What’s it Like to Live in Coronado California?

You’re thinking about making a move or buying a second home here in Coronado. And you want to know everything there is to know about Coronado? This is for you!

Overview of Coronado

Coronado is one of my favorite places to be in San Diego. Every time I go there I feel like I’m on vacation. Even if it’s just for an hour or two, I absolutely love taking my family there and bringing friends to hang out and enjoy fantastic times with. 

Where Coronado is Located Within San Diego?

Coronado Island is an island that’s connected by a small strip of land called Silver Strand. There’s miles and miles of beaches, over 6 miles of beaches from the Silver Strand up into Coronado Beach. It forms essentially the San Diego Bay. This is the main barrier from the Pacific Ocean that protects San Diego Bay with Point Loma just the north of it creating the channel to get into the San Diego Bay. You access it primarily through the Coronado Bay Bridge. The Coronado Bay Bridge was built in 1969. It’s a beautiful sweeping 2 mile long bridge before we had the bridge, you had to access it via ferry. So you’d actually drive your car into a ferry and access it that way or drive up via the Silver Strand. 

Search all Homes for Sale in Coronado California!

Coronado is home to the North Island Naval Air Station so Coronado is actually technically originally 2 islands but over the course of centuries it merged into one giant island so now we have Coronado Island. What we call North Island, is home to the Naval Air Station. We have a massive military presence here on Coronado. 17% of the workforce actually is military so there’s a lot of active duty military that live here as well as a lot of military officers that have retired here. And because of that it is an extremely safe area, one of the safest places to live in all of California or America. 

The main streets through Coronado are 4th Avenue, it is the main street. There’s also the Naval Amphib base located here which is where the Navy SEALS train and have their headquarters. They are moving soon to the Silver Strand but this is where they do their basic training. They have a tremendous presence here on the island as well you’ll see Navy SEALSwalking around all the time and because of the the heavy military presence is a very patriotic community, a fantastic 4th of July parade, fireworks and it’s a fantastic place to be during 4th of July. 

The main streets through Coronado are 3rd Avenue. 3rd Avenue is actually the street that you take once you exit the bridge just continue on it that takes you all the way down to the Naval Air Statio. You’ve got Orange Avenue that’s essentially running north to south and that’s going to take you from the downtown area of Coronado which is essentially the ferry landing to the Uptown area of Coronado which is where a lot of other shops, restaurants and the Hotel del Coronado is located

All the Fantastic Things To Do here in Coronado 

We have to start with the iconic Hotel del Coronado, commonly referred to as the “Hotel Del” or “The Del”. It is actually a historic landmark. It was built in 1888 when a couple of developers actually bought the entire Island of Coronado and then what they did is they subdivided up the land and they sold off plots of land about 350 people and that raised the funds to build the Hotel Del. They also built a power plant and a train station and then began developing the entire community in addition to the Hotel Del. 

The Hotel Del is the largest wood frame structure in the U.S. and at the time it was the largest electrified structure as well, so electricity obviously was fairly new and it was completely lit up and electrified. It is actually about to undergo a massive remodel it’s almost $180M remodel that it’s going to be undergoing here shortly. Pretty soon it’ll be much more modernized but it is a wonderful hotel. 

It certainly is not cheap to stay in but people absolutely love staying here, it is right on the ocean right on the beach. And it has attracted movies and movie stars for decades in the late 1800s through the first half of the 20th century. It was certainly the place to film movies and for movie stars to come to and vacation as well as presidents and other heads of state.  In the late 1890s actually the first film was produced here and then various films were produced throughout the rest of the 20th century as well. 

Some of the people that have frequented Hotel del are people like Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Rooney, Grouchoand Harpo Marx, Donna Reed, Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Walt Disney and then some of course famous people; Charles Lindbergh was honored here, there’s a ceremony for him and there’s been numerous presidents that have visited the Hotel del. Going back as far as President Harrison, he was the first president to visit the San Diego area and then followed by Franklin D. Roosevelt and then on from there with other presidents as well such as Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and James Carter. 

