We visited Dana Point Harbor while we were staying at the Waldorf Astoria Resort. It was nice walking around the harbor, shopping, eating, and seeing a bunch of boats. There is a lovely park at the harbor as well, so we got to see a bunch of dogs while we were there which was fun. It was nice to see people out and about on water and on land. If you are looking for a nice place to walk around in Dana Point, the harbor is a great place to go.

Nice place to wonder and admire the boats but also to have a nice relaxing lunch. It seems like a great place to walk your dog as well. I took the ferry there to the Catalina island and it was an easy place to get around

If you want to have breakfast with beautiful seals at the weekend, Dana Point Harbor is the best location!

This place is amazing. paddle board , kayak rentals available and pretty other water sports.Tandem paddling or kayak available etc. docking station is great. It’s great for a walk across the docking area and the restaurant. Amazing ocean view. Nice restaurant area as well.

Fantastic place to watch sunrise and or sunset. Take a Walk, get a cup of coffee and enjoy ☺️

It was a wonderful day. We sat in an area with a canopy, picnic table and benches. We were very close to the channel. We saw sailboats and people using paddle boards. Beautiful area and very relaxing. This area also has lots of wonderful walkways.

Dana Point Harbor is beautiful with guest slips if you plan ahead. If you are looking to buy or sell a yacht please contact me Ian Van Tuyl at anytime day or night.

Dana Park is one of the best places to relax and enjoy the spectacular view. You can meditate here. I also love the weather. Unlike in Temecula or SD, the weather here is very nice. It was 77 when I came here with my family compared to 89 to 90s in SD county. It is very peaceful here. The water is soo clean and crystal clear. The people are nice. It's close to supermarket and restaurants. Above all else, there are so much to do like paddling and riding on a boat. You can buy your own mini boat here. I'm not really family with boats and all but I know you can park yours there and just pay. It is very nice there. It is open to public. We used the back road so we saw the beautiful nature. You will drive up the hill and you can see the spectacular view from above. The landscape was wonderful. Just drive up there and I'm sure you're not going to regret. It's worth the time. It is not very expensive also. You can just buy food and bring it on the table beside the sea. Enjoy! Just make sure you clean up after yourselves to maintain the clean surrounding.

Super laid back and beautiful place to walk and look at boats. Many people bring dogs. We love it here!

The harbor offers free parking, a variety of eateries and restaurants, as well as a perfect spot to watch the boats set sail from. The harbor has an expansive view of the ocean on one side and grassland on the other for those who want to picnic or relax with their family. we really enjoyed kicking back and watching the paddle boarders and boats heading out for a day of fishing

Dana point Harbor has a lot to offer you can walk around and there are lots of shops and restaurants and the beach,

I LOVE LOVE this whole place. I come here at least twice a week. I love sitting by the park with plenty of spots and enough parking. I paddle board when I’m not sitting watching the boats from land. I walk along the path watching all the boats and others on kayaks and boats. I love the restaurants and the views and the overall energy of this place!

Have you been to Dana Point Harbor, especially during the Christmas holidays? It is the prettiest place for Christmas Decorations! Decorations are all over the Harbor, and you can ride to see them all, or just sit and enjoy them while walking, having a meal, or shopping. Most beautiful Christmas lights I have seen at holiday time. Take a look!

Gorgeous Harbor! Great Restaurants! Chart House has very nice views as you dine of entire harbour. Plenty of parks to picnic, and spend the day. Harbour is gorgeously decorated for Christmas & New Year every Year! A must see!

Doheny is a wonderful beach, especially for surfing, camping, grilling, or just hanging out for the day. To begin, the parking is easy and close to the beach<100 ft. Additionally, the parking lot is the same altitude as the beach. Which after a long day in the sun and ocean makes the trek back to your vehicle or public transit quite easy. The beach itself is pretty solid, but, quite riddled with natural sediment. Think bigger rocks, thicker sand, larger pieces of drift wood. You can get away with using a towel to lay down, but, I would strongly suggest bringing a beach mat (like a banig.) Getting to the ocean is easy, I certainly suggest bringing water shoes though. The ocean itself has quite large rocks for the first 150-200 ft. that can really wreak havoc on your toes/feet. Once you are out there, though, it is great-serene and relaxing. It can get a little overcrowded at times, but, the ocean is big enough for everyone. As for the facilities, there are easily accessible bathrooms and outdoor showers, grills next to the picnic tables, and a little food area that has ice cream, water, snacks, and beer. New good options are forthcoming. Overall, a wonderful time with great access and amenities.

