The Best Beach Neighborhoods in San Diego
San Diego is known for its stunning beaches and scenic coastline. Recently, TripAdvisor released its annual Travelers’ Choice Awards that included some of the best beaches in San Diego. Two of the city’s beaches made it on the Top 25 Beaches in the United States list, which included Pacific Beach in the 20th spot and La Jolla Shores Park in the 22nd spot. Brooke Ferencsik, the senior director of communications of TripAdvisor, told NBC San Diego the common threads between all the beaches chosen were “soft sand, clear waters and balmy temperatures.”
So if you’re looking for the best beach neighborhoods in San Diego, you’re sure to find a few worth checking out.
Pacific Beach
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Pacific Beach is a popular neighborhood in San Diego, thanks to North Pacific Beach, its namesake beach. Located south of La Jolla and north of Mission Beach and Mission Bay, Pacific Beach offers a laid-back beach vibe, which attracts a diverse crowd from surfers and bikers to tourists and families.
This beautiful beach neighborhood offers locals scenic ocean views, great walkability, an oceanfront boardwalk, upscale entertainment, and a vibrant dining and nightlife scene. At night along Garnet Avenue and Mission Boulevard, nightlife comes alive with the varying bars and microbreweries. The best thing about Pacific Beach at night? It’s cheap and casual.
Pacific Beach features a variety of home styles as well as a wide range of prices. The neighborhood has attached homes, condos, and townhomes as well as spacious single-family homes. The average sale price for a home in Pacific Beach is in the mid $700s, with some modern and new construction homes priced over $2 million.
La Jolla Shores
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Located right on the ocean, La Jolla Shores Park in the La Jolla Shores neighborhood offers plenty of amenities and attractions, making this beach community appealing to families as well as visitors. The one-mile-long beach has clean, soft sand, and without aren’t any turns or dips in the shoreline, the beach is visible from any vantage point in the neighborhood. La Jolla Shores Park is also one of the beaches in the city with the most gentle waves during the summer months, making it easy for novice swimmers to enjoy the water safely.
The neighborhood also offers a lot of freebies, such as a free kiddie park at the Kellogg Playground as well as the abundance of free street parking. The boardwalk is also accessible to scooters, strollers, roller skates, and bikes. The San Diego La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve is also adjacent to this neighborhood, and many beginner-level scuba classes are held here. The park by the beach provides more outdoor recreation, including picnicking, kite flying, and enjoying hot dogs or s’mores cooked over the fire pits on the beach.
La Jolla Shores is mostly made up of large homes that sit on spacious lots with more than three bedrooms and bathrooms. The neighborhood features single-family and attached homes that are priced starting in the high $400s and up to over $20 million.
Point Loma
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While not on TripAdivors’ list, just west of Downtown San Diego is the urban, waterfront village of Point Loma. Its beach offers surf breaks perfect for avid surfers, and the Point Loma Tide Pools are some of the best tide pools in the county. Harbor Island and Shelter Island are also within this community, which offer a shoreline path with broad views of the San Diego skyline that’s ideal for walkers, joggers, bikers, and skaters. Point Loma’s Sunset Cliffs is a neighborhood bordered by the Pacific and Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, which offers cliffside trails with surf spots below.
Some of the notable attractions in this neighborhood include the Cabrillo National Monument and Old Point Loma Lighthouse, which sit near the tip of Point Loma and offer picturesque views of the San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
Point Loma offers a wide variety of single-family homes and condominiums that range in sizes, styles, and price points. The average sale price in Point Loma is in the mid $900s. Some of the larger homes feature up to nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms and sit on large lots overlooking the ocean.