Vacations Blog

A pet friendly vacation should be about what’s best for your pet. There is nothing a dog in the city loves more than to lose the leash and go nuts. Like, in a park or on the beach. This is where San Diego wins by a mile and a leash. And then some.

Dog Beach at Ocean Beach – Located at the north end of Ocean Boulevard, at the west end of the San Diego River Floodway, where the river meets the Pacific Ocean, the 38 acres of sandy Dog Beach has been a happy no-leash zone for dogs for the last 30 years. Much as kid-friendly hotels free parents to do their thing, Dog Beach frees pet owners to just sit back and watch their dogs go crazy running up and down in the sand and water.

Once your dog has had his fill of sand and fun, there’s a dog wash facility nearby where you can hose off your dog so you don’t carry along all the sand and other ‘unknowns’ your dog picked upf rom the beach.

Dog Parks at Balboa Park – There’s 3 leash-free zones, or dog parks, at Balboa Park – on Balboa Dr. at El Prado, Nate’s Point, south side of Cabrillo Bridge; Morley Field, northwest of tennis courts; and on Grape Street (in South Park, on the edge of Balboa Park). Details, regulations and time limits here.

Poway Dog Park – An award-winning 1.75-acre fenced-in, lighted, off-leash area for dogs within the City of Poway’s Community Park. It seems the dogs at Poway’s dog park play, run, sniff, “exchange mail,” and chase each other in carefree games of tag in three separate, spacious areas. And they even have a Dog Day with neat contests like best pet costume, best pet trick, and largest and smallest pets. More details here.

There’s a lot more places and beaches where you can unleash your dog, but time and space are limited, so here’s a full list of leash free locations in San Diego. Oh, and here’s a list of pet friendly San Diego hotels.

Photo by bookish in north park via flickr (creative commons).