- A travel guide for visiting Oceanside in California.
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions,
how to travel guides that are fun,
informative, entertaining.
This video's part of my series on San Diego.
You wanna see more videos on San Diego,
you'll find links to the end of this video,
or in the description below.
But in this video I'm gonna be showing you
the best things to do and things to see
in Oceanside, the seaside town.
Oceanside is most well known for the ocean and the beach.
And so that's what we're going to start with.
So the most popular attraction in Oceanside
what everybody comes to see, it's the beach,
this white sandy beach right here.
If you're coming to the beach
and you wanna get in the water,
June, July, August, the summer, that's when it'll be warm.
If you're coming in other times of the year,
well, probably sunbathing.
This is March, people are sunbathing,
they're not in the water.
If you wanna be in the water,
well then you will probably need a wet suit
the rest of the year.
Other great activities here in Oceanside along the beach,
there's this road called the Strand.
And on this road, you can actually drive your car
right along the beach.
You can ride bikes, you can rent surreys,
you can skateboard, and if you're a tourist
and you're coming here
and you're looking for a place to stay,
there's a lot of neat cottages
that you can rent that are right down here on the beach.
There's some really cute pink ones just down that way.
And if you're really an avid cyclist,
you can rent bikes and you can ride it
to the San Louis Rey mission.
It's the largest mission in California.
The ride from here, mostly on dedicated bike paths,
seven and a half miles.
But the most iconic attraction at Oceanside
and at the center of Oceanside Beach
is the Oceanside pier right behind me.
This is one of the longest wooden piers
on the west coast of the U.S.
It was originally built in the late 1800s, like 1880 ish.
It is currently on its sixth incarnation.
They've either fallen down, they've been rebuilt.
This one is from the 1980s.
It's a pretty neat pier, it's got two sections.
It's got this wooden section out here.
It's got a concrete section that brings you from the street,
down to the pier.
At the end of the pier, there's a Ruby's restaurant.
Ruby's, it's a 1950s themed diner.
Hamburgers, hotdogs, that sort of stuff.
Is it the best food in the world?
I'm not sure that it is,
but it has one of the best locations at the end of the pier.
How often do you get to eat at the end of the pier?
Probably not that often.
I'd recommend if you come to Oceanside,
you definitely need to take a stroll down
to the end of the pier and get the views back
to the beach to really take it all in from here
and it's also a great place to check out the local surfers
from a really neat vantage point,
right where the waves are breaking.
The Oceanside pier, like many of California's seaside piers
is a great place to do some fishing.
But what's extra great about the Oceanside pier
is you can actually rent fishing rods right on the pier,
from this fishing rod rental stall.
You don't have to bring 'em with you.
They're right on the pier, super convenient.
The pier's also a really great spot
to get that close up picture of a seagull,
or other aquatic water birds.
Why?
I think because they get fed by the fishermen all the time,
you can actually get up close and personal to these birds.
If you are going for a stroll down this pier,
I wanna point out, you should lift your legs up pretty good
when you walk.
This wooden pier is really pretty uneven.
So bring your good footwear.
Probably not bare feet from here.
You'll be at the beach and you'll have flip flops,
bring them with you when you come here.
Oceanside is located just to the south
of the West Coast's largest
Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton.
Actually it's in the hillside
that you can see just behind me,
so it's right in the foothills of Camp Pendleton.
From San Diego, it's 38 miles north of San Diego.
About 50 miles north of the Mexican border.
If you're coming down from Los Angeles,
it's 80 miles from Los Angeles with perfect traffic,
it would only take you an hour and a half.
But a pretty good way to get here is by train.
We're gonna talk about that a little further on
when I see you at the train station.
Oceanside has been the location
of a number of famous movies.
The cheerleading movie, Bring It On from the year 2000
was filmed right here at the band shell.
And the people who were watching
the cheerleading competition,
were right there in those seats.
Something I can't show you up close and personal,
but you can see from a distance,
is Tom Cruise's house from the movie Top Gun,
or Charlie's house.
Right now it's being refurbished
but it will be back from public access, hopefully soon.
When Oceanside was developed in the late 1800s,
it was developed around the train station.
So one great thing about that is that Oceanside
is a really well connected train station.
Coming into the train station here in Oceanside
are Amtrak trains, Coaster trains,
which are the San Diego regional trains,
the Metrolink trains which come down from LA
and there's also the Sprinter,
which will take you out east to Escondido.
Greyhound stops here as well.
And there's a ton of North County buses
that come through here as well.
So if you don't like traffic, you don't like driving,
it's pretty easy to get to Oceanside
on public transportation.
If it's been a few years since you've been to Oceanside,
you'll find lots of new development,
everywhere around the train station and the pier.
Where there were one story buildings,
there's now five story buildings.
Apartments, condominiums and hotels
and more is coming up every day.
