Snow Peak Campfield: Long Beach — Local services in Long Beach

The short: Well-manicured campgrounds, great amenities, clunky customer service, limited spa access.

The long: At Snow Peak Campfield you can reserve a field site (which is what I ended up in), tent site, or cabin. My review will be focused on my experience at the field sites.

PARKING & CHECK-IN: Driving in, there is a medium-sized parking lot, where you’ll be assigned a spot upon check-in. This is where I ran into my first issue as I had cars/trailers parked in my assigned spots (twice), causing me to run back and forth from the main office to the parking lot, trying to find a suitable spot. Checking in wasn’t the most smooth as I had to ask questions to get answers to some basic questions like what time is check out, where do I purchase firewood, is the Ofuro (spa) open, etc. If I hadn’t overheard the people in front of me ask about the spa, I would never have known that it was officially open.

SPA: Speaking of the spa, in theory, as an overnight camper, you get unlimited access to the spa, but upon check-in, I found that currently it’s under a reservation system, where you reserve a spot in blocks of time between 9 AM and 9 PM and you get 1 reservation a day. I think this is to ensure that the spa doesn’t get overcrowded and everyone at the campfield gets to access it, so I understand the reasoning behind this, but I’m not going to lie when I say that I was a little disappointed by the restricted access.

TRANSPORT: After check-in, you get a hand cart to lug your belongings to your campsite over a gravel path or you can ask for assistance, where someone in either a golf cart or a Rivian will help deliver your things to your field site. If you decide to use the hand cart (like I foolishly did), the walk is far and if you have a lot of things, this will be quite the workout. In the summer sun & heat, it’s nearly unbearable, so don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for help. You’ll need to speak up too because the employees zipped around in the carts, making it a little difficult and awkward to hail them down for help.

FIELD SITE: The field sites are patches of grass that have the Snow Peak Takibi fire pits, single-action large table, and red folding chairs. When I got to my site, I found no table and chairs, so I had to go back to the office to request them, which was later delivered to my site. Some field sites have no shade, no sun, no privacy, are backed by a forest, close to the restroom, etc. Book based on your preference, but I would argue that the sites are not made equally… Unlike state-run campgrounds, the website doesn’t really indicate if a site is partially shaded or not at all. Little side-note: I think all of the tent-sites did not have any shade and were fully exposed to the sun.

BATHROOMS: There’s a large building with private and accessible individual showers on one side and private individual restrooms on the other. Everything was clean and well designed. At the front of the building, there are 4 convenient outdoor sinks for washing dishes etc.

CAMPSTORE: Open hours vary, but they offer coffee, drinks, pastries, snacks and sell Snow Peak gear in case you forgot something or if you found a product you liked during your trip. There’s slow, but usable WI-FI if you need it and both indoor & outdoor seating. Outside the building, you’ll find a wall of firewood, ice, and charcoal available for purchase.

PETS: Per the website, pets are allowed on the campfield and must remain on-leash. We took our dog and have no complaints. Other reviews have noted off-leash dogs, which we did not experience, but I want to highlight to other camp-goers the importance of following Snow Peak policy! Abuse it and we’ll lose it!

FOURTH OF JULY: We camped here over the holiday and, while the campground did not allow fireworks, the local area had MANY. If you plan on bringing a dog that’s afraid of fireworks, AVOID booking during the 4th.

Overall, great experience; just need to work out the opening kinks. Will be back...

Overall, my group and I enjoyed our stay here. For most of our group, it was our first exposure to the Snow Peak brand and I can see us returning if we were seeking a luxury camping experience. We brought our own tents (sorry, ruined the general aesthetic with our non-branded items) and rented 2 field sites side by side along with the Takibi set to supplement the free fireplace as well as the Kitchen Kit. My friend rented the Tent + Tarp kit.

PROS: car free camping area, so the only noises you would hear at your site was other people talking or general nature noise nice facilities - private washroom/shower were generally clean (though they only seemed to be cleaned once a day?). Sink washing facility with hot water made cooking fun and not a chore assistance from the campground - we had difficulty setting up the tarp and a staff member was soon there to assist us. The staff member in the parking lot was also quick to assist us moving things in their bigger, electric cart fireplace, table, chairs included - meant we could bring a bit less gear in the car firewood, charcoal and ice for sale on site/campstore - great place to pick up a coffee and relax indoors and even after hours, you could buy the firewood and ice so no fear of running out rentals available - having a kitchen set and tent rental meant life was eaaaasy. My friend who disliked camping even commented it didn't feel like camping as she cut vegetables on the kitchen rental. I was very envious as my friend who rented a tent and tarp, could just walk away at check-out without taking anything down

