San Diego's 5 Most Underrated Tide Pools

Travelers visit San Diego, California from all around the world to see the ocean, the mountains, and the desert. Immersed in art and culture and set in a backdrop of stunning natural beauty, San Diego is the perfect launchpad for a day trip to Mexico, a trip to the World Famous San Diego Zoo, or a self-guided SoCal taco tour. But nothing says "San Diego" quite like the sea, and residents and visitors alike flock to the shore to soak up all it has to offer.

Perched on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, residents of and visitors to America's Finest City have access to 31 world-class beaches – and that includes some first-class tide pools, too. San Diego has become a tide pooler's heaven, with a trail of tide pools brimming with sea life starting at the city's southernmost tip and continuing along the coast through northern San Diego county. Visitors can make a day of tide pooling, skipping from tide pool to tide pool, or spend more time in each location for an extended chance to soak up everything each spot has to offer (don't forget to take your tide pool animal handbook so you can identify all the fun things you see). Here are five underrated tide pools in the San Diego area just waiting for you to explore.

The Coronado Tide Pools are conveniently located next to one of San Diego's most iconic landmarks, Hotel del Coronado. You can park on the street or park at the hotel. You'll have to pay for hotel parking, but beachfront parking in San Diego is notoriously hard to find, so if you can swing it, splurge on parking so you can spend more time at the tide pools, and less time parking and walking to your destination. Once you've parked, you'll find the tide pools on the jetty, next to the hotel.

These tide pools are a nice option for families with small children as they are easy to access and don't require a lot of climbing across rocks to see the sea life (other locations require some hiking and climbing to access the pools). You can expect to see limpets, anemones, starfish, crabs, and small fish, among other things, at the Coronado tide pools. Be sure to visit during low tide for the best experience, and be sure to stay on the sand to protect the natural habitat of the ocean creatures who live there.

If you visit Sunset Cliffs at sunset, you might feel like you've stepped into a postcard. With sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and a backdrop of sandstone cliffs, Sunset Cliffs is the premier place to watch the sun sink into the sea in San Diego. It's also home to some incredible tide pools teeming with ocean life, but it takes some work to reach them. The Sunset Cliff tide pools are located at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park and are best visited at low tide. You'll need to park on the street (look for a spot at the corner of Ladera Street and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard for the shortest walk). Take the stairs down to the beach, and be mindful of the steps — they're very steep. Once you've reached the bottom, head left around the cliff. The tide pools are located on flat rocks, which you'll notice when you get around the cliff. Because of the steep staircase, these might not be the best tide pools to visit if you have small children or a hard time getting up and down stairs, but the secluded location means there will likely be smaller crowds.

There's another payoff for the hike down the stairs. Once you make it to the pools, you'll be happy as a clam to see the abundance of creatures awaiting you. Hermit crabs, sea anemones, and fish all call these tide pools home.

Encinitas is a beach city located just north of San Diego that is known for its surfers, historic downtown, and chill vibes. It's also a great place for sea life. Swami's, a world-famous surf spot, boasts a beautiful reef and tide pools that can be accessed at low tide. While this beach does have a parking lot, it's often full, and you might have to find parking along the highway.

Like many of the tide pools in San Diego, you're going to have to hike down some stairs to find this hidden gem. Once you've made it to the beach, the tide pools are located north of the stairs. Swami's tide pools might have some of the most interesting sea life in the area. You can expect to see the usual suspects (starfish, fish, and crabs), but keep those eyes peeled for sea hares, sea cucumbers, and possibly even octopuses. This is also a great walking beach, with firm sand for anyone who wants to take a nice stroll. After visiting the tide pools, take a drive up the coast to visit San Diego County's family-friendly town of Carlsbad for shopping, excellent food, and a friendly vibe.

Just north of Encinitas, you'll find Cardiff State Beach, home to an array of tide pools (and a reef) that are easily accessed by foot. To find the beach, look for a parking lot just north of Lomas Santa Fe Drive on the Pacific Coast Highway (it will have a sign that designates the area as Cardiff Beach). Once you're parked, head to the beach – the tide pools are located south of Lifeguard Tower 10.

Not only will you get to see mollusks, sea cucumbers, and hermit crabs, but you can also peruse the 45-million-year-old rocks, which are complete with ancient clam fossils. The clam fossils (and extra old rocks) are unique to these tide pools — you won't find anything like them at other locations. At low tide, you can walk on Table Top Reef, which becomes exposed as the tide pulls out. Kids will love playing on the reef, making this a fun destination for the whole family.

The Cabrillo tide pools are located at Cabrillo National Monument, a national park at the southern tip of the Point Loma peninsula. Unlike many of the other tide pool destinations, this one has an actual address and should be easy to find. You can find the park and tide pools at 1800 Cabrillo Memorial Drive,where you'll also find designated parking (you will have to pay an entrance fee to enter the park, but once you're in, you should be able to locate the tide pools easily). This park is a popular tourist attraction, both because of its location and because of the stunning, easy-to-access tide pools that house hundreds of animals.

These tide pools are bursting with critters, and visitors might see periwinkle snails, acorn barnacles, sea hares, limpets, chitons, and even lobsters – and that's naming just a few of the residents that call this place home. While you're visiting the park, be sure to check out the military history exhibits and the lighthouse that was built in 1855. You can also walk to a whale watching lookout for a chance to see migrating Gray Whales. 

This roundup was based on firsthand experience from a San Diego native and with the help and recommendations of several San Diego websites. These locations were chosen based on personal experience and online reviews from locals who frequent these spots. Other things taken into consideration were the variety of sea life at each spot, accessibility (unfortunately, many locations are hard to reach due to steep hikes to the ocean, but we made sure to also include tide pools with plenty of parking that are easy to walk to), and proximity to the city of San Diego.