So if you're tryin' to find a place to stay,
you might actually find some new hotels
that aren't that busy, or that aren't that taken,
like the Spring Hill Suites, might be good place
to stay here in Oceanside and check out Lego Land.
Might find cheaper hotels here.
If you like surfing you should check out
the California surf museum.
Just about three blocks from the pier on Pier View Way.
A whole history of surfing in California.
Oceanside's main street is Pacific Coast Highway,
this street right here.
This used to be the old highway 101.
The highway that would take you along California's coast.
Most of the traffic has now been moved
off to the Interstate five,
but along Pacific Coast Highway you'll find
a lot of the non-touristy shops and restaurants.
If you are into military surplus gear,
because Oceanside is just south of Camp Pendleton,
the largest Marine Corps base on the west coast,
there are a number of stores
that specialize in old military gear.
So check those out if that's what you're into.
If you're going to the beach,
there's a store right here called Wings.
Wings has all of the things you would ever need
to go to the beach.
If you happen to be in Oceanside on a Thursday,
visit the ocean side Farmers Market,
Thursdays 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Plenty of vendors selling fresh vegetables,
prepared foods like tamales and a bunch of stuff you can buy
like clothing items as well, closer to the pier.
The Farmers Market is located
at the intersection of Coast Highway and Pier View Way.
That runs for about two blocks right on Pier View Way.
And if you're here on a day
when there's not the Farmers Market, well it's pretty cool
to come in to see the city hall right behind it,
in front of the Oceanside Public Library.
They have this pretty neat fountain
with palm trees in the middle.
One of the great things about visiting Oceanside
is most of the touristy things are just
in a small area around the pier and the train station.
There's one that I'm gonna share with you though,
that's probably good for you to drive over here,
'cause it's a few miles away from the pier.
It's the Oceanside harbor.
How do you find it?
Look for the 1964 lighthouse in front of the harbor.
If you can't find the lighthouse,
look for the high rise building.
It's Oceanside's only kind of skyscraper.
It's right on the other side of the harbor.
But what's cool about Oceanside harbor?
Well, on the side of the harbor,
it's got this neat collection of shops and restaurants
that have been made to look like
a quaint New England style town.
And the harbor where the water is,
well here you can take whale watching expeditions.
You could go out fishing out into the real ocean.
You can rent kayaks.
You could rent your own boat.
And there's free parking around here too.
It's pretty neat to spend an hour,
maybe get some lunch in the seating areas that are out here.
On a sunny day, pretty nice place
to eat some fish and chips.
If coffee's more your fancy,
you can check out the Nautical Bean Coffee Company.
It's in this little shack and you can enjoy your coffee
right across the way.
They've got this thing covered with glass and plastic,
but you can still enjoy the nice views of the harbor.
And if you're curious what the inside
of the lighthouse looks like, well you can go in.
It's a gift shop, a really tiny one.
Another great part about going to the Oceanside harbor,
after lunch, or the shops, you can come down to the beach.
It's just a one to five-minute walk to the beach
in front of the ocean side harbor.
I mentioned there are six miles of beaches here, right?
Well the great thing about this beach,
if you don't like crowds, it's much less crowded.
Look over this way just across the river outlet.
You can see the Oceanside pier
and you can see there's very few people over here.
Just one of the yellow Oceanside lifeguard trucks.
So just a note about the parking situation
in Oceanside Harbor, if you're looking for the free parking,
look no further than Joe's Crab Shack,
that building right back there.
It's about a five-minute walk from the beach.
The closer you are to the beach,
the more expensive the parking gets.
So the lots that were right by the beach,
where I was just a moment ago, those are gonna cost you.
But these, 'cause they're a five-minute walk,
these are free.
That's a general rule of thumb in Oceanside.
And actually the biggest con about coming to Oceanside
is there's a lot of pay parking, either meters,
you know, pay parking lots.
So my tip to you, just find yourself
about five-minute walk away from the beach, park for free.
And you don't have to worry about payin' and then wander in.
I will point out though that like every lot
has some different regulations.
This lot on this side of Joe's Crab Shack
is a four-hour parking limit.
The lot just on the other side of Joe's Crab Shack
is a two-hour parking limit
and the lot just where that lighthouse is,
like 20 feet that way, that one's a pay parking lot.
But my favorite part about Oceanside,
can you guess what it is?
It's the yellow lifeguard trucks.
That's why Yellow Productions had to come to Oceanside
because their lifeguard trucks are yellow.
Well if you're coming to Oceanside, or San Diego,
you might enjoy watching some of the other videos
from my series on San Diego.
Comin' to Oceanside?
You might enjoy checking out the Carlsbad flower fields.
They're right near Oceanside,
or you might enjoy my San Diego tips video.
You'll find links in the description below
to my whole San Diego travel guide playlist.
Well I won't say goodbye because
I'll see you in one of these videos.