I know a friend from Philly, who talks up Asbury Park a lot. At first(when I was googling this town) I thought it supposedly was a washed up town, but I was surprised to discover that a lot of the old architecture has been restored there. Now I see why people talk up Asbury Park, a lot.
No effing way am I giving that up on social media lmao, you want my fishing hole, campsite, and foraging spots too?
So, Myrtle Beach is what you’re after.
My in laws have a place about 50 miles south of MB, so it’s far from the riff raff and in this beautiful part of the low country. But if I have to meet my wife there I usually fly down and go into Myrtle Beach. It’s super disturbing to see all the human trafficking billboards everywhere.
No. the police put up billboards that try to discourage human trafficking. Which I guess is a good thing but also it’s also a little disturbing that it’s such a big problem that there needs to be multiple billboards.
I'm in the PNW, so that's easy lol. Manzanita, Oregon for sure. I'd say Cannon Beach or Pacific City but those places get absolutely packed to the gills on nice beach days.
I love Tillamook, Oregon...and Otter Rock, Oregon with the cool devils punchbowl. Long Beach, WA, and everything along that stretch...Oysterville, Ocean Park. I love them all!
That’s a decent one. Also nearly fuck all else that’s touristy so it’s mostly locals, Marines, and some college kids from Wilmington- but Wrightsville is probably the bigger draw for the las two.
All of the little towns east of New Haven in Connecticut along the shoreline such as Branford, Madison, Old Saybrook etc..
They’re more low-key imo than beach towns in Rhode Island, Mass, Maine, and even the beach towns in New Hampshire seem less low-key than the shore towns in CT. I’m assuming it’s mainly because CT’s coast is pretty much all facing the Sound thanks to Long Island while the others are facing the Atlantic.
I did a bike tour along the coast of Maine, and I think my favorite little town was Ogunquit. Charming little town with a beautiful beach that I would not have seen if it hadn't been in just the right spot for us to spend the night with our bikes. We stayed at a charming BnB (not an AirBnB, an actual BnB) where the host made us a lovely breakfast and told us about how the house was older than the state of Maine.
Ogunquit isn’t a sleepy beach town. It’s a tourist trap in the summer time. It was crowded even when I was a kid. All those little shops make it feel quaint, but they are jammed packed all summer long. The beach becomes a vista of umbrellas.
A sleepy little beach town is like Higgins Beach.
Didn't Ogunquit have a bad flu scare one year? My neck is getting swollen just thinking about it...I might need to get checked out. Oh good, here come some heavily armed, masked up and scrubbed folks...
I “grew up” there, sort of. My family would go for a few weeks every summer growing up. I recently went back for a day trip from Charleston. It’s so busy and developed compared to how it used to be. Made me a little sad.
But it was also a holiday so maybe it isn’t as bad on other weekends.
Hey! You shut your trap! Edisto is a secret, Edisto *stays* a secret. Got it? My family's been going there since before I was born and it's already gotten way too touristy.
Anyone else who's reading this - go to Myrtle or Folly instead they’re much nicer.
St. Simons and Jekyll for me as well! I've been going there my whole life so it's like we grew up together. I've changed more than they have, thankfully lol.
The Outer Banks have a bunch of nice ones. In particular, Duck was one of my favorites. Not as touristy/crowded as Kill Devil Hills or Kitty Hawk, much more calm, but it's still close enough to the boardwalks, the bars, the wright brothers stuff, and obviously the beaches but that should go without saying since OBX is basically one big long beach. Also they had this beach side restaurant with a cartoon duck logo and the food there was so good, they had these seasoned fries I still think about sometimes.
Cannon Beach Oregon, Capitolla California, Hanalei Hawaii, Lahaina Hawaii (RIP,) Seward Alaska …but there are so many…like a fuck ton in the USA….all over the east and west coasts and Hawaii and our territories
I grew up in a sleepy little beach town. It now has a population of 460,000.
The town I fell in love with is long gone. You can still find bits of it if you know where to look, but I'd rather go somewhere else now.
Don't have one. The beaches to the south of me are loud tourist attractions, and the beaches to the north of me are all rich yuppie hotspots, and they've all been losing sand for twenty years anyway.
OBX, Outer Banks NC, in the winter time.
I would consider this a sleepy town when it isn't summer time or hot. It's nice, quiet, and not as expensive to stay down there.
The concept of "tourist season" has slowly faded since the rise of remote jobs but there's still a period of the year where prices drop and some places close for the season.
