What to See in Encinitas - Top Sights and Attractions

Botanical garden in Encinitas, California. The San Diego Botanic Garden, formerly Quail Botanical Gardens, is a botanical garden in Encinitas, California, United States. At 37 acres, the garden includes rare bamboo groves, desert gardens, a tropical rainforest, California native plants, Mediterranean climate landscapes, and a subtropical fruit garden. The name of the facility was changed in 2009 to better reflect the garden's status as a regional attraction.

Located 30 minutes north of San Diego in Encinitas, California, San Diego Botanic Garden features numerous exhibits, including rare bamboo groves, desert gardens, a tropical rainforest, California native plants, Mediterranean climate landscapes, succulent gardens, an herb garden, firesafe landscaping, a subtropical fruit garden, and native coastal sage natural areas. The Hamilton Children's Garden was opened in June 2011, the largest interactive children's garden on the West Coast.

Until 1957 the gardens were the private estate of Ruth Baird Larabee, at which time she donated her house and grounds to the County of San Diego. The Quail Botanical Gardens Foundation was established in 1961. In March 1970, the Quail Botanic Garden opened as a public botanic garden. The name was changed in 2009 to San Diego Botanic Garden.

Today the gardens include over 5,000 varieties of plants from all over the world including tropical, subtropical, and California native plants. Collections include a tropical plant exhibit in the Dickinson Family Education Conservatory (opened in 2020), the climate-based gardens for the New World and Old World Desert, Coastal sage scrub, Sub-Tropical Fruit, a Pinetum, a Palm Canyon, as well as geographically organized gardens for Africa, Australia, Arid Madagascar Garden, Arid South America, the Canary Islands, Cape South Africa, Central America, the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, New Zealand, the Pan-Tropical Rainforest with a 60-foot waterfall.

Plant varieties include fuchsias, hibiscus, bamboos, proteas, cacti and succulents, as well as other drought-resistant plants including Australian shrubs. Herbs, water plants, wildflowers, perennials, brugmansias, cork oaks, and palms are also featured.

Of particular interest is the maturing Cork Oak (Quercus suber) forest. Paths wind through a cluster of twisted and majestic Cork Oaks. Cork Oaks groves in other parts of the world are still harvested for their cork (bark) that is used in for corks placed in wine bottles, as well as for purses, jewelry and wallets.^[1]

Museum in Encinitas, California. San Dieguito Heritage Museum is a history museum in Encinitas, California, in the United States. Founded in 1988, the museum displays historical photographs and artifacts from Encinitas and the entire San Dieguito area.

San Dieguito historically comprises seven communities: Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Del Mar, Encinitas, Leucadia, Olivenhain, Rancho Santa Fe, and Solana Beach in the North County area of San Diego County and their adjacent areas, including parts of southern Carlsbad and northwestern San Diego.

The museum is a nonprofit organization that is primarily staffed by volunteers with limited paid staff. The museum is supported by contributions from its members and the wider community at large. In 1993, the museum published San Dieguito Heritage by Maura Wiegand (ISBN 9780963592606). In 1998, the San Dieguito Heritage Museum received a $5,000 challenge grant from the Thomas C. Ackerman Foundation. In 2007, the Rotarians helped the museum spruce up its new location.

In May 2008, the museum opened a ground-breaking new exhibit on skateboarding in the San Dieguito area. It was the first exhibit of its kind in southern California. The most recent exhibit is the Bumann Ranch Exhibit. It will celebrate the placement of the Bumann Ranch on the National Register of Historic Places and the contributions of the Bumanns to record and preserve the history of the Colony of Olivenhain in the San Dieguito region.

The museum regularly provides visiting third-grade school groups with a special local history tour geared to their state-mandated curriculum. Many other tours and programs are available by request. Several special events, including an old-fashioned community barbecue, are held during the year.^[2]

Beach in Encinitas, California. Swami's is an area in San Diego County that contains Swami's Beach and other local attractions. The beach, also known as "Swami’s Reef'" and "Swamis", is an internationally known surfing spot, a point break located in Encinitas, San Diego County, California. Swami's was named after Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, because the grounds and hermitage of the Self-Realization Fellowship ashram, built in 1937, overlook this reef point. The name "Swami's" is also given to the sand beach that extends south from the point to the next beach access point, which is next to the San Elijo State Beach camping area; this more southerly surf spot often goes by the name "Pipes".

Originally the name "Swami's" was an unofficial nickname that surfers had given to the point break, but eventually the name was adopted officially, and also used as the name of the cliff-top park, which was previously known as "Seacliff Roadside Park".^[6]

Historical landmark in Encinitas, California. The Olivenhain Town Meeting Hall is a community meeting house located at 423 Rancho Santa Fe Rd. in Olivenhain, California. The wood frame building was constructed from 1894 to 1895 by the settlers of Olivenhain. The residents of Olivenhain used the building for nearly all community functions, including political meetings, agricultural discussions, weddings, and community dances. Almost every important event in the community's history took place in the hall, and one author called the building "the nerve center of Olivenhain". An annex was added to the hall in 1916, using redwood from a second meeting hall which had fallen into disrepair.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 17, 1993.^[7]