Eco-Friendly Things to Do in Encinitas

North of the city and south of Los Angeles, Encinitas has been getting things right for decades. Here's how to spend 48 hours in one of California's most quietly exceptional coastal towns.

Encinitas doesn't try very hard to impress visitors, and this is exactly what makes it impressive. The town — about thirty miles north of downtown San Diego, perched on sandstone bluffs above some of the county's most consistent surf — has long attracted people who prefer to live well over living loudly. It has more yoga studios per capita than almost anywhere in California. It has a farmers market that operates year-round and is, by the admission of people who visit farmers markets all over the world, exceptionally good.

It also has an ocean that Encinitas residents treat with genuine reverence rather than the performative environmentalism that characterises coastal California at its worst. What follows is a considered guide to spending time here in a way that leaves the place better than you found it.

Surf with a Conscience

Swamis — named for the Self-Realization Fellowship temple that sits on the cliff above it — is among the most reliably consistent point breaks in Southern California and, by unspoken local agreement, one of the most respectfully managed. Several operators offer lessons from the beach below, among them a collective that uses boards made from sustainably sourced blanks and bio-based resin, and recycles all wetsuits at end-of-life.

If you already surf, rent a board rather than shipping yours. Local shapers make equipment appropriate to the break; the supply chain is short, the quality is high, and the money stays in the community. The season for clean, manageable waves runs from September through February, with groundswells producing the best conditions.

The Encinitas Farmers Market

Sunday mornings, on the closed-off section of Coast Highway 101, the Encinitas Farmers Market operates with the quiet authority of something that doesn't need to explain itself. It has been running since the early 1990s. The produce vendors are predominantly local — San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties — and the quality is high. Look for the Windmill Farms booth (strawberries and stone fruit, grown seven miles away) and the Chino Farm collective stand (specialty vegetables of the kind that appear on menus at restaurants in Los Angeles and New York).

“The market is the town's living room. The produce is exceptional, but what matters more is who you bump into while you're there.”

— Local vendor at Encinitas Farmers Market

Walk the Coastal Rail Trail

The San Diego Coastal Rail Trail runs for 44 miles between Oceanside and downtown San Diego, much of it through Encinitas. The section between Leucadia and Cardiff-by-the-Sea passes behind the bluffs and through native coastal sage scrub — a plant community that, once widespread across Southern California, is now found only in fragments. Interpretive signs explain what you're seeing; if you're lucky with the timing, you'll catch the sage flowering between February and May.

Stay Longer, Spend Local

• ✓Book accommodation through a local host rather than a chain property — several Encinitas families rent cottages within walking distance of the beach
• ✓Eat at least one meal at a restaurant that sources from the farmers market you visited
• ✓The Self-Realization Fellowship hermitage gardens on K Street are open to the public on weekdays — few people know this
• ✓Bike the Coast Highway 101 rather than driving — most distances in town are under two miles
• ✓Leave the beach exactly as you found it. The locals notice, and they appreciate it more than you might expect