The Hotel del is fun to visit any time of year but it’s especially special during the christmas season. There is a huge christmas tree in the main lobby of the Hotel del, they will and it’s probably 25 feet tall or so completely decorated so it’s a fantastic place to go with your family and take pictures. And then they have an outdoor ice skating rink as well, you can rent skates and skate around, got hot chocolate. They’ve got bonfires right out there on the beach. It is so wonderful to visit during the christmas season.

World-Class Beaches in Coronado

Coronado Beach

Some of the other things to do are of course the beaches. There are some absolutely world-class wonderful beaches here on Coronado. The main beach being of course Coronado Beach and then it’s connected to the Silver Strand Beach as well. You have over 6 miles of beaches. The Coronado Beach itself is very very deep, it actually takes quite a while to get to the water from the street and is very very long as well. You have bonfires, a big huge square on fire pits located at the north end of Coronado Beach. And you also have dog beach at the very north end of the Coronado Beach before you get onto the military base. It’s a great area to take your dogs, they absolutely love it. Just don’t walk too far or you’ll be on the military base and you can’t be there unless of course you have military credentials.

Gator Beach

Another beach that’s part of Coronado beach is called Gator Beach. It’s more towards the South end Coronado as well. Again this hit it butts up to a military installation as well so you can’t go too far south or you’ll be on the military base. You really have about 2 miles of beach that you can cover without being on a Military area of the beach. This area isn’t as well known, Gator Beach, we call it secret beach here because just it’s not that well known. There’s a small parking lot, there are no restrooms right there. It’s a great place to go if you plan to be there for a couple of hours but probably not the best place to spend the entire day. 

And of course there are fantastic lifeguards based here in Coronado so if you ever get into trouble they will swim out there and rescue. I actually got rescued once by lifeguard here in Coronado, I didn’t think I was in any trouble but he’d let me swim for a while and he just kind of paddled next to me and then I jumped on his board and he brought me in really quickly. I was really grateful to be pulled in by the lifeguard.

Silver Strand Beach

The other beach is Silver Strand, this is the strip of sand that runs from Imperial Beach to Coronado so it essentially connects the Coronado Island with the rest of the main landmass. There is some really great beaches here on Silver Strand, there’s a fantastic RV camping areas, you can bring your trailer and you can camp there your RV, I do it myself as well, I’d really love going here, you’re camp right on the beach is absolutely fantastic. 

Super easy access to the water from there, it’s not so wide of a beach as it is north in actual Coronado Beach so if you’re looking to camp, you can definitely check this place out. You do have to have an RV or camper trailer, you cannot tent camp here. They use area for visiting and going to the beach here in Silver Strand as well.

A really interesting feature about Coronado Beach is actually the letters on the beach. If you take a look at google maps, you can see that there’s actually Coronado spelled out on the beach in giant huge letters. These are sand dunes actually that someone formed quite a while ago. Apparently the story is that he was tasked or contracted to clean up all the seaweed that had accumulated on the beach and so instead of loading them off and taking the dump he actually formed them into these giant letters and then covered them with sand. 

A lot of them now have ice plant on them but you’ll find the Coronado letters laid out as in sand dunes so it’s pretty cool if you google the dunes, you can find them that  way but if you’re just walking along the beach you’ll see them. You may not realize that they’re actually letters. A lot of locals don’t even realize that but if you look at Google Maps they’re definitely letters as you get further north in the beach they’re literally more like just dunes versus letters but that all comes from that original kind of creation of making these sand dunes out of seaweed. But now it’s pretty much sand and ice plant.

Marinas

Being right on the bay there are several marinas here as well where if you have a boat you can store your boat here. You can also rent boats, yachts that sort of thing. There is the Coronado Yacht Club, the Glorietta Bay Yacht Club and the Coronado Cays Yacht Club. Another park is Spreckel’s Park which is right on Orange Avenue. This has a huge grassy field and lots of trees so it’s very well shaded. It has public restrooms and a huge playground for the kids as well.  

They do concerts in the park here in the summertime so it gets really crowded in the summer time because people come out with their blankets and chairs and listen to fantastic music right in the park. It’s absolutely wonderful to do but this is right in the heart of Coronado. If you’re looking to go eat out later, this is a great place to kill some time with your family or to bring a picnic to and you can picnic there of course. You’re just a few blocks from all the shopping and restaurants as well.

Glorietta Bay Park and Tidelands Park. 

