It's time to discover Ventura, an unpretentious coastal community with small-town appeal, an unhurried atmosphere and an emerging vibrant downtown. It is located 70 miles north of Los Angeles and 30 miles south of Santa Barbara.

The City of Ventura is proud of its Pierpont Beach, which consists of approximately 30 lanes which connect Pierpont Blvd. to the sand. Oceanfront estates and small 1950s cottages make for a charming beach community. It's an easy walk to the neighborhood restaurants, a produce stand, shops and offices (including Prudential California Realty's beach office, which is where you can find me). There is a great bike path from here that travels north along the coast.

Adjacent to the Pierpont area, is a marina community, the Ventura Keys, which is built around water channels and has approximately 300 homes with their own boat docks. For those who do not care about having a boat dock, there are also single family homes and duplexes which are not on the water. In any case, the beach is only a short walk away, as is a Starbucks. The Ventura Keys waterways connects to the Ventura Harbor, an active fishing area that launches daily boat trips to the Channel Islands. There are restaurants, shops and a promenade for walking.

Take a drive north of the city along the coast and you´d go by several more Ventura beach communities along Hwy 101 and the Pacific Coast Highway: Solimar Beach Colony, Faria Beach, Seacliff Beach Colony and Mussel Shoals, all wonderful beachfront neighborhoods located within the 12.4 coastline miles known as the Rincon. Travel down south of Ventura and discover more oceanfront communities in Oxnard:
Mandalay Shores has a row of fabulous beachfront homes which have attracted many of our neighbors from Southern California. Not quite Malibu, but the beach is great and the homes half the price. Hollywood Beach, named for its Hollywood connection in the 1920s. Used to film the silent movie classic, Hollywood Beach became a get-away haven for the likes of Rudolph Valentino and Clark Gable. It retains much of its beachy, small-town feeling, although many new oceanfront homes have replaced the original beach cottages. Across the channel south of Hollywood Beach is another beach community, Silverstrand Beach, known for its very good surfing. It has a wide sandy beach lined with new and old beachfront homes. Oxnard boasts several marina neighborhoods as well. Created in 1971, Mandalay Bay has about 700 homes consisting of single family detached homes and attached townhomes, all boat dock homes. It connects to the Channel Islands Harbor. Westport Homes, developed in 2004, has large new boat dock homes. The most recent marina community, Seabridge, was built in 2006. A gated community with its own clubhouse and walking paths to an upscale shopping center, there are six collections of homes, some of which are boat dock homes. Although only a portion of Ventura and Oxnard is in close proximity to the water, you are only about a 15 minute drive from the ocean from anywhere in the city.

Even though we are proud of our beaches, we're equally proud of our inland cities and towns. The towns of Santa Paula and Fillmore are located along Highway 126, and are small farming communities known for citrus and avocado. Camarillo, a city of around 61,000, was incorporated in 1964. It enjoys a Mediterranean climate often described as on of the most ideal in America. Ojai is a secluded small town, about 20 minutes inland from the coast. Residents of Ojai treasure their smallness. Ojai is famous for its art, cultural events and country homes.