WEST AND HAWAII
San Clemente, California
SAN ONOFRE STATE PARK
Channeling the vibe from the mellow breakers that roll into its sandy shores, San Onofre State Park is home to a thriving longboard scene, making it California's version of Waikiki. Popular since the 1930s, the thatched-roof palapas on the sands of San-O (as it's known in local parlance) draw groups of surfers of all abilities, who come with beer coolers and ukeleles in tow. Because the waves break gently, San-O, which is 80 miles south of Los Angeles, is an ideal place to learn to surf. In fact, every wave is a "party wave" (you don't have to worry about cutting someone off). Rent a longboard at Stewart's Surfboards ($20 per day; 949-492-1085). When the sun drops into the Pacific, the scene moves to nearby San Clemente and the BeachFire bar, which serves the coldest Coronas and crispiest calamari around (beachfire.com). Stake out a spot at the San Onofre State Beach Bluffs Campground ($25; reserveamerica.com), or if you want more comfortable digs, try the Casa Tropicana (from $285; casatropicana.com), a nine-room B&B overlooking the Pacific at San Clemente Pier. Either way, you'll be close enough to the beach for dawn patrol.

Big Sur, California
PFEIFFER BEACH
Big Sur's swooping cliffs, powerful waves, and ephemeral mists have inspired all kinds of artists, from Jack Kerouac to Ansel Adams. No stretch of the coastline is more dramatic than the mile-long sandy arc of Pfeiffer Beach: Wild Pacific swells thunder ashore and explode through holes in the offshore stacks, giving it a Lost World feel. No signs mark the road to Pfeiffer, adding to its mystery and ensuring minimal crowds. You can reach the beach from an unmarked road (off Highway 1, a half mile north of the Big Sur post office) that winds two miles downhill to a footpath to the sand (parking: $5 per vehicle). It's the kind of beach where doing very little feels very good: simply sit and absorb the seascape or meander through the tidepools. To make your reentry to civilization as smooth as possible, stop off at nearby Cielo's, which has a terrace bar with 50-mile views of the Pacific and a wide range of microbrews (ventanainn.com). And don't miss the Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant (bigsurbakery.com), where you can feast on wood-fired California yellowtail and fresh-baked bread. After that, bed down at the Post Ranch Inn (from $550 per night; postranchinn.com), a 30-room luxe eco-hotel nestled in the trees 1,200 feet above the ocean. If camping is more your speed, pitch a tent at Limekiln State Park ($15; reserveamerica.com), which skirts a tiny pocket beach.

Maui's North Shore, Hawaii
HOOKIPA BEACH PARK
About three miles east of the funky hamlet of Paia on Maui's North Shore, you'll find Hookipa Beach Park. The small bay and beach, consisting of twin lava rock points and towering cliff-lined bluffs, attract strong ocean swells and capable surfers who can ride them. In the afternoons stiff trade winds blow, making it paradise for windsurfers as well. The white sand beach is narrow, but that doesn't matter because you'll be in the water: surfing, windsurfing, snorkeling, and exploring the reefs and tide pools. Or hike up the cliffs and watch the many pro riders who train here carve up the waves. After a long day on the water, satiate your hunger alfresco with ahi sashimi and Hawaiian spiny lobster tail at Mama's Fish House (mamasfishhouse.com). Then sidle up to the bar for some cold longnecks and live music at Charley P. Woofer Saloon (808-579-8085), Willie Nelson's favorite bar in Paia, where the cowboy crooner occasionally sits in on gigs. The North Shore doesn't have many hotels, so you're best off renting a condo or house near the beach through a local realtor such as Maui Sports Vacations (from $175 per night; mauisports.com).

