Just trying to educate myself, as related to travel - what's the difference between the beach, the coast, and the shore? What's it called in your area?

In California we call it the beach.

If you live way inland such as in Arizona you say going to the coast.

The shore is on the East Coast.

I live "down the Shore" but I sit on the beach.

I live on the East Coast and we always call it the beach.

In Massachusetts, communities facing the Atlantic around Boston are called North or South Shore depending on their location from Boston.

Ports and towns along Buzzards Bay are called SouthCoast communities and all the towns on Cape Cod have town or National Seashore beaches.

I guess the naming conventions started here since this is where our nation began.

The beach is a place where you sit in the sun on the sand... i love the beach.

The coast is a destination or geographic term... going to the coast, along the coastline, etc.

I've only heard the word shore used as part of a name... heading to the Jersey Shore.

You're in Seattle, aren't you suze? Reporting from Portland, OR, the place where you sit in the sand is always referred to as the beach. The coast and the beach are often used interchangeably in reference to the geographic area. And we never use the word shore for either.

In the deep south, it's the beach! The only time we use shore is in, "I shore am glad I am going to the beach!"

Here in Naples, Florida, we go to the "beach" which is the sandy place along the water, here on the "West coast of Florida". I never hear it called the "shore" here, even though our major beachfront street is called "GulfShore Blvd."

The term you hear in parts of Baltimore is- goin' downy ocean.

Growing up in Florida, we always called it the beach. However, we never, EVER called it the "ocean" as that was the sure mark of a tourist. (We lived on the gulf.)

I'm a native Californian and I've always called it the coast. The beach is a destination you go to once you get to the coast.
-Bill

bamakelly, I'm with you. I've been accused of being smug or worse when I've politely corrected people here asking for an "ocean front hotel in Naples or Sanibel". But what is worse, recently there have been several huge ads for giant new condos here saying "Ocean front views". These buildings must be really tall suckers if you can see all the way to the Atlantic (or is it the Pacific?) from Naples! The Gulf of Mexico is NOT an ocean.

I come from Jersey where we went down the shore!
In Virginia, it's called the beach for the ocean, the rivah for the river and the chesepeake, when referring to the most important bay area!!

Message: In doing alot of reading about the Hawaiian islands, they refer to areas called the north shore or south (east or west) shores. Also leeward/ windward shores. However, on each shore, their are often many beaches. Maybe that helps to clear it up abit??
Oh yes, here in our area we say we're "going to the gulf!" (Gulf of Mexico).
If someone asks where you're staying, then you name the beach! OSB.

HotWheels, is it all cleared up now?

I hear the Chesepeake Bay most often referred to as just "the Bay", as in "the Bay Bridge"

Great question, OP.

I live in Chicago, on the shores of Lake Michigan. But when we go there, we go to the beach.

We don't have a coast in Chicago.

I grew up in Virginia where we went to the beach. Worked during undergrad summers in New Jersey at the shore. Now live in California where we go to the beach. Seems like a geocultural thing.

The beach is only the place that has sand. Because lots of the coast in California is a cliff with no beach, I say I'm going to the coast unless I'm actually going to a sandy beach to play.

Most of the California coast is not beach. I don't think almost anyone in northern or central California would call it the "beach" unless they were talking about a specific beach (i.e. a defined sandy place along the coast). Maybe they do if they brought the habit when they moved here from the east coast. But Californians predominently call it the Coast.

If you are in Fresno, or Napa, or Sacramento and were going west you would say you were going to the coast.

Now down in LA many people do say they are going to the "beach" because that's what they are doing - going to Laguna Beach, or Sunset beach or Venice Beach.