Full disclosure. I grew up at the Beach, mostly San Clemente. Grew up Surfing from SC pier to Lower Trestles and everything in between. My wife and I still go to SC at least once a week. The Beach is a place where I/we feel a lot of peace and great place to relax and de-stress, and also play. We also happen to always vacation at different beach destinations for these same reasons. Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Costa Rica, all over Mexico and California (from SD to Santa Cruz and everything in between)

By far the biggest disappointment as far as beaches go was Coronado Beach (the beach right in front of the Coronado hotel). We stayed a couple days on the way to Rosarito Mexico.

It was a bit of a pain to find parking (typical of a beach town in summer, no surprises, no biggy). Walked to beach and was surprised to see how the natural layout was and the type that I have never been a fan of. That is, that that is a ton of space/sand from the road or Hotel all the way to the water (even worse than Huntington Beach). What this means is that there are rows and rows of people. If you aren’t the People closest to the water, there are people in front of you obstructing your view of the water. If you are on the front row, there are so many people coming from behind you, walking by you, getting sand on your towel, etc, to get to the water and that makes a ton of People playing in the sand/ water in front of you. (Many of the people not really understanding beach etiquette, meaning kids throwing sand that often gets all over everyone, even in your eyes, people kicking footballs, that end up hitting people, people throwing frizzbees that often end up hitting people, people throwing baseballs with their mitts. People smoking and vapping on the beach, etc). In other words it is much more like a crowded park and not a place to truly relax and enjoy and decompress.

Yes, these are 1st world problems, but to relate this to our Utah friends, this is like sitting in line to buy ski passes or to get food at lunch and constantly getting pelted by out of control kids throwing snowballs and no one saying anything about it. Having kids hop on innertubes and sleds and running into people at the bottom of the slope, etc. people that have no intent on actually skiing or boarding, but just playing in the snow, like they would at a park or an open slope at a large open area with no one around.

Now to the “beachgoers”. Trying not to be too critical as I know that many travel to the beach from out of the area. But It it one thing to have people get in the water in their Levi’s or pants or T-shirts (ladies that didn’t bring bathing suits) but it is a other level when grown adults (males) go in the water in their tighty whiteys and kids running around in wet and droopy diapers. This was the point at which my wife turned to me and said, “I think I’m out, let’s get out of here”. Funny thing is, I was thinking the exact same thing at the exact same time.

Ya, maybe I’m being a little too critical of the beach and the people, but I think it’s interesting to hear, “it’s the best beach” banter. And maybe it is, it might just be what you prefer and what you are looking for. I just hope people don’t read that and plan a whole vacation around that beach, as they might be a little disappointed.

Btw, the Hotel is nice. The little old homes in the area are really cool and I like the way most of them have been kept up or restored. I also bet that outside of summer crowds, the beach would be an entirely different experience (maybe like comparing a ski resort to a weekday at a random time vs Christmas break?).

At any rate, if you are planning a summer beach vacation and like big crowds, poor view of the water, tighty whiteys, and lots of balls, sand, frisbees thrown around you, Coronado is a great place to visit, otherwise, I’d advise either going at a different time of year or going to a different beach.