a travel guide for visiting the
california beach town of dana point
sitting just south of laguna beach dana
point population
33 000 has a cool relaxed surf
vibe that's relatively undiscovered by
the tourist throngs that visit
most of southern california's beaches
dana point is for you if you're looking
to get away from the crowds
visit some place that's a little bit
undiscovered in this video i'm going to
tell you everything you need to know if
you're planning a visit to dana point
we're going to take a look at the
beaches we're going to take a look at
the harbor we're going to take a look at
dana point's historic
lantern district we're going to take a
look at the hiking paths we're going to
see some of the hotels you might choose
to stay in or perhaps
where you might even want to camp and of
course we'll take a look at some of my
favorite things to eat but before we
tour the beaches let me just give you a
little background in history on this
city
dana point is blessed with six and a
half miles of pacific ocean-facing
coastline
it is the southern origin of
california's highway one
also known as pacific coast highway it
is considered the dolphin and whale
watching capital of the world so
if you like dolphins and whales and you
want to go on tours you will find a ton
of them here
dana point is named after the headland
of dana point which is this land mass
right here
just on the north side of the harbor and
this is called the dana headlands
because
it was visited by richard henry dana in
1835
he wrote a book about it titled two
years before the mast telling a story
about his
two-year sailing voyage from boston to
california as dana point grew up it
became a huge surf destination in the
1950s
in fact california's first surf shop was
opened in 1954
dana points also famous for having a
historic wave known as killer dana what
happened to that wave
well in the 1960s the dana point harbor
was built
which pretty much destroyed that wave
now the remaining surf
is pretty mellow most of the time the
first beach i want to start with is
dohini state beach this beach is
probably the most well known and the
busiest in dana point why well it's the
easiest to get to
it's right off the five freeway and the
one and also because
i think this has one of the best
longboarding waves in dana point
it's a pretty mellow wave but it's a
super popular place for
younger kids to surf or people who just
like it more on the mellow side
there's also a campground here 40 or 60
is what the campgrounds cost you'll find
a ton of picnic tables
there's a kind of beachfront boardwalk
that connects to a big bike path
if you didn't bring your own bike you
can rent bikes and
surreys here you'll find on busy
weekends and every day in the summer
this beach is life guarded
if you're looking to park here parking
is 15
all day parking you might find some free
parking
further down where the dana point harbor
is or up at the lantern bay park
but the closest parking is fifteen
dollars for
all day parking to the south of doheny
state beach is capistrano beach sometime
known as
capo beach uh here it's a little less
busy than doheny state beach
rockstar parking you can get right in
front of the sand
tip free parking park on coast highway
you can walk over the bridge over the
train tracks it's free
just on the other side of the train
tracks from the beach
though you will find significantly less
sand over here the beach is not as wide
on this side and it
is more rocky though you can still find
patches of sand
to sunbath if you're looking for a hotel
to stay in on this stretch of pacific
coast highway just south of the central
part of dana point you'll find three
hotels you'll find
the doubletree you'll find the surf side
in and you'll find a best western now
just across from doheny state beach
right next to denny's you'll find
watermen's plaza in this plaza you'll
find golden statues commemorating
local surf icons here you'll find a
statue of hobie the guy who built that
original surf shop in orange county
you'll find a bronze statue of bruce
brown behind the camera
bruce brown made the famous surf movie
endless summer
his production office was here in dana
point just to the north of tahini beach
is probably the second most famous thing
in dana point it's the dana point
harbor this area is where people park
their boats there's also a bunch of
shops and restaurants here
my favorite part about it though is the
harbor front
boardwalk which if you want to walk and
enjoy the ocean and the fresh air and
the coolness of dana point
but you don't want to get your feet
sandy well check out the
dana point harbor now if you are looking
for some place to eat one nice part
about coming down here during the
pandemic is most of the restaurants have
set up a whole bunch of extra outdoor
seating
if you walk around the harbor you should
be wearing your mask if there's people
around
you may be wondering chris what mask are
you wearing well today i
am baby yoda now if you're just looking
for a quick snack like a sandwich a
coffee or an ice cream check out coffee
importers my friend jeff graham tells me
they have the best bagels
in orange county the harbor is also an
embarkation point for the catalina
express that's the ferry that goes to
catalina island he usually docks right
here
it makes one daily round trip on
weekdays
two daily round trips on weekends 76
for a round-trip ticket takes about 90
minutes to get to catalina island
the harbor's also the embarkation point
for lots of other fun water activities
including whale and dolphin watching and
if you're really adventuresome
parasailing just on the north side of
the harbor is this cute little beach
known as baby beach one because it's
really small
and two because they have this roofed
off swimming area so it's really good
for little kids
there's no waves here because it's in
the harbor there's also
plentiful free parking in the couple
parking lots on either side of this
beach
hey and if your babies aren't ready to
get in the water just bring the baby
play yard keep them in there nobody will
think it's weird
this is the baby beach after all now i
feel like one of the least known beaches
is just behind the ocean institute
this is famous for dana points tide
pools to get to it you go
through this staircase that has all this
fencing around it
i think so that they can close it off
when the surf is
high but when you come down here you'll
be on this little beach
it's basically you and very few people
the tide pool area is just
back here and it's kind of neat to be
here underneath the headlands
now i particularly like this stretch of
beach why well because when you're down
here
it feels like the rest of the world
melts away there's no boats there's no
cars there's just you
the surf and the sand now i also want to
point out if you're coming
to do tide pooling make sure you come at
low tide
negative tide to the best tides just go
to google type in dana point tides and
