Western Coastal Towns- Pacific Beach, Ocean Shores, Long Beach- differences? (Seattle: real estate, to rent)

[WestGuest]

Aside from size are there any differences among the coastal towns? Ocean Park, Ocean Shores, Pacific Beach etc. Any that are especially nice? Any less expensive than the others? My guess is the climate is similar.

[Fat Freddy]

The only one of those that is a real town is Ocean Shores.

The other places north of there are more like settlements.

There are many beautiful places on the coast, but they are for millionaires only.

Until you get to Tahola, which an Indian town and where the Tribal Lands begin and extend up the rest of the coast until you get to the Straits. There a a few public beaches along the way off Hwy 101, but the rest of the coast is Indian Territory.

[LuvsCruisin]

Long Beach is my go to Memorial weekend spot... been there 5 years running and the beaches make for beautiful walks.

I tested the water once... and yeah, it was cold.

Dunno about living there though not being a millionaire.

[rantiquity]

Western Washington beach are different going north to south. Northern beach are more remote and harder to reach for the most part, the sand is hard and black in color and the beaches are not well maintained and some what hazardous due to a lot of debris being washed up on shore especially during rough weather.

Central beaches like Ocean Shores north are hard drivable sand but caution when crossing streams....those tow trucks are there for a reason.

South along Long Beach peninsula all the way to Illwaco the sand is soft for the most part and that stretch is very popular in the summer. Long Beach is probably closer to beaches in Oregon in quality.


I know of no beach areas in Long Beach that caters only to millionaires. Are there millionaires there, probably but they are rubbing shoulders with us little people along the way.

[CrazyDonkey]

Ocean Shores is many times larger. Pacific Beach is a real town, although small - a newer development, Seabrook, is just south of Pacific Beach. Copalis Beach, between Ocean Shores and Pacific Beach/Seabrook is less of a town than a bend in the road, with a tavern, firehouse, and a collection of houses. I remember a store being there in the 1950s - we also would stop at Chuck's Chili Bowl, not for the chili, but to get "grab bags" of candy (the cafe is gone, but the building is still there). Moclips is the furthest north, more of a string of beach houses than a town. North of Moclips is Taholah and the Quinault Indian Reservation - you used to be able to get a "pass" for a donation, but currently non-Indians are banned from their beaches.

Ocean Park is part of the Long Beach peninsula - you might be confusing it with Ocean City, which is neither a town nor a city, but "a census-designated place", just north of Ocean Shores. All of these places can be pretty sleepy, especially in the off-season, except for the casino at Ocean Shores.

If visiting, I'd recommend Pacific Beach and Moclips. Copalis Beach State Park is worth a visit. Skip Seabrook, except for a drive through. If looking to buy, Ocean Shores has the most properties. Apart from Ocean Shores, Moclips is the most affordable, but also the most remote. When I was a kid, we referred to the area as "the north beaches" - "North Beach" is a more recent invention. You should be aware that Coast Communications has a monopoly on cable and charges high prices for slow/capped Internet.

If you want to live at/near the ocean, but need high-speed Internet at a reasonable cost, look at Westport/Grayland (which we called "the south beaches" when I was a kid - there is no "South Beach") or in Aberdeen/Hoquiam, which have Comcast/xfinity.

If looking to rent, look at Ocean Shores, Westport, and Aberdeen/Hoquiam.

Summers are beautiful. The rest of the year is wet (80-100" precipitation).

[Fat Freddy]

About ten years we moved to Ocean Shores, bought some property and had a house built.

We love it here.

But if we had to do it over again.

I would seriously consider looking a little farther north, like Pacific Beach or Moclips.

[WestGuest]

Why ?

[Fat Freddy]

Originally Posted by WestGuest

Why ?

I have posted all about it several times, on this forum and probably on this thread.

It has to do with Greed and Stupidity and how the real estate and tourist industries control and manipulate the town to benefit their own profits at the taxpayer's expense.

I love the ocean, the beach, the trees, the deer, the raccoons, the coyotes, the bears, and the cougars, but I can find all that a little farther north with less political corruption.

[CrazyDonkey]

I recall a number of years ago that the mayor of Westport believed it gave him license to haul truck loads of sand from Westport's beaches to sell it in Seattle. Caused quite the scandal at the time. He thought no one would notice. Have Ocean Shores' pols sunk that low?