Duncans Mills Camping Club

On each of my visits toDMCC, I have had nothing but fantastic experiences. The staff is always helpful and accommodating, the grounds are stunning and well cared for, and there is SO much to do. I love the gym and the river access. Also, there are so many shops and restaurants that are in walking distance. Great place to camp!

2÷6÷2016 — Saturday afternoon around 2:30 pm.
We have been to many local campgrounds, including the one right down the road an many occasions and decided to take a walk through this one (which used to be part of a large corporation — I think it was Thousand Trails or something similar) again. We were out for a nice car ride and stopped at the coffee and pastry shop a stones through away from the entrance to this place. So, with coffee in hand we browse around the local buildings, train cars and turn down the dirt path leading to the entrance to this campground. We noticed a chain across the entrance (with no signs posted anywhere) as we walked around but nothing on the dirt trail. We headed to the entrance to get some information on the club but found nothing. We walked in and walked to the right where we saw trailers with music coming from on of them; a vehicle by the laundry room; voices from across the campground and so forth and so on. We looked at the sites, went to the beach and came up and continued around to several large parked travel trailers which I mentioned to my wife, «I hope those can be rented out…» We saw some cabins with people and vehicles and kept walking towards the buildings, which I assume was the club house area of the property. As we walked, a booming male voice from behind says «EXCUSE ME.» We stopped and turned around to see a man walking towards us in a quick manner and his large white poodle running towards us. I bent down to say hi to the dog but it ran by us, sadly. The man approached us and said «We are closed.» I acknowledged what he said and thought maybe he would offer us some information regarding membership, but he didn’t. I turned and faced the travel trailers we just passed and asked if those could be rented and in a short, almost bothered voice said «YES.» He again stated «We are closed.» We continued to walk and were heading towards the entrance/​exit and at some point he said «We open in March.» I wasn’t very pleased and said, «OK, see you then, but probably not.» My wife said he was standing next to me the entire time, «squaring off» or trying to «steer me» away from the cabins and towards the exit.
My words of advice if this guy is management: 1). Don’t go into the customer service industry. Your posture is confrontational and not very inviting. We came in, no signs posted about being closed or private property, nothing. We were dressed comfortably, holding a coffee cup, a wallet and car keys. 2). If you are management, post better signs, or actually, any signage would be better than what you have now, which is nothing. The walking trail by the train cars is wide open. A chain across the entrance means nothing if there are people, trailers and cars on the property. It may just mean it’s off season and these may be the full time residents.
As part of a large camping group and who is planning a family reunion two years from now, this place is no longer part of our list. I will go up the road to the other campground which is way more friendly, inviting and does not have this guy working there, hopefully.
Good luck in March for everyone else there. Hopefully you hide this guy somewhere away from people.

Been members since October 2015 and have been happy so far with the decision to become members. The campsites are very roomy comfy and the staff are helpful. This is a great place to go to to get away from the crowds and heat of the summer, living in «the bubble» (St. Helena). Located minutes from the Sonoma County coastline this has become our beach house getaway. And if you happen to forget something or just don’t want to cook there are some really great restaurants and cafes within walking distance from the campground. The camping club has a small private beach area that is right on the river. A great addition to the campground would be a dog park, as many of us fellow Rvers and campers bring our furry critters along. Another improvement would be a stronger Wifi signal, access is very sketchy here. All in all you can’t beat waking up under the trees to the sound of nature here. We like the «private» members only club.

We have been members for 1 year now, last weekend was kids weekend, I must say it was more like Family weekend! Grandparents of a 3 year old, we all had a blast! Everything was free! Games, Face painting, Food, Jumpy house, Balloon Animal and prizes from the Games! We were all one big happy family! I’m very happy we joined Duncan Mills camping club the staff is friendly and helpful. Holidays everyone brings a dish and the staff cooks the meat and we have a meal with our camping family. This is a place where friendships are made. A+ to the entire staff you do a GREAT JOB!

Was there before the 4^th of July for 2 weeks. We joined the club just as soon as we got there. Tina did a great job with the tour and explanation of the benefits of joining. The rest of the staff were courteous, and always willing to help. Met Brian the owner and was very pleased with his assistance with any questions or needs we had. We are so glad we joined we also met some great people in the campsite next to ours and became friends with them and there extended family. The campgrounds sit right by the river some sites over look it. They have there own beach, along with hot tub, work out gym, club house one just for adults and one for families with pool tables. We are looking forward to our next stay

The facility is very well kept, the grounds are immaculate. There is a clubhouse for audults and kids, and a spa. The restrooms were very clean as well. They have a quarter mile beach on the Russian river with kayaks and canoes. It appeared that about a third of the sites were full hookup, a third were partial, and there were some tent sites. We stayed on a 2 night introductory offer to learn about the timeshare offer. The only downside was that when they learned we were not purchasing the time share we felt like the welcome mat was yanked out from under us, as it is a significant investment.

