Public Parking | Informal Campsite

May 4th, 2021 by heyjakers

This place is permanently closed.

May 4th, 2021 by heyjakers

I was kicked out by the police at 2am. They were very friendly and told me to go to the Safeway parking lot. This site needs to be marked closed.

August 8th, 2020 by carolinancampo

good place to sleep, it is the parking lot of a shopping center, you can also in the parking lot of the Safeway. quiet place, no signs.

October 1st, 2019 by kustomkyle.com

This lot should probably be marked off as closed. I was just kicked out. An officer drove right up to my car and flash lighted me. Someone clearly called. I didn’t make any noise. I had no lights on. I drive a Chevy Blazer so not an Rv or camper. No one saw me get in my car. I have an Illinois license plate.

The officer lighted my back window, said “Carmel police, please open.” He was so nice, felt really bad, and suggested I go to Safeway (which is marked as closed on iOverlander. I’m at Safeway now. Seems fine).

It’s the community. They don’t like people in their cars. They walk their dogs to search for unknown cars. I watched folks do it at the beach earlier before sunset. They wanted to know who was driving what and where they came from. Tough town for car life.

Be safe out there, travelers!

September 10th, 2019 by Veronika Ondrovicova

Tried to stay here for one night, but at around 2am the police came. Have to say the cop was very friendly and polite. He told us it was illegal to sleep there and only because we were internationals, unaware of this, he will not give us a ticket.
He was also so nice to suggest another place where we can sleep nearby (Safeway market). There, there were no problems and also toilets with running water, so we suggest to go straight there.

August 24th, 2019 by olicalatayud

Seemed like a great spot, but at 2 am a polite sherif told us there is a no overnight sleeeping policy in Carmel (although there isn’t any sign of no overnight sleeping here) and that we had to leave

August 11th, 2019 by contigoalfindelmundo.be

A friendly cope woke us around midnight and asked us to move, he suggested the Safeway parking lot...

May 23rd, 2019 by amtravelling.nl

Good spot to overnight. Close to city center. Very quiet

May 1st, 2019 by brandon

Spent two nights here... no issues... nice little town

November 4th, 2018 by familybehindthecurve

We arrived just before dawn as they were closing the art center (it seems to be their lot although no sign mentions it). We went from having cca 30 cars to 10 in an hour and it was then a really quiet night. It is conveniently located near everything and was much better than safeway which gets patrolled by the police and has no overnight parking signs.

October 27th, 2018 by rompen.maud

We stayed here on a Saturday night in our minivan Nissan Quest. No one bothered us, quiet and free. No no overnight sign, but you are not allowed to sleep in your car in a public area. If you come here, better keep low profile. Will not recommend it for big rigs.

August 24th, 2018 by genevieve.devroey

We also have a ford transit van conversion (like a sprinter), loads of spaces when we arrived. Quiet over night except a young thief attempted to open our front doors around 5:30am, he ran off when he heard us inside. He might be an opportunist as there’s a huge posh car show on this week. Car park was really busy in the morning.

August 9th, 2018 by ado.mars

This place is permanently closed.

July 6th, 2018 by livelikepete.com

We camped overnight here in our Sprinter van with no issues. It was quiet and nobody bothered us. There are no signs saying "no overnight" parking. The only sign (which is everywhere near the coast in Carmel) is "no vehicles over 20ft length, 7.5ft high, or 6 tons". We blended in fine with our high top van. There was even a class C RV in the lot when we got here.