Best Beach?

[JunieJay]

I'm looking for the quintessential California beach experience...big waves, surfers, The Beach Boys, Gidget. Does such a thing still exist, and if so, where is it? Planning a week trip to So. California next year. We own a beach house on the Atantic Ocean so we don't want to spend too much time beach bound, just a day or two to really capture the feel of the typical West Coast beaches (or at least the California beaches in our minds, i.e., from TV and movies). My kids will be 10 and 13 when we go and DH and I are in our 40s. DH and my kids are novice surfers and are interested in seeing how the pros do it. TIA!

 

[tracys2cents]

I don't think that such a place still exists, but Lagunariviera.com is a great place to stay with your family. What time of year are you going?

Landing in San Diego or Orange County and then driving up to San Francisco is a great family vacation, a couple of nights beachside here and there on the way up then a couple of nights in San Fran, fly home from San Fran.
(still qualifies as a "round trip" ticket price!)

 

[Another Voice]

Hermosa Beach by the pier.

The city is south of LAX in an area called the South Bay. The entire beach is lined with a pedestrian walk named The Strand - it is always filled with joggers, bikers, rollerbladers and people actually walking (it's still L.A. after all). Homes are built right up to the strand. The street up from the pier is now a pedestrian area filled with restaurants and shops. The beach is filled with volleyball courts, the waves are covered with surfers.

The strand itself stretches south to Redondo Beach, but the best walk is north towards Manhattan Beach. MB is more upscale then HB and looses some of the "beach town" atmosphere. For note - the stand takes a jog around a large house. That house was the beach house from the old 'Beverly Hills 90210' TV series.

Other areas are nice, but they lack the “Gidget” feeling you get in the South Bay. Santa Monica is very urban, Venice is a planet on its own and no one is welcome in Malibu. Huntington Beach and Newport Beach are probably better beaches, but again, they lack the real “beach town” feeling (too much suburbia). Laguna Beach is an upscale artist colony.

 

[cotomom]

I'd vote for San Clemente, down by the Pier Bowl area.

 

[Beth76]

I just opened the sticky at the top "Other things to do......", there was a lot of info about area beaches.

 

[JunieJay]

Hermosa Beach by the pier.

The city is south of LAX in an area called the South Bay. The entire beach is lined with a pedestrian walk named The Strand - it is always filled with joggers, bikers, rollerbladers and people actually walking (it's still L.A. after all). Homes are built right up to the strand. The street up from the pier is now a pedestrian area filled with restaurants and shops. The beach is filled with volleyball courts, the waves are covered with surfers.

The strand itself stretches south to Redondo Beach, but the best walk is north towards Manhattan Beach. MB is more upscale then HB and looses some of the "beach town" atmosphere. For note - the stand takes a jog around a large house. That house was the beach house from the old 'Beverly Hills 90210' TV series.

Other areas are nice, but they lack the “Gidget” feeling you get in the South Bay. Santa Monica is very urban, Venice is a planet on its own and no one is welcome in Malibu. Huntington Beach and Newport Beach are probably better beaches, but again, they lack the real “beach town” feeling (too much suburbia). Laguna Beach is an upscale artist colony.

Thank you, that gives me a really good place to start my research.

To the poster who asked when we are going, we are considering a spring or summer 2008 trip - which time of the year is better and why? We'd like to start in San Fran and work our way down to San Diego, but don't have the vacation time to really pull that off properly. I'd like to concentrate on Southern California since we will only have about 5 or 6 full days.

(btw, Beth, I saw that thread after I started this thread....lots of info here, and I never even knew this board existed!!)

 

[Beth76]

(btw, Beth, I saw that thread after I started this thread....lots of info here, and I never even knew this board existed!!)

