Caliente Spring Resort

I stayed at Caliente Springs Resort this winter and at a “State of the Resorts meeting” the management asked for an online review. They may feel that they have the best resort available but I must say they are brave to ask for an online review with me in the room.

Caliente Springs Resort is located at 70200 Dillon Road, Desert Hot Springs, CA. It is the most expensive resort of the many on Dillon Road or for that matter within a ten miles radius. What does Caliente Springs have that the others don’t? The nearby resorts are similar but most is lacking some amenities that Caliente Springs has. Caliente Springs has the most of more resorts in the area from the golf course, to the pools and spas and entertainment. It has everything we (my wife and I) wanted and then some. Since we were here we drove to several resorts to compare and found that no other we wanted to stay at but Caliente is far from perfect.

Type of resort and amenities

Caliente Springs is a 55 and Better resort so you will find it to be more quiet and peaceful. Children may visit but not stay at this resort. They make the visit to the pools noisier than but not as much as the daily water ball games. There are many things to do here with many amenities. There are a few halls that have many activities going on every day most included at no extra cost. There is usually a weekly entertainment coming for a small cost of a ticket. Beyond the pools and spas is other exercised rooms billiards and saunas. Don’t forget the laundry and showers with lockers.

Roads and sites

The roads are in fair condition and not so big rig friendly as most is narrow. There are a few in the back row that are so narrow that it is blocked off to traffic. As you navigate these narrow roads you have to be careful not to scrape rock walls and the few stop signs they have. Trees are close to the roads and makes backing in your site more difficult. Once into your site you only have soft sand to level your RV on. The sand gets tracked everywhere especially when it gets wet from the rain. This can soil your RV carpet in short order. I also had to deal with bad 50 amp service that JC quickly got repaired more on that later.

The road has many expansion cracks with a few of them spider webbed. The spider webbed roads are beyond repair and should be replaced. The roads with large expansion cracks can be patched and a good chipped seal on top to make it last. The RV sites should at least have a layer of stone rolled into it. That will give a good base for RV’s to sit upon as with many of coaches values half million or more deserve a good base to park their coaches on. Most value RV parks give you at least stone on your site as most resorts give concrete or blacktop. The few roads in the rear need to be widening to make access for big rigs better without detours.

There should be a setback rule for rock walls and stop signs. The reason is at the corner on narrow streets is to prevent scraping of the RV near the rear area on tight turns. There should be more actual stop signs to replace the painted on the street stops. These painted on the stops signs are the word stop are mostly ignored by many as they don’t either see them (faded or worn out) or just don’t think it applies as a legal stop sign. I see few cars and golf carts run through them and almost got hit once while walking and another time on my bike.

The problem with the trees with lower branches as they can scratch the top and side of the coaches. I recommend trimming branches lower than 14 feet as needed to take care of this problem. Getting scratches repaired cost thousands. The palm trees are no problem except for being to close the road has you be aware to navigate around them.

Electric and Other Hook Ups.

The electric problem is lack of maintenance as connection at the pedestal is going bad causing ground leak. In my case the electrician had to run a jumper ground inside the pedestal. They claim they are going to do some maintenance but I don’t know when. If I plugged in this pedestal without the surge guard tester I could of blew out two new smart TV’s and possible the board in the refrigerator. Cable for the TV’s work fine and has needed channels for everyday use.

The internet is Wi-Fi and you have to have a code for each device and don’t work very well for $10 each. Also it is public unsecure connection and not recommended for banking or other personal information. I use Verizon Jet Pack for the first month here and learned that I could get a Time Warner cable modem while I am here. Cost $52 a month and provides secure connection for my many devices and runs up to 15 mbps. Turn in the modem the day before you leave and get a refund for the time you don’t use at your home address. If you stay here a few weeks or more go to the Time Warner Palm Springs office as they cater to snow birds in the area. Time Warner had to upgrade the wire in the ground from r56 to r6 for the best performance. They give you the rest of the wiring from the pedestal to inside the RV. I slipped mine in the bottom corner of the seal to the inside of the coach very easily.

The water coming in is fine except for the taste. The water has lots of minerals in it and even with the filters I use on my coach it taste salty. They have a machine here that dispenses drinking water at 35 cents a gallon. Seems to be a common problem in the area as I see many of these machines around at 25 cents per gallon. Problem solved.

Recommendation

At the state of the resort meeting I noticed that the management is catering more to park models owners than RV snow birds. I know that park models owners have to pay monthly rates base on yearly rate. RV’s monthly rates are higher as they stay the winter seasons up to 6 months out of the year. Quoted from a park model owner that only about 80 residents out of about 675 stay throughout the year at Caliente. For some reason unfair to the snow birds they have more of a voice than us RVer because of the year round rent. So management is replacing a few dead bushes and putting up fences and building a dog park in the entrance to make things better for the year round park owners. I heard no mention of improvement beyond the office into the RV area that would make our stay more enjoyable.

I believe this to be a problem area as at any giving moment I can see a few empty spaces around my spot as it is disturbing to lose neighbors as fast as they come. I don’t know if it is management of spaces but I believe that they should focus on getting long term RV reservation first then fill with the short term. Any RVer staying 3 months or more should be grouped together and the remaining spots filled with short term with the shortest farther away from the office in the back. The area that long term RV is staying should receive the improvement and maintenance first with the ones farther back get it last. I bet this will result in more long term RVer staying as the issues stated has been resolved.

Summary

I’m not trying for my review to scare anyone from staying either short or long term here or even to buy a park model. This is still a fine place to spend your winter but it is not perfect. My review is to point out a few areas that need improvements to make Caliente Springs a better place for all.