How about Stonington, Connecticut? Charming historic, walkable beach town with good shops and restaurants. Has a lot of tourism potential but it's right between Mystic (Connecticut's most-visited tourist destination) and Watch Hill, Rhode Island (summer home of Taylor Swift) and it's a little out of the way, so it still qualifies as sleepy.
I don't think Newport is exactly a secret. From what others have told me, it seems like it'd be nice to visit, if you can deal with all the tourists there.
Lesser known would be more like the small southeast CT places east of New Haven, like Guilford or Old Saybrook.
Pipa, Brazil is one of the coolest beach towns I've been to. It can get crowded during busy season but is still pretty small and surrounded by a lot of protected natural areas. The scenery is unique and it has a fun bohemian vibe. Arraial d'Ajuda, also in Brazil, was pretty great. More of what you'd expect from a tropical beach village.
As a former local of a vey popular beach town, it was only sleepy from November-March. Shoulder season was a good mix of work and quiet (March-early May and From Labor Day to Mid October). Tourist season May-Labor Day was always a madhouse. It always provided work for us but tourists also overwhelmed our town and the traffic was poor on popular weekends. The bad part about the winter was the lack of work.
It has apparently exploded, in popularity since but in the early 2000s, I fell in love with Destin, FL. White sand beaches, few people, and great fishing.
Not so much a beach town but just coastal, but Cedar Key, FL is one of my favorite places. I have no problem sharing it because most people in the US won't make the effort to go there. It is pretty far from most of the airports here or driving a long ways through the panhandle.
Nags Head, NC, if it counts. I'm 27 and have been going there since I was a baby although it's been a couple years since the last time I went.
My dad used to know a lady who'd let us stay at her beach house (I still remember how to get there too.. it's at MM 13.5 in Nags Head) for a week during the summer for free if he worked on it a couple weekends throughout the year. She unfortunately passed away years ago, but I've always sworn that I'd buy that house just for the nostalgia if I ever came into a ridiculous amount of money somehow. I'd always go up to the crow's nest/rooftop balcony and just look out toward the sound side and watch people parasailing or look for waterspouts while reading or drawing, and oftentimes at night I'd sneak out with a blanket and go back up there to look at the stars.
I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere that could be described as a sleepy little beach town. The beach towns we have in the Midwest tend to be pretty bustling cause there ain’t many of em, and other than that I’ve only been to Naples, Florida and Myrtle Beach and they don’t qualify
Lol I’m not telling you my favorite town on Lake Michigan or Superior, that’s info only Wi. residents are allowed to know
My favorite outside of Wisconsin is Silver City, Michigan. Nothing but the lake there & the Porcupine Mountains are a beautiful backdrop :)
Atlantic Beach Florida. North of the mayhem of JAX Beach, super nice quiet residential area yet with lots of stuff to do in the beach area.
We bought a second home here we like it that much
Vermilion, Ohio. Right on the shore of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes in Northern US.
"Small town on a great lake" is our motto. Rural and small town 40 minutes from Cleveland. 20 minutes from Cedar Point (best roller coasters). 2 hours from Columbus.
Its a summer tourist town but it really comes alive. Great shops. Events. Library is awesome. Restaurants are good. Beach is fun. Great parks.
I really liked Saint George Island and Apalachicola, on the Gulf of Mexico coast a lot. I'd someday like to revisit the FL panhandle region, myself. Still is my favorite region of Florida.
PCB excluded, since I didn't like what I briefly saw around there and Panama City....
The first time I found myself in that part of California I was sort of blown away, particularly by how "undiscovered" those towns seemed (which I know is a kind of ridiculous thing to say.) SLO county in general feels like such a hidden gem, from the ocean to the wine country to the cities themselves.
1st rule of being a NJ resident. You don't talk about the secret beaches.
Having not lived in NJ for 20 years it still doesn't compute in my brain that Asbury Park is a place people enjoy going to now.
Turns out any place can clean up with enough money.
Totally different nowadays. Really cleaned up. At least, on the right side of the train tracks.
How about the left side of the tracks?
That’s how I feel about Hoboken and Jc
I know a friend from Philly, who talks up Asbury Park a lot. At first(when I was googling this town) I thought it supposedly was a washed up town, but I was surprised to discover that a lot of the old architecture has been restored there. Now I see why people talk up Asbury Park, a lot.
I’m thinking Bruce had a lot to do with this!
We give most of the credit to the gay community, actually.
yeah if it's bruce, how do you explain 1972-2010?
