Dog Friendly Beaches in California

Sometimes it’s hard to find a beach where you can legally take your dog for a walk, or better yet, set them free to roam around with other dogs. We’ve done a lot of digging (pun intended) to find the best beaches for dogs in California. Almost all of these beaches allow dogs to be off leash all day every day. A few have restrictions on the time or the season, so read the fine print (we have dog rules detailed on each beach page). There are many more beaches on CaliforniaBeaches.com that allow dogs if they are on a leash, but those beaches aren’t the best.

As you can imagine, there are dog-friendly beaches in Southern, Central, and Northern California. In the south where beaches get crowded, the dog rules get more strict to avoid conflicts, but there are great off-leash dog beaches there too.

See all of the Southern California dog beaches.

A cute dog tied to a No Dogs Allowed On Beach sign.

Below is our list of the dog-friendly beaches in California in order from south to north.