San Elijo State Beach
Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA
By Simir Shah
★★★★★4.6(1,539 Google reviews)
What parents say
AI summary of 5 Google reviews — not a first-hand visit. How we write these
Paid parking lots fill early, so arrive in good time. Stairs to the sand at the north end run to about a hundred steps, while the south end is close to level, which matters with a buggy. Restrooms and showers on site. A camping family strongly advises water shoes, since the shallows cut feet.
A long bluff-backed beach with reliably gentle surf at the south end, which makes it one of the better North County beaches for young swimmers. Day-use lots fill by 10am in summer — arrive early, or park free along Coast Highway 101 and take the stairs down.
Good for
- Ages 10+
Happening near here
- La Jolla Open Aire MarketLa Jolla · 12 mi · Sun 9am–1pmFree
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- Cardiff Farmers MarketEncinitas · <1 mi · Sat 10am–2pmFree
- Encinitas Station Certified Farmers' MarketEncinitas · 1 mi · 4pm–8pmFree
San Elijo State Beach, 2050 S Coast Hwy 101, Cardiff, CA 92007, USA
Hours via Google — confirm before a special trip.
Day-use parking ~$10–15
Map
What visitors say
- Shruti Bhandakkar★★★★★
Beautiful views of the Pacific! Sunset looks stunning! Waves make the best sounds! Lots of surfers, has trail for walking along the Pacific and access to beach via a stairway. Has paid public parking. Relaxing way to end a hectic day! Lots of good restaurants nearby to pick up good food.
5 years ago
- Brandon Reilly★★★★★
Campground was wonderful. We had I believe one of the top 10 spots at these grounds. Our site allowed us to walk right up to tower 16 and woke up looking at tower 16 from my tent. Restrooms are kept up and cleaned daily. No drone restrictions were detected. The low tide was nice to enjoy with the kids. I recommend bringing water shoes if planning on enjoying the beaches. My children's feet were cut up pretty bad from all the hard stone and reefs in the shallows during higher tides. Also ant repellent. Lotta ants! Many of the RV and trailer campers I noticed used the ant chalk to detour them from climbing onto their campers, great idea. Also if tent camping our location the ground was extremely hard and have sturdy stakes that still were difficult to hammer down, so don't bring those cheap stakes, you might as well not even stake the tent if you do so. Our fire ring could have been cleaned out more but not a big issue.
4 years ago
Showing 2 of 5 Google reviews · Read them all on Google Maps
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