{"id":193783,"date":"2026-02-25T22:55:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/193783\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:55:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:55:05","slug":"la-jolla-cove-ranked-no-1-beach-in-the-united-states-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/193783\/","title":{"rendered":"La Jolla Cove Ranked No. 1 Beach in the United States \u2014 Here&#8217;s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>     <img width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" alt=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  nitro-lazy- nitro-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/lajolla.com\/nitropack_static\/qjIMPjNnWKMPNOkdSPGMqXckjXGVLtvg\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-a8b7947\/lajolla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/la-jolla-cove-ranked-best-beach-in-the-us-2026-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image nitro-lazy\" decoding=\"async\" nitro-lazy-empty=\"\" id=\"MzQ3Ojg0NA==-1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;nitro-empty-id=MzQ3Ojg0NA==-1;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMTAyNCA1NzYiIHdpZHRoPSIxMDI0IiBoZWlnaHQ9IjU3NiIgeG1sbnM9Imh0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDAvc3ZnIj48L3N2Zz4=\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/booking.lajolla.com\/hotel\/list\/7128\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"122\" alt=\"\"  nitro-lazy- nitro-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/lajolla.com\/nitropack_static\/qjIMPjNnWKMPNOkdSPGMqXckjXGVLtvg\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-a8b7947\/lajolla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/book-la-jolla-hotels-1024x122.png\" class=\"wp-image-55774 nitro-lazy\" decoding=\"async\" nitro-lazy-empty=\"\" id=\"MzUxOjg2OA==-1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;nitro-empty-id=MzUxOjg2OA==-1;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMTAyNCAxMjIiIHdpZHRoPSIxMDI0IiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEyMiIgeG1sbnM9Imh0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDAvc3ZnIj48L3N2Zz4=\"\/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>La Jolla Cove, a popular piece of coastal shoreline in San Diego, was just ranked the top beach in the entire U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nitro-lazy\">Tripadvisor recently released its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.com\/TravelersChoice-Beaches\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">2026 Traveler\u2019s Choice Awards<\/a> \u201cBest of the Best Beaches\u201d listing, which ranked <a href=\"https:\/\/lajolla.com\/profiles\/la-jolla-cove\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">La Jolla Cove<\/a> as the top beach in the United States. Additionally, La Jolla Cove also ranked in the top 10 beaches in the entire world, coming in at No. 7, just head of La Pelosia in Sardinia, Italy.<\/p>\n<p>La Jolla Cove was one of only two California beaches that made the top 10 list in the U.S. The other contender, Santa Monica State Beach, came in at No. 9.<\/p>\n<p>According to Tripadvisor, La Jolla Cove nabbed the top spot because of \u201cits extraordinary marine biodiversity and year-round accessibility.\u201d Locals will know quite well that the beach is famous for its population of <a href=\"https:\/\/lajolla.com\/article\/la-jolla-cove-seals-8-things-need-know-before-visiting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">resident sea lions<\/a>, who use the area as a pupping habitat. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe water is calm enough for travelers to enjoy diving and snorkeling,\u201d the site wrote. \u201cWalk along the rocky shore to spot large colonies of sea lions lounging in their natural habitat and looking after their pups, and have a picnic while soaking up the views of the ocean from the cliffs at sunset. If you visit at low tide, you\u2019ll get to swim in the crystal clear tidal pools as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tripadvisor based its 2026 beach rankings solely on user-submitted reviews from Nov. 30, 2024 through Dec. 1, 2025. Rankings stem from both the quantity and quality of traveler reviews.<\/p>\n<p>Planning a trip to see the best beach in the country? Check out our complete guide to planning a <a href=\"https:\/\/lajolla.com\/article\/san-diego-vacation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">San Diego vacation<\/a>, including other tips, tricks, and activities so that you can soak up the sun in America\u2019s Finest City.<\/p>\n<p>Media credit: Image licensed from Adobe<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/lajolla.com\/author\/lajolla-com-news-team\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" alt=\"\" itemprop=\"image\" nitro-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/lajolla.com\/nitropack_static\/qjIMPjNnWKMPNOkdSPGMqXckjXGVLtvg\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-a8b7947\/lajolla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/mike-peterson-la-jolla.jpg\" content=\"https:\/\/lajolla.com\/nitropack_static\/qjIMPjNnWKMPNOkdSPGMqXckjXGVLtvg\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-a8b7947\/lajolla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/mike-peterson-la-jolla.jpg\" class=\"nitro-lazy\" decoding=\"async\" nitro-lazy-empty=\"\" id=\"Mzg0OjQwMg==-1\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;nitro-empty-id=Mzg0OjQwMg==-1;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgNTcxIDU3MSIgd2lkdGg9IjU3MSIgaGVpZ2h0PSI1NzEiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PC9zdmc+\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mike Peterson is a writer, editor, and strategist based in San Diego. When he\u2019s not writing and editing the La Jolla news, you can often find him practicing yoga, rock climbing, or exploring the outdoors with his wife and dog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Jolla Cove, a popular piece of coastal shoreline in San Diego, was just ranked the top beach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[930,971,74,76,75,90641],"class_list":["post-193783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-la-jolla","tag-lifestyle","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do-in-la-jolla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}