Let’s get it out of the way: Long Beach is huge. In terms of land mass, it spans 77 square miles, stretching inland to the north, touching Compton, and then east of the 605 where it breaches the Orange County border into Cypress. And inside that densely packed area, nearly half a million people live and breathe.

And so there isn’t one Long Beach — there are 123. Yes, Long Beach’s official site designates 123 distinct city neighborhoods, all with vastly different landscapes, stories and socioeconomic conditions.

Get to know Los Angeles through the places that bring it to life. From restaurants to shops to outdoor spaces, here’s what to discover now.

The picture of Long Beach you have in your head is probably the same one in the brochures. That is of downtown, where the Pike Outlets, Shoreline Village and Pine Avenue converge at the waterfront. It’s a good place to start. Arguably the biggest fish in the area is the Aquarium of the Pacific, the largest aquarium in Southern California. And despite years of declining popularity and disrepair, the Queen Mary, a major city landmark since 1967, is making a comeback after the city threw it a lifeline of cash in 2021 to save it from literally sinking.

But the farther you travel from downtown — away from the tourists, the cruise ship passengers and the conventioneers — the more you‘ll find people who love hanging out in their little section of Long Beach just fine, thanks.

Chris Giaco is a champion of his eclectic neighborhood, a district dubbed Retro Row, where he owns the unabashedly leftist bookstore Page Against the Machine. When he decided to settle there in 1996, it was because of the area’s artistic and authentic vibe, something he noticed other Long Beach neighborhoods are finding hard to retain. “I’m a fan of keeping its organic grittiness,” Giaco says.

Retro Row is, by the way, home to the Art Theater; Long Beach’s last surviving independent cinema recently celebrated its 100th year. But the city itself is even older. Incorporated in 1897 as the sixth municipality in L.A. County, it traces its history back to a Spanish land grant, and before that was a village called Povuu’nga where the indigenous Tongva people lived.

Since then, the Long Beach story spans many chapters and subplots, including its complicated history with gay and lesbian rights that has culminated with one of the largest annual Pride parades in the country. The city also has played a pivotal role in aviation with the now-defunct Douglas Aircraft plant. And as a favorite of movie location scouts all the way back to the silent era, Long Beach has been nicknamed “the Other Hollywood.” Ferris Bueller’s leafy suburban Chicago house? It’s actually in the Los Cerritos neighborhood. (Also, before he became the most successful film director in history, Steven Spielberg studied at California State University Long Beach. He dropped out in 1968 to pursue his career, but came back decades later to earn his B.A., submitting “Schindler’s List” to complete a film course requirement. It got credit.)

But Long Beach isn’t a Hollywood movie where there’s always a “happily ever after.” As a result of the pandemic, homelessness increased by 62% between 2020 and 2022. The city proclaimed it as a local emergency in January 2023. Meanwhile, pollution from the ports continues to contribute to the worst air quality in the country. (Yes, all that stuff you ordered from Temu is part of the problem.)

Though Long Beach isn’t perfect, it could be argued that it’s like any great American city — so multifaceted that no one (including this writer) can ever pin it down. This is evidenced by a number of nicknames: “Aquatic Capital of America,” “The International City” and “Iowa by the Sea,” to name a few. The only one that caught on is “the LBC,” coined by Snoop Dogg, an alum of Long Beach Polytechnic High School, who has immortalized his hometown in the lyrics of at least 10 songs.

So with your mind on your money and your money on your mind, here are 20 things to eat, see and do in Long Beach.