One step further on to winning the pier travel award (No - There ain’t one. Yet). After Crystal Pier, Oceanside and Huntington Beach, I get off the Pacific Coast Highway and enter Belmont Shore’s 2nd Street, renowned for being Long Beach’s shoppers’ paradise. I left the shopping and dining for later, and continued on to Livingston Drive and followed the signs to E. Ocean Blvd and Termino Avenue and pulled to a stop at the Belmont Shore Pier parking lot.

For a pier in a city as famous as Long Beach is for tourists, the Belmont Shore pier is largely an under the radar attraction frequented mostly by the locals and people passing through. That could also be because this part of the waterfront is protected by the Long Beach - San Pedro breakwaters and so the surf here is not as good as it is on the rest of the adjoining coastal areas.

And the main activity on this T-shaped pier seems to be fishing, rather than a beachfront vacation or simply a walk along the pier. A majority of the folks on the pier were either fishing, or helping the tacklers. There’s a fish cleaning station, bait and tackle shop, some benches where you can just park your butt and spend some down time, and there’s some restrooms for public use. Nothing fancy and if you’re looking for a quiet place on the Pacific coast to spend some time collecting your thoughts and generally enjoying the beauty of the oceanfront, not to mention some really good fishing spots (some of the tacklers were bringing up some eye popping catches in the brief time I spent on the pier), the Belmont Shore Pier is just the place you’re looking for.

I’m not much of a tackler. In fact, I’m lousy at it. So I just had a quick bite to eat at the snack shop which doubled as a bait shop, spent some time on a bench just gawking at the people and then made my way down to the white sandy beach, made note of the La Palapa Delmar seafood restaurant slam bang next to the pier.  I had also heard about Bono’s, the restaurant run by Christy Bono, daughter of the late Sonny Bono, so it was a toss-up. But Bono’s won out because La Palapa seemed to have some wedding in progress, and I didn’t want to become a wedding crasher. Wait a minute… 

For the moment, I made my way to the Belmont Shore Motel on Ocean Blvd, just a couple of blocks from the pier. Not exactly the finest of hotels in Long Beach. In fact, it’s a dump and the less said about it the better. You’re better off in one of the better hotels or inns further up in Long Beach or on Belmont Shore’s 2nd Street, even if you have to drive up and down to the beach and pier. I suggest the Kennebec Corner Bed & Breakfast  if you’re on a budget or the Beach Plaza hotel if you’re with family.

Posted on February 15th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Beaches, California