Long Beach Travel Forum

Hey all

I'm not totally sure if this is the right place to post or if it'll get a reply, but I'm going to California this October. Obviously it's not the best time of year but its the only time I really have free and it's fairly cheap to get flights then. Anywho, I'm a 17 yeard old guy and will probably be travelling alone depending on how reliable my friends who also want to go are.
I was thinking of Long Beach as a good place to go to. On my trip I'll just want to chill out, do some shopping, have some fun, and maybe meet some other young people, because I'm a very social person.
Do you think Long beach is a decent place for that kinda normal stuff or is there somewhere else you could recommend?

Thanks

Sam

There's nothing wrong with October in Southern California; in fact, along the water, it's a bit difficult to tell which season is which, since the temperature doesn't vary that much (of course, even a few miles inland can be a different story).

Long Beach Airport is a great airport to fly into, but I don't know that there's that much happening there. I'd rather spend time (in a laid back way) in the beachfront communities just to the west: Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, etc.

Hey, then you could drop in on the VT staff!!!

Bill

October may be the best time to come here. The weather will be moderate, sunny, and dry - and predictably so. There will be far fewer tourists than during the summer, and prices will have dropped to reflect this.

Long Beach is probably not your place. It is primarily an industrial town, situated between a harbor and a bunch of oil wells. As a previous poster said, you would do better going to the beach cities to the north ( and I would add Venice and Santa Monica to the list ).

Addendum: I just looked at your home page that said "Plan everything around zoos". The best zoo around is in San Diego, and the SD neighborhoods of Pacific Beach or Ocean Beach might suit you. Or the Hillcrest neighborhood if you're gay.

As usual, Harmonious hits it right on the head.

There are a LOT of hostels in Venice area, a nice one in Santa Monica.

In San Diego there is a good AYH hostel downtown and a really cool one at Ocean Beach on Newport Avenue.

San Diego also offers the chance to hop over to Tijuana for a day trip. (Or night trip...a guy your age would probably find the clubs there interesting...just be sure to catch the last trolley back, go on Saturday if you plan of partying at night) If Mexico turns out to be your taste, try a trip down to Ensenada or Rosarito as well.

Long Beach has a downtown scene, but it's for older people and you couldn't get into the cool places anyway.

Harmonious has not been to Long Beach in a long time, I would say. The downtown area has recently been built up and there are some great places to eat and have fun down there. However, as mentioned youare only 17 and most places will be at least 18 and over - all bars and dance places are 21 and over.

I think a better street scene for young people is downtown Huntington Beach. The area is just made for 17-20 year olds. Yes, there are many bars, etc that require being 21, but it is also a great outdoor area for the young. the pier and the beach are great places to hang out and meet other young people. The shopping is great and there are some unique shops down that way - surf clothing, trendy stuff, etc. With a group of friends it should be lots of fun.

Santa Monica and the area mentioned by Monobichi would be cool too, but I think of it as more of a 21 and over crowd.

In any case California in October is simply great - you'll love it!

LL

Ocean Beach is definitely not an "over 21" crowd. It's "Still The Sixties Sort Of" scene and full of young surfers, etc. There are several coffee places and juice bars along Newport. A good time to be there is Wednesday, when the block the street for a farmer's market.
Good blend of surfer girls, hippie chicks, and eurohonies from the hostels. Also have live music in the street and around 8-9 PM a drum circle starts up that is a lot of fun.
Tijuana is DEFINITELY not age-restrictive.

Hey guys. Well thanks for the advice so far. Like I said I'm mainly going down there to chill out and socialise, as well as writing. I do a lot of writing and I lovvvve writing outside but being in the UK means I don't get many opportunities to do so in autumn but yeh if the weather is nice in Cali I'd just like a decent beach/pier type thing with people my own age.
Thanks very much for your help :)
Also, I know my travel motto is plan everything around zoos but thats just me kidding around :) I love zoos and even went to London Zoo today but im not going for that kinda thing :)
Cheers

Sam

Well I've been looking at Huntington Beach and it looks really good, just what I wanted really. Thanks for everyone's recommendations, I'll look into things a bit more.

There's a VERY nice hostel in Huntingon. Have fun.

Thanks :)

So I'm enquiring at a hostel at the moment.
One last thing... I know theres a few good places in the area from Huntington, like Newport Beach etc, but what else is reasonably cheap to get to for a day trip? E.g could I get a bus or coach for a small amount to see something like San Diego, Long beach, or LA. They're just examples but I was just wondering if transport / touristy type packages can be affordable?