Thousand Trails Bend-Sunriver Campground Review: Is It Worth the Stay?
https://thousandtrails.com/oregon/bend-sunriver-rv-campground
During our week exploring Bend and Sunriver, Oregon, we stayed at Thousand Trails Bend-Sunriver.
We’re Thousand Trails members, so our entire week here cost us $0 in nightly camping fees. We purchased our membership when we started traveling full-time in April 2024, and while we definitely have a love/hate relationship with Thousand Trails as a whole, there’s no denying that it has made full-time RV travel significantly more affordable for our family.
I’ll share more about our specific membership and whether we think Thousand Trails is worth it in a separate article linked below. For this review, I’m focusing specifically on our experience at the Bend-Sunriver campground.
Our Campsite
We had a back-in site with 50-amp electric and water.
Our site was level but completely dirt. We had enough room for our fifth wheel, although we had to park our F-350 dually a little sideways to make everything fit.
There are a lot of trees throughout the campground, but surprisingly, we didn’t have any issues using our Starlink. Cell service was also good during our stay.
One thing to know before coming here is that there are no sewer hookups at any of the campsites.
For our family, this was by far the biggest downside of staying here.
No Sewer Hookups
We’re a family of five living full-time in our RV, so we use our tanks like we’re living in a house.
We wash dishes, the kids shower every night after jiu-jitsu practice, and we do our laundry in the RV.
Even though we have 104 gallons of gray-water capacity and 104 gallons of black-water capacity, our tanks can fill surprisingly quickly—especially the gray tanks.
There are multiple dump stations throughout the campground, but instead of packing up our fifth wheel to dump, we used our 36-gallon portable waste tank. Eli ended up using it every day to relieve our tanks.
If you’re willing to use the campground showers and laundry facilities, you could definitely stretch your tanks much longer. We prefer the convenience of using everything in our own RV, so the lack of sewer hookups was a pretty significant inconvenience for us.
As much as we loved Bend and Sunriver and could have easily spent another week in the area, another full week without sewer would have been rough.
Reservations and Site Assignments
When you make a Thousand Trails reservation, you typically aren’t choosing a specific campsite.
You enter your RV information and what you need, and the campground assigns you a site. Sometimes you can call ahead and request a specific site or ask which site you’ve been assigned, but even then, things can change.
Our friends were staying at the campground at the same time as us and called ahead to get their site number. When we arrived, their assigned site had changed anyway.
So even if you’re given a site number ahead of time, I wouldn’t get too attached to it.
Getting Around the Campground
The interior roads were manageable with our large fifth wheel and dually, but they were fairly narrow.
The campground itself was also surprisingly confusing to navigate.
There are a lot of loops, circles, and oddly arranged roads instead of a straightforward grid. Even after we’d been there for several days, I still occasionally had trouble remembering which road I needed to take to get back to our campsite.
The roads are mostly dirt and gravel but aren’t overly rocky. Our kids were able to ride their bikes around without much trouble.
Pools and Amenities
The campground has two large swimming pools, a hot tub, pickleball courts, a dog park, bathrooms, laundry facilities, and multiple dump stations.
The pools were decently clean, although one seemed better maintained than the other. They weren’t heated, but they also weren’t uncomfortably cold. The kids only ended up swimming once during our stay, but the water temperature was comfortable enough when they did.
The hot tub was in good condition and was nice and hot.
There is also a dog park, but it was a little overgrown and located pretty far out of the way, so we never ended up using it.
We didn’t personally use the campground bathrooms or laundry facilities, but there were multiple bathrooms located throughout the park, though at least one was closed for construction.
Overall, the amenities were functional during our visit, and we were happy that both the pools and hot tub were open and operational.
Campground Atmosphere
The campground was generally quiet, and we felt safe throughout our stay.
We had a few tent campers near us who were a little loud at night, but once we were inside our RV, it wasn’t enough to bother us.
There were quite a few tent campers and larger family groups throughout the campground, which is always fun to see.
Our kids felt comfortable riding their bikes around, and we left our bikes and other belongings outside without worrying about them.
The campground isn’t what I would describe as polished or luxurious. Like many Thousand Trails properties we’ve visited, there were areas that could have used more maintenance. It’s dusty, heavily wooded, and a little rough around the edges.
But overall, it was quiet, functional, and comfortable enough for our family.
Location
The location was one of the best things about staying here.
We were only about 10 minutes from the main Sunriver area, which ended up being one of our favorite places during our time in Central Oregon.
Sunriver has a quiet, peaceful, almost resort or ski-town atmosphere with people constantly biking, walking, and enjoying the outdoors.
There aren’t a ton of grocery options nearby. You’ll find a few convenience stores and a natural grocery store around Sunriver, but for major grocery shopping and most other conveniences, you’ll probably be heading into Bend.
One thing we really loved about this campground was that it had access to the Little Deschutes River right on the property. There was also a river outfitter on-site (Sunriver Raft & Float) offering floats and pickup options, which made it incredibly convenient to plan a river day without having to coordinate transportation or drive anywhere.
During our week, we explored Bend, visited Smith Rock State Park, spent time in Sunriver, and floated the Deschutes River. For everything we wanted to do, the campground worked well as a home base.
Would We Stay at Thousand Trails Bend-Sunriver Again?
Yes, we would.
Was it the nicest RV campground we’ve ever stayed at? No.
The lack of sewer hookups was inconvenient, the campground could use some maintenance, and navigating the interior roads was more confusing than it needed to be.
But our site was level. We had 50-amp electric and water. Our Starlink worked. Cell service was good. The pools and hot tub were operational. Our kids could ride their bikes. We felt safe. And we were only about 10 minutes from a Sunriver area that our entire family loved.
Most importantly for us, our nightly camping fee was $0 through our Thousand Trails membership.
If I were choosing between this campground and a beautiful full-hookup RV resort at the exact same price, I’d probably choose the full-hookup resort.
But when one costs us $0 per night and the other could cost us hundreds of dollars for the week, Thousand Trails Bend-Sunriver starts looking pretty good.
For our family, it did exactly what we needed it to do: it gave us an affordable and practical home base while we explored an area of Oregon that we absolutely loved.