SOUTHEAST
St. Marys, Georgia
CUMBERLAND ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE
Compared to the rest of Georgia's golf courseÐcarpeted barrier islands, Cumberland has gone to seed (in a good way): This 57-square-mile wilderness is a refuge for wild horses, loggerhead turtles, and moss-draped live oaks, and it has a 17-mile sparkling white sand beach. In the late 19th century the Carnegie family colonized the island, which sits about 40 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida, with sprawling mansions. The National Park Service took over in 1972 and worked to restore the island to its natural state. A pedestrian ferry delivers 300 maximum daily visitors, and overnight options are limited to campsites or a single lodge. Spend the day exploring Cumberland's untamed interior of maritime forests and crumbling ruins, or stick to the shore. You can cast for sea trout, perfect your body-surfing form, or just laze on the beach and watch pelicans dive-bombing for fish. To see even more of the island, rent kayaks at Up the Creek Xpeditions in nearby St. Marys and venture into the marshes or sneak up on shore birds (from $30 a day; upthecreektrips.com). For the best camping, head 3.5 miles from the ferry dock toward the ocean to the Stafford Beach site ($6 per person per night; nps.gov/cuis). Or satisfy your inner Carnegie at the 16-room Greyfield Inn on the western tip of the island (from $350 per night, all meals and transportation included; greyfieldinn.com).

Pinellas County, Florida
CLEARWATER BEACH
When Floridians want a play-hard, party-hard beach break, they motor to the powdery sands of Clearwater Beach, planted on the northern end of a 35-mile strip of islands in the warm Gulf of Mexico near Tampa. Sprinkled with beachside tiki bars, 24/7 live music, Miami-worthy nightclubs, and serious beach volleyball tournaments, Clearwater has also become a European hot spot, creating a world-love mix of American hardbodies, Greek sailors showing off in catamarans, and Italians in tiny bikinis. Enjoy the sandy choreography of it all with beer and oysters at the gulfside Frenchy's Rockaway Grill (frenchysonline.com). Start your night at Big Ben British Pub (bigbenpub.com), which, along with superior fish and chips, serves ice-cold drafts. Then move on to The Wave (shephards.com/wave.asp), a two-story disco where top DJs spin house and funk. One of the perks of Clearwater -- unlike in South Beach, Daytona, or Fort Lauderdale -- is the abundance of gulfside beachfront house rentals, such as those from Sarah's Seaside (from $895 per week; gulfsideresorts.com). Or embrace Old Florida at the 19th-century Belleview Biltmore Resort and Spa (from $127 per night; belleviewbiltmore.com).

Nags Head, North Carolina
NORTHERN OUTER BANKS
There's an outlaw history about the waters off the 70 miles of barrier islands fringing the North Carolina coast. The coastal waters here are so shallow that daring pirates sailed close to shore to escape the law -- but sometimes ran aground. Centuries of hurricanes have shifted the sands that collected around the wrecks, helping to shape the best surfing, kitesurfing, and windsurfing seascape on the East Coast. Make your HQ Nags Head, just north of Jockey's Ridge State Park, and you'll be well poised to plunder all the natural bounty around. Round up a crew and rent a beach house (from $1,250 per week; sunrealtync.com) or stay at the First Colony Inn (from $150; firstcolonyinn.com). If you're up for a day trip, join the remaining outlaws -- wave poachers -- and drop your board into the swells around Cape Point, about 40 miles south. Pit Surf Shop rents boards for $15 a day (pitsurf.com). Or blast across Hatteras Island's Canadian Hole on a windsurfer or kiteboard. Windsurfing Hatteras, in Avon, rents gear and organizes lessons (windsurfinghatteras.com). Off the water, you can launch off dunes like the Wright brothers did with hang-gliding lessons arranged by Kitty Hawk Kites in Nags Head (tandem lessons start at $115; kittyhawk.com). Refuel with a shrimp sandwich at Awful Arthur's (252-441-5955), right on the beach in Kill Devil Hills, or try the sesame sea scallops at the fancy 1587 Restaurant, in nearby Manteo (1587.com).

NORTHWEST
Lincoln County, Oregon
CASCADE HEAD
About 80 miles west of Portland the Cascade Head Trail snakes up from the coast through primordial forest and an extensive biosphere jointly overseen by the Nature Conservancy, UNESCO, and the U.S. Forest Service. This wilderness hike takes you 3.4 miles out and back from cool glens of Sitka spruce and Western hemlock, past waterfalls and ferns, and up to a massive, prairie-like bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the estuary of the Salmon River, more than 1,000 feet below. Hike from the lower section to spike your appetite for a blufftop picnic, where you'll gape at native plants, bald eagles, and the odd peregrine falcon. Or save it up for a heaping plate of sweet onion and white cheddar cheese German potatoes and a slice of homemade marionberry pie at the Otis Café (541-994-2813), well worth the wait out front. Sleep it all off in your beachside campsite (from $3), yurt (from $27 per night), or five-person cabin (from $66 per night) at Cape Lookout, about 12 miles from Cascade Head (oregonstateparks.org).