Glorietta Bay, is also right next to a couple of the marinas that I mentioned earlier and there’s picnic areas, there’s a playground as well and you can launch kayaks from here as well. That’s actually something that I love doing my family is we actually have a couple inflatable kayaks that will go out and take our kids in and we’ll just paddle around the bay. Glorietta Bay is really nice because of very protected. It’s a much more protected area of San Diego Bay which you get out of the bay itself. It typically is very calm but sometimes it can get a little bit choppy with the wind or with larger boats going by. This is a really great area to launch your kayak from or your paddle board. You can launch from Glorietta Bay. 

The other park is Tidelands Park. You can launch kayaks from here as well, you can actually rent kayaks over here if you don’t have your own but there is also a huge playground here. Big huge grassy fields and baseball fields as well. This is a great area if you’re looking to do something like flag football or ultimate frisbee, there’s some great options here because of the huge open fields that they have. And it’s really an area that a lot of people go to picnic and have parties. All of these parks are really great areas depending on what you’re trying to do but definitely picnicking, parties you’re on the water, Glorietta and Tidelands Park,  you can certainly do water activities there.

Getting Around Coronado 

Coronado is super walkable. You’re probably not going walk from the Uptown area to the Downtown area but you probably will want to drive there or take a golf cart or bike.. However, once you’re in those specific neighborhoods, everything is very close by. First off, there is the Uptown Area which is kind of really the heart of Coronado which is essentially Orange Avenue and 10th Avenue. All kinds of restaurants and shops right here. And then there is the Downtown Area which is the Ferry Landing area. Also a lot of shops restaurants, a lot of souvenir shops that you’ll find here. 

You can also find here and in the Downtown Area bike rental shops. Holland’s Bikes is a great place to rent bikes from whether that’s traditional bikes or electric bikes. Something else that’s really fun is to rent these bikes called a Surrey, these are two-seater or four-seater bikes that are basically kind of like big carts that you can drive and pedal around and that’s a fun way to get around too. There is a bike path that runs along the bay it’s a bike and pedestrian path so if you’re on a bike you need to go slow and watch out for all the people walking but it’s a really fantastic path to walk along the bay and it runs from Ferry Landing down around to Tidelands Park. And then the bike path continues past that actually runs under the bridge and then pops you out kind of on the south end of Coronado down by the Hotel del.

I mentioned golf carts, it’s a really fun way to get around Coronado. You can rent golf carts but a lot of residents actually own golf carts themselves and that’s how they get around the island very quickly without actually driving in their cars. I mentioned the Ferry Landing in the Downtown area so originally, the only way to access Coronado was via the ferry. You had to drive your car in the ferry that’s been completely converted to a pedestrian ferry so you don’t drive your car in there anymore but for about $5 you can take that and get back and forth between Coronado and Downtown. If you are looking to spend the day in Downtown or vice versa, Downtown over to San Diego, take the ferry instead of driving across the bridge. It’s a really fun way to go about doing it.

Biking

Something that i really love to do personally is to ride my bike around the bay and up the Silver Strand . There’s actually a bike path called the Bayshore Bike Path and it’s depending on where you pick it up but essentially from Downtown  and you head south around the bay and then cut across the estuary there and then up the Silver Strand and you end in Coronado. It’s roughly 25 miles but it’s a fairly brisk easy ride, it’s very flat. 

There are a lot of headwinds that you pick up on the Silver Strand typically unless you go really early in the morning, it’s not so bad. You get some headwinds that kind of makes you work a little bit harder and then it ends in Coronado. And then I like to finish off with getting breakfast in Coronado or coffee that kind of thing. If I left my car in downtown then I would take the ferry and ride that back across. I used to live in North Park, all I’d actually do is I’d ride from North Park, do that same ride, take the ferry back and then ride back to my house in North Park. 

Restaurants In Coronado

There are so many options so I’m just going to give you some of my top picks and where I like to go. First, in the Downtown Area,  the Ferry Landing area is the Coronado Brewing Company. They make absolutely fantastic beer, it’s super consistent, very very high quality. They’ve been around since 1996 pumping out just incredible beers. They’re best known for their Mermaid Red. However my favorite beer that they’ve been making for the last few years is called Weekend Vibes IPA. Definitely worth checking out for their beer. Their food menu is fantastic as well, pretty much anything they put out is going to be delicious. I personally love the cajun shrimp tacos and then with a side caesar salad with that Weekend Vibes IPA, it is just absolutely fantastic.

