Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → San Diego Area → San Diego Coast → La Jolla Sea Caves

Location: La Jolla, central coast of San Diego

Time Required: 1 – 3 hours

Red Tape/Notes: Access to Sunny Jim Cave via the Cave Store is available from 9 or 10am (depending on the day) to 5:30pm and costs $5 for adults. Visit The Cave Store website for more details. La Jolla Kayak offers kayak, SUP, and snorkel gear rentals, all of which provide opportunities to visit the caves by sea. You can also take a tour with La Jolla Sea Cave Kayaks, but they won’t guarantee that you’ll get to enter the caves.

What’s Nearby?: Miramar Air Show, Gliderport, Sandtrap Canyon

There are a few different ways to visit the sea caves in La Jolla. The easiest and quickest way to visit one is to head over to La Jolla Cove and go to The Cave Store, where you can descend the tunnel (made in 1902 and 1903 by two poor guys who chipped away at the rock by hand using a pick and shovel all that time…at least they had each other for conversation, I guess) and enter the Sunny Jim Cave.

You can also rent kayaks or paddle boards and access the caves via water, although you’re often not allowed to enter the caves with your kayak or paddle board, so you’d have to leave someone behind and then snorkel over. Alternatively, you can just go ahead and snorkel over to the caves and then you’re free to explore on your own without being encumbered with stuff.

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Southern California → San Diego Area → San Diego Coast → La Jolla Sea Caves