Aliso Beach

Loved it here! Inexpensive amount to pay for adequate parking — assuming your don’t miss the turn off! Benches to sit on, a view to die for, and endless beach to sink your toes into. The surf is high apparently this time of the year so the crash is memorizing for sure! Take lots of pictures.

Lovely place to spend a day and enjoy love. This place displays the beauty of the sea and great rocky structures. I personally love the random bamboo ashore: makes for great games of limbo. Or to relive your track and field/​athletic glory days (which I love to do lol). In addition, this can be a very romantic place for nice walks along the beach and/​or sip hot chocolate around a nice fire pit.

Beautiful park !!! A must see for residents or visitors !!! Paid parking with lots of beach to roam and enjoy. There are several rock formations to explore and enjoy. On our first visit here several years ago we found a lot of starfish clinging to the rocks but the water was to rough today to get out to those rocks and explore.

We attempted to go to Thousand Steps beach, but the lack of parking rerouted us about half a mile up the street to Aliso Beach. You can easily find a parking spot in their lot and pay a dollar an hour, or just park on the street. Aliso is an expansive beach with ample restrooms and sinks. Scenery is gorgeous, as is the rest of this part of the coastline.

This beach is literally the most convenient place to enjoy with friends, family or just by yourself. They have kids park (swings, slides and fort), plenty of parking space, restrooms, firepits (be present to hold your spot) and ocean is right there — yes no need to hike/​climb to enjoy the water. The place does get crowded during weekends but not bad.

My first time here and I fell in love immediately ! Park across the street and there is a secret tunnel that takes you directly to the beach without having to dangerously J-​walk!
We came in the later evening where the sun was setting and it is just breath taking ! We just brought two chairs and sat there along the shore watching the waves kiss the sand. I loved the moments when the waves when crash so hard and almost touch our toesies !
Need a nice romantic moment just come here!

Beautiful beach! There are life guards on duty across the beach. It was hard to find a parking spot. It wasn’t over crowded and was children friendly

Aliso Beach has something for everyone. Be aware of the waves here. I’ve seen them wash all the way up into the parking lot and take everything out in its path.
Check out the webcam too.

Amazing beach the rocks were amazing! It doesn’t even look like these photos were taken in California!
Amazing beach in Laguna and definitely worth checking out !!!

This beach is really nice and clean. It does get full with surf skimmers on weekends, at least the weekends I’ve gone. You can spot Dolphins playing in a distance if you get lucky. I’ve also seen a whale a few times.
On weekends it gets really packed, and if you want a fire pit, come extra early at 8am, as everyone else does since there are only 5 or 6 pits.
If you want to cook, You can bring a small grill but you must put it either inside the pit or in a grassy /​concrete surface, according to the lifeguards on duty.
Parking is cheap at $ 1 per hour. There are plenty of parking spots on the beach. There is also limited street parking.

Weekdays M-​Th only, this beach is quaint and serene. Fri-​Sun it’s loud, very busy, bbq parties, families and lots of kids. The water looks almost caribbean like on a clear day. The sand is ultra soft in this small stretch. Not like Baby Beach in Dana Point. Here waves tend to be 1′-3’ft.
The main parking lot is basically on the sand, though it fills up quick. The over-​fill parking lot is across the street (don’t panic, no one is going to make you play Frogger across PCH Hwy).
There is a safe, yet damp (freakishly scary at night/​light at the end of the tunnel), underground walkway, that leads you directly onto the beach. Overall, it’s a beautiful beach to lay out and take in the view.

Best kid friendly beach I know of, and I know beaches in California better than you know me! The sand is a bit gravely and waves are the size of what you’d expect at a small lake. This is why many avoid this little cove except for brunchers/​bbqs but this is what makes it good for very young kids.
The small waves mean you can let your kid get pushed around by the puny waves without expecting a Baywatch like scenario and the not so soft sand means less litter and scary thing awaiting your barefoot anklebiter.
Crystal Cove in Newport Beach and Monarch by Dana Point are also good. Dont be a control freak and worry wart– let your child have priceless memories of childhood fascination. Let him get his feet wet and swim in mild currents.

A rare fire pit beach. Skim boarding beach. Great sunset beach. Dolphins in summer beach. Park close beach. Even great snack bar beach. Great kid beach. All in all this is a must if you live in So Cal. Great short hikes down the beach.
Just south down PCH from the Montage resort. Right after the bridge make a right and you’ll enter the parking lot.

Parking — plenty ($ 1/​hr park and pay machines) in a parking lot right next to the beach making it easy to get in and out of and away from main PCH traffic.
Sand — a bit rocky at times making it a bit rough to walk on.
Fire pits — there are a few that are next to the sidewalk. You might want to come early as they appear to go by fast during the summer nights.
If you want to get away from the masses, walk down the beach more to the left … less crowded at times.
Overall, nice family beach. Sun, sand, ocean. what more could you ask for?

One of OC’s best beaches.
Reasons why it is theeee BEST: (in no particular order)
1. Parking — full parking lot right on the beach for $ 1/​hr and if that is full you just go right across the street and park there. $ 1/​hr as well. If you do have to go across the street don’t worry about trying to run across PCH there is an underground tunnel that leads you straight through to the beach!
2. Fire pits!!! These get taken quickly so come early! First come, first serve.
3. Snack Bar!!! Because everyone gets hungry when they are playing in the water.
They serve everything here! We were indecisive so we just got a bacon cheeseburger and let me tell you, for a little snack bar on the beach we weren’t expecting much but it was damn good!!!
***Con*** Bees all over the place. I have never seen so many bees at the beach, but they seemed to be all over the trash area and when we got our food and sat down they started to come near us. Made it pretty difficult to eat because I hate bees!
4. Most beautiful clear blue water.
5. Steps away from the beautiful Montage Hotel. We usually set up our stuff and lay out for a while and then we frolic along like all couples do and walk to the very end where the Montage beach is. Climb the rocks, great photo op and tide pools.
6. Almost always see dolphins. I think I am just lucky. LOL
The only down side is that it is a small strip of sand so it can get crowded, but you can always go across the walk down towards the Montage and find a place to layout right in between.
**CAUTION**
Very strong riptides. I have had a wave knock me down quite a few times here. Face in the sand and embarrassing. But seriously though, Be careful :)

Parking is a buck an hour if you’re lucky enough to get one. We launched our kayaks from this beach because it was pretty mellow, though we did have a bit of trouble getting out of the surf but this was our first try.
The beach was a disaster when we got there at 645am with seagulls eating yesterday’s garbage. I don’t know if people were lazy and didn’t put the trash in the cans, the cans were overflowing, the seagulls pulled the trash out or a combination of them all.
Lots of umbrellas and easyups. If you want a spot it seems you must get there very early! Will try again.