Near downtown’s village, Main Beach has volleyball and basketball courts, a playground and restrooms. It's the first beach you see as you come down Laguna Canyon Blvd from the 405 Fwy, and it’s Laguna’s best beach for swimming.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Laguna Art Museum

0.19 MILES

This breezy museum has changing exhibitions featuring contemporary California artists, and a permanent collection heavy on California landscapes, vintage…

2. Heisler Park

0.33 MILES

The grassy, bluff-top Heisler Park offers vistas of craggy coves and deep-blue sea. Bring your camera – with its palm trees and bougainvillea-dotted…

3. Picnic Beach

0.46 MILES

Just north of Main Beach, Picnic Beach is too rocky to surf but has excellent tide pooling.

4. Pacific Marine Mammal Center

2.56 MILES

A nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating injured or ill marine mammals, this center northeast of town has a small staff and many…

5. Aliso Beach County Park

2.88 MILES

South of downtown Laguna Beach, the locals’ favorite Aliso Beach County Park is popular with surfers, boogie boarders and skimboarders. With picnic tables…

6. West Street Beach

3.31 MILES

South of central Laguna, this beach has long been a hangout for Laguna's (and the OC's) LGBT community (with an emphasis on the G). The eye candy can be…

7. Thousand Steps Beach

3.91 MILES

Jealously guarded by locals, Thousand Steps Beach is about 1 mile south of Aliso Beach, hidden off Hwy 1 just south of Mission Hospital. At the south end…

8. Crystal Cove State Park

4.1 MILES

A few miles of open beach and 2400 acres of undeveloped woodland at this state park let you forget you're in a crowded metropolitan area, at least once…