Another restaurant that’s a classic here is Spiro’s Greek Cafe. Putting out fantastic gyrosandwiches, absolutely delicious. Definitely worth checking out right in the Ferry Landing on the San Diego Bay. You can either eat there in the restaurant or take it and go sit on a park bench and watch the boats go by on the bay. Definitely worth doing there.

The other one is Il Fornaio which is a really great Italian restaurant located right there in the Ferry Landing as well right on the bay. Fantastic views and excellent Italian food. And one of the most high-end restaurants in Coronado is the Peohe’s so if you’re looking for an absolutely high-end experience and fantastic cocktails, definitely check out Peohe’s which is again right there in the Ferry Landing with fantastic views of the bay. 

If you’re looking for a treat, you’ve got Cold Stone Creamery, just absolutely great ice cream that they’ve got.

One of my favorite restaurants (in the Uptown area – around Orange and 10th Ave) is called McP’s Irish Pub. It is probably not the finest fair in the world but it has great fish and chips actually. I definitely would try that out. It’s known as kind of a navy steel bar but most of it is located outside the patio they do have a big indoor air as well but they have a fantastic patio. And it’s always hopping but definitely worth going with your family, your friends and you can have solid beer and solid food right there in Orange Avenue. It’s just a really fun exciting atmosphere that they have there at McP’s Irish Pub. If you’re hankering for pizza, you got Village Pizzeria, they’re putting out fantastic pizzas so definitely check those guys out.

And then a newer player here in Coronado, although they have locations elsewhere is Buena Forchetta. Buena Forchetta started in South Park, they now have a location in Coronado. They took over an old car dealership here so they have some indoor dining but most of it is actually outdoor in the old parking lot but it’s been completely remodeled, it’s absolutely beautiful. They have incredible pizzas, Neapolitan-style pizza, Italian pizzas and they have a fantastic calamari as well. Great wine selection, their beer and cocktail menu isn’t as great but definitely if you’re looking for Italian food and a great wine selection, Buena Forchetta is the place to check out.

Finally for restaurants here, if you’re looking for that treat that I mentioned earlier, MooTime Creamery. It has the best ice cream, it beats Cold Stone, hands down in my opinion. Definitely go there, it’s a 1950-style creamery so it has this huge cow out front and a statue of Elvis Presley is pretty hilarious. Definitely go there and you can do mixers, mix in different candies into your ice cream, different chocolates that kind of thing but I don’t typically do that. I typically just get the flavors they have there and then we share it with our family. It’s definitely worth checking that place out.

Types of Homes Here in Coronado 

First off, the median price right now in Coronado is $2.85M in rising. You definitely are going to want to be coming in with at least a couple million dollars to buy anything here unless you’re looking for a condo there’s going to be a little bit cheaper depending on what you’re looking. But as far as the style of homes, you’re going to find here it is such a wide range of homes you can get here. Homes built from the early 1900s all the way up to today. There’s still custom homes being built; old homes are being torn down; new homes are being built, you can find almost anything that you’re looking for here. Either Craftsman style homes, East Coast Beach Cottage Style homes, Modern homes,  Tudor Style homes, Mid-century Style homes and Mediterranean Style homes. 

There’s a huge range in home prices as well. Anything for single family homes right around $1.5M and then going all the way up to $36M and everything in between. This Historic House right here is the one that’s for sale for $36M so if you’ve got $36M you’re looking to spend, I’d be happy to help you spend that on this home. This other one this is the Baby Del, it looks a lot like the Hotel del, Victorian style home. It sold recently for about $16 located right on the beach, right across from Coronado Beach on a half acre lot here in Coronado.  

Most of the lots are typically not that size here in Coronado, they’re typically going to be more like 6,000 to 8,000 sqft. However, you can find some lots that are larger in the quarter acre range that’s when you start ticking up into those higher price points. Let’s dive into what you’re going to get in these different price ranges. In the single family home category for your budget is around $1.5M to $2.5M. 

