San Diego Sand Castles

Hello! San Diego sand castles where great! Great team building experience, my Dr took the hole office out for a ditch day to go building sand castles! Awesome time!

Fun, fun, fun. We paid $ 40 per person for about 2 ½ hrs. The kids (6 and 9) loved it a long with the parents.

San Diego Sand Castles ROCKED! My girl scout troop (middle school age) saved their money for a trip to San Diego and chose sand castle building as an activity. TURNED OUT TO BE THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP. Kristine our instructor was great. Made exactly what they wanted – Hogwarts inspired castle with a bridge and moat as well as a troop banner. Taught the girls how to build awesome sand castles. She was patient and worked hand and hand with the girls. they built an awesome castle, had a great time and learned alot. HIGHLY RECOMMEND both the company and Kristine.

Unique, affordable, and amazing! I can’t imagine anyone having less than a 5 star experience. Hands-​on extreme sandcastling was a blast for our family ages 13 to 55. JT was a spectacular instructor. Do it!

I’ve been watching JT for years, doing his thing, making gorgeous works of art for the public, on the Boardwalk of Pacific Beach, between the Lifeguard’s building and the restaurant once named The Green Flash. The Green Flash sold, and is now another restaurant (though I’ve not been to the new one), and it’s nice to see JT truck on.
I had a convo with JT once, and he told me he is a schoolteacher. Seems a natural progression for him to make this a business, because honestly? Doing it for free doesn’t pay the bills. I’m glad to see JT has taken the plunge!!!
For years my routine has been to lay on the beach mornings to keep up my tan (no tanning beds for me), then run upstairs to my gym, Shock Fitness, then grab a sandwich or wrap at Rum Jungle downstairs, then go home, shower and take a nap lol.
I’m so glad to see that people are really enjoying the talent of JT and his associates. Looks like next time he’s working on a creation while I’m in the area, I’m gonna have to jump in and participate!

Very fun!!! Kids and adults all enjoyed learning and building the sand castles. JT was great with the kids — very patient.
Now every time we go to a beach we’re able to build nice looking sand castles that always gets attention.

A very cool way to spend a day at the beach. We had Kristine as our teacher and she was patient, helpful & so very creative. She let us use many of her tools after our lesson when she went on to her next one. This allowed us to work on our own and create a very cool masterpiece. — The Tower of London, complete with servants quarters, drawbridge & moat. We had so much fun & worked so hard that we hated to leave or creation at the end of the day.

To be honest, I was nervous about getting an instructor who hadn’t been reviewed yet on Unilocal.Our instructor was Kristine. She was awesome! She was very patient with everyone and taught us all kinds of techniques. She even let us borrow some tools as she went to her next appointment so we can keep adding details to our castle.
We had a wonderful time together. This is a great way to spend quality time with family and friends. I highly recommend them if you’re visiting San Diego or if you live in San Diego and haven’t tried this before.

I found this guy through TripAdvisor. In just a few months, he’s somehow become the number one attraction listed in San Diego. It’s not cheap, but JT Estrela’s sand castle building lesson is a great way to spend three hours on the beach.
We got there a little earlier than our 10am start time and lucked out on free parking on Thomas Ave. If you’re in a pinch, Joe’s Crab Shack has parking for $ 5. It’s easy to figure out who JT is – just look for the dude with all the buckets! We opted for collaborating on a single castle instead of doing our own individual smaller ones. We picked out a spot to create our masterpiece and we got to working.
Yes, building a 44-​inch sand castle involves work. You’ll need to lug buckets of sea water from the, uhh, sea. You’ll need to shovel sand into the forms. You’ll need to pour sea water in and mix it up to make sure there are no dry spots. You’ll need to tamp that wet sand down. Repeat.
Then comes the fun part. Now that you’ve got your sand foundation, the sky’s the limit. Actually, the ground is the limit. You carve and sculpt from the top and work your way down. JT will give you awesome tips and secrets on making the various features – doors, windows, stairs, brick, stone, crenellations (I learned that word from JT), drip trees, and even a ball! I’m sure you will have a ball just as we did.
By the end of our three hours, we decided that we had enough and were happy to quick finish our castle. It still ended up fantastic. If you have excess energy, though, JT is happy to let you borrow the tools to complete your architectural wonder.
(A few photos posted here:
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My husband and I took a lesson with Jillian and she was awesome ! Super friendly, positive, creative, relaxed, fun. Our lesson went longer than expected but never did we feel rushed. She took lots of great photos for us and taught us a bunch of different sand castle techniques. Best part of our San Diego trip:)

J.T. is an awesome teacher. He was funny, nice, and super helpful. My fiancé and I were the envy of the beach with the amazing sandcastle we built (lots of random people asked to take pics of our sand castle when we were done with it!). It was so easy and so much fun to build. He is able to teach some easy techniques that will make any sand castle look amazing!

JT was very informative and patient. It was a great experience for me and my boyfriend, who I surprised because I wasn’t sure he was gonna go for it if I told him in advance. Yeah, he liked it! It was a fun 2 ½ hours, the time just flew and before we knew it, we had a Bad Ass Sand Castle! This is definitely one of those once in a lifetime experience that everyone should do!

What an amazing experience for an amazing deal. JT taught me everything I know about carving sand: he’s a natural teacher.