Occasion: Memorial Day 2018
Camp Site: Thousand Oaks Idyllwild, California
/https://www.thousandtrails.com/california/idyllwild-rv-resort/
Our Rating: 3.5 stars (RV sites were too crowded and uneven)
Worst part: RV sites uneven and crowded.
Bet part: VIEWS!
Price: 76/night
Set Up:
Tear down:
Wireless Signal: Excellent!
Narratives:
The trip: We drove up the mountains on a cloudy day and were very exited trying out our first RV.
We finally found our spot, after an almost unfortunate event ;) (one front tire two feet off the ground). The next day was very cold and people stayed inside most of the day. Then Sunday arrived and we had an amazing day! Lots of kids and dogs, they had a great cafe that serves hot food (breakfast for us) on the weekend, an ice cream social in the afternoon and candy bar bingo for the kids. On Sunday there was a non-denominational church service ("Pastor Jack), which featured a pretty loud and animated preacher! On Sunday evening there was live music and a campfire at the amphitheater and lots of fun requests.
The accommodations: Thousand Trails does a great job of making the place family friendly and people were awesome. Some of the RV sites were completely inaccessible for all but the most advanced drivers, but if you arrive early there are some solid flat sites. Also (lesson learned), check the power and water before backing in, some of the sites were not functioning and were not marked as such. If you stay here, do check out the trails, some of the views here are amazing (see pics below). One can hike less than a half a mile and get a view over all of the inland empire.
The coach was great! We are very satisfied with our first journey. We saw this as a kind of "burn in" to check all the features and make a list of repairs/questions for the dealer. Although we did buy a fairly high end coach, we were warned that RV's tend to have issues in the early days. So here is a list of what we found and will be asking the dealer to address:
- Handrail by the entry door was not installed properly, it's just a bad fit and could be a safety hazard.
- One of the stabilizer switches was detached from the wall (need to replace the switch)
- The stereo in the cab (mercedes chasse) is not wired correctly, balance is all on the driver side and it does not completely turn off. May have to go to a mercedes dealer to fix that.
- HDMI cable on the main TV was stripped off.
- Suspicious water drip on the bulkhead outside the shower wall (need to watch)
This may seem like a lot of little issues but we expected some. On the other hand, everything important (e.g. Tankless water heater, propane tank, stabilizers, generator, etc) worked really well!!
Our favorite features of the Tiffen Wayfarer so far:
- Tankless water heater! So nice to be able to take long showers in the coach! There was a learning curve to use this but we figured it out fast (tip: keep temp setting around 110, 120 tends to overheat it).
- Sound system! Loved the sound and how the speaker systems could be controlled, even outside on the patio.
- Bedroom - the queen bedroom on this coach is very well laid out and the bed was super comfortable. We did add a mattress topper but otherwise it's the most comfortable place in the coach.
- Drives like a car, but be careful! As indicated above, it's very easy to get in a bad spot if you get too comfortable with the ease of maneuver, it is still 25 feet long :-)
