- Carlsbad, California,
often known as the village by the sea,
is known for its small town charm,
seven miles of sandy beaches, luxury resorts,
and of course, Legoland.
I'm Chris. This is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun, informative, entertaining,
and in this video I'm gonna tell you
everything you need to know
if you're planning a trip to Carlsbad.
We're gonna take a look at the beaches.
We're gonna take a look at the historic village.
We're gonna take a look at some of the shopping and dining,
some of the outdoor activities, and of course,
we'll take a look at some of those luxury resorts as well.
But before we get onto that,
let me just give you a little bit
of background about Carlsbad.
Carlsbad is located in Northern San Diego County,
just south of Oceanside and north of Encinitas.
Now, while Carlsbad is actually a fairly big city,
it has a population of 100,000 residents,
it retains this vibe of a small European town,
and that European heritage actually dates back
to the naming of Carlsbad in 1882.
It was given this name because they actually found
some mineral water here in Carlsbad
that has similar properties to mineral water in a town
in old European Bohemia named Karlsbad with a K.
But as you tour Carlsbad,
you will notice that European influence still here today.
With 263 sunny days a year,
Carlsbad is a really popular spot for the beach.
So let's take a look at those first.
One of the most popular, this one is Carlsbad State Beach.
Really popular for sunbathing, swimming, surfing.
But what I like even more than the sand is the seawall
and associated sidewalk just right above the sand.
This is a great place to walk along the beach.
In addition to this path, there's also another path
right along the bluff top with some nice staircases
that'll take you between the two.
Plenty of clean bathrooms at this beach.
It's great to make a loop.
You walk one direction on the seawall
and the other direction along the bluff top.
Now, if you're looking for parking here,
you'll find one small parking lot
on the northern end of this beach.
Don't count on actually parking there.
Most of the parking is in the neighborhood
surrounding the beach along Pacific Coast Highway.
By the way, when I say Pacific Coast Highway,
I mean this road,
the road that hugs most of the California coast.
In Carlsbad, it's actually called Carlsbad Boulevard.
Sometimes it's also referred to as Old Highway 1
or Old Highway 101.
From the top of the bluffs here
is also one of the best spots in Carlsbad to catch a sunset
'cause you've got unobstructed views of the coast
and a nice high vantage point.
The bluff top is also a great place to catch
some of the surfing action down below.
A particularly good spot to watch it is a part of this beach
known as Tamarack Surf Beach.
So, if you're looking for a remote secluded beach
without too many people,
you'll wanna check out South Carlsbad State Beach.
This is south on the Coast Highway, past the power plant.
And if you come to this beach, there's very few people here.
Why?
Well, 'cause the access is kind of challenging a little bit.
There's only real two ways to get to this beach.
One, through the state campground
day-use pay parking up there.
You can camp on the water,
really great campgrounds there with views,
though a bit of highway noise from up there.
Or the free parking is on the south part of this beach
along Coast Highway.
Just a few limited spots there.
But when you do get here,
look, you can have this whole place to yourself.
Today when I'm here, a mile in this direction,
I don't see a single person.
The beach not super sandy here.
Mostly rocky, so not great for sunbathing,
but good for walking.
Also good for swimming or surfing
when you have the beach all to yourself.
Bathrooms just up the hill in the state campground.
Now, if you're looking for more sand,
just on the south part of that South Carlsbad State Beach,
it does open up to be more sand.
This is the part that has the parking
along the Coastal Highway.
But for the best secluded sandy beach,
we're gonna check out South Ponto Beach
just on the other side of that jetty.
So, just on the south side of that jetty,
this part of the beach is called South Ponto Beach
and I like this beach the best in Carlsbad.
It has a bit of a secluded cove kind of vibe
because there's a bit of a sand berm here
that keeps the noise away from Coast Highway.
It's big wide and sandy here,
so if you're looking for a place to sunbathe,
I think this is it.
Also, if you're looking for a hotel to stay at on the beach
not technically in Carlsbad,
but just right on the border in Encinitas,
there's a new Hyatt affiliated hotel being built
called the Alila Maria Resort.
I'm sure it will be pretty nice.
And you'll see more about it on this channel when it opens
in my California beach series when I profile Encinitas.
Now that we've explored the beaches,
let's take a look at Carlsbad's old village.
This is the downtown part of Carlsbad
and the heart of it is at Carlsbad Village Drive
and Carlsbad Boulevard.
You'll know you're at it
because there's a big Carlsbad sign.
And then there's this 1887 Victorian style house.
This is one of the initial inns in Carlsbad.
It used to be a hotel.
Today, it's part of the Village Fair shopping center.
In addition to being Victorian, has a bit of a Cape Cod vibe
combined with a Caribbean flair.
Another historic building that dates back to 1887
is this building.
It's the original Carlsbad train station.
No longer a train station,
today it's home to Carlsbad Visitor Information.
Now speaking of trains, they no longer service
that yellow building,
but they do service the Carlsbad Village Station
located just across the street.
A few coaster trains stop here,
though if you are taking the train,
make sure you find the one
that actually does stop at Carlsbad.
You'll have more trains and more luck in Oceanside
just to the north.
Now, the one thing you can't miss in the Village
is what's inside this building.
This is the source of Carlsbad's original well,
and they've got vending machines right on the side of it
and on the whole bottom floor of the building
where you can get this original alkaline water for 90 cents.
And next to the building,
they've also got a statue of Captain Frazier,
the guy who discovered the water here in 1882.
