Favorite Beach/Beach Towns

The Lake Michigan sand dunes are pretty unique and cool

The Oregon coast is pretty amazing. It’s nice to be hiking out where it’s all just forest trees all around. And then stop to take a rest near a cliff, and you see the ocean on one side, and the beach in the middle, and more forest on the other side. 😍 Granted the water is meant to be admired, not swam in.

Corpus I’m well aware of because of childhood trips and have plenty of positive memories there. I’m surprised you ended up giving a shout out since I figured the Texas gulf coast would be unmemorable compared to other places. I remember this one Austrian I met once who (knowing I’m from Texas) talked about the one time he was sent out to Texas was Corpus and he hated it. I’m sure it doesn’t compare to European beaches lol

Yeah the Oregon Coast is really underrated for America for beauty I mean hell just google image it. I don't know of any awesome towns there necessarily I kinda of meant this thread as a package deal kind of thing but I'm sure the residents would rather keep it that way. I know Dune City on the Oregon Coast was the inspiration for the movie Dune.

Beaufort south Carolina Santa Monica California Pismo Beach California La Jolla California

Northern lower Michigan beaches are fantastic, yet cold. I have a fondness for Florida beaches. Also, beaches alongside the North Sea in Europe are wonderful, too.

I love Jone Beach worked there as a lifeguard from high school until I was in my mid twenties 4 years at west end 4
There’s some awesome beach towns in New Jersey AC and Wildwood Crest come to mind, Virginia Beach was a great town, so was Newport, but my favorite was Monterrey and let’s keep in mind, Bar Harbor Maine should be in the conversation as well as some of the towns on Cape Cod So many great beach towns it’s impossible to list them all.

@25 Awesome. Yeah I had Uncle that was a lifeguard there too for a lot years. He was actually great swimmer, back in the 50's he did some sort of crazy ass swim race around the whole island of Manhattan, shit I know I'm good swimmer too, but I can't do that lol.

San Diego is my favorite beach town, too. Go there often, and to me it’s the easiest beach town to relax in. Anywhere you and down the west coast will do for me, but I am planning to do the Carolina’s from Savanah to Hilton Head and all points between and north of Hilton within the next 5 years. Going to take a month with the family and eat a ton of seafood off the beaten path and absorb the history as much as possible. Good ideas here. I must say Kanapali and the whole island of Maui kicks ass, if it wasn’t a six hour flight for me. Hawaii is a must for beach lovers, and the remote island (west of Maui)I’ve heard is a must.

The best thing about San Diego is Coronado Island.

Old Town. Balboa Park.

The city itself can't compare to la

@Mate yeah Hawaii is on my list, never been. Those plane ticket prices scare me. Savannah and Charleston I think really some cool small cities. Charleston is such a time warp back to the 18th century. And Savannah with all those oak trees with Spanish Moss. innonwestliberty.com

Man, I do sometimes feel like I'm turning into a grumpy old man, because I hate the fucking beach. But actually, even when I was young, fit and looked pretty good on a beach, I still hated it. To me it's nothing but sunburn, sand in your pants, salt water in your mouth, jellyfish, and stepping on crabs. As far as the ocean view, yeah, that's nice for about five minutes. After that, you'll find me indoors at a bar with air conditioning.

One thing I'll say about Jones Beach, I love the amphitheater. I've seen a bunch of concerts there and the acoustics are amazing for an outdoor venue. I'll give away my age here, but when I was a kid my grandmother took me there when Guy Lombardo used to come out in a motorboat to kick off the shows. Back then the area between the seats and the stage used to be like a moat and the stage like an island. longisland.com

@MO Yeah I've seen some cool stuff there too, matter fact I just saw Chris Rock/Kevin Hart on tour there a few weeks ago.

^ Zach’s Bay Theater of the Sea You’re so right amazing acoustics, great summer concert venue

@heaving 99% of my adventures on this site I’m diving in solo. You gotta make friends along the way, or don’t. I used to be like that I need my crew to do anything, best advice I can give. Lose that shit.

Venice beach California. Best place to get high and people watch. Lots of easy girls. Great drum circles

^^ Icee - this is what I want to see there, fucking beautiful: youtube.com

Venice is one of the last free places in the country snd people are fighting the gentrifiers

The gulf coast of Florida, from St. Pete's to Naples would take the title of best beaches if not for red tide. I've been to the beach on mild, moderate, and bad days and it can really screw up your day - and that's without factoring the dead fish and smell. Hawaii has the best beaches, if you avoid crowded tourist areas on Oahu and Maui.

The best beach TOWNS are along the gulf coast from Waveland, MS through Pensacola, FL. Unfortunately, those places get leveled by hurricanes literally every couple of years, and have lost a lot of history and charm.

The middle keys - Islamorada and Marathon- have the best water. The water is so clear and prismatic that it looks just a foot or two deep. Step off your boat and you fall into 15 or 20 feet of water.

Carolina beaches. Grand Bend in Ontario is nice, but gets crowded.

Matter of fact I'm lying about no good beach just hit Cocoa Beach not to long ago, that fits.

Oh Gam mentioned red tide. I used to go to the beaches he mentioned a lot growing up and as an adult but stopped for now after too many bad trips.

I’ve never seen so much seaweed in a beach in my life, and huge construction equipment removing it. Yeah nobody wants to see that at the beach.

^Yea the Gulf beaches were pretty much crapped up by the Deepwater Horizon, they really never came all the way back I’ve heard that that spill was responsible for many of the red tide episodes in recent years

I enjoy certain parts of the Jersey Shore - mostly the Spring Lake and Sea Girt areas - when it’s not too crowded.

