Private Beaches in California Anyone Can Go To

California has quite a few private beaches. All of them are immediately in front of private property, many of which are gated communities. This doesn’t mean that you can’t visit these beaches. It’s allowed as long as you can access them from adjacent public land or beaches.

If a beach has no access except crossing private property, it is considered inaccessible. Those are the beaches in California that you’ll never get to see up close. But luckily many of the private beaches have adjacent public beaches making it a simple and legal beach walk to get to them.

Related: California’s Beaches You’ll Won’t Get to Walk On

A few of these beaches have fences and signs that discourage access to the beaches in front of these communities. Malibu is notorious for their fake “Right to Pass by Permission” signs (you can even buy these bogus signs on Amazon), but don’t let them steer you away from public accesses. At Malibu Colony Beach, they have a sign that says the beach is private above the mean high tide line, but the high tide line is at the back of the beach so the entire beach is public!

Related: The Hidden Beaches of Malibu

Every beach in California is open to the public up to the mean high tide level (average of the high tides). So if you can get there from the water, tidelands, or an adjacent beach, you are legally allowed to be there as long as you don’t venture onto the land above where an average high tide would be.

Always respect the rights of home owners and their community facilities. The private facilities like lawns, playgrounds, restrooms, chairs, and picnic tables that are on the land above the high tide zone are off-limits unless you are invited onto their property. Stay on the wet sand or below the high tide mark and you’ll be within your rights.