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Spot: Imperial Beach, CA [im·pe·ri·al]
32°34'46.07"N 117° 8'0.91"W
Photo: John From Cincinnati ; filmed in Imperial Beach
Places to stay
Sorry to keep bringing up John From Cincinnati but there was a weird hotel in there where hoodlums hung out and people were always getting in fights and the mom was throwing shit fits in the parking lot and one of the rooms had a ghost or something.
Is that what all the hotels are like in IB?
If you are camping, there is RV/camper camping on the beach at the Silver Strand State Beach just three miles north of IB.
The Bernardo Shores RV Park is on Highway 75 and has lots of spots. Big rigs are welcome, so bring the strippers!!!
There was a weird, spooky little hotel that was a side plot to John From Cincinnati. One of the rooms had a ghost in it or something, and that seems to be how the hotels are in IB.
The cast and crew of JFC stayed at the Loews Coronado Bay resort, but most surfers aren’t on that kind of budget.
The Sand Castle Inn has an average price of $152 a night. It’s close to the beach just north of the pier. but they don’t guarantee a ghost in your room.
Hawaiian Gardens sounds promising, and the $79 average price is right, but it’s a little farther from the beach.
Food
IB Coffee and Books – at 704 Seacoast – is the only real surfer hang out in IB. Sandwiches, coffee and breakfast stuff. Lots of cool surfer art from local artists. Katie is very cool, surfs and her son is a local ripper.
And yes, this is the coffee shop they called the Beach and Beans in John From Cincinnati, but keep your cool. The Yost Surf Shop was a set built across the street. In an interview with Imperial Beach Eagle & Times, I.B. Coffee owner Katie Fallon enjoyed the experience: “Fallon has only had to shut the shop completely down twice for filming and jokes that she has already promised local customers that she will open up for Christmas to make it up to them.”
For Mexican food near the beach. El Tapatio at 260 Palm Ave. IB, is a cool little Mexican Café, with good simple food at good prices.
Maybe the only healthy place to eat besides IB Coffee and Books is very new but very cool. Olive Oil Organic Café at 600 Palm Ave. Suite 109 is located inside Seacoast Vitamins and Herbs. Everything from salads, to pizzas, vegan sandwiches, and paninis. Smoothies and juices.
If you want to bend an elbow Ye Olde Plank Inn at 24 Palm Avenue is a legendary spot and a SEAL Team hangout. There is a legendary Navy SEAL named Alexander Allan Akbar. If you want to see some fireworks walk into the Ye Olde Plank Inn and yell his name “Al A Akbar!!!!” and you will get a response.
Parking
Parking is free everywhere on the beach, so there is no need to use pay spots except for the most crowded days on summer weekends.
Access and directions
Sneak over the border through Smuggler’s Gulch and paddle down the… no that’s not politically correct or very funny. Sorry.
Surf Shops
The main surf shop in IB, The Surf Hut, has a gigantic inventory, shockingly well-stocked, as if it's been transplanted from PCH & Main in Huntington Beach.
Saltwater Magic is at 226 Palm Avenue and doesn’t have a website so give them a ringy ding ding at 619-423-7873.
TNT Surfboards is on 13th Street in IB has boards locally shaped by Jay Novak of Novak Surf Designs, Dave Craig of Craig Surfboards and Brett Bender of Natural Selection.
Attractions
For a taste of the good, the bad and the ugly, check out the Tijuana Estuary Refuge and Border Field State Park. The wetlands are overworked but still beautiful, and the beach at the end is the infamous Tijuana Sloughs – a surf spot that was more popular in the 1930s than it is now.
If skate you must, the Coronado Skatepark encompasses: “about 16,000 square feet of concrete ramps, bowls, grinds, and jumps, the park is an artistic sculpture that will cater to all levels of skill. The Street Plaza is a 2' to 3' deep spacious crater intended for beginners and the reserved. The Clover Bowl is 5' to 7' deep and offers challenges and surprises to the experienced skater. The last and most challenging bowl named Teardrop reaches 8 feet in depth and poses a challenge to Newton's law of gravity.”
This might have been where Shaunie hit his marks and said his lines in JFC.
Because Mexico is lurking right over there, you could always go to Tijuana and check out the Donkey Show or actually go to that bullring or drive around until some phony Federales pull you over in the middle of the night and stick a gun in your face and rob everything you own.
Or go the other way and have a drink at the Coronado Hotel, or jog along the beach and fall in with some Navy SEALS on a training run.
The “Nearby Attractions” for Bernardo Shores RV Resorts lists all of this below, so maybe it’s good there are a lot of onshores here:
Historic Hotel Del Coronado
North Island Naval Air Station (Aircraft tours available)
Sea World
Balboa Park
Historic Old Town State Park
Gaslamp Quarter Nat’l Historic District
Cabrillo National Monument
San Diego Zoo/ Wild Animal Park
Historic Mission San Diego de Alcala
Chula Vista Nature Center
Imperial Beach Estuary
Harbor Tours ~ Whale Watching
Sports Fishing
Historic Mission San Juan Capistrano
Tijuana ~ Beaches ~ Presidio Park
Historic town of Julian
Sand Castle Festival
U.S. Olympic Training Center
Viejas Casino
Maritime Museum
Boat Rentals
Trolley Tours
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