Mission San Juan Capistrano, Landmark, Chapel, Museum and Gardens — Attraction in San Juan Capistrano

We visited here since my son is in 4th grade and is learning about California history. In fact, my son will be building this mission, so we wanted him to see it first hand. Our only issues were parking and professional photographers.

Staff: Wonderful! Some of the best I have ever interacted with.

Parking: If you have an RV or a pull trailer, there is no parking for you near the entrance to the mission. My hubby had to drop us off then go spend the day in Petsmart and Costco because there was no where for him to park nearby to join us. This is an issue that the city needs to address. I mean - where do all the school buses park when they come for tours? If you have parking for RVs and Buses, then put it on your website so it can be found.

4th Grade Package: We chose to get the 4th grade package because it comes with a book about the mission to take home and my son was doing a report on this mission and building a model of it, so we thought it was worth it. However, you get the audio tour without the 4th grade package, so if you want to save money on your ticket just skip it.

Audio tour: The audio tour for 4th graders was pretty good, but skipped some things so as an adult, I wanted more and could have selected the adult version instead, but felt I needed to listen to the same things as my son did so we were on the same page for his projects. It took a long time to get through all the stops because my son had trouble reading the map, places were blocked off for some concert, and the audio clips were rather long at times. Sometimes the signs for each stop were hard to find. The starting point was not on the map and the second stop seemed to be behind a door that was locked (later on we found another access point to the room through the inner courtyard). Midway, a stop was a cow hide outside between rooms, but my son thought it was in a room and the map was not clear enough.

Professional photographers: They are supposed to share the space, but one was in the area with the four bells and the fountain - and she just hogged it until the light was too far gone to take good photos for anyone else. I seriously waited patiently, did something else and came back, waited some more, and even with seeing me there, she ignored me and kept doing her wedding photos. In the end, I took some photos at creative angles thinking that I blocked her and the couple out only to see her backpack on the floor in the photos. I just thought on a Tuesday there would be less of them... or at least they would be nice to those waiting like they are supposed to in order to grab a photo or two (the mission asks them to do so). Having to deal with professional photographers really ruined our trip, added too much time on our visit waiting on them, put us leaving the area in peak traffic doubling what should have been only a 2 hour drive home, and added stress we did not need.

Overall, we learned a lot about the missions and its people. We took a lot of photos in order to build this model. We did not see the swallows in July and apparently not many come here anymore due to urban development etc. The concert equipment, closed doors, and professional photographers made navigating and photographing the space more difficult. Parking is an issue if you have a trailer or RV. HOWEVER, it was one of the best missions to visit, the staff were wonderful, and I wish we arrived earlier in the day and left earlier to avoid traffic and that professional...

If you don't pay, you don't pray!

I have Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. I am a NATIVE Californian. I attended 12 years of Catholic school. I am on a bucket list trip in our RV through the US and Canada. We've been visiting our daughter in San Diego for over a week and were hoping to visit the mission on our way to see family in San Bernardino County. The first problem we encountered was no parking for our RV. Next, I tried calling the mission to inquire about parking, but their phone number is unattended. If you want to speak to a person, you need to go to their contact us section of the website and call that number. When I did that, it turned out to be the same unattended line that Google Maps had dialed for me. Because all we could find was parallel parking on the street, we could not visit the mission as a couple. My husband did not feel comfortable leaving the RV unattended because it was protruding out onto the street. He asked me to make it a very brief visit for this reason. I had to walk over two blocks from our improperly parked RV to the mission. When I got there, they wanted me to pay over $10 to be able to access the mission and take advantage of the THREE audio tours you get with paid admission. I told them I had only about 10-15 minutes for my visit. That made no difference to them.

All my life I had heard about San Juan Capistrano and had wanted to visit. What a huge disappointment to find all these obstacles and inflexible people. I just wanted to briefly see the mission and the gardens, buy a postcard and refrigerator magnet, and be on my way. I stopped at the pastoral center, and while they did listen to my plight and apologized, it did not change the circumstances of our visit. They offered me the basilica to go pray in. Well, for that matter, i could go to any local Catholic church and do that. I left there wholly frustrated and regretting having gotten off the freeway and wasting my time there. I should not be forced to pay in order to go to the mission to pray The Lord's Prayer and then quickly zip through the gardens and gift shop where I would certainly have spent money. So sad. No wonder the US Catholic church is hemorrhaging members. If it were not for their resettling legal and illegal immigrants with US taxpayers' dollars, I'm sure many more of them would have had to close their doors...

This is a great take to take the family to take the family, and it's easy to spend at least a couple of hours experiencing a piece of California history. This location is famous for the annual return of the swallows on the celebration of St. Joseph on March 19.

Buying tickets in advance is convenient, but if you are active duty military or a veteran, I advise buying tickets in person so you can take advantage of the $1 discount on tickets. Adults are normally $18 for admission as of the time of this review and $10 for youth (5-17). If you are military (active duty or veteran), visiting on certain holidays is free such as Memorial Day, Veterans Day, etc. There are also events such as concerts and civic celebrations that occur all year, so if you are a local to Southern California I would consider getting a membership as you can visit all year for free, and the passes are not linked to an individual, so if you have family or friends visiting, you can have them use the passes as well.

The grounds are absolutely beautiful, and your admission includes an audio tour that consists of a hand set that has recorded descriptions and backgrounds of various locations on the mission grounds. The two large fountains also have koi and smaller guppies. The chapel on the mission grounds is very beautiful for a small worship space, and it is amazing how much history is here. The gift shop is located at the exit and has many religious articles for sale as well as general souvenirs.

Definitely recommended as a place to visit and experience, especially with the family. My 8 year old normally isn't interested about historical locations but thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audio tour descriptions and feeding the koi. Not many places can do that, and any place that...