I arrived at Duncan Mills Camping Club at 7:30pm, after driving for 3.5 hours with my family from the bay area. We checked in at the front gate and while finishing up registration the attendant asked us when we could meet with Tina. Our first question was «Who is Tina»? «She will tell you about the park and amenities», the attendant answered. We told her that we had an appointment Saturday already and could we please set an appointment on Sunday around noon? The attendant told us that Sunday at noon would be fine and she gave us our space assignment and we entered the park. We found our campsite and immediately noticed that, A: the park was practically deserted, there was only one other RV in view, B: our campsite was not very nice, C: there was a nice campsite right across the road that was empty. My wife and daughter walked back up to the entrance to see if we could change campsites. Almost immediately a car drove up and a man jumped out and aggressively began walking toward me, without pleasantries or preamble, he asked my name, when I told him he said «you have to meet with Tina, that’s part of the deal here, we are a $ 100 a night park why do you think you got 2 nights for $ 50?» I told him that we agreed to meet with Tina and there was no problem, we understand that there is a sales pitch since this is a membership club. He said «we will straighten this out tomorrow» and drove off without another word with his goofy looking bulldog glaring at me. After his rude behavior with me, he apparently had not had enough so he drove up to the entrance and continued his bad behavior with my wife. She had been waiting on the attendant who was on the phone. The man came up to my wife (also aggressively) and asked what she wanted. She replied «We were wondering if we could move our campsite to…» he cut her off and said «NO, this is a private park and you have to take the site we give you». My wife then said we are not going to stay and can we have our money back? He replied «with pleasure» and returned our money, she came back to the site and we packed up and left.
Think about it, it’s already pretty late and we have been on the road with a young child for several hours, now we have nowhere to stay and we are so relieved because we got out of that place. We would rather have spent the night on the side of the road than spend another minute at Duncan Mills camping club. We inquired at one of the local businesses about another RV park close by that may have room for us and we explained what happened at Duncan Mills Camping Club, the proprietor replied that there was a place within a quarter of a mile and said «yeah, we have heard that before about Duncan Mills Camping Club». We went to the suggested campground and they were extremely friendly and found a nice place for us even though they were pretty full, we had a great experience and would definitely go back there again, it was a much nicer park than Duncan Mills Camping Club and all of the staff was helpful and friendly. Do your own research on Duncan Mills Camping Club before you fall for their $ 50 offer; you will find plenty of information about multiple complaints, illegal contracts and bad business.

My family and I reserved two nights at Duncans Mills Camping Club for this past weekend, we were looking forward to the trip. We were there for less than 15 minutes and quickly decided to leave. We drove 4 hours to get there, arriving on a Friday night at about 6:30pm. I had my 8 year old daughter and our dog with us. My daughter was tired and a bit hungry, so for us to leave without another reservation should be an indication of our experience.
I realize this is a membership only camping club, and was eager to check it out since we love this area. Their web site offers an Introductory Stay of two nights for $ 50. The web site didn’t mention anything about a 1.5 hour sales meeting, nor were we told that over the phone. We found out about the sales meeting when we arrived. They insisted that we knew about the sales meeting because an email was sent. I checked my email, including the spam folder, before writing this review. We NEVER receive any confirmation email or anything regarding a sales meeting. Although we were a bit surprise, but totally understand. We suggested a meeting on Sunday at 12pm thinking this will give us a chance to experience the facility before the meeting. The owner/manager’s reply was «we are a private camping club, the sales meeting happens on our own terms and not yours. The sales person will come by tomorrow morning to assign you a sales meeting time.» He actually said a lot more, but this is the condense version. This is not the sales tactic or tone of voice we expected for someone who is trying to sell us something expensive with a sales meeting.
We also kindly asked to be moved to the shadier spot across from us. Since the park was about 10% occupied we didn’t think this would be an issue. The owner/​manager replied «You have been assigned a space, and that is the space you are going to get.» Again, this is the simplified and and condensed version of his rude response.
It is shocking how rude the people are at this camp site. We figure if this is our experience in just 15 minutes then there is no need to spend the rest of our weekend here. We were so happy to find Casini Ranch family campground within a ¼ of a mile. They were clean, quiet, very friendly and with reasonable rates.

My family and I camped here last week and it was great. It’s on a river with the use of free kayak’s, and beautiful ocean beaches about a 20 minute drive away (to the sand). The grounds were immaculate and they had lots to do in the park. The Grand kids played basketball, played in the playground while we relaxed. Facilities were neat and clean. The sites were well kept and private, the scenery beautiful. We are definitely going back «several» times.

