We love Carlsbad and we love to show it off

The Flower Fields are truly unique to Carlsbad. The seasonal blooming of the giant Tecolote Ranunculus flowers herald the arrival of spring in Southern California, and has become a part of the local heritage. Tour the All American Rose Garden, the world famous Ecke Poinsettia Greenhouse and enjoy an exciting tractor ride that is fun for the whole family, young and old. The Flowers Fields is the only commercial ranunculus field in the world that is open to the public.

The Museum of Making Music is an interactive, walk-through lesson in the history of American music since the 1890s. Whether you listened to Louis Armstrong, Elvis, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones or KISS, this unique museum will enchant. you. The museum puts the music industry into historical context, exploring and explaining the connection between making history and making music.

SEA LIFE Aquarium is more than a standard aquarium, SEA LIFE™ Aquarium provides an educational and interactive dynamic unlike any other. Featuring play zones, fun facts and quiz trails, SEA LIFE is designed to be a child's interactive guide to the life of the sea.

The Gemological Institute of America - World Headquarters' campus sits on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean with a spectacular view. The jewel of the campus is the world's largest crystal octahedron that sits atop the 55-foot Tower of Brilliance. The one-ton octahedron was custom designed for and donated to GIA by D. Swarovski & Co. At sunset each day, shimmering crystals in a rainbow of colors light up the evening sky.

The Army and Navy Academy was established in 1936. A college preparatory military, residential and day school for young men grades 7 through 12. The campus is situated on 16 acres of beautiful beachfront property adjacent to Carlsbad Village. A massive Moreton Bay Fig tree, one of more than 100 historic trees identified in the Village, dominates the campus grounds.

The Barrio Museum is dedicated to celebrating the contributions of early agricultural workers to the life and growth of Carlsbad.

K1 Speed lets you experience the thrill of indoor kart racing. Fast, fun, competitive and exciting, this new sport entertainment has an authentic European Motorsport feeling. K1 Speed is the largest indoor karting facility on the west coast and features the finest Italian electric Pro Karts with 20-horsepower engines.

Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park was once part of the original 2,538-acre working rancho and vacation retreat of Leo Carrillo, who acted in almost 100 films and co-starred in the TV series The Cisco Kid. The historic ranch is an extraordinary educational and recreational resource. The City of Carlsbad has restored many of the buildings on this 27-acre parcel, located at the bottom of a lushly landscaped canyon. Structures include a visitors center, the main hacienda, reflecting pool, cabaña, cantina, carriage house, tack shed, stable, barn and foundry and equipment shed.

New Village Arts is Carlsbad's award-winning professional theatre. Now beginning its seventh season of plays, New Village Arts has become known for outstanding ensemble work and intensely thrilling productions. Founded by graduates of the Actors Studio Drama School, New Village celebrates the power and passion of the artist in an intimate indoor space, and then brings the show outdoors for the Free Shakespeare in the Park in August.

The Magee House is home to the Carlsbad Historical Society's museum and archives. The house ifs furnished in a turn-of-the-century style reflecting the life of the early settlers who once owned the home. Displays explore the area's agricultural community and the historical gardens include a nationally registered Rose Garden.

The Arizona Eastern Railway built the Carlsbad depot in 1887. The depot also served as a telegraph office, post office, Wells Fargo Express Office and general store. Purchased by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in 1905, the depot also became a shipping point for locally grown fruit, vegetables and flowers. The beautiful, historic structure is now playing its third role. After being closed in 1960, it was deeded to the city and now serves as the Visitor Information Center, providing information and assistance to Carlsbad's visitors.

What's in a name?

Shortly after settlers began moving into the area, retired sea captain John Frazier set about drilling a well on his homestead. He struck not drinking water and not oil but mineral water. Laboratory tests revealed the water to have the same mineral properties as the famously therapeutic baths in Karlsbad, Bohemia (now a part of the Czech Republic). So Frazier borrowed the name - with a slightly Americanized spelling change.

Frazier began graciously offering cool sips to thirsty travelers passing through on the train and these waters also became famous for their apparent healing powers.

After three years, Frazier sold his well to German immigrant Gerhard Schutte. Showing a more aggressive business sense, Schutte promptly established the California Land and Mineral Water Company, built a new 100-room hotel and began touting the fledgling town as "the greatest seaside sanatorium on the Pacific coast - blessed with mineral wells which affect astonishing cures in remarkably brief periods."

In 1887 Schutte also built himself a spacious mansion. After Schutte's time, this became known as one of Carlsbad's Twin Inns. Today it houses Ocean House Restaurant.

The Great Depression of the 1930s saw a distinct downturn in business. The Carlsbad Mineral Springs Hotel went bankrupt and the famous mineral well was capped. It remained inoperative for some 60 years, until, in 1994, a new well was drilled, and the elegant Alt Karlsbad Mineral Water Day Spa opened in the beautiful European-style Karlsbad Hanse House on the site of the original well.

Carlsbad was a city of 300 at the start of the 20th century. Today, the population is more than 90,000. Even with this growth, many of the valleys and hillsides remain undeveloped and delightfully wild. The friendly small-town atmosphere prized and marketed by Schutte remains a feature of Carlsbad's historic downtown. These unique features, combined with the welcoming friendliness of Carlsbad's residents, makes this city what it has been for more than a century – a visitor's paradise.

