Kids friendly beaches along San Diego to LAX?

[ppwlee]

Hi,

 

We are driving back to LAX tomorrow from San Diego and wanted to stop by a beach if possible to witness one of the best attractions of San diego (somehow we haven't seen any beaches yet in the last 2 days). Is there any beach that's kid's friendly along the way while driving from central San diego to LAX? We are thinking of spending not more than an hour there if possible. Thanks very much.

[jasmith52]

You didn't really indicate what kid-friendly meant.

 

here's my take...

 

The northern San Diego County beaches (like Encinitas, Del Mar, etc.) don't have that many people on them (for a SoCal beach). Some of them allow dogs on the sand.

 

The tide-pools and seal/sea lion watching area at La Jolla are pretty fun. But the beach proper there is not so great. - Think more small-cliff/rocky than wide sand.

 

Laguna Beach in Orange County has a beautiful bay or cove-like beach with lots of restaurants and shops nearby. It gets crowded there though.

 

Huntington Beach in Orange County has lots of wide open beaches, lots of parking (there is a fee).

 

Newport Beach is another wide-open beach similar to Huntington but with more nearby development. There are some large pay-to-park lots there. Down near main street (balboa or the wedge to surfers) is the best part.

 

near LAX, the best beach is either Manhattan beach, Venice Beach (Muscle beach). Manhattan is more high-rent upscale. Venice is eclectic but interesting. Some people are put-off by all of the weird-o's at Venice. Parking near either beach is either on-the street or small pay-lots.

 

here's a webiste (there are many) that discuss different beaches:

 

http://www.califmall.com/beach/BchSou.html

[win1]

Hi there,

For youngsters here in Long Beach we've got Mother's Beach it's right behind Marina Pacifica Shopping Center at 2nd Street & PCH ( Pacific Coast Highway). A great place for the little ones. Kid-friendly that's how it got its name, thats where Mom's take the little ones when they go to the beach.

Going north bound on PCH turn left on 2nd Street go over the bridge and turn right you can see the beach from the bridge. It has facilities bathrooms & lifeguards.

 

Winnie

[SelectSys]

Since you are likely to not want to spend too much time transiting from the I-5 and/or I-405 freeways to a beach and back I would suggest stopping in North County San Diego or San Onfre/San Clemente.

 

My recommendation would be Del Mar Powerhouse Park. 5 minutes from the freeway. Little in the way of crowds at this time of year and some nice grass in addition to the sand. They also have some play structures for little kids.

 

Here is a link to Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=powerhouse+park+del+mar+ca&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.184175,79.013672&ie=UTF8&ll=32.965467,-117.268066&spn=0.040615,0.077162&z=14&iwloc=A