Here is my two cents... I put one in the baja-step and five in the deck during our construction. The ones in the deck may be used for volleyball. The ones with the caps look good, are intended for the purpose, and are not expensive, as noted earlier. We put a hole in the bottom of the ones in the deck with some rock below to prevent water accumulation. As long as the cost is not too much, put them in. Even if you never use them it is better to have the choice since you are not likely to spend the money and go through the hassle after the pool is completed. Here is a link that might be useful: Pool Forum (my blog)

In our first pool, the baja shelf was at the second step level. I used a sturdy plastic "adirondack" type chair, which worked well. At 5'3", the water came just to my waist while seated in the chair. We are getting ready to build our second pool and this time I'm putting the baja shelf at the first step level. I'm looking for more of a "beach entry" area without the look of a true beach entry. One thing you may want to consider is the type of automatic pool cleaner you'll be using. (If having the pool cleaner actually clean the baja shelf is important to you.) In our first pool the Hayward Phantom would go up on the shelf with no problem. I'm not sure what kind of luck I'm going to have with it on the first step. Hope that was helpful!

I spent a lot of time on this same question 2 years ago when we were deciding. I ended up going with the baja shelf. I'm happy with the outcome. The reasons I went with the shelf: 1. You probably need more space for the beach entry than the beach entry because you need room for the gradual sloping. We have have a 6 ft self and I think it was something like 9 ft needed for the beach entry. 2. There weren't all that many examples of beach entries and our builder admitted they'd only done one other one. 3. I saw one and was concerned it might be a little unstable for my parents who like to come visit and swim. 4. The beach was $2,500 more than the baja shelf. 5. Pebblesheen wasn't recommended for being out of the water, but Pebbletec seemed to be ok. The one thing I kind of wish I looked into more would be having the sandstone on the shelf. I've seen a couple of those and I think they look nice. Hope this helps. Donna

Hi mthlvr! Yes, you certainly can have both and a year later I have not regretted it for a minute. And believe me, I've second guessed and regretted almost every other thing about our pool......I love the beach entry/shelf. Honestly, I'd go a bit smaller with the shelf if I had it to over, but other than that I wouldn't change a thing. I LOVE that it's all stone. We get bookoos of compliments on that part and I enjoy the look of the shelf so much year round. We haven't had any issues with the stone on the shelf either. At the time we did it the PB had us decrease the actualy beach edge to minimize the slope and I was kind of hoping for more of the beach edge along the pool edge. Now I'm glad we have lot of "baja shelf" edge to sit and enjoy the shelf. Win/win for our needs/likes! Hope this helps! Here are some pics: