What beach do you recommend?

[arizonacolbys]

We would like to do a beach day when we are in Anaheim, or possibly somewhere in between Anaheim and San Diego. What beach does everyone recommend? TIA!

 

[jenzshoppin]

I just got back yesterday and we went to Huntington Beach. An easy way to get there is to go West on Katella until you hit Beach Blvd, take a left on Beach blvd and a right on Hwy 1, you can park at many of the parking lots. There is a pier just down about a block from Beach blvd on Hwy 1. It was beautiful when we went there Monday and Friday of last week. Lots of surfers out too.

 

[FanOfStitch]

As I don't plan on renting a car while I'm out there, are the beaches an inexpensive cab fare away or can you catch a bus? Also, is it worth taking a day trip to Catalina Island and would it be easier to get to Catalina from San Diego or Anaheim? I'll be in San Diego 3 or 4 days. Sorry for all the questions, I leave in 11 days and now I'm trying to plan everything. Thanks.

 

[dirkus]

Catalina is a fun trip. Many people love it (ourselves included), some don't. I don't think there is any scheduled service to Catalina from San Diego (if there is, the trip would take way too long to be over and back in a day and still be able to do much). We live in northern San Diego county and usually leave out of Newport Beach (CatalinaFlyer). Newport Beach is real easy to get to from Disneyland -- 5 south to 55 south to NB (but I won't be much help in how to get there without a car).

 

[hookedup]

I went to Huntington Beach last weekend and I was disgusted by horrible amount of trash and garbage all over the beach! I live in San Diego and I have NEVER seen any of our beaches look like that. This is not an exaggeration - there were dirty diapers, pop cans, food and other trash of all sorts all over. I would not let my ds take off his shoes because of all the broken glass.
We stay at the Hyatt there quite often but I had never gone over to the beach before - I NEVER will again either. My advice is AVIOD Huntington Beach!

 

[BelleM77]

As I don't plan on renting a car while I'm out there, are the beaches an inexpensive cab fare away or can you catch a bus? Also, is it worth taking a day trip to Catalina Island and would it be easier to get to Catalina from San Diego or Anaheim? I'll be in San Diego 3 or 4 days. Sorry for all the questions, I leave in 11 days and now I'm trying to plan everything. Thanks.

If you are not renting a car, I wouldn't suggest going down to the beach. Even though Anaheim is in the OC, you are still kind of far from the beach. Besides, the OC, and most of SoCal for that matter, is not known for it's great public transportation.

 

[almostGoofy]

I went to Huntington Beach last weekend and I was disgusted by horrible amount of trash and garbage all over the beach! I live in San Diego and I have NEVER seen any of our beaches look like that. This is not an exaggeration - there were dirty diapers, pop cans, food and other trash of all sorts all over. I would not let my ds take off his shoes because of all the broken glass.

Sorry you experienced a trashy beach. I go there frequently with my kids although I tend to go during the week in the daytime and haven't experienced excessive trash on the beach. Warm weather does attract a large number of people trying to escape the heat in their area and they tend to stay at the beach the entire day on the weekends. During the week you tend to get more of the locals and tourist who usually stay for a few hours and don't bring a lot of things to the beach. If you stay at the Hyatt again, you might want to try the beach during the week instead.

 

[arizonacolbys]

Thanks everyone for some great ideas. We're still in the very beginning planning stages of our trip, so I'm still not sure how many days we may want to do a beach day. I'd like to go to San Diego, so the beach day may wait until then. I may look into Catalina some more - anyone else been there? Sounds like it may be a fun day trip.

 

[spendleb]

Have to say that the best beach we experienced was in La Jolla, the water was so clear with white sand, wasn't impressed by the water in any of the OC areas or Santa Monica etc, lovely wide beaches though

 

[luckey-lasvegas]

I vote for Laguna also. If you are driving down to San Diego Ocanside and Carlsbad are very nice also.

 

[PamNC]

We spent a day in Laguna Beach - it was wonderful. Beautiful beach, tons of restaurants and galleries. We spent an entire day there - 10 a.m. until about 10 p.m. Had a blast!

PamNC