I love this place. It may not have the best beaches, but you can enjoy the beauty of California without being elbow to elbow with throngs of people. Please don’t go here! I want to keep it special.

This is a very nice park to end a bike ride t or go to via driving. There is a fee for drivers through. I only visited where San Juan Creek met the ocean.

Great place for picnics - families or functions. They have tons of tables and bar-b-q's and a large park. They also have a volleyball setup on the beach and sorted bike rentals.

I would have enjoyed going into the ocean but unfortunately they're way to many rocks on the beach ⛱️ it's very difficult if you don't have water shoes, and i still think that would help much. The campsites are very close to one another. It would be nice if they were spaced a little more, you literally feel like a packed sardine. Carlsbad in my opinion is a much better campsite .

My husband and I celebrated our 37th anniversary at Dana Point. Doheny state beach was beautiful. It wasn't crowded and it was very clean. We stayed at the Double tree across the street from the beach. We were able to walk across the street and into the state beach are. The wal took less than 3 minutes.

I grew up in orange county back when there were still trains running veges across the 5 Fwy. In all my time I'd never visited Doheny, except for the Beach Road access. Today a patient and myself visited the main beach and was I ever blown away. The way it's laid out really reminded me of north OC beaches and LA. Just a great place to sit and see the waves, surfer's and, occasional fishing trolly heading out to sea. I assure you, visit and if not impressed or happy I'll give you a number to refund (1-800-OC-Rocks). Seriously tho come visit, check out the DoHo Cafe and just enjoy the splendor of the OC Lifestyle.

It's a small campground. No hookups. It's clean and convenient. The trains are close, but not to loud. There are bathrooms. Warm showers require a token. The beach is clean. Not very many shells. We are here in January, and the weather is great. The kids are even playing in the water.

Very nice beach. Went on a day when tide was changing so waves were bigger. Bathrooms were clean and cafe serves reasonably priced food. I would go back there again for sure. The only thing is to pay for parking it’s via app only so keep in mind if you are old school, you have to download an app and navigate it in order to pick the right option to pay wether it’s “day lot” or “hourly lot”.

Very cute little cafe on the boardwalk friendly and helpful. Public access to nice little fire rings if it's to cold or you need to warm up. Clean public restrooms available just a short walk up to the strand. Bicycles, two seaters, some really cool 4 × road bikes and 3 wheelers available to rent next to the Doheny cafe. Decent waves on most days 2 - 3 ft.

It’s the to go beach like always very clean and there’s tables and grills to cook restrooms are a bit far depending which en you are they are in the middle but other than that very nice beach nothing exiting

We visited this place to walk with our dog , parking is $20 dlls for all day parking if u traveling in a rv u ok up to 22 fts rv … i saw bigger o in the parking … not sure if they enforcement the size in a rig …also there is parking before u enter to this place wich is only $ 1 dlls por hour…wich I think is great …if u chose to park inside the beach park is $ 7 dlls por hour …great place to spend the whole day , there is a bicycle rental, there is also a surfboard rental, lot of tables for pick nick or big groups or parties….so this beach is one of mi favorites ,, hope u visit soon … and be careful with the parking the citation on this area in general is serious Bussines… So pay your parking 😀,

Pay entry fee online, clean beach (little litter like a crushed coke can and lots of seaweeds), lots of people playing volleyball on 🏐 courts, many 🏄‍♂️ 🌊 🏄‍♀️ hang out mostly near Second Spot, which is just a bit morth of the Main Lifeguard Tower (saw one lifeguard on duty as he picked up the orange traffic cones off of Thor's Hammer (embankment from the San Juan Creek). Very family friendly, recommend jacket cuz of wind from ocean. On the north portion of Doheny State Beach (DSB), there are many picnic tables, many trashcans, along with a fairly big patch of green grass that we walked around the bike path to avoid stepping on the beautiful lawn. There are horseshoe tosses, too! Many electric bikes roamed past us and onto sandy beach. Only service dogs are allowed, must be on leash, and attended by an adult. There were RVs in the north parking lot. Little internet research showed that DSB has no electric or water connections, hence a "dry" camping ground. There is a snack bar called Doho Cafe that you can also order your food and drinks online (see photo). You can also rent bikes and work together to get to all parts of the park. Restroom has open skylight, very clean, has what seems to be shower stalls, but no shower heads (so, dressing room?). There is a shower head outside of the restroom to wash sand off of your feet. Would visit again during the off-season! Enjoy!

