Ventura (San Buenaventura) state beach is close to where you will be. Water might be too cold to swim.

Beach park and down by the harbor are infested.

Get off the freeway on seaward, go west towards the beach,  south on Pierpont.    You will come to a stop sign by a school, turn right and find a spot to park in that area if it is available.

Will have way less stupid people to deal with and less general congestion.

My grandmother had a house right in that area up until 2 years ago and my parents live a street or two away from there.    In 30+ years of being in and around Ventura when I was growing up, the area around Pierpont is your best bet for low key.


2 months ago the water was warm as hell for the Pacific.  Now?   Meh depends on tolerance.

Emma Wood is a nice spot

Depending on the tides, there are tidepools up between the two groups of houses by Faria County Beach.  We've seen a variety of critters, a guy turned over rocks and caught a small octopus for my son to hold.  Head north from Ventura, you'll sea a sign for State Beaches, take that road and continue along. You may recognizr that road from movies and TV.  High tide you will see a lot of surfers. Low tide kind of a rock reef you can walk out on. 50 years ago there were kind of tidepools at Faria, mostly rocks with anemones and starfish.

Lots of interesting restaurants and shops on Main Street in Downtown Ventura east of the Mission.  Andria's Seafood in the Marina is a fun place, prices are pretty good for what you get.  The beach is right across the street from the parking lot.

The pier is easy to get to.  The taco stand at the start of the pier is pretty good.  Not your standard fast food tacos.  If you want to get adventurous, almost any taqueria is going to have rural Mexican food made by real Mexicans, most are probably legal.

If all you want to do is toe dip, there lots of places.

Sorry I didnt get back to you but the answer was yes.    My grandmother's house would have cars parked in front of it 24/7 during the summer that didnt belong to any of the houses.

As for the Island Packer...

Hate that boat when it goes through the channel, my parents house backs up to the water in the channel and having random ass strangers on a "party boat"(which it does some evenings when not going to the islands) looking at you on your  back patio is a pain in the ass.

As for Andrias I like it because I only go down maybe twice a year and do not eat fish often.   But my parents say it can be hit or miss


as for mexican....

One of the best places was Johnnies which was off main street just north of the pier a couple blocks, forget what blvd.    It had been there since my parents were dating in high school.    It was so good my parent dumpster dived to learn what ingredients they were buying so they could try to hack the recipe.    Meat/cheese burritos that were awesome.    Not sure if new owners came through but the past 2 years have had poor consistency.     I used to pick up a dozen when I was down there and freeze them to bring them home for re-heating when I needed a fix.


I stay away from the greasy assed pizza place near the fairgrounds by the under pass.   Been there as long as I can remember and doesnt seem to have enough customers to stay in business.   Philly steaks from the place south east of there are not too bad.