find a day and time that has a negative
tide now once you're done exploring
headlands beach come out here
on the jetty you don't have to walk all
the way down the jetty because it's a
really long walk
you'll find a lot of people typically
fishing out here this is a great view
just to come back and take a look at
dana points harbor
if you're here on a warm summer weekend
you will find tons of people out in the
harbor
kayaking stand-up paddle boarding just
enjoying
life out on the water okay heading just
up the hill from the harbor is a really
neat hiking area
up on the dana point headland itself it
has two parts one right here that
overlooks that harbor
there's a small little trail it's like a
five-minute hike but the views are
really neat from here this is where
you'll get the
best views of the harbor and then the
second hiking area
it's just up on the top of the headland
you'll find the entrance to the main
part of the trail
just behind the nature interpretive
center there's a small parking lot here
there's public restrooms
and you can even hop on inside to get a
little bit of background about the
natural habitat i will point out that
i'm shooting this during the
covid 19 pandemic and so the trails are
closed at the moment
but this video is going to be on youtube
for a long time and i'm sure the trails
will reopen again
so do check the trail opening status if
you're watching this near the time
i shot this video now if you're looking
for shops and restaurants beyond dana
points harbor you're going to find that
in the lantern district pretty easy to
find
this is pacific coast highway the one
coming from laguna beach
just to the right here is del prado
avenue you'll see the arch that says
dana point lantern district this is the
historic part of dana point
where the original houses are and it's
kind of neat on this part of del prado
they've made the street lights the
classic dana point lanterns and you can
see
this is the street of the ruby lantern
now if you've already done enough
walking on your day in dana point well
then just take a scenic drive
down del prado and if you want to
explore dana point's
other historic surf shop check out
killer dana
here in the lantern district now just
two blocks from that killer dana surf
shop there's a really neat overlook over
the harbor you'll know you'll have found
the entrance to it when you see this
white arbor go underneath the white
arbor
just beyond the white arbor right here
is where you're going to get some of
your best views
of dana point harbor once you've found
that viewpoint don't just stop there
it connects into the bluff top trail
this trail
not very big it's about two city blocks
long but it runs
right along the bluff overlooking the
harbor and the views from the rest of
the trail are
just as awesome as they were from that
scenic overlook
a really neat historic thing on that
bluff top trail are these three arches
this is the original foundation
of the dana point inn built in the 1930s
this is all that was ever built of the
hotel
due to a stock market crash they never
built it but these arches remain
now heading north on pacific coast
highway out of the lantern district
towards laguna beach
you'll find the less touristy parts of
dana point
but there's two beaches i want to show
you here and this is also where you'll
find
dana point's two mega resorts the ritz
carlton
and monarch beach so the first beach
here is just on the north side of the
headland of dana point it's called
strands beach this is probably the beach
that i go to the most
in dana point why well first of all
there's plenty full free parking on the
bluff top second
i find this beach to be less crowded
than doheny beach and third
i really like this beachfront boardwalk
here
it's really neat for walking on even a
high tide you can walk
and not get your feet wet you'll find
restrooms along this beachfront
boardwalk
you'll also find restrooms up at that
parking lot at the top and if you really
want to dream while you're here take a
look up at these beachfront houses this
is one of orange county's most recent
beachfront developments so they're all
new mansion size homes 10 million
dollars and up to buy into this
community the biggest con of this beach
it's quite a few stairs to get down to
the beach
i didn't count it but it feels like
about a hundred it's not as bad going
down
but it is kind of bad going up
especially on a hot day
now right next to the staircase there is
a funicular
that's supposed to run down to the beach
but i've never
actually seen the funicular work
overlooking strands beach you'll find
one of those luxury mega resorts i
talked about
the ritz carlton laguna niguel now the
final beach we're going to visit is salt
creek beach
you could get there by walking on the
beach just past the ritz carlton
but i'm lazy so i'm going to drive okay
so after a short three minute drive down
pacific coast highway
we are now at salt creek beach just on
the other side of the ritz carlton that
we saw in the last shot
now this beach is wider than strands
beach it's
also better to go in the water here
because it's less rocky
this is actually a really popular
bodyboarding wave though i don't come to
this beach as much as strands beach
mostly because the parking lot here is a
pay parking lot
the journey down to the beach takes just
about as long as from strands beach
though here it's a road instead of a
staircase
now one cool thing about this beach is
that if you don't want to walk
up there are beach shuttles available
that'll take you up in these kind of
extra big golf carts for the reasonable
price of one dollar
now this side also has a beachfront path
of sorts though
not as nice as the one at strands beach
salt creek probably is the more famous
of the two because this was the beach
that inspired that poster
that we saw earlier from bruce brown's
endless summer another great spot for a
picnic is the park overlooking
salt creek beach lots of people sitting
here to enjoy the ocean views
if you didn't bring food with you well
you can pick up some snacks at
zach's right by the beach classic beach
eats but speaking of food
my favorite thing to eat in dana point
is lupe's mexican eatery they have
really good classic mexican taco shop
eats in particular i like the al pastor
it's slow roasted spicy park that is
carved up mediterranean shawarma style
really good in the tacos burritos or the
fries try it all
if you want to know more about lupe's
i've got a whole video on it
you'll find the link in the description
or the card up on the screen now there's
one last thing to know before you go to
dana point and that is if you enjoyed
this video
i've got more videos on california
coastal cities you might enjoy checking
out san clemente which is just to the
south of dana point
or heading north beyond laguna beach you
might want to check out newport beach
check out balboa island it's one of my
favorite places to visit in orange
county