How To Make The Most Of Your Time In Long Beach California

Long Beach California isn’t as popular as Los Angeles or Santa Monica, but surprisingly this coastal city attracts 6 million visitors a year. So there has to be something there… right?

Long Beach might not be first on your California bucket list, but it’s still worth a visit. At first glance, there might not seem like there’s much to do, but I’m here to prove you wrong!

Here’s my guide for what to do if you find yourself in Long Beach California.

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

Where Is Long Beach California?

Long Beach is a coastal city in Southern California. The two closest cities are Los Angeles and San Diego (both of which make great day trip ideas!).

How Long To Stay In Long Beach California?

It turns out most of their tourism comes from two main sources. They have a large convention centre (photographed below) in the heart of the city, hosting a different conference each week. And they have a large dock where cruise ships port. 

I was there while my boyfriend was attending a conference, so I had quite a bit of time to wander around to see what else this city has to offer. 

Long beach is a small city when compared to Los Angeles or San Diego. If you stay in a central location you can walk almost everywhere you want to go. 

We were there for 5 days but went on 2-day trips. That was more than enough time to see everything we wanted and still have time to relax by the pool (or beach). 

How To Get To Long Beach California?

Before you do anything, you need to figure out a way to get there. Long Beach California is actually big enough to have its own airport. But it’s almost never worth flying in to. It’s a much smaller airport than LAX and oddly enough about the same distance from the city centre. 

So because the distance is the same, the cost and convenience factor play a much bigger role. Flying directly to Long Beach can end up costing you a lot more, and you’ll have way less options.  So I recommend looking to fly to LAX and taxi to Long Beach (about 25 minutes).

Where To Stay In Long Beach California

There are three main locations you should look into staying at while you’re in Long Beach: along Ocean Av., on the Queen Mary, or along the Long Beach beach.

Ocean Av. is the top location to stay in Long Beach, it’s where all the big hotels are and it’s only a a 10-minute walk to the Pier (depending on where stay on the avenue). It’s also the perfect location to stay at if you’re attending a conference, it’s less than a 2-minute walk to the convention centre.

Hotels In Long Beach California

We stayed at the Westin along Ocean Av. in Long Beach California and would highly recommend it. You couldn’t be the location, and the hotel staff could not have been friendlier. We also really enjoyed the 5:00 o’clock happy hour! See availability and room rates.

If you’ve ever wanted to stay on a boat, you can actually book a room on the Queen Mary. If you want to see the inside of the boat, and experience what it would’ve been like to sleep there, this is a perfect way. I’d recommend only staying here for one night out of your stay. It’s too far from everything to stay longer. See availability and room rates.

Of course, if you’re there in time for beach season, the best place to stay is along the Long Beach beach. You’re sacrificing a bit of location to stay here, but hey, at least you’re on the beach! There aren’t too many options along the actual beach, you can Oceanfront Lux Condo might be there perfect place for you! See availability and room rates.

For more accommodation options in Long Beach California, click here.

Where To Eat In Long Beach?

Along The Promenade

The promenade is a pedestrian only street across from the Convention Centre. There are quite a few restaurant options to choose from for both lunch and supper. This was typically our lunch spot for a quick bite to eat. Our go-tos were Doghaus and Foundation Sandwich. 

Doghaus is all about gourmet sausages. But don’t worry if you don’t eat meat, they had a large variety of sausages to choose from, including veggie options. The only difficult part was figuring out the best way to eat it! 

Foundation Sandwich is obviously a sandwich shop. Go for the hot Mexican sandwich, it was our favourite.

East Arts District

The other foodie spot you’ll want to hit up is the East Arts District. It’s a popular nightspot with all different kinds of restaurants (with outdoor patios). Our favourite spot in this area was the Thai District. It was quite possibly the best Thai food we’ve ever had (we loved it so much we went back 3 times).

You know it’s authentic when they’re spice meter goes from 1 to “Thai Spicy”. If you want something a bit different, we loved the drunken noodles and the Lanna Street Noodle. But you also can’t go wrong with a classic like Pad Thai.

What To Do In Long Beach California?

