My wife, 2 year old son and myself stayed here 24th July to 7th August and we had a great time. The apartment is on the second floor with a view of the sea (less than one block away) from the balcony. There are two chairs on the balcony that are good for people watching (and cold beer drinking) on the street outside going to and from the adjacent Tamarack Resort. The unit is very well equipped. The bed in the master bedroom is huge and comfortable. Lily, the owner, kindly provided a portable crib for my son which fitted into the second bedroom. All rooms have flatsceen TVs (including the huge TV in the lounge) with ATT U-Verse. This meant not only was there a good choice of channels, we could also record kids TV from Nick which kept my son happy when we were not out doing things. The kitchen is well stocked and the refrigerator is also pretty big. We did not really cook, but made our own breakfast most days which was nice. Never heard any noise from any other apartment, but we had no-one above.
The beach is less than five minutes walk. You are given a key to your own box and you have access to chairs, umbrellas, beach toys etc plus a cart to put them all in. The sea can be quite rough and near to the apartment the beach has a steep shelf which makes even paddling a little tricky for toddlers. We hopped in the car down the road (San Diego direction) to Tower 30 where it is much flatter with easier sea access, but you need to get there early to park. We were there by 9.00AM most days.
Carlsbad is a very nice place to wander around. There are a range of nice shops, restaurants and bars. We ate at Coyote Bar (nice ribs and live music) and Grill Vera Cruz Fish House (great Ohn fish), Harbor Fish Café (awesome salmon and fries) , KoKo Beach (cheap and good), 83 Degrees (good bar and nice food) and Pizza Port (had to wait along time as it was very busy, but nothing a pitcher of beer did not sort). We also had a nice dinner at Green Dragon Tavern & Museum - this is a short car ride out of town but worth the effort to see the small museum if you are interested in American History. We also had take out from Cessy's Taco Shop (excellent tacos) and Senor Grubby's (Philly cheesesteak burrito - divine!). We visited San Diego Zoo (tip get there before it opens for parking and by noon its really hot and go straight to Pandas to avoid crowds), SeaWorld (ditto about the parking and prepare to be ripped off $15 for the privilege), train trip to San Diego City from Carlsbad station for $11 per adult. We had trolley bus tour in San Diego and got off at the beautiful Coronado hotel, then got a free bus to Ferry Landing at Coronado and then caught a ferry back to San Diego. On our last day we also had boat trip around San Diego Bay with Hornblower Cruises and dinner at Kansas City Barbecue - this was featured in Top Gun and being a massive Top Gun fan I could not resist! - setting is great but food is pretty mediocre at best.
All in all a great holiday and thank you very much Lily (owner) and also for the late checkout!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.