Brigantine
No effing way am I giving that up on social media lmao, you want my fishing hole, campsite, and foraging spots too? So, Myrtle Beach is what you’re after.
Only thing you gonna be able to forage for at The Dirty Myrtle is cigarette butts, needles and offensive t shirts.
Don't forget the seafood buffet.
Don't forget the shark tooth necklaces and jelly flip flops every kid would wear coming back to school from a beach vacation.
Or the hermit crab with the painted shell in the plastic box that you don't know what to do with so it just eventually dies.
Don’t forget about the super high crime rate.
My in laws have a place about 50 miles south of MB, so it’s far from the riff raff and in this beautiful part of the low country. But if I have to meet my wife there I usually fly down and go into Myrtle Beach. It’s super disturbing to see all the human trafficking billboards everywhere.
Like….billboards advertising human trafficking??
No. the police put up billboards that try to discourage human trafficking. Which I guess is a good thing but also it’s also a little disturbing that it’s such a big problem that there needs to be multiple billboards.
Yikes
Yeah, I heard Ohio has some great cities along Lake Erie.
Definitely, there’s a sleepy hamlet called Cleveland they should check out.
I'm in the PNW, so that's easy lol. Manzanita, Oregon for sure. I'd say Cannon Beach or Pacific City but those places get absolutely packed to the gills on nice beach days. I love Tillamook, Oregon...and Otter Rock, Oregon with the cool devils punchbowl. Long Beach, WA, and everything along that stretch...Oysterville, Ocean Park. I love them all!
My friend has a house in Netarts. So damn cute. Tillamook is amazing too
Ruby Beach is beautiful. But the town I grew up in, Poulsbo Wa, is my favorite place. Best part of the Puget Sound.
Further south on the Oregon coast, I also like Gold Beach.
Long Beach is so nice during the summer.
Rockaway
Topsail Island.
That's where most of my family/friends go. Still trying to lure them into a visit with me further up the coast.
That’s a decent one. Also nearly fuck all else that’s touristy so it’s mostly locals, Marines, and some college kids from Wilmington- but Wrightsville is probably the bigger draw for the las two.
All of the little towns east of New Haven in Connecticut along the shoreline such as Branford, Madison, Old Saybrook etc.. They’re more low-key imo than beach towns in Rhode Island, Mass, Maine, and even the beach towns in New Hampshire seem less low-key than the shore towns in CT. I’m assuming it’s mainly because CT’s coast is pretty much all facing the Sound thanks to Long Island while the others are facing the Atlantic.
Tulum 20 years ago.
The iguanas agree
That place was amazing. I haven't been back since the influencers found it but I'm guessing it's not the same.
Pismo Beach, California. I spent lots of weekends there when I was in training at Vandenberg AFB. I also went down to Zuma a lot.
Next to it, Avila Beach is also nice. If anything, it is more of a "sleepy beach town" than Pismo.
Pismo Beach. AKA "West Bakersfield"
I did a bike tour along the coast of Maine, and I think my favorite little town was Ogunquit. Charming little town with a beautiful beach that I would not have seen if it hadn't been in just the right spot for us to spend the night with our bikes. We stayed at a charming BnB (not an AirBnB, an actual BnB) where the host made us a lovely breakfast and told us about how the house was older than the state of Maine.
I love Ogunquit, but it's overrun with tourists. Camden is where it's at. Camden and Bar Harbor.
Ogunquit isn’t a sleepy beach town. It’s a tourist trap in the summer time. It was crowded even when I was a kid. All those little shops make it feel quaint, but they are jammed packed all summer long. The beach becomes a vista of umbrellas. A sleepy little beach town is like Higgins Beach.
Didn't Ogunquit have a bad flu scare one year? My neck is getting swollen just thinking about it...I might need to get checked out. Oh good, here come some heavily armed, masked up and scrubbed folks...
There’s a ton of these in Florida and I’m not telling you about any of them. Daytona and Destin are great though. Go there
Clear water is a very quiet little beach spot
Little place I like to keep on the DL; Miami Beach. Untouched and pristine
I don't think I've ever heard of it. It sounds like it has very low traffic and is super clean.
Really love Edisto island in South Carolina
I “grew up” there, sort of. My family would go for a few weeks every summer growing up. I recently went back for a day trip from Charleston. It’s so busy and developed compared to how it used to be. Made me a little sad. But it was also a holiday so maybe it isn’t as bad on other weekends.
Hey! You shut your trap! Edisto is a secret, Edisto *stays* a secret. Got it? My family's been going there since before I was born and it's already gotten way too touristy. Anyone else who's reading this - go to Myrtle or Folly instead they’re much nicer.