Long Beach California has a surprising amount of variety in the activities they offer. I think everyone can find something that interests them. There’s artistic options, shopping, educational, and historical.

Obviously, Go To the Beach (The Long Beach Beach!)

You’re in Long Beach California! You have to go to the Long Beach beach at least once. If it’s not warm enough to go swimming, there’s still an array of different activities to do there.
You can walk or bike along the boardwalk, go fishing, admire the docked boats, or watch the sunset.

Take A Historic Tour On The Queen Mary

Ah the infamous Queen Mary, Long Beach bought this longliner boat way back in 1967 when it retired. Nowadays it’s permanently docked along their coastline and is one of the cities main attractions.

The only problem is that it’s kind of far from the city centre. You can see it from the pier, but it’s at least a 15-minute drive to get to.

On top of that, it’s $40/ person just to go onboard, although it does include a free audio guide.

So we decided it was too expensive for us to do (it’s an $80 activity for the two of us!). We could do so much more with that money. 

You can’t even dine at one of the restaurants without paying the entrance fee (believe me, I tried).

But it’s free to see the outside up close and you get a free skyline view of downtown Long Beach. Plus if you stay for under 30 mins, parking is free.

If you want to see the inside of the Queen Mary, I have a suggestion for how… Keep reading!

Walk Around Pine Av. Pier & Shop at Pike Outlets

Grab a bite to eat here and walk along the boardwalk. You can even walk to the lighthouse and see the Queen Mary across the water. This is also where you’ll find the Aquarium of the Pacific (a great family activity).

A bit further, past Shoreline Dr. are the Pike Outlets. Now it’s time to get your shopping on! It’s not a huge outlet mall, but I definitely found some good stuff. They have Gap, Forever21, H&M, Converse, Sunglasses Hut …etc.

Once the shopping bug is out of your system, you can visit their mini amusement park. By mini I mean you can go for a ride on the Ferris wheel and the Merry-Go-Round. Don’t forget to snap a pic in the Photobooth to remember your trip by! During the day you can also go paddle boating here (next to the Hyatt).

As much as I wanted the roller coaster to be real, it’s just a bridge…

Walk Along Retro Row

In the East Village Arts District, a few blocks on 4th street is known as Retro Row. This is where you’ll find beautiful graffiti to admire and one of a kind vintage finds.

The only downside – the shops only open at 12:00 which was a but late for me. It’s also quite a bit of a walk if you’re staying near the port, you’d definitely have to Uber there – or scooter.

Find Awesome Grafitti

If you don’t have time to go all the way to Retro Row but you still want to see awesome artwork, don’t worry, downtown Long Beach is filled with different wall art.

This was the biggest surprise for me when I was there. There’s an abundance of graffiti on every block that I wasn’t expecting. I couldn’t walk more than 5 steps without seeing another piece of art that I (of course) had to photograph.

See The Smallest Statue Of Abe Lincoln… Ever!

I think I was the only person that thought this was absolutely hilarious when I first spotted it. I mean, it just amazed me – usually, presidential statues are so epic and grandiose.

Especially Abe Lincoln, my mind automatically goes to his statue in Washington D.C. that’s larger than life. 

But, in Long Beach California, you can find (probably) one of the tiniest presidential statues…ever. You can find this world wonder at the intersection of Pacific and 1st at the Public Library/ City Hall.

See A Show At The Laugh Factory

If you love comedy shows this is a great night time activity. See who’s performing.

Getting Around Long Beach

If you’re staying in the city centre you can typically walk wherever you need to go and there’s no need for a car once you’re there.

But if you do need to go a bit further away, there are scooters and bikes that you can pick up and drop off at almost every street corner.

The scooters are $1 to unlock (you use an app on your phone), see the bike rates here.

Day Trip Ideas From Long Beach California

If you rent a car, the possibilities are endless. Los Angeles is about 45 minutes away, and San Diego is about 2 hours. Both are great options, you can check out both my L.A. guide and my one day in San Diego.

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More California Travel Guides

• Travel Guide: Santa Monica
• Travel Guide: Los Angeles
• Travel Guide: One Day in San Diego
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• 7 Fun Stops On The Drive From Los Angeles To Las Vegas

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Last update on 2024-04-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API