This is a great enclosed park ideal for young kids or for solo parents watching multiple kids. Playground features include a huge sand area, a faux rock structure designed for little climbers, swings, a large play structure with multiple slides & the perfect climbing tree.

The non-playground part of the park features plenty of grass for running, kite flying and Frisbee throwing; there are also some basketball courts here outside the playground area.

A few things to know:
• Can get very crowded on weekends & weekday mornings.
• A few picnic tables are available outside the playground, but we prefer to picnic on a blanket on a grassy spot within the playground gates.
• No dogs allowed in the playground area.
• Restrooms are conveniently located adjacent to playground.

Malibu Bluffs Park is a 6-acre community park with baseball diamonds, a soccer field, a community center, a small enclosed play area, a small sand play area, a walking trail & a whale watching station PLUS access to several trails from the park’s edge down toward the beach.

Several picnic tables are scattered throughout the park; there’s also plenty of grassy space if you prefer to sit on the ground.

The Community Center hosts several classes and sports leagues, so the park is busy on weekends and late afternoons.

You could easily visit Malibu Bluffs Park just for the hiking. The 1.2-mile trail that begins at the edge of the parking lot loops around the entire park and offers stunning views of the Pacific the entire time.

Nestled in the heart of Malibu, Paradise Cove consists of a beach area and the thriving Paradise Beach Café. The beach is pristine, the tide pool discoveries plentiful and the views beyond magnificent – especially on a clear, sunny day. There’s also a pier here with views from Palos Verdes to Point Dume.

The catch here is that parking is a whopping $25. To avoid the hefty fee, spend at least $20 at the Café and you pay only $3 for 4 hours on the beach.

The wait for a table at the Café was 45 minutes when we arrived at lunch time, so we opted to order from the Paradise-to-Go menu, cutting our wait down significantly and allowing us to eat right on the sand.

We followed up with a long walk along the beach & some tide pool exploring.

A few tips for your visit:
• No dogs, surfboards, beach boat launching or BBQs
• Restrooms with showers are available beachside; Paradise Beach Café also has restrooms available for customers
• Crowds get plentiful on weekends & holidays; weekday or evening visits tend to be slower
• Beds, beach chairs & cabanas are available for rent

The 15-acre Legacy Park is a sort of central park in the heart of Malibu. There’s a flat path that meanders through the park, which features four important native coastal habitats – coastal prairies, coastal bluffs, Southern California native woodlands and riparian/wetland.

There are informational signs throughout the park providing education about local flora and fauna. There’s also a small outdoor amphitheater and beautiful mosaic animal sculptures scattered throughout.

Not that you needed any more reason to visit, but there’s also this: Legacy Park just happens to be an environmental cleaning machine – capable of capturing stormwater and urban runoff for treatment and disinfection, then reusing the clean water to irrigate the park.

While some of the more educational aspects may be lost on little ones, Legacy Park is a serene spot to enjoy some quiet time in nature. Consider it a nature playground! Put your bird watching skills to the test (we spotted a great egret), take a short “hike” around the park and play on the mosaic sculptures in the children’s area.

This is a great stand-alone outing, or you can combine it with a stop at the Malibu Country Mart’s playground or a visit to Malibu Lagoon State Beach just across Pacific Coast Highway

Oxnard Beach Park features a pirate-lover’s paradise of a play area. My kids (ages 6 & 2.5 when we visited) let their imaginations run wild investigating the cannons, steering the ship and dangling tummy side down on the swings.

But my favorite part of this park is its proximity to the beach. At the far end of the park, a short trail leads through the sand dunes down to the beach. Last year, the kids spent more time here than on the play structures. We searched for animal tracks, flowers, seashells, rocks and sea glass. The kids were content to play follow the leader until we had to drag them home for lunch.

This spot also makes a perfect place for kite flying and picnics.