We just spent a week here and loved every minute of it. We came to try out the trial and had intended to become members. Unfortunately my husband and I agreed that we wouldn’t be able to use the membership enough to join. We are limited to 3 weeks of vacation each year (maybe 4 weeks if we are lucky), and we didn’t want to limit ourselves to only one vacation spot. We just purchased our first RV a couple months ago and we still want to camp in Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, the ocean, and our favorite lakes. We were disappointed it didn’t work out because we loved it there! A huge thank you to Jenn and Tina who were absolutely fabulous hosts to us. We arrived on Friday night and Jenn mentioned we should get dinner and drinks at the Blue Heron (same parking lot as the campground). We had a fabulous time watching the boxing match and drinking with the locals, the best part was when we spotted Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin enjoying his Friday night as well. Truly an epic night!!! I quickly fell in love with Duncans Mills, a beautiful, picturesque town. The people at the campground and in the little village were always friendly and I enjoyed ALL of the stores and restaurants within walking distance of the campground (and there were a lot for such a small town). The campground itself was private, clean and community-​like! Most spots are private, lots of shade, etc. I really enjoyed my river walks along the private beach and the fresh flowers in the bathrooms! The spa tub, gym and pool table was an AWESOME bonus. During the day we took a special liking to driving the loop from Monte Rio through Occidental and then on through Bodega Bay, and then back up the coast to Jenner and back to Duncans Mills again. The whole loop might only take an hour to drive, but we liked sitting and relaxing for hours at a different beach each day, shopping and eating dinner in the little towns along the way, etc. We watched the sunset over the ocean several nights (Goat Rock beach) before making the short 15 minute drive back to the campground. If you can spend 3 or more weeks each year camping here, we highly recommend it. We will certainly re-​consider becoming members if our careers allow for more vacation time or if we move closer to the Santa Rosa area. Cheers!

My wife and I stayed here last weekend when we were up visiting family. I had actually been here before years ago but just for a visit, I didn’t stay. We stayed in a cabin that was nice. We had an electric fireplace and cable in the cabin. We spent a lot of time in the lounge just reading and working online. The grounds are really nice. There are berries growing everywhere if you want to snack while you hike. Being closer to the coast it’s a little chillier than most of California, so take a light jacket or sweater if you go visit.
The small town next to the place was pretty cool. They’ve got a bunch of quaint little shops like antique stores and what not. There was a good place for quick food and drinks right next to it too if you just want to walk somewhere instead of driving all the way back out.
Will probably go back again next year.

My family stayed here for the first time in April and all I can say is we fell in love moments after we got there. Our generously spacious and private camp site was a stones throw from the river. We happen to luck out and get a site that had a private trail to the river. It was awesome. Our kids loved it and it felt very safe. Our (2) dogs were in heaven with the large area’s to run and play. The staff Brian and Tina (?) are so nice and really made us feel at home. I never felt pressured to buy a membership and actually felt like a member already. We took the whole family to town and enjoyed quite a few hours going through the shops and meeting with all the friendly shop owners. Great people and great little stores.
We knew before we left that we were going to sign up for the club and did just that. Now we are eagerly looking forward to many weekends camping there. Well done Duncan Mills Camping Club. Top notch.

This place is well kept, big beautiful rv sites and nice people running it. I would (and have) recommended this camp club to anyone.

I stayed at Duncan Mills for a week in June. By far one of the most beautiful and well kept facilities I’ve visited. All the campsites are gorgeous and management sees to it that nothing is left undone. Duncan Mills is a quaint area and there’s so much to do– we didn’t want to leave. A little piece of paradise!

I’m not much of a writer but I thought I’d throw my 2 cents in, We’ve been to the park several times as guests and while I don’t tend to use words like DEVINE, I would just like to say that the previous 2 reviews are right on. We plan to join soon.

We have known about this park for probably 20 years, and have always loved it. You have free kayaking on the Russian River, lots wildlife like pheasant, rabbits, robins, egrets, and more. Morning fog creates a lovely picture taking opportunity on the river. Cows walk along the hills while sheep graze near them as well. Some shops are across the street (Pigs Alley is my favorite). Very good restaurant is there for a nice lunch or dinner. Wine tasting also available with knowledgeable staff. Bodega Bay and Jenner are just 10 – 20 minutes down the road for ocean splendor. It’s a family place, not for loud partiers. And we are grateful for it. You will enjoy all the amenities too like sewer, electricity, wi-​fi and even fresh flowers in each bathroom. Oh, don’t forget to visit the coffee shop near the entrance to the park. OMG, their pastries are DIVINE!!! Sent from Heaven itself.

We camped at Duncans Mills Camping Club in July of 2009 for a preview weekend. Duncans Mills Camping Club is a members only «Resorts of Destinction» campground. The property is located right on the Russian River and the grounds and restrooms are kept immaculate. The staff is über-​helpful and they have kayaks for member’s use. Since the DMCC is members only the other campers are very respectful of each other. As for the value of membership that is up to you my friend.