Laguna Beach

Artists came here from the 1900s for the light and the coves, and the town has kept the identity - it has an unusually high density of galleries and has resisted the development that filled the coast either side. The Pageant of the Masters, part of the Festival of Arts each summer, is the singular thing: living people are posed inside full-scale recreated paintings with painted sets, costume and specific lighting, held motionless for about ninety seconds each while an orchestra plays and a narrator explains - done since 1933, and genuinely difficult to distinguish from the flat original at viewing distance. Around thirty coves are strung along the shore, several reached by stairs and hidden from the road.

What you actually see

• The Pageant of the Masters - live people posed inside recreated paintings.
• Around thirty coves - many reached by stairs from the bluffs.
• A dense gallery scene - the town's long-standing art identity.
• Tide pools - in the protected marine areas at several coves.

When to go

April to October; the pageant runs July and August. A full day.

Honest expectations

Parking is very limited, paid and enforced - use the trolley in summer. Pageant tickets sell out months ahead. Summer weekends fill the coves. It is an expensive town.

Nearby

Crystal Cove is north; Dana Point is south.