8 Cool California Piers

When it was first built in the late 1920s, the Crystal Pier in San Diego’s Pacific Beach neighbourhood offered a classic amusement park setting above the water. Imagine a rainbow of flashing arcade lights and elegantly dressed couples dancing the night away in the Crystal Ballroom.

Today’s pier offers a much more subdued experience—in all the best ways. The amusement park and ballroom are gone, with only the Crystal Pier Hotel remaining. Guests stay in updated 1930s-era cottages, ranging from studios to two-bedroom suites, each with a seaside sundeck. The historic wooden pier is a serene spot to enjoy sweeping coastal views or watch surfers at play, plus the adjacent beach is an inviting spot to lounge with your toes in the silky sand. For a livelier scene, the intersecting boardwalk offers a three-and-a-half-mile stretch of eclectic shops and restaurants. SeaWorld San Diego is also just four miles away.

In the autumn, visitors to this pier are treated to up-close glimpses of migrating humpback whales feeding just off the Central Coast. The pier is located at the William R. Hearst Memorial State Beach, which is protected under the California Marine Life Protection Act, and is home to a sea otter reserve and part of a colony of 15,000 elephant seals that stretches into neighbouring Cambria.

While a lot of visitors pack onto the pier to catch glimpses of the sea life, the best way to explore the area is by kayak. Cubby Cashen, owner of Sea For Yourself Kayak Outfitters, leads guided tours that launch beside or beneath the pier (you can also hire a kayak for self-guided exploration). Cashen, who for the past 14 years has explored and studied the cove, says every outing yields a different discovery. 'Today I saw seals, otters, a sea lion and about 10 different types of birds, from ospreys to pelicans,' he says.

The sights aren’t limited to the ocean either. Hearst Castle, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s estate-turned-historical-monument, sits majestically atop the hillside directly opposite Highway 1.

Reminiscent of a European village on the Mediterranean with its pastel buildings and shoreline dotted with café patio umbrellas, Capitola in Santa Cruz county feels like a special hideaway. Despite being only 855 feet in length, the pier is rarely crowded, leaving plenty of privacy for a peaceful stroll or picnic lunch on one of the wooden benches.

Rent a kayak at the pier’s base for a sunset dolphin-spotting excursion in Monterey Bay and then grab an outside table at the Wharf House for a fresh, seasonal seafood dinner with panoramic views of Capitola, one of the oldest resort towns on the West Coast. Music lovers take note: Capitola’s Art and Cultural Commission hosts twilight concerts in the village every Wednesday evening, June through August. 

At first glance, it looks like the film set of Pirates of the Caribbean. On the west end of San Francisco’s iconic Fisherman’s Wharf, the Hyde Street Pier is home to a half-dozen historic ships and is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Park. A daily guided tour titled “Adventures at Sea: Life Aboard a 19th Century Sailing Ship” takes visitors aboard the Balclutha, a cargo ship built in 1886.

The park houses the largest maritime collection on the West Coast, and the biggest museum and research collection in the National Park Service. More than 500,000 photographs and 2,500 pieces of folk and fine art showcase the region’s rich maritime heritage. The exhibit “The Waterfront! Sailors Called it Frisco” lets you walk through re-creations of six historical working waterfront neighbourhoods. Wrap up your visit with a stroll to the end of the pier for sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.