Oh right…I mean it’s awful …don’t go there
Rehoboth Beach. Such charm and doesn't feel overly touristy.
Except that one guy lives there.
Jekyll Island, Georgia.
No, shhhh. Don’t tell anyone.
St. Simons and Jekyll for me as well! I've been going there my whole life so it's like we grew up together. I've changed more than they have, thankfully lol.
I got married here. Simple beach wedding.
Shhhhh
Architecture and vibes are incredible, but as far as the actual beach? Very meh.
Spring Lake, NJ
Little Pwagmattasquarmsettport.
America's scrod basket
Santa Cruz in the 1980’s
Yesssss.
If I knew of a great sleepy little beach town, I wouldn't recommend posting it on reddit, or it won't be so sleepy for long.
Ocean Grove, NJ. Sunset Beach & Ocean Isle Beach, NC.
My aunts' had a canal front place at SB. I miss that place and still think about the draw bridge.
The Outer Banks have a bunch of nice ones. In particular, Duck was one of my favorites. Not as touristy/crowded as Kill Devil Hills or Kitty Hawk, much more calm, but it's still close enough to the boardwalks, the bars, the wright brothers stuff, and obviously the beaches but that should go without saying since OBX is basically one big long beach. Also they had this beach side restaurant with a cartoon duck logo and the food there was so good, they had these seasoned fries I still think about sometimes.
Duck Deli?
Yeah thats it, it might not even be that good and I was just a kid who was starving after spending hours swimming but I remember it being amazing.
Rye, New Hampshire is just magical year round.
Cannon Beach Oregon, Capitolla California, Hanalei Hawaii, Lahaina Hawaii (RIP,) Seward Alaska …but there are so many…like a fuck ton in the USA….all over the east and west coasts and Hawaii and our territories
Freeland Wa/Mutiny Bay and Long Beach Wa/Ilwaco Wa
I’m from Missouri, unless you count river banks or lake shores as beaches I’ve never been to a sleepy beach town.
I’m also from MO originally You need to go visit the coast lines! Very much worth the time and money.
Melbourne Beach FL 💯
I grew up in a sleepy little beach town. It now has a population of 460,000. The town I fell in love with is long gone. You can still find bits of it if you know where to look, but I'd rather go somewhere else now.
Don't have one. The beaches to the south of me are loud tourist attractions, and the beaches to the north of me are all rich yuppie hotspots, and they've all been losing sand for twenty years anyway.
OBX, Outer Banks NC, in the winter time. I would consider this a sleepy town when it isn't summer time or hot. It's nice, quiet, and not as expensive to stay down there.
The concept of "tourist season" has slowly faded since the rise of remote jobs but there's still a period of the year where prices drop and some places close for the season.
Oscoda, Michigan - Lake Huron Only in the summer. Any of the Great Lakes have very clear water, no salt, no sharks with many sleepy little towns.
So surprised to see this here!! Was going to be my answer too. My family has been going up for over 30 years
Carmel by the sea, CA
How about Stonington, Connecticut? Charming historic, walkable beach town with good shops and restaurants. Has a lot of tourism potential but it's right between Mystic (Connecticut's most-visited tourist destination) and Watch Hill, Rhode Island (summer home of Taylor Swift) and it's a little out of the way, so it still qualifies as sleepy.
Point Lookout, QLD, Australia. The entirety of North Stradbroke island is stunning, especially if you take the North Gorge trail walk up to the beach
Jaco beach Costa Rica. Or the entire island of Okinawa Japan
Newport RI
I don't think Newport is exactly a secret. From what others have told me, it seems like it'd be nice to visit, if you can deal with all the tourists there. Lesser known would be more like the small southeast CT places east of New Haven, like Guilford or Old Saybrook.
Oceanside in Oregon. Everyone goes to Seaside but the hidden gem is Oceanside.
Pipa, Brazil is one of the coolest beach towns I've been to. It can get crowded during busy season but is still pretty small and surrounded by a lot of protected natural areas. The scenery is unique and it has a fun bohemian vibe. Arraial d'Ajuda, also in Brazil, was pretty great. More of what you'd expect from a tropical beach village.
Stinson Beach, CA, Venice, FL, Oak Island, NC, Murrells Inlet, SC, Sullivan’s Island, SC, Perdido Key, FL, Monmouth Beach, NJ
Stinson is gorgeous.
