San Diego Travel Forum

What areas of San Diego should a Midwest Rural Family avoid?
This trip will be Mom and 3 older kids. Need something safe, clean, and close to a beach.

Most of the bad areas are south of I-8. When you do go south of I-8, make sure you are to the west of Park Blvd. Don't go south of I-94 unless you are taking the freeway to Coronado island or Mexico.

The above paragraph is a generalization ( and is sure to offend someone ) , but it will keep you away from 99% of the areas you want to avoid.

Thank you so much. It is appreciated.

Though I'm not actually offended, I'd say that HB's assessment is a gross misrepresentation in general, as most of that area is residential and not on the tourist's path. Also, a moot point, because you are interested in a beach area.

As an example, Imperial Beach is south of I-94 and it is safe enough for a family, it might even be a more comfortable spot as it hasn't much in the way of pretentions and offers a small town beach community feel.

Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach are much more popular as tourist havens and mostly higher in price, for hotel or restaurant, but there are more dangers (drugs and other things that come along with larger crowds) for older kids who might not be supervised as well as a smaller child would be.

Take a look at my Imperial Beach, Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach pages if you'd like to see for yourself which might appeal to you more.

"... I'd say that HB's assessment is a gross misrepresentation in general, as most of that area is residential and not on the tourist's path. "

Linda, the fact that you mention IB as an apparent counter-example suggests that you missed my point. I'm not trying to separate SD into safe and non-safe areas with one line.

The original poster asked what areas she should avoid. I offered a quick easy-to-follow general rule that allows one to avoid 99% of the bad areas. The rule does not say that all of the areas beyond that line are bad.

Logically, this is like following the rule that one should throw out fish after you've had in the fridge for a week. Sure, you'll throw away some perfectly good food. But it will save you from 99% of the possible cases of food poisoning.

If the original poster had asked how to avoid food poisoning from fish, I would have quoted the one-week rule. If she askes how to avoid bad areas, I quote the 8/Park/94 line. It's simple. It works.

Perhaps we can work together on this: I suggest a simple rule that will keep the original poster out of most trouble areas; you can fill in details on particular places to go, and catch the exceptions to my suggestion?


Anyway...back to addressing the original poster...IMHO, sure Imperial Beach is safe; a little too far away from the touristy parts for my recomendation, but a decent place to stay.