Best San Diego Beach Towns (Oceanside, Corona: appointed, neighborhood, to live in)

[Jumbo10]

My family is thinking about spending some time in San Diego (a few weeks each year in the winter) and I'm going to check out some areas for a couple days early next week.

We lived in Santa Barbara for a few months and absolutely loved it, but I'm wondering if we'd like San Diego even more for the warmer weather.

I would love an area that is bike friendly, has a nice beach, nice safe family friendly downtown, lots to do outdoors, has a boardwalk, touristy areas are ok.

What areas would you recommend checking out?

[1AngryTaxPayer]

PB has about the only long boardwalk with shops etc. OB's is pretty short unless you hit the streets. Oceanside has one that's even shorter.

PB = Pacific Beach
OB = Ocean Beach

[Cryptic]

Originally Posted by Jumbo10

What areas would you recommend checking out?

I used to live in San Diego and visited recently. As such, I may not be a good source of up to date information

Coronado Island: A very safe tony bubble that would probably be fun to bike around (except during rush hours). The beach is great though it is overflown by navy jets.

Ocean Beach: Has a down town that is fun with alot of small eclectic type shops (and people). My impression is that the entire neighborhood is very bike friendly. I have three children. Though there were homeless youth around and some of the bars immediately by the water were iffy (more in in the health sanitation sense, than as true magnets for trouble), I did not get any dangerous vibes about Ocean Beach.

In the end, my family enjoyed OB. The restaraunts are relatively inexpensive, the beaches are easy to get to and the pier is great. At the same time, I would not want my teen age daughter going there unsupervised after dark. In short, though I recommend OB, one needs to be aware that it is not a bubble.

As a side note when I visited in the summer, OB was in the process of uhmm... "encouraging" some of the homeless youth to move on to other pastures / crash pads and increasing the police presence. These efforts could well have paid off already.

[Encinitan]

If you're willing to consider outside the SD city limits, it's pretty tough to beat Encinitas for what you're looking for. Carlsbad also would fit the bill as far as offering what Santa Barbara does.

[Cardiff Kook]

Originally Posted by Encinitan

If you're willing to consider outside the SD city limits, it's pretty tough to beat Encinitas for what you're looking for. Carlsbad also would fit the bill as far as offering what Santa Barbara does.

Yes I agree. Encinitas and Cardiff would be a great fit for the OP but then again I'm biased

[bloom]

Yes to Cardiff. No to Carlsbad bad.

[sacreole]

Ditto for Encinitas and Cardiff by the Sea.

[Snort]

Lived in Carlsbad and Santa Barbara. Both are great, but my vote is "go back to Santa Barbara". The temps aren't that far apart, if at all.

[Pedro2000]

While SD is far nicer than the rest of the country during the winter, it's not Miami or South Florida in the winter either. So if you're expecting beach weather in Feb, you're probably going to be disappointed. But if you are coming to walk around, enjoy the sunshine, you could stay anywhere from Coronado up to Carlsbad and be happy.

[bloom]

Originally Posted by Pedro2000

While SD is far nicer than the rest of the country during the winter, it's not Miami or South Florida in the winter either. So if you're expecting beach weather in Feb, you're probably going to be disappointed. But if you are coming to walk around, enjoy the sunshine, you could stay anywhere from Coronado up to Carlsbad and be happy.

yes