I realize this sounds dramatic, but having graduated recently and reflecting on my college experience, I firmly believe that van life is preferable to renting at Trop. I lived here for a year in 2022, and Trop ruined my first year of college. I was new and didn’t understand the IV housing market. At the time, what they charged me for a triple could have gotten me an apartment to myself one block away. (I did this the next year.) DO NOT sign a lease with trop, on the basis of cost alone. But there’s plenty of other reasons not to: the disgusting prison food (they force you to buy it), the sorely outdated bathrooms, and the ant infestations which I remember being particularly bad.

Tropicana Gardens
These badges come straight from verified reviews on Find My Place, left only by people who’ve actually lived here. Each month we score every place in the market, and the highest-rated earn a spot. Rankings shift as new reviews come in, and we never take payment to move a property up.
reviews
Lost phone and had to buy replacement key card, when I got a new phone, they told me I could only have the app or the key card even though I had already paid for it, and refused to refund me for the key card. When I asked them to just use my phone, they deactivated it so I had no working key card. I cannot believe the irresponsibility of Tropicana. They lost my priority mail and it has been missing for an entire week. I don't understand how you can be so careless to lose a resident's mail when it was clearly delivered to your staff.
where you’ll be
6585 El Colegio Rd, Isla Vista, CA 93117
your commute to class
Tap a walk or drive time to see the route on the map.