I also enjoy North Carolina and the Outer Banks beaches.

Florida beaches I’ve enjoyed are the Vero Beach area on the east coast - and the Tampa Bay area. Very different coastlines on opposite sides of the state.

Loved Jones Beach as a kid. My favorite all-time beach was Nauset Light Beach on Cape Cod, pre-1978. Blizzard of '78 took all but 3 spaces of the parking lot, but the beach remains amazing. Crane's beach is Ipswich Mass is amazing, but for the true New England Beach experience, go to the Beachcomber in Wellfleet MA. Aamazing food and drinks, with live music at night at a bar on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic ocean, with a great beach at the foot of the bluff. Pay to park and spend the day/night. By our calculations the same guy has been shucking Oysters there for 33 years.

@ski I'll check some of those out I've been meaning to hit the cape one of these days.

@cash yeah the shore can be great

Does Key West count as a beach town. Key West is weird, really weird, but that’s what keeps it entertaining.

^ you need to stay in the Pier House or the Marriott at the other end of Duval, If you’re looking for a beach in key west the public beach is very rocky and you need to wear water shoes or you’ll tear up your feet But those two hotels have a nice sand beach small but nice and only available to hotel guests, there might be a few others but those are the ones I know.

My top two on opposite coasts: Delray Beach,Florida Del Mar Beach, California

The Florida Keys has the best water, but no real beaches.

I'll take the 100 miles of beach east of Pensacola (every day) that gammanu95 avoids on his Gulf Shore Beach Junkets. We'll fight for Pensacola 😎, but one should not ignore the beaches of Okaloosa Island, Miramar Beach, Santa Rosa Beach, Grayton State Park Beach and the 30 miles of beaches along 30A. On the other hand (Muddy), one shouldn't be trying to discover any good strip clubs in the strip club wasteland from Waveland MS to Panama City Beach FL.

My two favorite beaches:

Marina Cay in the British Virgin Islands, followed closely by the Baths on Virgin Gorda in the BVIs.

Overall best - Clearwater Beach Favorite Secluded - Fort De Soto (Tierra Verde) Best Party - Dewey Beach, Delaware (Used to be) Best Golf Destination - Myrtle Beach, now....?? Most Surprisingly Scenic - West Shore of the LP, Michigan
Best Place to People Watch - Key West

The Baths is gorgeous in BVI. I agree.

Santa Cruz CA

cool place!

SJG

I’m not that well-traveled so can’t really give advice on great beaches/beach-towns – also, having grown-up (and currently living) in Miami, I didn’t necessarily have to travel to hit a decent beach(es) although it’s always nice/interesting to check-out other areas.

I’m not a big beach-guy per se in the sense I don’t necessarily enjoy sitting in the sand and sun-bathing (in part b/c I’m very fair-skinned) – and I don’t necessarily enjoy swimming in the ocean mostly b/c of the waves – it’s ok but not something I crave per se.

But I do like the beach-area vibe – and of course enjoy looking at the eye-candy particularly downhere in Miami.

Pre-Covid I would hang-out in South Beach (SoBe) a fair-amount – the beach-area is just more relaxing and a different vibe from the city – hitting SoBe on the weekends felt like a little get-away that was just about 30-minutes away from the crib – I recall I almost instantly felt relaxed and in a better-mood as soon as I was on the causeway from Miami to Miami-Beach and I would look-out at the water as I was driving on the causeway towards the beach and I would see the boats and jet-skis – I would be almost instantly relaxed and in a better-mood just on the drive there. I didn’t hit the beach (sand/water) that often and usually just hung-out in SoBe mostly on Ocean Drive (street next to the beach) – I’d often take my bicycle and ride up and down Ocean Drive and other parts of SoBe and check out all the hot babes walking around SoBe often wearing very-little (plenty of bare-asses in tiny g-strings) – I’d spend an afternoon; get something to eat in the plethora of SoBe dining-options, and maybe have a drink at one of the sidewalk bars facing the beach.

I also liked hitting Cocoa Beach when I wanted a little getaway from the same-ole same-ole – it was a 3-hour-drive from my Miami crib to Cocoa Beach – I mainly went to hit the strip-club Inner Room and actually never made it to the Cocoa Beach beaches – but I def liked the laidback feel of Cocoa Beach and that it had 3 decent SCs close to each other – very different vibe from the Miami jungle where I live – pre-Covid I’d drive up to Cocoa Beach every few months on a Fr after lunch – it would take me about an hour to get out of South Florida (get past Palm Beach county) but once I got past the northern-end of Palm Beach county and thus out South FL, the traffic would significantly thin-down and it was just a different scenery and I felt relaxed after I got past/out-off South FL – I would just chill for the next 2-hours listening to music in the car till I got to Cocoa Beach - I had to take a causeway over the water to get from I-95 to Cocoa Beach and it too had the nice relaxing feeling of looking out over the water when one was on the causeway and it got me in the right/relaxed mood.

So although I’m not a big beach-guy per se, I do enjoy the laidback vibe of beach-towns especially when there’s stuff to do and/or some nice eye-candy to look at.

Never been out West (Cali etc) – but I’m not used to hills/mountains/cliffs – thus the beaches that I’ve seen on TV/YouTube with cliffs or rocks etc I don’t find that appealing – I’m used to flat-terrain and like wide beaches (wide sand area) vs a small/narrow sand-area b/w a cliff and the water – I wouldn’t say I dislike hilly/cliffy beaches, but not my pref.

I dream of Jeanie was set in coco beach

^ I didn't know that - never watched that show but have heard of it - interesting