After a long drive south it’s nice to hunker down in a resort type park and treat ourselves over the Christmas Holidays. Staying in one location for a while allows us to have some packages delivered, time to do cleaning and minor maintenance tasks on the rig and prep for the next three to four months of travel and boondocking.
For the last four years, Anne and I have spent most of December in the Palm Springs area. Since we were holders it a Thousand Trails Zone Pass membership that meant the Palm Springs RV Resort in Palm Desert.
This year though we decided to change things up. We were getting a little bored of the Thousand Trails parks so didn’t renew our membership. That meant we were free to choose a new park for our traditional December stay. After researching the many RV parks around the Coachella Valley, I decided on one called Oasis Palms RV Resort.
Oasis Palms RV Resort Review
Location and Price
Oasis Palms RV Resort is located around 45 mins southeast of downtown Palm Springs, so it is a bit of a drive if you’re into fine restaurant dining and tourist type attractions. For us, we enjoyed the laid back rural vibe of the place surrounded by vegetable, fruit and palm tree farms. Our monthly rate was decent at $600, and they are currently a Passport America park for 1/2 price on daily rates up to 6 days a year.
RV Sites
A big draw to the park for me was the RV sites themselves. Each site had a large level concrete slab for the rig and was surrounded by green grass! The hookups are modern, well maintained and located in the center. Water pressure and AC power levels are excellent.
We picked out a back-in site to be situated right on the small fish pond. You’ll also find a selection of large pull-through sites to choose from throughout the park. No cable TV, but we did pick up a large assortment of local Palm Springs channels on the RVs batwing antenna.
Park Amenities
Oasis Palms comes with the standard amenities expected at an RV resort. They include a good size swimming pool, hot tub, and tennis court. A lounge room with large screen TV, pool table, etc. Though I don’t use them, I spied a pair of large bathrooms with showers, and they looked clean. The laundry is small with just three washers and two dryers but was never too busy. $1.50 wash and $1.00 dry.
Park garbage is well handled by several large walled off bins and multiple small containers scattered around the resort. UPS and FedEx Packages can be received at the office and on occasion were delivered right to our campsite by park staff.
Park Atmosphere
I give high marks for the ambiance. The grounds are well groomed and clean. A small fishing pond with fountain act as a focal point like a little desert oasis. There are plenty of trees from large palms to orange/grapefruit to weeping varieties and beautiful mountain views.
The water and trees bring in a large assortment of bird life. Topping our list of daily characters were tiny Anna hummingbirds, yellow-bellied chickadees, and a large white Egret.
They have done a fantastic job at keeping up lush green lawns by desert standards. Helps keep the RV clean of tracked in dirt, especially with Fido.
Park Staff and Community
I was extremely impressed by how friendly the staff and other campers were. I found a real sense of community here powered by snowbird regulars (many from Canada) that come back year after year. You’ll find all sorts of social functions to partake in starting with a nightly happy hour around a fire pit near the pond.
Then there are regular poker, billiards and karaoke nights plus special food events and potlucks, etc. A big hit with my wife Anne were the daily free home-baked cookie offerings in the office.
It’s a Dog-Friendly RV Resort!
If you don’t like dogs, this may not be the park for you as they allow off-leash dogs a rarity in this day and age. The owners of off-leash dogs must sign a liability release form. During our stay, all the dogs off leash were very well behaved and fun to have around.
Our beagle Angie stayed on her leash for the most part, because well, she’s a beagle! The grounds are well stocked with dog bag dispensers and waste cans.
RV Park Negatives
Of course, no place is perfect, so there are a few negative things to say about the Oasis Palms. First up, the swimming pool temperature was just too cold most of the time we were there to be enjoyable. Because of the high cost during the winter months, it’s only heated to 75F except for a few special days like Christmas and New Years.
The water supply is well water that contains above-average levels of fluoride and arsenic. Safe to bath, wash, and shower but not to drink. The park does have reverse osmosis systems on site to fill up drinking water jugs.
Road Noise. Due to the proximity to highway 86, there is a constant drone of traffic. I found after a while I didn’t even notice it, but mention it as I know it can be a deal breaker for some.
Finally, like I said before you are a fair distance away from the city, so even the closest Walmart is an hour round trip drive.
Oasis Palms RV Resort Photo Gallery
Conclusion
We thoroughly enjoyed our month long stay at the Oasis Palms RV Resort and already plan to return next winter. From what I’ve heard the park owners have been heavily investing in improvements and upgrades to the place. Just as we were leaving, they were planting new fan palms trees around the outside perimeter and adding a new row of RV sites to increase capacity.
The pond, lush greenery, bird life, desert mountain views, and friendly folks make this is a little gem of an RV park in the Coachella Valley. Thumbs up from Love Your RV! It even made it into my 10 Fav Campsites of 2016 List.
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