West Seattle, Washington
ALKI BEACH
Pioneering white settlers wintered on Alki Beach in 1851, and now the 2.5-mile strip just west of Seattle has evolved into a hipster hangout. Come summer, the coast teems with bonfires, beachcombers, rollerskaters, sand soccer, open-air concerts, volleyball, and crowds from the ever-growing number of bars sprouting on the promenade. JaK's Grill (206-937-7809) and Pepperdock's (206-935-1000) compete for best burger honors, while Salty's offers upmarket local seafood dishes (saltys.com). After dinner, retreat 15 minutes back downtown to the minimalist-chic Ace Hotel, which provides a bedside copy of the Kama Sutra in every room (from $85; acehotel.com).

Puget Sound, Washington
ORCAS ISLAND
The 57-square-mile Orcas Island is not only the world's best site for ogling killer whales, it's also an ideal place to test your limits on dry land. Set up camp at Moran State Park ($16 for a permit; parks.wa.gov), then hop on a dual suspension rig to launch thigh-burning epics along 11 miles of bike trails (rentals from $40; wildlifecycles.com). Swap pedals for paddles back in Eastsound to bob with the orcas migrating offshore -- if you're lucky you'll see a 30-footer burst from the surf right off your prow (from $55; shearwaterkayaks.com).

NORTHEAST
Montauk, New York
DITCH PLAINS
The trip out to Montauk -- at the easternmost tip of Long Island -- is a long one by weekend getaway standards (three hours by train or car from New York City), which is exactly why its old-school fishing-town vibe is so well-preserved. T-shirt shops and casual restaurants line the main street, motels spread out along its 20 miles of white sand beach, and charter fishing boats pepper the marina. Follow the surfboard-crowned cars a mile east of town to Ditch Plains, one of the most famous breaks on the East Coast, and watch local longboarders take on the three-to-eight-foot breakers. Or join them: Rent a board at Air and Speed Board Shop on the Montauk Highway ($40 per day; 631-668-0356). Back in town, the designer-jeans-and-flip-flops crowd rubs shoulders and competes in karaoke with unwashed fishermen in bars like the Point (631-668-1500); Liars Saloon, which has fish mounted on the walls (631-668-9597); and the Memory Motel (631-668-2702), where bands play on the weekends. Check in to the East Deck Motel (from $170; eastdeckmotel.com), which is located right on the beach, and hit the Ditch Witch, a trailer cafe at the main parking lot, for breakfast burritos and coffee.

Scarborough, maine
HIGGINS BEACH
With the most consistent waves in the area, Higgins Beach, a mile-long stretch of sand eight miles south of Portland, is the home break for most of the city's surfers. Rent a house near the beach (from $700 per week; nextasea.com) for prime access to the Higgins break, which can hold overhead-plus swells. If it's not going off, cast for stripers offshore or kayak among Casco Bay's islands to spot seals and bald eagles (day trips from $60; rippleffect.net). In the Old Port don't miss brunch at Becky's Diner (207-773-7070) or the steamers at J's Oyster, right on the docks (207-772-4828). Leave room for suds: The city has six microbreweries, including Gritty McDuff's pub, which has 12 different homebrews on tap (grittys.com).

Chatham, Massachusetts
NORTH AND SOUTH BEACH
While the thought of Cape Cod doesn't exactly bring to mind pristine wilderness, the whitewashed town of Chatham -- at the elbow of the cape's bent arm -- keeps its beaches as the settlers found them. North Beach is a five-mile strip of remote barrier beach that parallels the coast from Chatham to Orleans; apart from a few scattered cottages, it's just sand, shrubs, and pounding surf. To get there from Chatham you'll need a boat -- Beachcomber runs water taxis for $14 (508-945-5265). South Beach sits across the hazardous Chatham Break from North Beach. Twenty years ago it was just a sandbar, but shifting tides have exposed more than five miles of deserted dunes, salt marshes, and tidal flats where bluefish and stripers cruise. For fishing equipment rentals call Fishing the Cape, in Harwich (fishingthecape.com). Stay in town at the Old Harbor Inn (from $199; 800-942-4434). At night hit the Chatham Squire for a locally brewed Buzzard's Bay Pilsner (508-945-0945).