Wonderful campground with fenced off area, easy access to the beach, friendly staff and bathrooms and showers. Would recommend.

The areas around the beach are very nice. The snack shack has a great variety of food but is a little pricey. The rentals are diverse and reasonably priced. There are natural tide pools and beginners surfing waves but I do wish there was less kelp and driftwood on the shore.

Easy to get to, level sites. The beach is right there, and the campground is not a parking lot! Beautiful views, fabulous sunsets. Restrooms and showers were clean. Some spots are quite shallow, so be honest about the size of your rig.

The park is great. Beach is comfortable. Be careful - this is a state park. There is a $20 fee to park. It is easy to miss this and park without paying. Fines are steep.

The sunset view from here is truly beautiful, and the beach itself is absolutely stunning. 🏄‍♀️ Surfing is available, and the park nearby provides a great opportunity to relax before heading down to the beach. The park offers ample space for picnics and even features a basketball 🏀 court for sports enthusiasts. While the beach may be a bit crowded at times, there's still plenty of room to find a cozy spot to hang out and capture some incredible sunset photos. Keep in mind that you'll need to take a short walk down to reach the beach, but the experience is well worth it!

We learned of The Strand and Salt Creek Beach several years ago while staying in Dana Point. Very beautiful, clean, plenty of stairs if you like the trek. Funicular works Memorial Day weekend thru Labor Day weekend. Great views from parking lot (free) and at beach level. Beachcombers are respectful. Water is good for swimming and surfing in some areas. There's also a trail at south end of the Strand. One of the pics is from the trail. Good for families, couples, or solo. We've noticed many come just for the sunset. Love love love this area of SoCal beach.

Pros: 🏖️ Beautiful and abundant beach and ocean views. 🌅 Popular spot for watching sunsets and picnicking. 🅿️ Spacious and affordable parking available across the street. 🚽 Clean and well-equipped restrooms near the beach. 🏄 Great location for surfing with strong and consistent waves. Cons: ⛰️ Steep and distant path to the beach, involving stairs and paved roads. 🌊 Strong and potentially dangerous waves, requiring caution and safety measures. 🦟 Numerous and bothersome flies, particularly intensified during sunny periods.

We spent a month in Dana point in a nearby condo. We took our dog down to the grassy area most days. It is a beautiful spot to sit and relax to watch the waves and surfers. And a sugar soft sand when you walk the beach. We didn't want to leave. Lots of special memories.

This is one of my favorite beaches. Very clean, lots of places to sit, and bathrooms. I always see dolphins and seals when I visit and sometimes whales. There’s usually a lot of good waves and lots of surfers. I like that the beach is really long—good for walking and running. Plenty of tide pools at low tide, but I hate seeing the tourists pull the wildlife off the rocks and out of the pools (look but don’t touch!). There’s a large grass park on the hill—a big, steep hill that’s worth the trek to get to the sand. Snack stand is closed right now for renovations or some other work.

Perfect beach location, not so crowded, no trash around, lifeguards always on patrol, easy pay parking area and its cheap too, safe place, there’s a certain spot for swimmers and spot for surfers. You can also ride a bike around the area. My family love this place and we can visit the beach anytime we want because of my annual parking pass

Wow! Amazing! Great beach for family. Excellent parking. Maybe .50 or .60 of a mile with a steep few steps back to your car. Basketball court, picnic tables and lots of green grass for a picnic. Definitely pack light. This beach has a surfer side. Water and sky are blue. Their is also a trolley that drives around parking lot for other beaches like Vista and Cresent Bay. Sharing my IG photos 📸 hence the top right numbers

Love this beach. Plenty of parking ($1/hr) but they do fill up fast on weekends. Beach is a 5 min walk and on the way is a park area which is great to bring a blanket for a picnic and watch sunsets. The beach is wide and sand is fine. Great place to walk or watch surfers catch some waves.

