Best beach towns on the West Coast
Summer vacation is mostly over across the U.S., with kids already headed back to school. But Americans were busy this summer. On Memorial Day weekend, largely considered the unofficial start of summer, the Transportation Security Administration screened 10.6 million people, surpassing the numbers from 2023 and pre-pandemic levels. July 4th weekend also set travel records, according to AAA booking data, and Labor Day did the same. Domestic travel over Labor Day weekend in 2024 was up 9% compared to 2023, while the cost to travel domestically was down 2%.
Of course, beaches are one of the most popular places to visit in the summer. But it's never a bad time to visit some of the nation's best beach towns.
So what makes a good beach town? Access to a beach, of course, but also plenty of indoor and outdoor activities to keep kids entertained, warm weather, and a long beach season (the average number of days beaches are open for swimming).
Stacker determined rankings by several factors, giving the most weight to the number of beaches within a quarter mile of a city or town and the total shoreline of those beaches. Weather patterns and the duration of each beach's swim season affect town scores. The ranking also takes into account the prevalence of beach-related businesses, unemployment rates, and median home prices.
The EPA lists more than 300 beaches on the West Coast, totaling more than 600 miles of beach shoreline.
Editor's note: The data was analyzed before the devastating wildfires in Hawaii, so the ranking includes Lahaina, which was obliterated by the blaze. Hawaii's governor estimates it will take years to rebuild the historic site.
Correction
A previous version of this article contained multiple errors in data analysis that skewed the overall ranking of beach towns, including incorrectly identifying the number of beaches in some towns and mischaracterizing some municipalities as beach towns. The article has been updated to correct the errors.