You’re going to find homes that are typically a 2 bedroom or 3 bedroom with 2 to 3 bathrooms as well. The the square footages are going to be about 1,200 sqft to 2,600 sqft and again those lot sizes are going to be probably around that 6,000 sqft. You can find pretty much any of the homes I talked about in this price range it’s just going to depend on the size and how nice it is as well. 

If your budget is more like $2.5 to $4M, you’re going to start getting into 4 to 6 bedrooms; 3 to 5 bathrooms and a little bit larger square footages. Basically about 2,000 to 3,500 sqft, the lot sizes might be similar to what we talked about earlier with the 6,00sqft you might find some that are a little bit larger. And again, any of these types of homes that we talked about, the Mediterranean style, the Craftsman style, the Mid-century, those what you’ll find in these ranges. 

When you’re looking in the $4M on up range, kind of $4 to $12M range, these are definitely the much larger style homes you’re going to be about 4,000 to 6,000 sqft. You’re going to start getting into the larger lots kind of around a quarter acre as well and you’re going to be looking at homes that have bedrooms and bathrooms anywhere from 4 to 8 bedrooms and 4 to 8 bathrooms as well. These are definitely going to be more of your like Mansion. The homes in these different price ranges, they’re all going to vary quite a bit. 

Some are going to be older and need upgrading but for the most part when you’re buying the homes here, they’re typically fairly remodeled and upgraded so even if they’re older,  you’ll often find homes that have all the modern amenities. Of course the newer they are, built in the last 15 to 20 years certainly going to have much more modern amenities. You’re also going to find pools in some of these homes, not all but you will find pools at some of these homes, that’s a fantastic feature to have if you’re looking for that. 

Two Communities 

We’re going to look at one that’s actually a condominium community, it’s very a very large condo community so it’s definitely worth touching on and then finally we’ll get into the last community that I mentioned at the beginning of this video that’s a really fantastic community. 

The condominium community is the Coronado Shores condominium community. It is 15 different buildings; 10 stories-tall with about 140 units in each building. Each building is actually managed by its own HOA. There are 4 heated pools in this community, there are 8 tennis sports as well, there is a beach club, a fitness club and and it’s right on the beach. Absolutely fantastic views that you can have from the Coronado Shores because you’re right on the ocean, you got right on the bay so depending on your your view and where you’re locating the building you’ll have fantastic views of the either the ocean or the bay, Mexico, the east mountains in San Diego. 

Search all homes for sale in Coronado Shores!

You’re basically going to be paying about a $1M per bedroom in these condos. These were built in 1960s 1970s so there are homes here that have not been remodeled but for the most part once they’re going on the market they’ve typically been remodeled so you probably want to look for that so the homes I’m talking about are in that room or remodeled condition. The 1 bedroom condos are going to range from about $1M to $1.5M. 2 Bedroom/ 2 bath condos here, typically range about $2M to $2.5M. And then the 3 bedroom condos are typically going to be right around the $3M mark. 

The final community  is really special is the Coronado Cays. Coronado Cays, although not gated is essentially a private community and it has a series of boat channels. A lot of these homes have their own private yacht slip. These Yacht slips range from anywhere from about 30 feet up to about 85 feet in length to accommodate your boat or yacht. If you have a boat that you’re looking to park right at your own home, Coronado Cays is the place to do it. 

Search all homes for sale in Coronado Cays California!

These home prices are going to range quite a bit. There are condos here these are going to range typically from about $1.2M to $2M but as far as the homes that are going to have access to their own boat slips, these are going to be ranging typically anywhere from about $2M to $8M depending on exactly what you’re looking for and the size of the home. 

That is a complete overview of Coronado Island. I absolutely love Coronado. I love coming here with my family and selling homes here in Coronado as well. If I can help you whether it’s here in Coronado or anywhere else in San Diego buy a second home here or move here to San Diego, I would love to have that conversation with you. Whether it’s going to be 9 days or 90 days out, let’s talk about a game plan of how we can get you into the type of home that you’re looking for right here in San Diego. 

Curtis Chism, Realtor
858-281-2568 | Mobile
mailto:info@sandiegohomes.io
Chism Team | DRE #02105113
brokered by eXp Realty | DRE #01878277