Imperial Beach

I love coming to Imperial Beach when there is no crowds. I grew up in Imperial Beach since I was 3 years old. The only negative here would be parking on the weekends. There are so many new restaurants on Seacoast Dr. I am trying to check each restaurant as I read reviews on them on Unilocal.
I enjoy walking on the pier during late afternoons. It is very relaxing to just enjoy the view of the beach. I like to people watch as well. It is funny how I live close to the beach, but don’t take time to enjoy it. So much to do and see. People walk or ride their bikes here.
Just be careful of some of the local bums that hang around here. I guess with any beach area you will get the bums, and people who are drunk.
I still feel safe in my own city because the Sheriff’s make sure this place is safe for kids and people to enjoy. IB has a tendency to get a bad reputation but it has cleaned up a lot since I grew up here. A great place to visit if you are from out of town. As for me, it is home. I can never leave this beautiful city.

Beaches are always nice esp during a sunset. But this is the worst beach in Sam Diego. Its very dirty. You cannot go on them after it rains due to sewage. There is seaweed all along the coast that does not get cleaned up. And I always find a dead bird on the beach every time I go.

This beach is always beautiful and peaceful! We’ve been coming here since my husband and I moved in SD. There is plenty of room on this giant beach. Goes on for about 2 miles. You can walk all the way to Mexico border fence and Border State Park.
Public restroom is always clean. Fishermen at the pier always hanging around. Good surfing spot just because its not that crowded. You can enjoy surfing, shopping, play volleyball, swim, have a picnic, and even walk your dog. Farmer’s Market every Friday. Walking along this beach is really good
at sunset!

Beautiful beach small home town. Not crowded like MB and PB. Ok ok I am bias it my hometown! I love this beach! I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Since we are considering moving to San Diego we looked at a few homes in Imperial Beach and stayed in the area for awhile to check it out.
The pier is nice and super long, the area around it pretty nice with tons to do for kids.
Very clean and nice beaches, the views are insane.
While the city itself is still a bit rough and we decided against living here, you can’t beat the value, there is really no more affordable beach cities left to live in other than Imperial Beach.
The locals are nice, there is not a ton to do, but enough of everything that you would need.

Dirty and not chilling. Can’t get much worse for a beach now can you. No one from P.B. O.B. or mission beach says hey let’s go to I.B., NO ONE. the waves can be good especially since el ninos in town but everything else I’ve ever experienced there brings it all screaming back down for me. BASIC

I have lived in North Park, Little Italy, Coronado, Kensington, La Mesa, and finally here in IB. I love it. I’ve been taking my kids to the skatepark every day, enjoying surfing the mellow break (won’t be so mellow this winter) at the IB pier, and exploring all of the cool/​random mom and pop shops. Maybe I have low standards, considering the two years that I just spent living in east county, but I feel right at home here.
Sea 180 isn’t a mom and pop shop, but I’ve been a few times and highly recommend it if you’re looking for a five star restaurant. If you’re looking for something fast and cheap, El Amigos has really good Mexican food, NY pizzeria is my go-​to-​spot for slices, and Big Kahuna’s has decent burgers. Wally’s is a good place to go for good beer and wine, and there’s a carniceria right off of Palm with cheap farmers market priced produce. I haven’t checked out the farmers market here yet, but I don’t have high hopes for any farmers markets outside of Hillcrest.
If you can speak a little bit of Spanish, know how to smile and be nice to people, and enjoy being outside, you’ll love it here. As far as water contamination goes, every beach in San Diego county remains under a contamination advisory for 72 hours following a rain storm…
Just the right amount of ghetto + just the right amount of gentrification = a place I can call home.

IB is NOT ok.
Everything you need to know about IB can be learned from watching the old HBO series «John from Cincinnati». Shot in Imperial Beach, it’s often regarded as one of the worst HBO shows every made. It only lasted one season before being canceled. It’s not like HBO is picky or anything, how many terrible seasons of True Blood were made again?
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Imperial Beach is one of the worst looking beach cities in California. Mostly consisting of small tacky houses with chain linked fencing, and nothing to attract tourists. The people and local government that live and govern here are OKAY keeping IB in the 80’s. They don’t want to improve, develop, clean things up. Just try remodeling a house here and you’ll how difficult it is to make improvements.
The Beach —
This beach is often closed after rain storms due to sewage-​contaminated water from the Tijuana river overflowing. When clean, it not a bad beach and there are often events like Sandcastle events and surfing contents during the year. If there is one thing that IB can hang its hat on is the updated pier area. Note that there isn’t much there, no outdoor restaurants, no real beach businesses, no clean /​affordable hotels, no Boardwalk, but they do have a nice kids spring rocker animal park.
But wait, there’s more!
Mosquitos! Because of the proximity to a large estuary and the Tijuana river/​sewer there are endless mosquitos attacking you in the evening. So, leave early if you’re spending the day at the beach.
— When the city slogan is «IB is OK» you know the bar is set low.
— Look, this is the cheapest beach front property in California.

I sure wish I could like this beach, as it is the one closest to my home. BUT — it’s polluted by sewage runoff from MX’s neighboring Tijuana River — gracias, amigos! — MUCH more often than it should be, especially after rainfall. I don’t mind the sketchy ‘hood and people too much, but this beach is simply DIRTY! Same applies, to a lesser extent, to Silver Strand St. Pk. and to the Coronado beaches too, unfortunately, where the water is often full of mica-​like, glittering chips. Sorry, if you want a nice beach in SD, you need to go at least as far north as La Jolla Shores, if not Torrey Pines SP or farther.