Isn't it great? We're planning on going to SoCal right after memorial day next year. I'm trying to cram all this stuff into one trip. I'd love to spend the day in Santa Monica or someplace similar and see the Hollywood sign, go to Beverly Hills but I just don't think it's feasible with the kids in tow. Unless maybe we make it a 2 week trip. There's just too much to see between San Diego and LA. I'm not even thinking about San Francisco this trip.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I'm looking for the quintessential California beach experience...big waves, surfers, The Beach Boys, Gidget. Does such a thing still exist, and if so, where is it? Planning a week trip to So. California next year. We own a beach house on the Atantic Ocean so we don't want to spend too much time beach bound, just a day or two to really capture the feel of the typical West Coast beaches (or at least the California beaches in our minds, i.e., from TV and movies). My kids will be 10 and 13 when we go and DH and I are in our 40s. DH and my kids are novice surfers and are interested in seeing how the pros do it. TIA!

Believe it or not... I just had dinner with Carol & John C, Lesley, & Michelle this past Monday, and we were asking if you & the family had come out or not!

(btw, Beth, I saw that thread after I started this thread....lots of info here, and I never even knew this board existed!!)

Never knew this board existed?


Here's another one for you to check out: Crystal Cove Cottages. However, the catch is that you have to book them 6 months ahead. For instance, if you are going to be out here in May, then you have to contact them (website or phone) at 8am Pacific time sharp (think character meal in the castle at WDW) on November 1st for the entire month of May.

If you can swing it, then it's worth it to stay at one of the beach houses there. Crystal Cove is located between Newport Beach & Laguna Beach, and some of these houses are right on the beach - literally Gidget-like setting, and the beach is more like the beaches in the 40s-60s, more natural, than the beaches today.

If you cannot book a cottage, then you can still drive down to this beach and spend the day there - worth it in my book. I spent a weekend there with my dd, Kelly, and good friend, Brenda, and we really enjoyed it (and we only live about 40 minutes away). This same location is where they filmed the beach portion of the movie "Beaches" with Bette Midler & Barbara Hershey. We were staying at the closest cottage to the "Beaches" house.

Other beach settings you might consider, depending on where you are staying, are Dockweiler Beach (right under the flight-plan of the LAX airport), and Huntington Beach -- both of these beaches have fire pits. (Check out the Hyatt at Huntington Beach) Just south of Dockweiler Beach is El Segundo Beach, where handgliding first started, and this is also the area where the Beach Boys used to hang out when they were younger (I've actually been to the spot where their house used to be - there is a plaque there now).

If you do go to Redondo Beach (which is next to Hermosa Beach), there is a nice pier there w/a good restaurant - Tony's on the Pier. Just south of there is Torrance Beach, next to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and there is a surfing area there. (You can actually see surfers all over, and there are surf lessons in various beach cities. Lesley might be able to steer you right.) You might also let the boys know that when they were filming Pirates of the Caribbean, they would sail the Black Pearl to Redondo Beach & moor it there on the weekends.

 

[JunieJay]

Thank you MJ, I'd knew you would eventually see this thread and give your 2 cents. SO nice to see you this morning.

I honestly did not know a Southern California board existed....I knew there was a Disneyland board, but not a Southern California specific board. And California and the West board. And a California Trips board. Just read Kevin Stringer's resport from 2005 the other day, how fun was that? Oh boy I've been having FUN FUN FUN the last couple of days.

We never did make it out...I was carrying around my hard copy of great information that you and Michelle and The Lion King and a bunch of other Californians gave me years ago but I lost it somewhere. That had such good info, all in one place. Ya got any tricks up your sleeve how to search for that thread? Probably not, it was so long ago, and written by snoopy which of course gives it the big cross of death.

The cottages sound lovely!! We would love that. I'm off to start researching now, thanks!

 

[Rapunsel]

Another Vote for Hermosa Beach!!! I am bias though. I live there and it is the best. Great food and restaurants, Good Stuff, Hennesseys, Scotty's.


Many TV shows are filmed there and it is funny when you are watching a show and they are portraying it as Miami or something and you look real close... It is a hotel on the strand in Hermosa Beach...


I vote for beaches in the south bay area. They are clean and have a great path way to walk, ride, run along. The people watching is also great...


Enjoy what ever you choose!

 

[Judy from Boise]

Oh my heart ! I am always over on the Community board, trying to send all of the Vegas etc questions over to our great board! Help us spread the word!

MY two cents are keep in mind that the Pacific ocean is cold ! Even in june the boys would want wet suits to surf. I won't swim in CA till at least mid july!