Travis AFB FamCamp

I'm writing this review during my third summer of visiting TAFB Famcamp. The low rating I am giving it here has nothing to do with Corina, her husband Jim, or their assistant, Caitlin, all of whom work hard and clearly under-supported by the Force Support Squadron commander. It's VERY obvious the Famcamp has become a low priority to the FSS leadership. Where do I begin? Look left, look right, the golf course, the adjacent ball park, the duck pond park at the North Gate...all green grass and landscaping. The Famcamp? The grass is so brown it's a fire hazard and the trees are quite literally dying. And....the managers have repeatedly told the FSS commander about the problems they're having...to no avail. If you're reading this website, Lt. Col. John P. Cappella Zielinski and/or Brian Floyd, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Those of us in this community of military retiree RVers know full well that the revenue we bring to your base is substantial, and we come in record numbers because of the other base attractions. But it's abundantly obvious that you do not value our presence on your installation. I think it's fair to say that neither one of you has your eye on the ball. If you did, the launderette next to the BX coffee shop, also under your prevue, would not look so disgustingly dirty that you'd think you were in an urban bus station. Trash everywhere, trash bins spilling over, trash blowing around outside, bathroom nearly unusable, folding tables unclean and unusable. What are you thinking? Forget the 5 hours I wasted trying to use the supposed cable service at my site post only to find that the connection was not turned on at the post by Comcast. Forget that they literally did not tell anyone in camp until the day before that road crews were going to lock them into the campground for TWO days and also never proactively or accurately communicated this hazard to the Main Gate guards so that they could redirect traffic effectively. Here's the most shameful failing of this Famcamp: The entire state of California prides itself on being green...recycling, solar power, you name it. Does TAFB Famcamp bother to provide recycling bins, such a simple thing, to RV campers? NO! Unbelievably embarrassing to the TAFB FSS CC. If you think recycling costs you too much, try drawing NO retirees or campers to your Famcamp because they refuse to live in filth. I met friends here this year for the third summer in a row. Guess what? We're not coming back unless you fix this. Where is your appreciation for the veterans who visit your Famcamp? Where are your priorities?

This is our second stay at Travis. The first time (3 years ago) we thought they should keep up with the lawn care better and clean up or check the sites after people left. Also, the pet side wasn't as nice as the non-pet side. Well, none of that has changed. The grass needed mowing and there were things on our site like q-tips, wrappers, cig butts, etc. It just isn't tidy - and this is an Air Force Base. Usually Air Force is OCD. As of Jan 1, the price went from $25 to $35. That is a HUGE increase and you get nothing for it. There is no staff that we ever saw. To get a reservation was very difficult and had to be done via on line application. And talking to someone is impossible. Had to communicate via email using the confirmation notice. Once we were there, we still never saw anyone in the office or around the park. Covid can't be the excuse for everything that isn't up to par. They really need to fix this park up for $35 a night!!!!

Hard to even give this camp a 1 star! Our stay was one of the worst in the military RV family camp across the US. First is hard to get a hold of someone over the phone, they blame short staff because Covid, however they manage to have a so called camp host to harass us during our stay. I recommend to post in the bulletin board information in regard of the camp host, site number, name and a phone number to contact him after hours. We were approach by this individual without any form of identification several times in the campground and we also found him in the MWR tickets and tours office. As a disable veteran traveling with my family I found this individual worthless, he wasn't a good resource or was emphatic with our situation. On our last day, we were hustling to leave but since I have medical conditions I was moving slow and instead of he offering me help he was putting more pressure on me to vacate the site. The camp is very outdated and need renovation ASAP, showers and restroom were nasty. Camp host seems like he is a permanent resident and MWR need to get rid of him as soon as possible.

Unbelievable. This is the first time I have ever felt compelled to write a review. My parents have been motorhoming for years now. They bring the motorhome this way to visit my family (we live on base) at least twice a year for 6 years now. They did not have a good experience the first few times they visited. We just chalked it up to, "wow, Tony and Mary are two extremely anal people." Tony once told my father not to walk on the grass, because it BENDS THE BLADES! I thought he was joking, until I had the pleasure of dealing with him myself. He is an absolute nightmare; I am in utter shock that these two people are still running this camp! How does this happen? My parents have told me that campground managers are notoriously friendly and helpful and that this is truly the worst place they've ever stayed (over a span of 30 years). Instead of bringing the motorhome and spending a week with my family, they now come for 1 or 2 days and stay at our house, so that they don't have to deal with Tony or Mary. This could really be a nice little campground if 1 of 2 things happened...they get rid of Tony and Mary, or at least reprimand their ridiculous behaviors.

This is our third visit to Travis and it hasn’t changed much since our last stay. Since we arrived on a Sunday the office wasn’t open but there was a sign in the window telling us our site number. After parking a few minutes “on the centerline” we proceeded to our parking spot which was in the “new” section. We backed the 5-er into the spot and in doing so I rolled the trailer over a very small portion of grass. While I was unhooking Tony came over and came unglued that I would break the law in such a blatant fashion. Then he started lecturing me (with a lot of animation) on how to park my trailer. He also said he was going to come back the next day and “access the damage”, which he never did because the next day there was no marks on his grass. He also made sure that I knew that at Travis you may not park yourself and that I should have went to his home and asked for assistance. At this point I finally told him that if he had wanted to help park us that he should have the office open 24/7 or make the sign on the office window reflect his desires. Of course, I apologized for breaking the law and swore that I would never do it again. There are a lot of rules here, both official written ones (we never got a copy of them) and then there are “Tony’s laws” which are not written down anywhere that I could find. I learned about his unwritten rules during the course of our stay as each day Tony came by our trailer and told me a new one. Folks, I don’t mind some rules as they help keep the park in good shape and orderly. But I also believe that there has to be some flexibility in those rules. Tony hasn’t learned to bend a little and be a little more personable in his dealings with people. If I acted like he did when dealing with guests while hosting in Oregon State Parks I would have been asked to leave and would not be asked back. Sprinklers in our area came on mid morning everyday so if you don’t want hard water on your vehicles, plan accordingly. Very clean restrooms and laundry facilities. Amenities on the base are outstanding. Go back…????

Even though we haven't stayed at this FamCamp (I've been through the camp on more than one occasion while at Travis on business), I'm giving high marks for Location, Facilities and Value but I'm giving low marks for Hospitality and Overall Experience. I feel that I'm being generous with the 2's as I was lied to by the MWR manager about their pet policies. Yes they do allow pets, but ONLY if you have 1 or 2. That can be any combination, 2 dogs, 1 cat/1 dog, etc as long as they total 2. When I questioned the policy (as we've stayed in numerous military campgrounds around the country with 4 small dogs with no issues), I was told the policy had been set by the base command, and it included family housing, and that they couldn't deviate from that policy, I was content to accept it; however, I still have contact with several individuals that work on base and asked if they knew anything about this policy. Well, lo and behold, I've found out that the base command does not restrict the number of pets that are brought to the FamCamp or to family housing, that policy has been set by the MWR manager; to top it off, she selectively chooses which rules she enforces and when. It's common courtesy to clean up after your pets, but that isn't always enforced, even when the staff sees your dog poop and you walk away from it. As a result, I will not be staying at this camp any time soon!