Great event park on Saturday night 🖤🌈 beautiful sunset and more in Salt Creek 🌅

Easy to walk to although on way back it’s a steep beginning. I am not sure when the elevator works. This year I have noticed beach erosion, much less sand and that is why I don’t give it 5 stars

Pack a picnic and take in the ocean view. One of the prettiest spots in socal. There is also a trail to walk the furbabies.

Gorgeous beach in Dana Point with a park like setting with expansive grass on hill going down to the wide sandy beach with rolling waves. The views are beautiful and bathroom facilities were clean. The snack shack is currently closed for remodeling. Half court basketball, paved walking/running trails and covered pavilion with grills. $1 hour parking fee.

OPEN @8AM WARNING CONSTRUCTION IN DANA POINT TILL MARCH 2025 PARK @FRISBY CELLARS @8AM Open: EVERY DAY @8AM - 12pm @ticket window:parking & Reservations Winter Hours shorten till Summer No PHONE Calls(Emergency Only) No Shuttle Needed Dana Wharf Building Window Access outside Dana Wharf building Phone located inside building for Catalina reservations If office is closed in Dana Wharf office call the Catalina Reservations number. Phone/Online reservations open 8a-4pm

Nice ferry to Catelina. The ramp onto the boat in Dana Point (and off for the return trip) along with the step to get into the lower cabin could be better accommodated for people with wheelchairs. Having dedicated seating at the door on the side would be nice too as that is where there is space for mobility equipment. Staff were excellent and helpful.

Fun crew, fast paced boat. Short travel time. Very smooth ride.

Smooth ride out of long beach. Didn't make dana point in time so we had to change to long beach. Excellent company.

Easy ride to and from Catalina! We spotted dolphins, sea turtles, and whales. They sell coffee, wine, beer, and snacks on board!

Tried to take the Catalina Express to Avalon this afternoon. We checked in around 1PM for a 2:45PM trip. The front desk said they hadn’t confirmed if the trip would be cancelled or not given the upcoming storm, but they would confirm within 30min as they took our phone numbers. We wait around the check-in area as a line forms in the registration area. No word from Catalina Express reps for the whole time we’re waiting. I finally asked a man who was docking the latest ferry if our upcoming trip was cancelled, and he confirmed. Tried calling the booking number on their website to reschedule but couldn’t get through. Someone from the admin office told me to talk to the front desk again but the line was still terribly long. When we walked off at 2:45PM, no cancellation email and no one from inside the building had come out to inform anyone waiting outside that their ferry trip was cancelled. What’s up with that? No call either after taking down our numbers. Our friends who had booked a ferry trip from Long Beach with the Catalina Express received a cancellation email much earlier in the day for an evening ferry, so the infrastructure seems to be set up to notify customers. However the Dana Point trip was a terrible, inexcusable miss in terms of communications, costing us much more in terms of travel and hotel costs too. Never again.

Fast, pleasant, efficient way to get to Avalon. It's a well oiled machine. Price is fair. Reservation system is easy. Parking convenient. Week I wanted to go they showed sold out on website so I called and found out they hold on to a few seats so they don't overbook. Lucky me. Snapped up the last tickets. Good time had by all. Kayak at Descanso club is a bargain and a great way to spend two hours. If you're going to rent a golf cart, make a reservation in advance. Counter is jammed when boats disembark.

Great ride. Well done and organized. Staff is very attentive to needs of passengers. The only complaint I have is I bought a bag of pretzels, two huge candy bars and a water and expected to break the $15 dollar mark. No, $7 and I got it all. I expected a better effort to gouge me for my money. They were actually reasonably priced. Note! Make sure you reserve your place and get there about an hour before you leave. If you do, your trip will be twice as good. Plus! YOU'RE GOING TO CATALINA ISLAND! HAPPY SAILING!

