Coronado Beach: America's Best Beach 2012

Hotel Del Coronado Beach Resort

The Coronado Beach has long time been one of America's finest beaches, and this year (2012) has been ranked by Dr. Beach as America's Best Beach. Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, otherwise known as "Dr. Beach", is a professor and director of coastal research at Florida International University. Each beach in the the top ten list has to meet different criteria, which ranges from water quality to sand softness to water temperature and water access. Coronado Beach scored in the 230s out of 250, losing points only in water temperature criteria, where the summer water temperature is in the frigid 60s. However, its water quality, safety ( great lifeguarding program), fantastic Mediterranean climate, and wide sand beaches ( hundreds of yards wide as you can see in the picture below) did make up for the points lost due to frigid waters.  - Source: msnbc

Hotel Del Coronado @ Coronado Beach

 The Coronado Beach is located on Coronado Peninsula across San Diego. The beach is also home to Hotel Del Coronado, famous for being featured in Marilyn Monroe Movie, "Some Like It Hot."

The three pictures below are all from Coronado Beach, and were taken by my cell phone. I avoid using my camera near the water after a painful learning experience of losing a camera + lens to the salty water of the ocean.  

all three pictures above were taken by my cell phone

The Coronado Beach is a very long stretch of beach. The one in front of Hotel Del is known as Central Beach, North of Hotel Del is North Beach, and south is The Shores Beach.
If you are visiting Coronado Beach, and would want to take a skyline of San Diego, one of my favorite locations for taking San Diego Skyline is in Coronado Ferry Landing, at the opposite side of the Coronado Peninsula that faces the San Diego Bay.

 San Diego Skyline From Coronado Landing

That's Me, Facing the San Diego Skyline

How to go to Coronado Beach: I usually enter in our GPS the address of Hotel Del, 1500 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA. Then, we usually park (free parking) on Ocean Boulevard.
How to go to Coronado Ferry Landing: park anywhere on 1st St, or you can type the address in your GPS, 1201 1st Street, Coronado, CA.
How to go to Coronado when you are not driving:  This is my most favorite route. :) Take the 15-minute ferry ride to Coronado Ferry Landing from San Diego Broadway Pier or at San Diego Convention Center. I love it because I love riding the ferry. The ride is not rough because this is just across San Diego Bay.

San Dieko Skyline from the Ferry Boat to Coronado
(one of the reasons why I love the ferry ride, I get to take a lot of pictures around San Diego Bay)

When you get to Coronado Ferry Landing, you can explore the unique shops there, or walk around the bay and take in the view. When you are done, you can choose to walk to the other side of the peninsula to Hotel Del, or you can rent a bike ( there are a lot of rental bikes and tandem bikes) to explore the peninsula. Or you can also take the bus to go to Coronado Beach. Another option is bringing your bicycle with you to the ferry, at no extra cost. The ferry ride is $4.25 each way. It leaves every hour from San Diego Broadway Pier to Coronado at :00, and from Coronado to Broadway Pier at :30. Those who take the ferry to work however gets free ride on weekdays. For more information on ferry ride, you can visit the site San Diego Harbor Excursion.

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