Things to Do in Cardiff by the Sea: The Weekend Guide

Most lists of things to do in Cardiff by the Sea are padded out with Encinitas and Solana Beach, because Cardiff on its own is small: about a mile of coast and a few blocks of town inside the city of Encinitas. It works best as one weekend rather than a checklist, with the beach in the middle of it, one good dinner on the row, a walk in the lagoon, and Seaside Market feeding everyone in between.

We are the SunGod crew, Seaside carries our cans, and this is the weekend we repeat when friends come down.

The short version

• Stay at the San Elijo State Beach campground if you can get a site, the Cardiff by the Sea Lodge if you cannot, a house in Cardiff or Leucadia for a group.
• Friday dinner on Restaurant Row, across the 101 from the beach. Las Olas for the money, Pacific Coast Grill for a birthday.
• Saturday: VG donuts, the Kook, the rail trail to Seaside Market for Cardiff Crack, then the beach.
• No alcohol or glass on the sand at either state beach. The cans come out at the campsite or the house.
• Late afternoon in the lagoon, Annie’s Canyon if you want the better walk.
• Come in September or October. May is gray until 2pm.

Where to stay

The campground

San Elijo State Beach runs along the bluff on the north side of town, with stairs down to the sand and the Pipes surf break right below. Sites open on ReserveCalifornia 6 months ahead and the ocean row is gone the same morning. The park posts the current nightly rates and the campground map on its San Elijo page. Set a reminder for the 6 month mark and take the inland row if that is what is left.

The Lodge, or a house

Cardiff by the Sea Lodge on Chesterfield Drive is the one hotel in town: 17 rooms, a rooftop deck with fire pits and an ocean view, no elevator, check-in 21 and over (the Lodge’s site has the rest). For a group we book a house in Cardiff or Leucadia, and a bachelorette group that wants a spa morning is covered in the bachelorette guide.

Friday night on Restaurant Row

Restaurant Row is the stretch of the 101 across from Cardiff State Beach where every building faces the water. The first night should happen there.

• Pacific Coast Grill is the expensive one: 2 levels, a deck looking straight down at the Cardiff Reef lineup, the right call for a birthday. You need a reservation.
• Las Olas a few doors down has been doing Baja style fish tacos on this corner since 1981. It closes early for a Friday (check the hours), and for the money it is the better dinner.
• Ki’s started as a juice bar on Birmingham Drive in 1980 and moved into the 2 story building at 2591 in 1994: smoothie counter downstairs, restaurant and bar upstairs with the balcony. For us it is breakfast, not dinner.
• Cardiff Beach Bar at Tower 13 is the bar on the row: dog friendly, patio facing the beach, a weekday happy hour they post on their site. The campground crowd ends up here once the fire ring gets old.

If the sun is going down while you are on the row, cross the highway to the sand for the last 2 minutes. The green flash guide explains what you are looking for.

Saturday morning: breakfast, the Kook, the market

Breakfast

• VG Donut & Bakery on Aberdeen Drive, run by the Mettee family since 1969, open before 6 most mornings (hours here). The Saturday line moves faster than it looks.
• Pipes Cafe on Liverpool Drive for a sit-down breakfast. Breakfast and lunch only, and the breakfast burrito is the order.

The Kook

Photo: Tessravenwood, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Walk down to the highway and see the Cardiff Kook, officially a bronze called Magic Carpet Ride by Matthew Antichevich, installed at the campground entrance in 2007. Surfers hated the pose the day it went up, the nickname stuck, and people have been dressing it at night ever since: a wedding dress, a pumpkin head at Halloween, and once a papier mache shark that took the city 2 days to remove.

Seaside Market

From the Kook, the Coastal Rail Trail runs north along the tracks beside San Elijo Avenue, flat, a mile and a bit, and drops you at Seaside Market, open every day (hours). The thing to buy is Cardiff Crack, the burgundy pepper tri-tip the Najjar brothers started marinating in 1986 and customers named before the store did. Get it as the counter sandwich or as the raw tri-tip for the grill.

The whole system for getting it without the lunch line is in the Cardiff Crack hack. Seaside also carries SunGod, which matters for Saturday night.

Saturday: the beach

The 2 beaches

Cardiff has 2 state beaches that run into each other. Cardiff State Beach is the south one, across from Restaurant Row, with the reef break longboarders like; dogs on a leash are allowed south of the lagoon mouth. San Elijo is the north one under the campground, with Pipes and the stairs, and it gets narrow at high tide.

Parking

The shoulder of the 101 between the 2 beaches is the free parking, and on a sunny weekend it is the hard part. The state lots charge for day use (the current fee is on the park’s page) and more on peak summer days. If the shoulder is full by 10, pay the lot and stop circling.

The rules

• No alcohol and no glass on the sand at either beach. The campground map says the same: nothing on the beach or beyond your own campsite. The cooler stays at the site or the house.
• Wood fires only in the campground fire rings. The rangers here write tickets.

The Encinitas beach day guide covers the packing and the wind if you head up to Moonlight Beach instead.

Late afternoon in the lagoon

Photo: Rennett Stowe, CC BY 2.0.

When the beach goes cold, drive 5 minutes inland. Two walks:

• The nature center loop. The San Elijo Lagoon Nature Center is on Manchester Avenue, trails open sunrise to sunset, center hours on the Nature Collective’s site. The 1 mile loop from the center is flat enough for a stroller.
• Annie’s Canyon, the better walk. From the Rios Avenue trailhead in Solana Beach, Annie’s Canyon is a short slot canyon in the sandstone that runs one way, narrows to shoulder width and climbs out on a ladder to a lookout over the whole lagoon. Dogs are fine on a leash on the lagoon trails but not in the slot.

Back in town, The Confessional is Lost Abbey’s taproom 2 doors from Seaside, dog friendly, and they let you bring a Seaside sandwich in from next door.

Saturday night: the fire

Photo: Bjorn, CC BY-SA 2.0.

If you got the campground, the plan is simple: the fire ring at the site, the tri-tip on the grate, the stairs down to the sand once it is dark. If you did not, Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, 10 minutes north, has fire rings on the sand that cannot be reserved. Send one person up in the afternoon to claim one, and the drinks wait at the house for after.

This is where the cans come out, back at the site or on the patio at the house. Minted Sol is a Hardwater: spring water from Palomar Mountain, a neutral grain spirit and real juice, in this case cucumber, lemon, mint and ginger, still, 5%, nothing else in it. After a day of sun and a plate of tri-tip it is the one we open, because it is light and it is still.

Seaside has it on the way back from the beach, and the locator has every North County shop that stocks us.

Sunday: up the coast and out

• Swami’s, the point just north of the campground. The stairs down the bluff are 145 steps.
• Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens on K Street, above Swami’s. Free, closed Mondays, hours on the temple’s page. The koi ponds and the overlook are the quietest 20 minutes of the weekend.
• Ki’s upstairs for a late breakfast on the way out. With kids along, the brewery guide has Pizza Port Solana Beach 5 minutes south.
• Moonlight Wine and Spirits on the 101 in Encinitas is the other shop up here that carries SunGod, for the weekend the house ended up in Leucadia. If you are still around on Tuesday, the run clubs guide has the Encinitas run that starts 3 blocks from it.

When to come

• September and October. The water is warmest, the marine layer is gone and the campground has the odd cancellation. May looks good on a calendar and is gray until 2pm.
• The Kook Run goes down the 101 past the statue every Super Bowl Sunday in February.
• Cardiff Dog Days of Summer at Encinitas Community Park is in August.
• The Cardiff Greek Festival on Manchester Avenue is every September.