Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach — officially trademarked as 'Surf City USA' — is the undisputed capital of California surf culture. Stretching 10 miles along the Orange County coast, it is the longest uninterrupted municipal beach in the state, and its relationship with surfing dates back over a century to when Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku and George Freeth first demonstrated wave riding here in the early 1900s. The US Open of Surfing has been held at the pier every year since 1959, and the community's entire identity is built around the ocean.

The beach itself is vast and magnificent — nearly endless golden sand equipped with everything a beach visitor needs. The historic Huntington Beach Pier, stretching 1,856 feet into the Pacific, is the longest on the West Coast and offers a walk above the surf, a sport fishing facility, and the iconic Ruby's Diner at its end. The immediate beachfront has volleyball courts (including venues for professional beach volleyball tournaments), fire rings for evening bonfires — increasingly rare elsewhere in California — surf rental shops, and the wide paved path along the beachfront that stretches the entire length of the beach.

Main Street and the surrounding Surf City district create a genuinely vibrant beach town behind the sand — a walkable area of restaurants, surf shops, ice cream parlours, and the International Surfing Museum. Pacific City, a modern outdoor shopping centre on the bluff above the beach, adds rooftop dining with sweeping ocean views. The combination of world-class surf culture, great facilities, and a fully developed beach town atmosphere makes Huntington Beach one of the most complete beach destinations in all of California.