The Crossings at Carlsbad

Designed by Greg Nash and managed by Kemper Sports, The Crossings is situated on 400 acres of undisturbed land and features two distinct nines. The front nine offers ocean views and the back nine a more canyon-style course. The course opened on August 11, 2007 and is one of the most complete high-end golf facilities in Southern California. The city's municipal course features a state-of-the-art practice area and a driving range with advanced synthetic turf technology. The hitting stations are situated in one continuous line on the turf instead of the usual individual mats. The golf carts have been fitted with Global Positioning System devices that will not only advise players on how to shoot each hole, but will also help them order lunch.

Four Seasons Resort Aviara Golf Club

Honored in 2008 as Condé Nast Traveler's number one golf resort in Southern California, Four Seasons Resort Aviara Golf Club offers superb golf facilities. The Arnold Palmer designed course is sculpted around natural topography, with water hazards positioned as visual extensions of the lagoon. The club includes a 32,000-square-foot (3,000-square-metre), two-storey Spanish colonial clubhouse with a complete golf shop.

La Costa Resort and Spa, A Legend Among Carlsbad Golf Resorts

When you walk the fairways at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, CA you are following the same paths that the legends of the game have travelled for more than 30 years. The two PGA Championship 18-hole golf courses are both beautiful and traditional in design, providing a formidable challenge to a golfers' shotmaking ability, both off the tee, and around the greens. Plus four sets of tees provide a golf course length for all players to enjoy.

But to truly appreciate these legendary golf courses, you have to tee it up and experience them firsthand. Then and only then will you understand why La Costa is beloved as a golf resort with a rich history. La Costa Resort and Spa also provides exceptional golf instruction, including the La Costa Golf Academy and Golf Flexibility classes with Roger Fredericks.

In the Fall-Winter of 1996/97 the California Coastal Rose Society undertook with the City of Carlsbad a renovation of the old rose garden at the Magee House. The flowerbeds and rose gardens had been designed and put in place by the city in the mid 1970s. The society had been meeting monthly in Heritage Hall in Magee Park for a number of years and proposed free ongoing rental use of the facility in exchange for the society renovating, planting and maintaining the old rose garden in future years. Roses were solicited and received from a California grower. About 2 to 3 dozen new roses were added to a few older remnant bushes in the garden.

As the bushes were leafing out in the spring of 1997 Ivy Bodin joined the CCRS and asked to be allowed to supervise the maintenance of the garden. He led the CCRS volunteers through 5 years of garden maintenance adding a significant number of roses to the two-part garden. With a special interest in heritage roses he added many of these varieties and created a separate garden of heritage and shrub roses to represent many varieties of rose classes. He also enhanced the separate modern rose garden, adding classic varieties of Hybrid Teas and Floribundas as well as minis and polyanthus to the collection. He, other CCRS members and the general public made rose bush contributions to the collection over those years.

In conjunction with the Carlsbad Arboretum Foundation, which gardened in the front of Magee House, CCRS worked with the other group to reclaim the abandoned flowerbeds surrounding the old historical house. Roses and other plants were added and as well roses were added to the old Red Barn behind the house in the park.

In 2001 the collection came to represent about 121 varieties of rose bushes in the Modern and Old rose/Shrub rose gardens up from an original 40 or so. Fifteen rose families are represented with 26 Hybrid Teas, 4 Grandifloras, 24 Floribundas, 10 Miniatures, 7 Polyanthus, 13 Shrubs (including David Austin English garden roses), 8 Chinas, 6 Teas, 4 Species, 4 Rugosas, 4 Hybrid Musks, 4 Noisettes and 1 Moss, 1 Bourbon, 1 Portland, 1 Damask and 1 Alba.

At the end of 2002 Ivy retired as garden director at Magee and Brenda Pollock Landers assumed directorship, assisted greatly by Joe Smith an original member of the garden. She implemented a significant addition of a mini rose collection to the garden in an ideal location near the old house.

The Craftsman cottage was built from pre-cut lumber, ordered from a mid-Western catalog of pre-designed homes. It is still standing today . When its owner, Florence Shipley Magee died, she left the house and land (about 5 acres) in 1974 to the City of Carlsbad to be used as a park and historical museum. The Carlsbad Historical Society now uses the house.

The Magee House has been recently repainted and repaired and glows with all the newly maintained color of plants at its sides. This is a worthwhile stop on Historical Highway 101 for anyone interested in history and plants, to experience one of Carlsbad's oldest structures located one block from the Pacific Ocean in a beautiful park setting.

Our Beaches

Carlsbad's seven miles of beaches offer plenty of space to get your "toes in the sand." Beachgoers can choose between the Carlsbad State Beach, South Carlsbad State Beach and the Carlsbad City Beach. Grab a surfboard, a body board, a sand pail and shovel or just bare feet on the sand, the beaches are fun in Carlsbad.

The Lagoons

Two spectacular lagoons border Carlsbad, Buena Vista to the north and Batiquitos to the south and Agua Hedionda in between. Buena Vista and Batiquitos are major way stations for birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway providing a safe haven for a wide variety of wildlife. The lagoons are popular sites for birding, nature walks and photography. Agua Hedionda is available for year-round recreational use for boating, skiing, kayaking canoeing, and fishing. It is also home to the Hubbs/Seaworld White Sea Bass Hatchery and Carlsbad Aquafarm, a commercial mussel-farming operation.

Hiking and Walking Trails

The Carlsbad Trail System includes varied routes through a mix of open hills covered with native chaparral, sheltered paths through a forest of stately eucalyptus, a quiet lagoon walk or panoramic beach front walks.