California Beaches Blog

California beaches–Nothing is more popular than the search for nude beaches in California. But the bad news is that for those who seek these beaches, they are hard to come by. While San Onofre State Beach in Southern California has long been a hideaway for nude sunbathing activities, there’s been some rumblings and threats by California State Parks officials to begin fining people who sunbathe nude there. A lawsuit appeal was filed by the sunbathing group.

Further down in San Diego’s La Jolla area is a beach, Black’s Beach, that you can only access by foot due to erosion and embankments of land (cliffs). It is unofficially a live-and-let-live beach where you may find nudity.

As you travel the coast, forget nude sunbathing throughout Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. There is nothing more than a few isolated spots where you might get by with it if you aren’t caught. An unofficial beach in San Luis Obispo County offers a cove, pet friendly policies, and clothing optional crowds. Since there are virtually no lifeguards patrolling the beach, it’s your best bet for sharing sunbathing with local seals that sit on rocks.

Further up the coast in Santa Cruz and San Mateo County are a few spots for sunbathing a’la natural. Here’s an article we once wrote about Santa Cruz’s naturist policies. We were contacted by the Santa Cruz Convention and Visitors Bureau at that time to inform us that some information needed updating. Best bet is to call them if you have any questions. Don’t just head up or towards the coast hundreds of miles without checking it out first.  But the further north you go, the cooler it gets and the less inclined people are to strip. All in all, California’s nude sunbathing scene isn’t much of one really.