Visit Half Moon Bay

Visit Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay is where coast and countryside meet—an easy escape with a historic downtown, working harbor, local farms, and room to slow down.

Here, along the stunning Pacific coast, opportunities for exploration are limited only by your imagination. Sea adventures include exploring the abundance of sea life, kayaking, surfing, and fishing, whale watching, and boating. But there's just as much reason to keep your feet landlocked. You can shop or see sights in Exploring Half Moon Bay California historic downtown, take scenic driving tours

, taste wine, play world-class golf, discover some of the state's most beautiful and pristine beaches and tide pools, watch big-wave surfers or birds, ride horses, hike or bike redwood forests, browse and buy ultra-fresh flowers and organic produce while touring local farms and nurseries, join locals for festive events, get married, or just get away from it all. In fact, the only thing you won't find at this seaside hamlet that time forgot is the commercialization that usually accompany California's most majestic destinations.

Late afternoon at Dunes Beach. At low tide, you can walk the sand north all the way to Pillar Point Harbor. Bring a jack...
06/23/2026

Late afternoon at Dunes Beach. At low tide, you can walk the sand north all the way to Pillar Point Harbor. Bring a jacket and take your time, the days are long this time of year.

Pillar Point Harbor, early. The sea lions have taken over a dock, the boats are still tied up, and the only thing in a h...
06/18/2026

Pillar Point Harbor, early. The sea lions have taken over a dock, the boats are still tied up, and the only thing in a hurry is a gull. It's worth getting there before the day does. Grab a coffee and find a spot on the dock to take it all in.

Coming over Highway 92, the whole road leans toward the ocean, and most cars follow it. The turn you want is south onto ...
06/14/2026

Coming over Highway 92, the whole road leans toward the ocean, and most cars follow it. The turn you want is south onto Main Street, before the water pulls you past it. That's where you'll find historic downtown Half Moon Bay: a long lunch, galleries with the artist usually somewhere in the room, and the kind of shopping you do without a list. It's a great way to spend a summer afternoon.

A short drive inland from Half Moon Bay, the farms run out and the redwoods start. Purisima Creek Redwoods sits in the S...
06/10/2026

A short drive inland from Half Moon Bay, the farms run out and the redwoods start. Purisima Creek Redwoods sits in the Santa Cruz Mountains with more than 20 miles of trails along the creek and through old logging roads now lined with ferns. You can have breakfast on Main Street and be here by mid-morning.

06/06/2026

More baby salmon making their way to Pillar Point Harbor this morning. The drop into the pen looks dramatic, but the smolts handle it fine. The wild is a lot more treacherous than a short fall into protected water.

06/04/2026

Everything an offsite needs is already here in Half Moon Bay. Thirty minutes from SFO, a walkable downtown, unique venues, and a working harbor — all close enough together that your group can do real work and actually unwind between sessions.

Recently we hosted a group of meeting planners for two days on the Coastside to show them what's possible here. Site visits, tastings, a downtown tour, golf, harbor stops, and long lunches.

Huge thanks to the planners who joined us, and to the partners who made it happen: Beach House Hotel Half Moon Bay, Half Moon Bay Lodge, Oceano Hotel and Spa, The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, Half Moon Bay Golf Links, Half Moon Bay Kayak Co., It's Italia, Jettywave Distillery, Miramar Farms, Mullins Steakhouse, and OceanCiders.

If you're planning your next offsite or client event, we'd love to show you around.

06/02/2026

About 90,000 baby Chinook salmon got a head start on life this week at Pillar Point Harbor, with Chamber CEO Krystlyn pulling the lever that sent them off.

It’s the 15th year the Coastside Fishing Club has acclimated young salmon from the Mokelumne River hatchery, trucking them to the end of Johnson Pier before releasing them to the open ocean. The point is to skip the stretch of river where low water, warm temps, and predators take a heavy toll. Once the fish acclimate to saltwater, they’re set loose. This season’s program will push the total past 10 million fish over 15 years. Some get caught by commercial and recreational fishers down the line. Most go on to do what salmon do.

The folks behind the program are local fisherfolk. They’re not in it for attention. They want a healthy fishery, they want to pass what they know to the next generation, and they want their corner of the Pacific in good shape for whoever fishes it next.

That’s what makes Pillar Point what it is. A working harbor moving at its own pace, with small good things happening when you’re not looking.

The fields you see from Highway 1 aren't decoration. Half Moon Bay has been a farming town since the 1800s, shaped by ge...
06/01/2026

The fields you see from Highway 1 aren't decoration. Half Moon Bay has been a farming town since the 1800s, shaped by generations of families who saw what the cool air and mineral-rich soil could do.

Brussels sprouts, artichokes, beans, pumpkins, flowers. The crops change with the season, but the work doesn't.

That's why the town still moves the way it does. Slow seasons. Saturday markets. Restaurants sourcing from a few miles up the road. It all makes more sense once you know the history.

05/27/2026

Consider this your sign.

There’s a particular kind of quiet you only get on a weekday morning at the coast. The crowds haven’t arrived. The fog is still deciding what to do. The waves do their thing whether anyone’s watching or not.

Bundle up. Get coffee. Walk a little. Stay longer than you planned.

The beach will be here on Saturday too — but it won’t feel like this.

05/25/2026

Traffic on Highway 1 was rough this week — CalTrans is repairing the highway, and the signal timing through town was off. It made the news, and rightfully so.
But we saw engineers out at the intersections, working on the lights. And this afternoon, Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we drove from Pillar Point Harbor to downtown in 12 minutes.
We’re not declaring victory, and we’ll leave the official word to those in the know. Just one drive, just one observation. But it felt worth sharing.

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508 Main Street
Half Moon Bay, CA
94019

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