What is a great private beach house to rent?

Where to rent a beach house in San Diego?

• I always go to the east coast for beach vacations but I need to be in Los Angeles right after the first of the year so I'm thinking I'll cruise down to San Diego for a couple weeks. I need help choosing an area to rent an oceanfront house. What I'm looking for is a quiet, laid back, residential type beach with no road between the house and beach. Not looking for anything large or elaborate, not looking to be entertained or in the middle of things. I guess "quaint" is what I'm going for. If you're familiar with Garden City or Pawley's Island (South Carolina), or Vilano beach in St Augustine then you'll know what I mean. Does anything like this exist in SoCal? How cold will it be in January? Any guidance will be greatly appreciated!

• Answer:

  Most of the west coast is cliffs and rocks so beachfront property is at a premium. What you are describing breaks into two categories. Places like Mission Beach which is almost all seasonal rentals and party animals, and extremely expensive multimillion dollar beachfront homes like in La Jolla (where Mitt Romney bought his $12 million tear-down that he's installing a car elevator in). If you find 'quaint' and "laid back" on the beach, it will come with a hefty price tag. Since it is off season, South Mission Beach might have a few beach front houses available and the party animals are gone for the winter. The area is interesting. It's on a peninsula so there are small walkways and courts that have tiny houses on them. It's like a rabbit warren. You are literally steps from the sand. There is a strand (boardwalk) that runs the entire 3 mile length of both Mission and Pacific beach. It's a great place to walk, run, bike or skate. There is also a bike route that runs all along west Mission Bay and the ocean.. http://www.missionbeachonline.com/ Almost all beaches in California are public access so you find very few with no road in front of them. The places that are single family are in very wealthy communities, the rest are condos and apartments. If you want to rent a house NEAR the beach, Pacific Beach is your best bet. It's an upper middle class neighborhood that's a mixture of single family homes, apartments, and condos. Ocean Beach and Imperial Beach are more the druggie, homeless, drunken beach bum scene. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/neighborhoods/pacific-beach/ January is the rainy season but when there is no winter storm it can be sunny in the upper 70's inland. The beach will always be cool in the 50s to low 60s. At night the temperatures can drop into the 40s. The west coast had a northern current so the ocean temperature is never more than the high 60s, even in the summer. In January you don't go in the water without a wet suit.