Happy Monday! Continuing my adventures from my recent US road trip, today I'm sharing about my time in San Diego. My family is from Encinitas, California- which is in the north county portion of San Diego. Because of that, my trips to this great city are almost always spent up there. Growing up, we went downtown for the occasional Padres game or trip to Sea World, but I've not spent much time as an adult exploring this neck of the woods. So when the opportunity arose to spend a few nights in Pacific Beach, I jumped at the chance.
You may be thinking "How different can two beach towns in San Diego be?" I would argue that they all have their own unique personality and feel totally different from one another- which makes it impossible to cover the city as a whole in one blog post. So today we're going to focus on Pacific Beach, where I spent a few days on my recent coast-to-coast road trip.
For those of you unfamiliar with Pacific Beach, this young beach town is the perfect destination if you're looking for surf + sand by day and bars or dancing by night. Because of its abundance of bars, restaurants + plentiful craft beer, Pacific Beach attracts a college-aged and young professionals crowd. But even among this fun, twenty-something crowd, you'll also notice a plethora of young families flocking here to enjoy the buzz of the beach, surf lessons, or strolling along the boardwalk. All in all, Pacific Beach is full of energy + beautiful San Diego beaches that everyone can enjoy.
For the best experience of Pacific Beach, you definitely want to stay somewhere along the boardwalk. There's amazing people-watching here where you'll see joggers, inline skaters and cyclists year-round (think the upbeat energy of Venice Beach, but not nearly as wild or crazy). But the best part of having a hotel room along here is that you'll also have an ocean view. Enter Blue Sea Beach Hotel.
"Nestled right on the sand in Pacific Beach, San Diego, better known as “PB” by the locals, the Blue Sea Beach Hotel invites guests to their surf-chic haven built for plenty of fun in the California sun. With the only beachfront hotel pool in PB and 126 modern guest rooms and suites – many boasting stunning ocean views – this San Diego hotel on the beach is like no other."
As if the beach views weren't enough to win me over, the hotel rooms feature a 50” flat-screen TV, complimentary Wi-Fi, wet bars, and relaxing private balconies. Did I mention the heated, ocean view pool and spa? Yeah, they have that, too.
Aside from impressive features, I was genuinely impressed with how clean the entire property was. Not to mention the staff was incredibly helpful + welcoming; they pointed me to lots of great dining options nearby (although #confession, I still went to In-N-Out... gotta get it while I can!)
Overall, I had a great stay at Blue Sea Beach Hotel and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a high-quality hotel with competitive pricing in Pacific Beach!
Thanks to Blue Sea Beach for sponsoring my stay! All opinions are my own
I have one more nugget to share from my time in San Diego: While I loved spending a good bit of time in PB, I obviously had to venture up north to Encinitas, my home away from home (I share all my favorites from that area in my Southern California Travel Guide). After watching all the surfers in Pacific Beach, it made me miss being out on the water. I took surf lessons as a kid, but hadn't been back out on a board in years. So I decided to give Kahuna Bob (the same guy who gave me lessons 15+ years ago!) a call and see if he had any openings while I was in town. Lucky for me, he did + invited me to join his afternoon surf lesson with some local kids.
A little background: Bob doesn't do much in the way of social media or online marketing. Partially, because he doesn't have to. He's been in the business for over 30 years and has had great success solely from word of mouth and local press he's received organically. I love how passionate he is about the sport, but I also loved that I was surrounded by local kids genuinely wanting to learn the sport- not just a bunch of tourists wanting a picture for Instagram.
Speaking of getting a photo, I clearly wasn't with a photographer this day or worrying about a styled blog shoot (which is abundantly obvious from the one photo I took below). Instead, I let myself enjoy being back in the water and catching some waves -- which thanks to some help from Bob, I caught seven!
Surfing is definitely something I think everyone should try at least once- but especially in beautiful San Diego. It both humbling + fun to let yourself do something that you're not good at every now and then. So thanks to Kahuna Bob for giving me another chance to remember that + giving me a great afternoon on the water.
If you're traveling to San Diego, I can't recommend a surf lesson with Bob enough. It will be one of the most fun things you'll do on your trip!
Bathing suit by TAVIK
San Diego is brimming with amazing things to do and I'll be featuring more of those things in the future when I come back (because I always come back). What are some of the other areas you'd like to know more about? Let me know in the comments below!
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back again tomorrow for more California adventures-- this time in Palm Springs!
xx
Whitney