This water is so popular in Carlsbad
that on a Tuesday at 1:00 p.m.
there was a line of cars waiting to park.
You'll find a lot of Carlsbad's smaller,
more traditional hotels here in the Village.
The luxury hotels are a little bit more inland.
We're gonna see them in just a bit.
But the great part about staying in the Village,
although these hotels might be small,
they're within walking distance of the beach
and within walking distance of shops and restaurants.
So, if you're looking to just park your car
and walk around for a couple of days,
you'll want to stay near the Village.
There's a lot more shops and restaurants
outside of the Village,
and in particular today's modern commercial center
of Carlsbad is right around Palomar Airport Road
and the Interstate 5.
And the mecca for shopping in Carlsbad
is the Carlsbad Premium Outlet Mall.
Home to 86 stores, you'll find everything here
from Nike to Coach.
The most famous seasonal attraction in town
is located just up the hill from the outlet mall.
It's the flower fields at Carlsbad Ranch.
This 50 acre dazzling rainbow
of beautiful ranunculus flowers is open
typically from March until May.
About a $20 admission will get you in to admire the flowers,
take some awesome Instagram pictures,
a little more money, you can even get in a tractor ride
through the fields.
Now, if you're here out of season
but you still wanna look at some flowers,
well, good news for you.
There's an Armstrong Garden Center located
right at the entrance to the flower fields.
If you're looking for one place
where you can feed the whole family
and everybody can be happy with their choice,
well, check out the Windmill Food Hall.
It's located across the street
from the outlet shopping center and you can't miss it
because it's in the building with the huge windmill on it.
This is a 12,000 square foot food hall with 13 vendors.
And yes, there's plenty of outdoor seating.
Okay, so with 13 choices, what did I decide to get?
I decided to get Notorious Barbecue chopped brisket sandwich
and some mac and cheese.
I never had it before, so let's see how it is.
Mm, it's actually a quite tender and juicy brisket sandwich.
And I had a choice of sauce.
(bells chiming)
Kansas City style, or yellow style,
and I like the kind of spiciness of the Kansas City sauce.
Pretty good.
I would definitely do this again.
But for dessert, the really neat place here
is called Bing Haus,
and their seasonal specialty today
is watermelon Korean bingsu and some soft-serve ice cream.
But it is a half a watermelon that's been hollowed out.
Mm, casualty.
With Korean shave ice underneath.
Here, come closer.
Mm, condensed milk taste.
I'm having so many watermelon casualties.
They're really quite good.
And the ice cream is nice and milky.
If you come here and you're looking for dessert,
give the watermelon bingsu a try, if it's in season.
In addition to the food hall,
the rest of the windmill building is occupied by a hotel
and a wedding venue with a really neat
rustic-looking wedding room.
Now just across the freeway from the windmill,
you'll find a food strip mall of sorts,
but there's two spots we really like in here.
We really like Miguel's Cocina.
It's one of our favorite sit-down Mexican restaurants.
When you go here, complimentary chips and salsa
come to every table.
The white jalapeno cream sauce that comes with the chips
is to die for.
And the other spot in this plaza that I'd be remiss
if I didn't mention is an outpost
of my favorite burger chain anywhere, In-N-Out Burger.
If you've never had In-N-Out Burger,
here's your chance to check it out.
Get my favorite, the double-double, no onions,
extra everything, which is extra lettuce,
tomato, and spread.
Delicious.
Now, for a really unique German dining experience,
head over to Haedrich's Tip Top Meats.
This is fundamentally a German grocery store,
but they also have a restaurant.
It's counter service.
And they've got all sorts of tasty German things,
like schnitzel and of course sauerkraut.
But my recommendation, definitely get the sausage.
And if you don't want to get it for here,
you can bring some sausages home, of course.
And did I mention they have really good meats?
If you live around here
and you're looking for a gourmet butcher, this is the place.
Another great thing to do in Carlsbad is to go hiking.
There's tons of hiking trails in this city.
One of my favorite is this one.
It's the Lagoon Trail along the Batiquitos lagoon.
This neighborhood, the Aviara neighborhood,
has 11 miles of trails, but I like this one in particular
because how often you get to walk along a lagoon.
There's not a lot of lagoons in San Diego,
but there's like three or four lagoons here in Carlsbad.
Now, this trail, in addition to hiking,
it's also good for lagoon watching and birdwatching.
If you're looking for someplace to park,
there's a number of parking areas along the lagoon trail.
I like to park by the Nature Center.
It's where you see the pin on this map.
So, about a half mile on the trail from that Nature Center
you'll come up along the Aviara Golf Course.
This is a pretty pro-level golf course,
so I've never played on it,
but I do like the peak views of it from the trail.
Now, in this neighborhood just up the hill
from the golf course is my favorite hotel in Carlsbad,
the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort.
We've actually stayed there a couple of times.
It's really nice.
If you want to see my video review of it,
you'll see it in this little card up here,
or you'll find the link in the description below.
There's other luxury resorts in Carlsbad.
They're all kind of around this area, La Costa.
By the way, if any of you are watching this from Carlsbad
and there's something you really like about Carlsbad
that I left out, please let me know in the comments below.
So, if your travels bring you to Northern San Diego County,
definitely check out Carlsbad for some awesome beaches
and a neat European village.
Well, if you're headed this way,
you might enjoy checking out my video review
of the Park Hyatt Aviara Carlsbad, my favorite hotel here,
or my travel guide to Oceanside just to the north
where the movie "Top Gun" was filmed.