San Clemente, CA, USA

San Clemente Sunset

San Clemente, a great summer getaway for beach town enthusiasts. Many houses along the coast are for rent and let me tell you they have amazing views. Almost any house in this town is in walking distance of the State Beach and the main street. On the main street, there are candy shops, restaurants, souvenir shops and, of course, surf shops lining the street all the way down to the beach. On the pier, there is one restaurant on each side called Fisherman's Restaurant and Bar. If you walk all the way down the pier, which is 1296 feet long, there is a snack place where you can get sweatshirts, phone cases, snacks, and fishing gear. If you want to take a train all the way down the coast and back to just see the area, you can buy a ticket for the Pacific Surfliner. This train runs from Los Angeles all the way to San Diego.

Any time is a great time to visit this town but one of the best times is the 4th of July. Instead of parades, people get dressed up and race down the steepest hill on...office chairs!! It's really amusing and half of the town goes and lines up to see it. Later at night, people crowd the beach as far as you can see and wait to watch the fireworks off the pier. Barely any people end up in the water because it's the middle of the night and it's quite dangerous but it is so much fun. If you paddle out with surfboards, it is an amazing once in a life time opportunity. The fireworks explode over your head and there's no one out there so the water isn't crowded at all. The trip back into the shore is very hard though. First of all, it's dark and you can't see the waves. Second, you don't know where the pier is and where the beach is. Lastly, there are rocks under you and a bunch of people on the shore.
To wrap up this post, San Clemente is definitely a place to put on your travel list if you like quiet, humble, beach towns. :)