I love this beach! I love the sand and water and pier. I love the little gift shop and home-​made ice cream shop.
This beach makes me very happy! I left Coronado beach just to go here! I like it so much better!

It’s an okay beach… not sure if I’d go here often if I lived closer though. Area around there seemed a bit sketchy, especially at night, when all the shady people come out. That’s probably the main (and only) downside of this beach.
You gotta be careful crossing the street around there too, even when it’s still fairly light out. There may be yellow signs telling drivers it’s state law to stop for pedestrians, but I saw some people just flying down the street as people are crossing, inches away from plowing into them. It’s normally the same shady folks I saw in the area who drive crazy though (not surprising).
It’s a clean beach overall, and it looked like a total hub for folks looking to fish. Never saw so many people fishing on a single pier. Plus, we saw several people who had a bucket full of fish, so I can see why there were so many people out there.
We found parking for $ 4. It’s $ 2 before 6PM, and if you arrive after 6PM, you have to pay an additional $ 2. All in all, the fee was a lot cheaper than other parking lots you would find at any beach.
Not a lot of shops and such going on there. Looks to me, IB is a pretty laidback beach… nothing like Huntington or La Jolla.
For someone out of town, it was interesting checking out IB. It’s cool they had tables/​benches out at the end of the pier; I don’t think I ever saw that before. There is a seafood restaurant at the very end, so I’m sure that’s what the tables are for, but plenty of people who weren’t customers sat there anyway. Pretty nice convenient thing to have.

Morning walks with Jordan
As alway we recognize the Locals like us and it’s always a great morning Here in I.B.

Went to this beach several years in a row –spent 45 minutes driving there to see yellow signs at every entrance that the water is contaminated!
Huge bummer for my kids :(
There needs to be BIG signs before you get to this beach!

Imperial beach is amazing! I enjoy the décor around the pier. The fishing from this spot is just ok. I really enjoy the huge clams that are available under the water that you have to dive for. As long as you have your fishing license you are good to go. Make sure that you also have a tape measure to make sure they are big enough to keep. You clean them properly and they make a wonderful clam chowder!
PS: I parked in front of the Police Department and my car was still broken into. I am glad it was after all of my fishing poles were out of the car or I would have been pissed off.

Great beach right on the border of Mexico. Came here for the July 4^th weekend and watched fireworks launched from the pier. One of the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen. Everyone goes to the beach to sit and watch the amazing show that takes place on this day. The sand is fine and soft and the water wasn’t that bad once you got in. There was an abundance of seaweed here but I’m guessing that is a problem with every beach. We were able to locate a home to rent for the week and very reasonable, especially when compared to other beaches.

I always come here!!! The only thing is that the waves are crazy for little kids since the county came a few years ago and started shoveling all the sand making like a hill or something! Now the beach is all messed up.

One of, if not my favorite beach. I’ve longboarded these streets for years and can’t get enough. It kinda sucks that you can’t drink at the beach anymore though. Well, you can it you go to the Tin Fish at the end of the pier (review coming). One of the main things I like about Imperial Beach is the kids park. One days I don’t feel like getting in the sandy I bring the little one here and stay clean while still enjoying the sea breeze. Imperial Beach is a locals beach, make no mistake. It gets packed warm weekends or when the surf is up during tropical storms and such. There are lots of shady people lurking about though, but I guess that’s any beach/​park/​city. A few years ago a buddy and I got into a rumble with a group of guys. Then again it was 2:30 a.m. So long as long as you’re not creepin about in the late hours you’ll be fine.
Also… Very few people go to south Imperial Beach. If you drive all the way south down Seacoast Dr it’ll come to a stop. get out there and walk south. From there you can see the Tijuana Estuary, Tijuana, the bull ring, and probably coast guard helicopters practicing landing.

Grew up in IB going fishing with my papa I love it.
Yes many people say it’s awful, dirty ect. But I honestly don’t care. The carefree quite and relaxing beach is a sight to be seen. The waves are amazing, the fishing is so fun. I could rant forever about it, but you gotta come here at least one. A beach is a beach! :)

I’ll give it to Imperial Beach that it is definitely a different, more cultural vibe than any other beach in San Diego, and that’s about the best part I find about it. However, the actual beach just doesn’t measure up to other beaches in San Diego. I also feel the area lacks in attractions other than the parks there, i.e. bars and restaurants. I’ve been to nearly every beach both day and night, except for IB at night because honestly, it just doesn’t seem that attractive. I believe overall, IB lacks everything I would want out of a Beach and though that’s nice because there is nearly always parking, its just not enough for me to give it a big rating.

True, this beach is not as beautiful as others in San Diego, due to all the seaweed and lots of pebbles. Also, the surf at the south end of Imperial Beach by the estuary can be a bit too rough or too polluted for swimming. Still, I prefer this beach for other reasons.
Since it lacks the big crowds, it makes it much easier to find parking and by far more peaceful, if you just want to sit and watch the sunrise or sunset. I like walking my dog here or taking a walk with my special someone.
The north end has improved over the years, as well. It’s much cleaner and a few shops have been added at the beginning of the pier, which seems to have attracted a different caliber of people. In the 80’s, encounters with some rambunctious troublemakers were not uncommon.