There are no stores or restaurants servicing this neighborhood, but if you can find parking and climb the sandy berm, you'll find a pleasantly uncrowded beach.

A tiny but century-old community farther south along PCH, Sunset has a 45-acre beach with a playground, restrooms and 627 parking spaces.

This state beach is popular with surfers, anglers, bird-watchers and swimmers. On top of offering Wi-Fi around the visitors' center, it has restrooms, camping and picnicking facilities.

Beloved by pet owners who like to give their canines a little leash-free exercise, this broad, beautiful municipal beach is also a big hit with surfers and swimmers and strollers alike.

The beach radiating out from Main Street's municipal pier, it attracted 10 million visitors last year with the lure of volleyball and surfing and a bike-friendly boardwalk within walking distance of dozens of bars and restaurants.

Across PCH from the Huntington Beach Wetlands, below Beach Boulevard and above the Santa Ana River lies this 2-mile stretch, home to the endangered California least tern. The beach features a bicycle trail, bonfire rings and good surfing and fishing.

Better known for its fictitious TV characters than its actual setting, it has a fine municipal beach around Newport Pier (a.k.a. McFadden's Wharf) with restrooms, showers, picnic tables and fire pits, in addition to two popular surfing points to the north.

A second municipal pier calls for a second beach, this one equally disposed to swimming, and to shopping and recreational activities around the Balboa Inn and Balboa Pavilion.

One of the few to offer a free parking lot (above the bluff), this half-mile-long state beach has volleyball nets, picnic tables, dressing rooms, food concessions, wheelchair-accessible bathrooms and beach-friendly wheelchairs.

This state park boasts 3 1/2 miles of rather rocky beach, which is more popular with adventurous hikers, anglers, mountain bikers, scuba and skin divers than lazy beachgoers.

This beautiful town claims 30 public beaches and coves along the six miles of coastline between Irvine Cove and Aliso Beach, but the most popular with swimmers and surfers is Main Beach for its amenities: A playground, basketball and volleyball courts, picnic tables, a boardwalk and nearby Heisler...

A sandy beach abutting green foothills dotted with chaparral, Aliso offers parking, picnic tables, a playground and fire pits.

Another upscale piece of briny real estate, Dana Point broke surfers' hearts when it built its harbor in 1966, destroying a natural break known as Killer Dana. Good surfing and swimming spots can still be found along the town's craggy coastline.

A mile-long swatch of smooth, fine khaki crystals just beneath the Ritz-Carlton resort, it's a public beach ideal for swimming, sunning and surfing.

Picking up the sandy mantle just east of Dana Point's harbor, Doheny State Beach is bisected by San Juan Creek. The "north" (west) half features picnic facilities, volleyball courts and a visitor's center with Wi-Fi; the "south" (east) half offers swimming and campsites.

A narrow but picturesque finger of sand running along the wet side of Beach Road, Capistrano Beach offers good swimming, volleyball nets and basketball courts, picnic tables, wheelchair-accessible restrooms, a metered parking lot on the northwestern edge and a surfing hot spot just about where PCH turns into North El Camino Real.

Just north of the renowned collection of surf spots known as "Trestles" lies the town of San Clemente, home to Nixon's Western White House and Orange County's southernmost municipality. Volleyball courts, fire pits, picnic tables, concession stands, restrooms and showers dot its 2-mile beach...

This cliff-shaded, 1-mile beach at O.C.'s southern edge is part of a small state park with camping, picnicking, bathrooms and showers and a host of other amenities including Wi-Fi.