Camino del Sol — Attraction in Irvine

Read the Yelp reviews for Camino Del Sol--they're much more accurate than the Google reviews. I lived here for about 5 months in 2016.

Pros: The place looks like a resort on the outside. It has a nice community center ("The Lodge") with a beautifully-landscaped pool and jacuzzi. The apartments are about a 10 minute walk to the campus gym ("the ARC") and there are shuttle stops right out the complex that take you directly to campus. The shuttles are free during the school year.

Cons: The parking situation is terrible. Your assigned parking lot is a 12-minute walk from the apartments (and that gets old quick), but there are an abundance of tempting and usually-vacant 20-minute parking spots immediately in front of the apartments. The parking enforcers usually start chalking and issuing tickets to cars in the 20-minute spots as early as 7:15 AM on weekdays. Occasionally, they ticket cars on weekends too. Essentially, the 20-minute spots are like a predatory and overpriced hotel minibar. If Camino weren't so greedy, they would convert some of the 20 minute spots to 2-hour spots and they wouldn't enforce the 20-minute spots on weekends, since there is typically less demand for parking on weekends. Tickets are over $60. There are several other nearby apartment complexes with substantially better parking situations.

The insides of that apartments are terrible. The walls are thin, so you can easily hear your roommates. The furniture is cheap. The mattress is thin and uncomfortable. The shades are too thin to block out the streetlights. You only receive one key for your apartment and it's not possible to duplicate the key because of the electronics involved. Outside of your tiny bedroom and the living room, there's almost no good storage space. No balconies.

Some of the apartments are three stories high, so to move from the kitchen or living room to your bedroom, you might have to climb two...

Acommodations are nice. Second floor doesn't get ceiling fans. Internet is ~95megabits/s. Staff rotates every year and they hold community events throughout the academic quarters. The lodge closes on holidays, so dont expect to recieve any gifts then. The pool is nice, but many people are too busy to use it regularly except a few regulars tanning. Camino is mostly quiet, people tend to party thursday nights and leave on weekends. Most of the BBQs are in disrepair.

Shuttles take you to and from Camino from 730am to 1115pm Monday thru Friday. On weekends you effectively have no means of transportation if you don't have a car or a roadbike. Parking is about 100$ a month and is about a quarter mile west.

Camino is the nicest of the on campus housing options, but don't fool yourself that any are a good deal. Camino, vista del campo, norte, and aroyyo vista are all the same company and control this area privately owned. The only other option is utc housing owned by irvine co and arguably worse.

If you are a transfer or upper division, look into Vista del campo norte graduate housing (parking included)

If you have the money, camino is a good option if you dont want to bring your car, though you do get stranded on weekends. Further from campus the options are equally as expensive and usually unfurnished and you will have to pay for on campus parking (separate permit from camino parking).

If youre willing to share a room, you will have better luck somewhere else. The value here is in your own rooms especially with private bath. Craigslist offers in the area can give you parking, unfurnished, shared rooms for ~500.

When i moved in, i moved in to a mess with current residents, but community events were great.

This year, my place is clean, but the staff is...

I am here to write a good review for the maintenance team. Especially for Samir and Brandon. They were super helpful.

Interestingly enough, they ask the maintenance team to do all the "ask for review" work, but not the leasing team?? Personally I think the leasing team would deserve a 2 stars. BEWARE- CDS will not tell you that you won't have same space housing even though for sure you didn't have a chance. They will give you false hope saying it's not "guaranteed".

Long story short, I have been living here since my sophomore year and now it's my last year. The first two years were fine. Some occasional wifi issues but overall it's okay. However, when the time to sign the lease for my last school year comes around. They took priority to process the new incoming residents because they have an agreement with the school without letting us know and still called out application "priority application" (although it clearly is not when they process it. Lol) After that, I learned that none of my roommates get the same unit we have been living for two years. After numerous calls and emails, I was informed that the apartment we have been living in is now designated to the new residents. Why don't CDS just told us we won't get the same space renewal but still fooled us and gave us false hope that it is only "not guaranteed".

All the leasing process was just a terrible hassle and when you are asking for help regarding the lease term, no one seems to welcome you unless you are a good resident who pays on time and has no issue with them.

Housing staffs are nice. Overall I would say it's a 3/5.

+1 extra point for the super helpful and friendly...