Some cottages are older, some newer — and all add to the colorful small beach village atmosphere of the Old Town Seal Beach, the next town south of Long Beach and the northernmost town in Orange County.
Much of Seal Beach’s old town neighborhood looks like a Southern California beach community straight out of the 1950s and 1960s. You can almost hear the Beach Boys singing! Between PCH and the beach are picturesque cottages on small lots, a short main street ending at the pier, colorful shops selling bikinis and surfboards, and fish tacos.
A growing population of seals
Seal Beach lives up to its name because real seals come on shore on the beach and rocky areas nearby. And in classic California style, locals hang out at the beach while lifeguards look on from their blue station on stilts.
Cafes, coffee houses, and bakeries for brunch
An al fresco breakfast is an everyday event for locals and surfers in Old Town Seal Beach. And you can be certain that this restaurant serves fish tacos which are batter-fried fish with coleslaw and some sort of sauce in a tortilla shell.
Across the street you will find a great bakery favored by weekend cyclists taking a “carb-loading” break.
There are some low-rise condos and townhomes on the outskirts of the Old Town area. And across PCH to the east are neighborhoods of homes built in the 1950s and 1960s — many of which have been expanded and upgraded into large contemporary homes.
And this beachside village was the end of the line for the famous Los Angeles Red Line street cars that extended from Seal Beach to Pasadena and beyond before the trolley lines were torn out back in the ’60s when cars and freeways began to dominate Southern California. One of the last Red Line trolley cars sits in a narrow park in Seal Beach.
Million dollar homes line the beach
Charming cottages and duplexes may line the streets in Old Town Seal Beach, but there are spectacular million-dollar beachfront homes facing the ocean. And every winter the town builds a huge berm in the beach in front of these homes to hold back the ocean during storms. Without the berm, these oceanfront homes would flood and during some storms, even the berm cannot halt the ocean.
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