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Coney Island is one of those places where you take the train out there once to see. After you've seen it once, you realize it isn't worth the hour+ train ride from the city to go see it again.
Waikiki is a place you spend a small fortune to stay for a week and fly 11 hours from the East Coast to get to. At the end of the week you ask yourself, "Man I wish I could stay longer".
So true. I’ve always wanted to go to Coney Island and my wife encouraged it when we were visiting her family. After I was over it in less time than it took us to get there she said the exact same thing you did. I’m there usually a couple of times a year and I don’t ever see myself going back.
Oahu on the other hand. I’ve been there more times than I can recall off the top of my head, and will continue to go.
I voted Coney Island because I honestly have more interest in visiting Coney Island at this point, given that I've been to Waikiki before and not the latter, and I'm not much of a beach person. I like the idea of visiting an urban coastal town and the classic sort of vibe Coney Island might have.
That said... surfing and swimming? Oy...
I wouldn't go in the water there.
If you want waves, go to a beach facing east. In that area, New Jersey, Delaware, or Maryland will do.
I've never even visited Waikiki, but from pictures alone I'd pick it over Coney. While there were great efforts to smoothen Cyclone (at least when I last rode it in 2014), the rest of the park is one big bucket of overpriced "meh". I appreciate the history behind the place, but there are plenty of other amusement parks I'd rather visit again.
How is this even comparable. Coney Island has history and all but the actual beach isn't even among the best in the nation. Literally every single beach in Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and California is better than Coney Island. Even the Maryland and Virginia beaches are better than Coney Island.
I've read that Waikiki isn't even a natural beach and the sand is imported from California.
The best beaches I've personally visited in the US are.....
1. Bahia Honda, Florida (Bahia Honda Key in the Keys)
2. Sombrero Beach - Marathon, Florida
3. Pensacola Beach, Florida
4. Navarre, Florida
5. Playalinda Beach, Florida
6. Dana Point, California
7. Malibu, California
8. Kona, Hawaii (Hawaii really doesn't have many sandy beaches naturally but the coastline is pretty)
9. Gulf Shores, Alabama
10. Orange Beach, Alabama
Runners up would be Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil HIlls, NC and Myrtle Beach SC. I've not been to Folly Beach or Kiawah Island but know those are great too. Coney Island is no better than the Jersey Shore.
If you want waves, go to a beach facing east. In that area, New Jersey, Delaware, or Maryland will do.
Which would you say is the best beach in those places that also has sort of an urban, connected to the BOS-Wash corridor kinda feel?
I do like the increased waves of the Atlantic Coast as opposed to where I am now, for reference.
I’ve done a couple trips to Miami area recently as a result. I like the feel of Hollywood Beach, with the town strip right there without having to cross the street unlike even in Miami Beach. I also really liked the water quality and almost Island feel of Cape Florida State Park at end of Key Biscayne.
I know beaches up there are different, but Im from up north and generally enjoy them just the same.
I really liked visiting Ocean City MD. Virginia Beach was a bit too suburban and generic in feel still comparatively , I visited Rockport, MA, nice town, but beach was a little too rocky and water a bit too cold to really enjoy in typical beach terms.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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I'll take a beach in Maui or eastern Long Island, thanks.
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