About Long Beach

Settled along five-and-a-half miles of sandy coastline, Long Beach is the quintessential vacation getaway, boasting both the ambience of a sophisticated urban center and the charm of a seaside community. Located just 20 miles south of Los Angeles, California’s fifth largest city offers visitors a dynamic range of oceanfront hotels, attractions, shopping, recreational activities, art and culture, restaurants and nightly entertainment that make it an ideal destination for any time of the year.

Neighborhoods
Long Beach has emerged as a community full of unique neighborhoods and cultural diversity. Located just a mile down Ocean Boulevard is the seaside community of Belmont Shore, which features Second Street—a shopper’s mecca and premier location for outdoor dining and people watching. Tucked behind Belmont Shore is one of the city’s most romantic destinations, Naples Island, where Italian-style gondoliers cruise along the canals lined with picturesque, million-dollar homes. Alamitos Bay is just past Belmont Shore offering waterfront dining and views of rows and rows of sailboats. Downtown Long Beach is a perfect blend of sophisticated urban center and charming seaside community, and is filled with a myriad of entertainment choices. For more international flavors, visitors can discover the city’s historic Spanish roots in Bixby Knolls or experience the prevalent Cambodian community along Anaheim Street.

Attractions
Discover the city’s best known attractions, which range from a historic ocean liner to a state-of-the art aquarium. The most recognized attraction in Long Beach, the Queen Mary, is one of the world’s most luxurious ships to sail the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean liner also features a 365-stateroom hotel and several fine restaurants. Visitors can explore this majestic ship from the wheelhouse to the engine room before braving the Queen’s current attraction, Ghosts and Legends. During this haunted tour, a guide leads brave guests through parts of the Queen Mary that were previously off-limits while the attraction produces floods, flashing lights, and ghostly experiences. Visitors can also explore the mystique of the Soviet submarine Scorpion, which is moored adjacent to the Queen Mary.

For a face-to-fish encounter visit the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, a world-class facility that is home to more than 12,000 inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean representing some 550 different species. It also has numerous areas where visitors can touch the animals of the ocean like sting rays, sea cucumbers, starfish and more. Explorer’s Cove features Lorikeet Forest where these colorful and friendly miniature parrots can be hand-fed by visitors. Also in Explorer’s Cove is Shark Lagoon, where nine species of shark can be viewed from both above and below water. Visitors can actually touch several of the shark species in special touch lagoons.

A short walk from the Aquarium, along Rainbow Harbor’s is Shoreline Village, a charming seaside boardwalk of specialty and souvenir shops and restaurants. Rainbow Harbor surrounds Shoreline Village and is home to boats of all types, including fishing boats, tall ships, luxury charter yachts, harbor tour boats, pleasure craft and even a replica Mississippi stern wheeler.

Just minutes from downtown Long Beach rest several other interesting attractions that will suit visitors of all ages. These “must-sees” include Alamitos Bay, a waterfront dining and entertainment area; Gondola Getaway along the canals of Naples Island; and Ranchos Los Alamitos and Rancho Los Cerritos, two historic parks featuring acres of beautiful gardens and authentic adobes.

Recreational Activities
Long Beach’s five-and-a-half miles of sandy beaches and pleasant climate make it the ultimate year-round playground. Winding along the beach are smooth, wide paths perfect for biking, rollerblading, running or romantic strolls. Visitors can dive right into a variety of watersports such as kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, sportfishing, scuba diving and jetskiing. Everything from rollerblades to wetsuits, jetskis to windsurfing equipment, can be rented at various places along the beach. Day and night harbor cruises are also available, offering beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.

Each year, from late December to mid-April, visitors can witness the awesome migration of more than 15,000 Pacific grey whales passing through Long Beach on their way to their breeding and berthing grounds in Mexico. Whale watching excursions are available through several companies.

Shopping
Long Beach offers an eclectic array of shopping options, from antiques to retail centers. On Broadway in the East Village, visitors will discover antique shops, art galleries and rare books. Mid-town’s “Funky” Fourth Street, between Cherry and Junipero, has been dubbed as the Retro Wear Capital of Southern California—a vintage clothing hound’s dream.

Shoppers will also be delighted to find several art stores featuring original works. For the mainstream shopper, Long Beach has several retail centers including Los Altos Market Center, Marina Pacifica, Long Beach Marketplace, and the Long Beach Towne Center. Downtown’s Pine Avenue and Belmont Shore’s Second Street are also great shopping venues filled with blocks of specialty and retail shops. Shoreline Village and The Pike at Rainbow Harbor also offer unique shopping opportunities.

Art and Culture
From award-winning drama and cutting-edge opera to historic museums, visitors will enjoy an exciting range of artistic expressions that comprise the city’s rich heritage. Long Beach is home to a number of unique museums, including the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), the only museum in the West to focus exclusively on the contemporary art of Mexico, Central and South America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. In addition, the Long Beach Museum of Art has re-opened with expanded facilities including new exhibit space, a new museum store and café, and expanded gardens. Visitors can also explore the city’s unique galleries in the thriving East Village arts community, listen to a renowned symphony orchestra or watch a play from a variety of first-class performing arts companies.

Dining and Nightly Entertainment
When it’s time to dine, Long Beach offers visitors hundreds of options from intimate cafes to spectacular oceanfront restaurants. Visitors can nosh on fried green tomatoes in a restored 1920s California Bungalow, dive into a table full of seafood along Alamitos Bay or feast in a historic bank building complete with teller cages. Sample a world of cuisines right in this international city from Italian to Cambodian.

Visitor Services/Transportation
No other community in Southern California is as visitor friendly as Long Beach- and getting here is easy. Fly directly into the Long Beach Airport (LGB) on either American Airlines, America West, Horizon Air or JetBlue. Direct flights are available to and from New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Salt Lake City, Oakland, Dallas, Phoenix and Seattle. If you prefer to fly into Los Angeles (LAX) or Orange County (SNA), Long Beach is just a short 25-minute drive from either airport. While in town, the Passport local shuttle service offers complimentary transportation to all of downtown Long Beach’s most popular attractions including the Aquarium, Queen Mary, Shoreline Village and Pine Avenue. For just 90 cents, the Passport can transport visitors down to Belmont Shores/Naples and Cal State Long Beach.

In addition, water taxi service is offered by the Aquabus, and can transport guests across the water to Shoreline Village, the Aquarium, or the Queen Mary. The Aqualink is a high-speed catamaran water taxi from downtown to Alamitos Bay. For your convenience, friendly downtown guides dressed in red “Long Beach” shirts, red caps and khaki pants are stationed in a 40-block area and help visitors find restaurants, shops and attractions.

Hotels
The Long Beach area boasts more than 5,000 rooms citywide from a variety of properties including luxury hotels, intimate bed and breakfasts and budget hotels. Many hotels offer panoramic ocean and city views at affordable prices while others feature notable characteristics from international treasures to world class restaurants. If you’re looking for an easy and affordable getaway, you can book a Long Beach Getaway that includes accommodations and tickets to area attractions and nearby Universal Studios Hollywood. You can check out special offers at www.visitlongbeach.com