Downtown Half Moon Bay, Half Moon Bay, CA

Main Street is the reason Downtown Half Moon Bay feels like a place of its own. It lies back from the beach and grew out of the old Spanishtown settlement, and walking it means passing wood-front buildings with a century or more behind them. Homes around Main Street in Downtown Half Moon Bay are older and more varied than anywhere else in the city. Victorian-era houses and early-1900s cottages stand next to duplexes and a few newer multifamily buildings, and the lots are small enough that many front doors are within sight of a shop. For open ground, Carter Park sits at Main Street and Stone Pine Road, and Mac Dutra Park is a small plaza right in the middle of the action. Side streets off Main hold the residential blocks, where the pace drops quickly once the shops close. The library and the old Spanishtown jail, now a small museum, are both downtown. The beach is a short drive or bike ride west. Cantina at San Benito House, at 356 Main, serves Mexican food in an old inn building, with a patio and live music on some nights. Cafe Society at 522 Main is the sit-down coffee spot on the strip. Cunha's Country Store and Deli at 448 Main sells groceries and sandwiches, and the farmers market takes over Shoreline Station on Saturday mornings from spring into December, a short walk or drive away. The street also holds galleries, bookshops and surf shops. Most daily needs can be handled on foot, with Highway 1 on the east side and Highway 92 climbing from town over the hills. The Art and Pumpkin Festival in October fills Main Street and every parking spot near it, and summer weekends bring a smaller version of the same crowd. Half Moon Bay Feed & Fuel still sells farm supplies a few doors from the galleries.