A Family Day Trip to Ventura #FamilyTravel

Posted on Aug 25, 2015 | 0 comments

We love day trips – especially during the summer. They are a great way to get out, try something new and explore without having to do a lot of planning or to put in a lot of travel time.

This past Sunday, we drove north to Ventura, a lovely town directly between LA and Santa Barbara in Southern California. There is a beautiful harbor in Ventura, a Pier, sandy gorgeous beaches (one with a pirate ship zip line and playground on the beach) and several yummy restaurants.

I wanted to do something a little different so we packed up the bikes, the beach chairs, the umbrella, the kid’s boards and drove to San Buenaventura State Beach Park for our family day trip to Ventura. It was $10 to park for the day. The lot was clean, the people seemed nice, I was comfortable here.

Hubby unloaded the bikes while I took the kids for a bathroom break. There are bathrooms here, they are what you would expect from a beach bathroom.

We put sunscreen and helmets on, made sure we had water and jumped on the paved bike path towards the Pier – where I planned to have lunch.

It was a blast riding bikes with my family with the beach on one side and train tracks on the other – which do make for fascinating entertainment! We decided to go all the way to the end before lunch so we passed under Ventura Pier and continued on.

On Our Family Day Trip To Ventura We Found

Lucky for us, Sundays are when the Art by the Sea faire takes place. From 10-4 local artists gather to sell their goods for reasonable prices just passed the Pier. I scored that beautiful shell necklace pictured above. So unique and I helped support a local artist – win/win!! My son picked a cool rope bracelet and Malibu Pipi bought a sweet little anklet with a charm that connects to her toe.

Back on the bikes to make it to the end turnabout! We made it all the way, then turned around and went back to the Pier for lunch. There is a playground on the beach, right next to the Pier, which is tons of fun. Today, we were all hungry and decided to eat first, then play! We locked our bikes together under the Pier and headed up.

On Our Family Day Trip To Ventura We Had Great Food!

There are two restaurants on this Pier. Beach House Tacos – which has the most amazing fish taco with ahi tuna that is out of this world good and Beach House Fish – a rustic fish market restaurant with incredible seafood dishes and great drinks. I have eaten at both and will happily go back to either at any time!

We decided it would be fun to sit on the upper back deck at the Beach House Fish Restaurant. The kids had delicious bowls of clam chowder and we shared a salad and crab and shrimp quesadilla that was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! Sooo good!

With full bellies, we went down to the beach playground, checking the bikes on the way! The kids played happily while hubby and I watched and had a few moments to be together. It was heavenly.

After a bit we decided to head back to the car and trade the bikes for our boards! It took us about 15 minutes to get from the Pier to the parking lot. As hubby stored the bikes, I took the kids to the bathrooms. Then we loaded up our beach gear and hit the sand.

San Buenaventura State Beach is a really nice beach with sand, lifeguards, plenty of room and perfect waves for kids to play in. We had a nice family swim, a walk to check out the rock piles and then the parents got a little rest on the beach while the kids played in the waves. We stayed for a few hours, then packed up and headed home.