Camping at Carpinteria State Beach

Ever since our trip to Santa Barbara, we've talked about Camping at Carpinteria State Beach. During that trip we visited Carpinteria for an afternoon and loved the area. We stopped by Island Brewing and took the kids to play at the Tomol Interpretive Play Area. It's right by the train and you can see the ocean views. I found out their state beach is walking distance to this fun little area and knew we had to book it. Our entire California Coastal Vacay was planned around stopping in Carpinteria. Camping at Carpinteria State Beach is a must for anyone who loves to camp on the beach, walk to restaurants and explore a fun coastal town. 

Carpinteria State Beach Campground

There are all sorts of types of camp spots at Carpinteria. Some spots are very close together, parking lot style. Others have lots of space with picnic tables and room to move around. We lucked out with a great spot #C224. I found an awesome website that will show you a larger photo of specific camp spots, called Campsite Photos. The photo below is the view from our campsite. We could see the ocean and walk right over to the beach. 
      
   

I love that this campground has so many fun junior ranger activities for the kids. They learned a lot about ocean life and the history of the area. We did a scavenger hunt throughout the whole campground. They were able to earn stickers, a badge and create drawings of the sea life. 

The ocean at Carpinteria was great for boogie boarding. We parked it in the sand while the kids swam for hours. 

Exploring Carpinteria

We went to quite a few places in just a few days, but I'll share our favorites that you must visit while exploring Carpinteria. The Tomol Interpretive Play Area is an awesome playground / play area for kids. The playground has a lot of unique areas for the kids to explore. There are also signs with information about the Chumash and sea life. We could walk or ride bikes to the play area from our campsite. We also rode bikes into town while exploring the shops and eateries. 

My favorite surf shop in the area is Rincon Designs Surf Shop by Matt Moore. I really loved the t-shirt designs here.  We all got a shirt and James got a fun game for the beach. 

We already knew we loved Island Brewing, so we came back twice! They have awesome beers and even a seltzer now.  The kids loved that they had games to play and they enjoyed a soda. Their location has indoor seating with a large opening to the patio seating. You can view the train and the ocean from your seat. 

We made sure to get a photo of the four of us at Island Brewing. 

For dinner, we really enjoyed Teddy's By the Sea. They had awesome drinks, seafood like Cioppino and the kids loved the kids menus. Kyla had salmon and James had the Mac and Cheese. We enjoyed Rori's Ice Cream for dessert. 

We celebrated the 4th of July while we were there and had fun with sparklers. We had a blast camping at Carpinteria and will be sure to go back again.

Let me know in the comments if you've been or have any questions about Carpinteria! xo, Bri