Life's a Surreality Show in Laguna Beach

Need something fancier? While technically also on the ocean, nearby Montage Resort offers a sprawling California Craftsman-style resort located on a seafront bluff just south of the downtown village. A dramatic tumbled stone entryway leads to a glamorous lobby lounge with views of the rectangular resort pool and Pacific Ocean while you sip margaritas and martinis. Widely regarded as one of Southern California's greatest resorts, rooms are posh but conservative with oversize lounge areas, marble bathrooms and furnished terraces. Rates are high, upwards of $695 on weekends.

Laguna Beach by day: If you've done your due diligence of watching shows like "Laguna Beach" or "The Real Housewives of Orange County," you'll realize that most locals don't work 9-to-5. Days starts around 10 a.m. as locals come straight from their Equinox or Sports Club LA workouts to hit beach boutiques.

Showing off the fashion fruits of their morning buying binge, locals scout out their favorite swatches of sand. North and South Laguna is separated by Victoria Beach, one of the city's quieter residential beaches where locals do their "Baywatch" runs from their beachfront cottages along a pristine stretch of white sand. Those looking for more action hit nearby Salt Creek Beach to the south or Main Beach near downtown, which offer MTV-style social scenes that involve afternoon volleyball and suntan frolicking in the chilly Pacific waters.

After the beach, locals head back to town for a light lunch and a bit more shopping. Anastasia offers a bit of both with a designer emporium carrying brands like Y-3 and Maison Margiela as well as offering a sleek eatery for French-Californian lunches of supermodel salads, rich pastas and sandwiches accompanied by bottles of pinot or Pommery. The crowd is one of the chicest you'll find in any O.C. fashion boutique, luring those well-known starlets of MTV reality shows and resident actresses looking to land their Saturday night outfits.