was obviously not the best. The number of showers was limited and on at least two occasions we had to wait in line. The cost of Lake O'Neill is the same as Admiral Baker in San Diego, but for what you get it is a little out of line. There is golf at the Marine Memorial golf course for those who golf, but while I was there they announced that the club house would be shutting down due to lack of business. The course itself wasn't in the best shape due to the fires they had last fall. Several of the greens were in the process of being replaced due to fire damage. Overall our stay wasn't that bad, and we will probably go back only because of the time restrictions at Admiral Baker and the fact that Admiral Baker stays full most of the time.