We stayed two nights at Travis AFB for $20 a pop. A decent place, but they have so many ridiculous rules I felt like I was back in bootcamp. They have RV spaces designated as "Pet spaces" and "non-pet spaces." If you have a pet you can only stay in a pet space. If you don't have a pet and the non-pet spaces are full but there are pet spaces available, a non-pet RVer can stay in a pet space, but NOT vice versa. So, pet owners are second class citizens at Travis. Also, the pet areas are STRICTLY ENFORCED (per the many, many signs) and if your dog steps on the grass then maybe the "pet police" will swoop down and issue you a citation. Okay, I'm joking, but only a little bit. Your RV CANNOT overhang the grass. You CANNOT have any items under or around your RV. Starting to get the idea? If you pay by personal check they want your full social security number on the registration form, the envelope that the form goes in, and the check itself. Are they insane? Why don't they just post it on the internet and make it even easier for identify thieves? They advertise free cable TV but to get it you must have a cable descrambler box which is not available on the weekends or after hours, so for us checking in on a Saturday we had no cable TV. They also advertise free wifi for the first 24 hours only. To get the wifi was complicated and when we got it it was extremely poor quality and tripped offline frequently. The bathrooms were superb. Lastly, at Travis you can camp for 180 days straight so there were a very large number of homesteaders living there. It gives the park a different feel, which we don't care for. Unlike virtually every other famcamp we found the residents to be standoffish and unfriendly to us, as if we were interlopers on their turf. Despite all that, we would stay there again for a night or two if we were traveling through.

This was our second stay at Travis FamCamp, we will not be back again. I had avoided the park for 6 years because it was not worth the pain dealing with Tony (even though we have been in the area a dozen times to visit family and friends). My hope was that Tony had moved on, unfortunately he was still in complete control and unchanged. All of the comments about Tony’s abusive and controlling personality are true. It is remarkable that virtually every review at this web site revolves around problems with “Tony”. There is something intuitively wrong with this pattern. If Tony has in fact been at this Park for 18 years, it is 17 years and 11 months too long. Do the math—how many travelers in 18 years has Tony encountered and ruined their day, week or vacation? What makes Tony so special or invaluable that he is allowed to continue his abusive and controlling behavior? He is rude controlling, inept, and completely unsuited for contact or interaction with people. Tony needs to be fired!

Tony has been a host at this famcamp too long. He talked down to my wife and had I not kept control of my temper would have had a physical encounter. He should be fired, we have camped at many military rv parks and he made the visit a terrible day we want to forget. His fampcamp discriminates against pet owners who are taken to the worse sites in the camp, where he tells you how to park your rv to the point of being laughable. You must walk your pet in the middle of the street. The pet walk area is behind a dumpster and he tells you the Air Police may arrest you if you walk your pet further than the rear of the dumpster area. I think Tony has made the famcamp into the command he never had when he was on active duty. We planned a four day stay and left the next day. It is really to bad that the commander at Travis has not removed him and brought the famcamp up to the standards set by the Air Force Academy, and Mountain Home Air Force Base as examples where professional Courteous host' make you feel at home and treat you like a member of the armed force family. We plan on writing a letter to the base commander spelling out how we where treated during our recent visit and hope others will do the same so this terrible situation can be ended.

V.O. left this review using the Directory software: - WOW - What a disappointment. Manager, Corina, accommodated our visit (without reservation) and gave us 50amp Site 12 (pet friendly). The site is under a huge eucalypstis (sp) tree that causes big mess. Our site was not prep'd for our arrival (patio/table dirty and unkempt). The park overall is horrible - except for the area set aside for "non-pets". That area still has grass and shade trees. So, what's up with the apparent punishment for folks with pets? Laundry at park still being repaired.

This is my second time here. My first time was only one night. Does that count? I am very happy with the park. The spaces for the very large rigs are really not big enough. Parking is very tight. No pull thru's. I had to let my rear end over hand over the grass. That is against the rules. Hard to mow the lawn. They have a big rig wash within spitting distance from the park. BX, commissary and class six store in really within walking distance. They have long term parking for 3 months minimum. $45.00 per month. Short term by the air terminal for 30 days or less FREE. Both my wife and I had no problem getting an appointment with internal medicine at David Grant while we were here. Management lives on site with two other hosts. All very nice!