Ocean views and blazing hot pizza in Carlsbad, California

An extended holiday weekend is the best time to plan a trip to San Diego, especially if you live in Orange and Los Angeles Counties. It’s far enough away where you feel like you’re on holiday and the drive has sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean for most of the way. The holiday traffic is also much lighter on a Friday night versus the stop and go (but mostly stop) traffic to Las Vegas. From North Orange County, you may catch a little traffic on the “Y” where the 5 and 405 freeways meet. After that, it’s pretty much smooth sailing until you reach your destination in San Diego County.

Carlsbad, California is a great place to stay with its abundance of hotels, timeshares, shopping, and restaurants. It’s a great base camp city with easy on and off access to the 5 freeway and amusement parks within 30 minutes east and south. Carlsbad Seapointe Resort is an excellent choice to stay with its ocean views and is so close to the beach you can hear the waves crashing on the sand. The rooms can be booked like hotel rooms or reserved with timeshare points if you are Grand Pacific Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacation Club members.

One Bedroom Villa can accommodate three to four people with a king or queen bed in the master bedroom and a queen sofa sleeper in the living room. Timeshares are a home away from home with kitchen, dining area, living room, and spacious bathroom. Kitchens come with full size refrigerator, oven and range, dishwasher, coffee maker, and are fully stocked with tableware, silverware, pots, pans, utensils, etc. for homemade meals and in-room dining. Compared to other timeshares, the appliances need a little updating, but a villa with an ocean view from the private patio may help you overlook that. The living room has a gas fireplace for the cool evenings by the ocean. Nothing makes you feel more like you’re at a resort when you see the towel animals. A sea turtle towel animal was patiently waiting on the bed. The master bedroom is a little small. The door from the bathroom to the bedroom could not be opened all of the way due bed. Luckily, the bathroom had two doors so the hallway doorway became the only useful entrance.

After settling in, you might be a little hungry. Fortunately, Carlsbad has a ton of restaurant choices from fast food to fine dining. On the other side of the 5 freeway, the Carlsbad Premium Outlets has a wide variety of food options as well. Blaze Pizza has been in this center since December 2013 and has been making build-your-own-pizzas and developing hard-working young adults from the Carlsbad community. These high school and college students are the friendliest, helpful, and team-playing workers you’ll ever see. Ruth Bentley along with her team at AP Franchise Group, which also own Blaze Pizza locations in Irvine and Cabazon, instill the working values in these young adults which will help them immensely in their future career endeavors.

Here are two pizza combinations you might like to try:

Pizza made with white sauce, all of the cheeses, salami, bacon, artichoke hearts, olives, roasted garlic, and chopped garlic. It has Greek and Italian flavors and meld well together. It’s a great option if you have any issues with tomatoes or tomato sauce due to the acidity. All of the cheeses might make your crust a little softer than usual but it still tastes wonderful. Rating: 5/5

Meat Eater pizza made with spicy red sauce, ham, salami, olives, sautéed onions, mushrooms, and roasted garlic. The supreme of supreme pizzas with just enough cheese and sauce peeking out. Yes, this is definitely a manly pizza – overly meaty with just enough vegetables to make mamma happy. Rating: 5/5

S’mores are a great way to end your Blaze Pizza experience. Warmed in the pizza oven until the chocolate and marshmallow starts to melt. Ooey, gooey goodness sandwiched between two McVitie’s wheatmeal biscuits. After one bite, you’ll want s’more! Rating: 4.5/5

Back at the timeshare, the night air was just right, not too hot and not too cold. With the patio door open, the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach sang an oceanic lullaby as an adventurous day is just a few hours away.

To see more photos, please visit OC Food Diva’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

For more information:

Blaze Pizza

5620 Paseo Del Norte

Carlsbad, CA 92008

760.804.9027

Hours: Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

This travel article series is dedicated to the author’s step dad who passed away while the author was on this trip.