CONS: not all campsites made equal, even among medium/large - make sure you watch the Youtube video with the full campground tour. Though we all pay the same price for field sites, some of the field sites were barely big enough to fit a tent and awkwardly located in the middle of the walking areas vs. some secluded forest sites with plenty of space badly placed fireplace sites - perhaps they tried to imagine how people would place their tents on each site vs proximity to fire, but this mean some fire sites were incredibly close to where someone would place their tent on the neighbouring site. One of our tents had to put up with smoke from the site next door until 2am in the morning animal poop, everywhere - despite not seeing a single bird on the campground, our sites were covered in bird poop. It was ok when it was dry, but after a wet evening we were stepping in wet poop. In addition, previous occupant from our site likely brought a dog and left some presents behind, so we had to pick it up before our kids stepped in it alarm siren at night - they do warn you at check-in but not on the website. This is not the campground for you if you are a light sleeper, as in addition to the unenforced "quiet hours" (people will stay up chatting until 1-2am and with the campsites close together, you will hear them), the nearby emergency service plays a loud siren for a few minutes around 11pm or midnight. You don't have to evacuate, but it takes some getting used to ofuro/sauna - we came specifically for this experience, and while it was enjoyable (reservations required but didn't notice any enforcement on occupancy), there were only 3 change/shower rooms in the building. The sauna was filled with 20 people at one point and the ofuro, another 10. The water smelled lovely but you could see bits of everything floating around.

I would consider coming back but if I disregard the Ofuro, it's a ok camping experience. If you're camping in a big group, the existence of the Ofuro means you are sitting around waiting for group members to go/return, making meal times a bit awkward if you don't book together. I do plan to return and will try to rent one of the tent suites or Jyubako suites as they would add to the luxury,...

Campfield is a Snow Speaker's dream. Luckily when we went the ofuro had just opened to the public.

CAMP SITE You have a few options for camping --- Pre-Built Studio camping, tents that are set up for you, or field camping. The field camping you can rent tents and set them up yourself or bring your own. We brought our own.

The Pre-Built structures looked like they had their own shower and was provided with a 10,000 CFM split system air conditioning unit. This is equivalent to a portable unit and should be sufficient to keep you cool on a hot day.

This site is a walk in site only from the parking lot. They have carts you can take to help haul your gear back and forth. The staff will help assist you with their carts when they can. It was a huge help for us since we brought our IGT's, Takibi accessories, and all our tents, tarp, and chairs. It should be noted that they provide a table, Takibi, and chairs, so if you don't want to bring chairs you can use the snow peak chairs offered. They are the mid height style chairs.

The camp site is beautiful and the staff is extremely helpful.

STORE There is a Snow Peak store at the market, but the selection is limited. I was told at the main Store at Portland that they had experienced stocking issues, but has since been worked out. They do have exclusive Campfield cups that are available, so keep an eye out for that. From a good standpoint there are local snacks that can be purchased. There is a local cafe that offers beverages and premade sandwiches and onigiri. There are lounges and a fire place to hang out.

RESTROOM What I really enjoyed was the restroom arrangement. The front of house is a giant sink for people to wash hands and clean their dishes. The back of house has one side full of toilets and the other side has the showers. There are benches in the showers for sitting when you shower or needing to put your clothes down. The shower has a rainfall setting, which is super nice.

OFURO The ofuro offers three services --- Hot Bath --- Sauna --- Ice Bath

The expectations is to wash before you enter and there are showers and storage for your belongings. There are plenty of chairs tables to hang out. We were lucky enough to show up and not have anyone else there so you can check out the photos attached. The ofuro is available to people not staying at Campfield (for a cost). Campers can enjoy these services as included in the reservation. They book out 5 days ahead. We did not have an issue booking the day of or a day before. They book the slots in two hour increments.

NEIGHBORING TOWN Less than 5 minutes by car is the nearby town where you can get groceries or eat locally. There are trails that are nearby, but we did not partake in hiking.

LIMITED SHADE Be prepared to provide your own shade for many of the tent sites. They have trees that are to provide additional shade, but they are still young trees.

PARKING The parking is assigned based on your camp site number, but they do have overflow parking nearby. For EV chargers, they have a total of 5 spaces (including an accessible station). They are level two Rivian charges. You will need to download the Rivian app to use and pay for the parking. You will need to rotate your car when you are finished parking. There are some adapters available if you need to connect a Tesla.

CHARCOAL AND WOOD They offer fire wood and charcoal that you can purchase after the store closes. So you don't need to worry that you are going to run out of wood.

If you're curious of any of the gear, there are many ways that the gear is being demo'd.

I cannot wait to return. Be careful the single lane highways to get there can...