An Unforgettable Evening in La Jolla

In my travels, I have been fortunate enough to visit some simply beautiful places. Lago Maggiore in Italy, Salzburg in Austria, and of course the stunning island of Mauritius, have all left me in awe after visiting them. It is rare for me to find a place that manages to tick all of the boxes, making me wish that I could make time stand still so that I could spend a tiny bit longer in its majesty. When we were in San Diego, multiple people told us about a cove slightly north of the city called La Jolla. This place was meant to be an oasis harbouring a stunning coastline, exceptional views and a tonne of marine wildlife. On our last day in the city, we thought that we should spend an evening in La Jolla in order to see what all of the fuss was about!

An Unforgettable Evening in La Jolla

We began our evening as true Californian tourists, and took an Uber to the secluded cove. The drive didn’t take very long at all, and was only really busy when we eventually arrived into the town of La Jolla. We parked up just by the cove and walked down to the beach.

Whilst stepping on to the soft white Californian sand, we could at last admire the beauty of the small cove. Despite the town being busy, the beach was surprisingly quiet, and was shared by both animal and people. To our left was a large group of sea lions, who were either basking on the rocks or frolicking in the shallow sea, oblivious to the people swimming around them. To the right of the cove was a colony of different seabirds, including our first glimpse of an Osprey, something that got my Biologist boyfriend very excited.

After a short while admiring our surroundings, I felt that it was time to dip my toes into the warm Pacific water and stroll along the seafront. We may have just been to the City of Paradise in Las Vegas a few days before, but I think we found the true meaning of that city’s namesake here in La Jolla.

Just as we thought things couldn’t get any better, Jack spotted a group of dolphins slightly off-shore. These remarkable animals began to get ever-closer to the shoreline, and began to play in the water, breaching occasionally as if they wanted to mimic the pelicans who soared overhead. Jack’s biggest regret is not bringing his snorkel and GoPro to this beach, and I’m sure we can all agree that forgetting that was rather silly for a so-called Marine Biologist…

We decided to leave the cove an hour or so after we got there, and began to walk along the small rocky cliffs that made up much of the coastline. These rocks had even more sea lions, who were making the most of the warm evening sunshine. There were different sizes too, with huge males fighting each other in the water, to little babies chasing their mothers for their next feed. I was lucky enough to get really close to these fantastic animals, and they just did not seem to care when you sat beside them, whilst obviously showing them respect and not getting too close.

Watching the vermillion sun slowly move towards the Ocean was enough to take anyone’s breath away, and with this we continued to wander down the coast to see what else we could see. We came across a bait-ball on the surface of the water, with large seabirds diving in on it, hoping to get a mouthful of fish. This place was simply incredible, and offered a surplus of wildlife, the likes of which I had never seen before.

At the end of the town’s seafront was a small beach surrounded by a harbour wall. This beach however was closed to visitors due to new-born harbour seals, which you could see if you walked along the harbour walls. These were unbelievably cute, and moved in the funniest way. I could have genuinely stayed there for hours watching them, and loved every second of it.

Final Thoughts – An Unforgettable Evening in La Jolla

La Jolla has to reach the top three most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, and gave me memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. If you ever go to San Diego, you just HAVE to spend an evening in La Jolla; the sunset is just spectacular!

Thank you for reading my post, and I hope you enjoyed it! For more information, check out La Jolla’s tourism website