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Located on the San Diego Coast, San Elijo Campground offers camping, swimming, surfing, showers and picnicking. The narrow, bluff-backed stretch of sand has a nearby reef popular with snorkelers and divers.
A camp store and snack bar located near the campground entrance operates March through December and provides all the amenities a camper may need including some RV supplies, boogie boards, and firewood.
This San Elijo camping destination requires reservations for its 171 campsites.
San Elijo State Beach extends along Coast Highway 101, 3/4 mile north from San Elijo Lagoon's entrance channel, near the community of Cardiff-by-the-Sea.
Exit Interstate 5 at Encinitas Blvd., head WEST.
Turn LEFT on So. Coast Hwy. Follow the Coast Hwy. south, about 2 miles.
The beach was pretty cool. When you walk out in the water, it’ll stay flat for a couple feet and then goes to a drop off. There was lots of seaweed everywhere. Where the water enters the lagoon, stingrays and leopard sharks were swimming in and out of there. Super cool to watch. The beach is mainly flat, they have good parking, and tables for picnics or birthdays. Surfing is a bit tough as the waves are good. During the morning it’s fine, but in the afternoon when the wind picks up, it just go straight mush. It’s a good reef break at high tide. There are lifeguards nearby and on duty, you’re right by the road so it’s a little bit noisy but not too bad, the ocean usually disperses the sound. There’s lots of places for young kids to play in the sand or go out on the water. Lifeguards are also putting up safety signs/rip current flags. Fun little beach to visit in the summer time.
Great campground! Clean, nice view, flat spots, fire pit, table, showers. Walking distance to nice restaurants and donut shop! Great walk/bike path!
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.
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.
It was a very nice beach. We came here after dinner to watch the sunset. It wasn’t busy at all. Beach was very clean. It was easy to find parking. They have restrooms as well as showers.