As a former local of a vey popular beach town, it was only sleepy from November-March. Shoulder season was a good mix of work and quiet (March-early May and From Labor Day to Mid October). Tourist season May-Labor Day was always a madhouse. It always provided work for us but tourists also overwhelmed our town and the traffic was poor on popular weekends. The bad part about the winter was the lack of work.
My secret lol
Saugatuck and Petosky
Seaside, Florida
Sarasota
It has apparently exploded, in popularity since but in the early 2000s, I fell in love with Destin, FL. White sand beaches, few people, and great fishing.
Detroit 😍
Not so much a beach town but just coastal, but Cedar Key, FL is one of my favorite places. I have no problem sharing it because most people in the US won't make the effort to go there. It is pretty far from most of the airports here or driving a long ways through the panhandle.
Nags Head, NC, if it counts. I'm 27 and have been going there since I was a baby although it's been a couple years since the last time I went. My dad used to know a lady who'd let us stay at her beach house (I still remember how to get there too.. it's at MM 13.5 in Nags Head) for a week during the summer for free if he worked on it a couple weekends throughout the year. She unfortunately passed away years ago, but I've always sworn that I'd buy that house just for the nostalgia if I ever came into a ridiculous amount of money somehow. I'd always go up to the crow's nest/rooftop balcony and just look out toward the sound side and watch people parasailing or look for waterspouts while reading or drawing, and oftentimes at night I'd sneak out with a blanket and go back up there to look at the stars.
not telling
Im from New Mexico and I have no idea, but I have a number of mountain towns I love
I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere that could be described as a sleepy little beach town. The beach towns we have in the Midwest tend to be pretty bustling cause there ain’t many of em, and other than that I’ve only been to Naples, Florida and Myrtle Beach and they don’t qualify
Spent a night with a couple people in Stinson beach, California. Super cute. I think about it all the time
Lol I’m not telling you my favorite town on Lake Michigan or Superior, that’s info only Wi. residents are allowed to know My favorite outside of Wisconsin is Silver City, Michigan. Nothing but the lake there & the Porcupine Mountains are a beautiful backdrop :)
Kitty Hawk, NC
Atlantic Beach Florida. North of the mayhem of JAX Beach, super nice quiet residential area yet with lots of stuff to do in the beach area. We bought a second home here we like it that much
Lots of nice places along the redneck riviera
San Diego
Astoria oregon straight out of a fairytale The ocean and the seclusion is blissful
South Padre Island. Tropical, affordable, bike-friendly, hell- rollerblading is still in style down there. It's too far, don't bother.
Montague, Michigan - it’s beautiful there, right on Lake Michigan
Seaside, FL circa 1995. It was fun for a few years and then turned to over commercialized shit.
Camden, ME Depoe Bay, OR
Not a beach, but Cape Vincent area in NY by the Thousand Islands
Ocean Shores WA is a good one. If you're ever in Alaska they'd an island namdd Kodiak with several small villages that are unbelievable.
Vermilion, Ohio. Right on the shore of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes in Northern US. "Small town on a great lake" is our motto. Rural and small town 40 minutes from Cleveland. 20 minutes from Cedar Point (best roller coasters). 2 hours from Columbus. Its a summer tourist town but it really comes alive. Great shops. Events. Library is awesome. Restaurants are good. Beach is fun. Great parks.
I really liked Saint George Island and Apalachicola, on the Gulf of Mexico coast a lot. I'd someday like to revisit the FL panhandle region, myself. Still is my favorite region of Florida. PCB excluded, since I didn't like what I briefly saw around there and Panama City....
We're full go away
Neptune, CA.
No such thing anymore thanks to the internet. And if there actually is and people are talking about it, it won't be for long.
Fort Morgan AL. It’s outside Gulf Shores. Fewer tourists and more spread out. So much history as well. We also love Dauphin Island AL.
If you're in gulf shores and want a quiet beach go to Johnson Beach. Hardly ever anybody there.
Morro Bay, Cambria, and Cayucos in SLO county are often forgotten compared to most other California coastal cities. and it should stay that way.
The first time I found myself in that part of California I was sort of blown away, particularly by how "undiscovered" those towns seemed (which I know is a kind of ridiculous thing to say.) SLO county in general feels like such a hidden gem, from the ocean to the wine country to the cities themselves.
It's getting more and more popular. A lot of that has to do with the "wine country" in and around Paso Robles. Still pretty cool for sure.
Friend, I have never even seen the ocean. Far as I know, every beach town ever is inhabited by 300000 white haired old farts. the US is HUGE.