The reason I give it 4 stars is that the ship needs to be updated. Other than that, everything went well, they left on time and the check in process was very quick and easy. I got the tickets from Dana Point to Avalon and the return. Their website is very easy to navigate. They also give you a ticket for parking your car when you check in, $20/day rate and the parking had security when we arrived which was great. It’s 3 minutes walk back to the port. As you board, they take your luggage to a separate area and you can collect them as you get off the ship. Dogs are welcomed, however I saw them wearing the cover over their nose and mouth, not sure if it’s required. As mentioned above, everything was great except the age of the ship and especially its seats which I’ll show in the photos. And FYI, the tickets were $88 round trip

The easiest and least expensive way to get to Catalina Island. All the boats have a bar serving drinks, snacks and cocktails.

Dana Point Baby Beach was great. No waves, great swim for the kids without getting tossed around by waves. It's a small beach, so it gets packed and they section off the swimming area. It has bathrooms and picnic tables, but right now because of Covid the picnic tables are off limits. Parking is tough so arrive early. Overall great little beach for the family.

Our favorite place to build sand Castles after school and stay till the sunsets! Been coming here since I was a kid. Lots of things to do in the Harbor and State Park, camping, fishing, bike rentals, and great food all around

Me and my group stopped here to check it out and go to the restroom. They were very welcoming and happily invited us inside. They had many little exibits, each with their own information about the land and animals around them. Many fun kid activities. The is a trail path that you can walk to find animal information and have an amazing very of the ocean. It's a silent and calming place to hang out, and very clean. 10/10

Great views of the ocean and harbor. Nicely maintained trails. Some of them are on the short side but if you combine them, you can get a pleasant walk out of it. There's at least one good trail to get down to the beach where there was a nice bench for enjoying the scene. Unfortunately, the main trail is open only some days of the week -- not on the Thursday Feb 17, 2022 that we were there. We saw a California Thrasher, Allen's Hummingbird, and Mourning Dove during our walk plus lots of gulls.

Just yo the street from incredible views of the Dana point Marina and parking for a small trail. It has bathrooms and free parking. If does close at 4p tho.

26Jan22 My first trip from 101 San Diego to 101@1 San Francisco by coastway(Pitstop@DANA POINT NATURE INTERPRETIVE )

I aspire to one day be worthy of taking up 2 spaces. July 17, 2023 11:15a

Perfect for toddlers, but not stroller kids as the path is sandy and narrow. The area has guarded pathway which is not for extreme hiking or trail running. I liked the interpretive nature path for having a chill way to get amazing views of the marina and Pacific. It was a great investment of 1.5 hours.

Beautiful place for a hike! We arrive at 7:50am on a Saturday. As of right now, the trail through the preserve is open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 8am-4pm. This is because the preserve is home to an endangered mouse, and the staff noticed it thrives during Covid closures. Understandable. No dogs on the trail for the same reason. There’s parking at the interpretive center as well as bathrooms, which were open before staff came, yay! The trail is all sand, so after our hike I had to bang the sand out of my shoes and socks. Just a heads up. The ocean view is gorgeous! We saw sea lions and pelicans. No whales, sadly. Definitely recommend bringing binoculars. There are several lookouts, and most of them have a bench to sit and enjoy the view.

This is a cool little museum we stumbled onto. It's got some great info about Dana Points local marine life and wildlife. Including some huge whale bones, stuffed animals (taxidermy) and other interesting artifacts. They had free coloring pages for the kids. There's not an active docent but it's very small so you don't need a tour. We were the only ones there. There's also public bathrooms. There's some hiking trails with stunning views. They were closed when we went, I assume because of the rain. Its got an amazing view of the ocean from the parking lot! I think its a mist see just for the breathtaking views! We were just driving around exploring and found this little gem. Both the kids, ages 9 and 3 enjoyed the museum/nature center. We plan on visiting again for the views and hopefully a hike!

Moderate hike with parts of the loop trail have stairs. Gorgeous view of Dana point harbor, coastline and beautiful homes. The beautiful views make this hike enjoyable.

The sunset was so beautiful there I couldn't stop taking photos! It's a great trail to go on if you need some inspiration, meditation, or just want an excursion. I would definitely recommend this trail!

Very nice walk. Everyone was all smiles and pleasant to be around. The views were beautiful, and I love that the area is being preserved.