Huntington Beach Accommodation

Kevcol

Hey guys,

I'm heading to Huntington Beach this Summer on my J1. At the moment we're looking into getting accommodation sorted before we head over. Does anybody have experience renting over there? What's the best route to getting a place?

Cheers

cooperguy

Been a few years since I was there but it is HARD to get accommodation. Most places want you to sign a year lease. How many of you are going? Could you book out a holiday rental for the summer (the people I know who did this had the best place around!). What date do you arrive over there? Craigs list is good for looking up places for rent aswell. There is also an estate agent on main street, you could get in contact with them and see if they could find you a short term rental (I think they are called Altera).

You want to be as close to the beach as you can but this is obviously the hardest area to find somewhere aswell.

Kevcol

Hi cooperguy,

Thanks for the reply. There are 10 of us heading over and we will be there on the 1st of June. Had a good look at craigslist and got onto lots of them. They all want money soon to hold a place for the summer but we didn't really want to hand over money before going over so I think we might have problems there. Was the holiday rental that your friends booked expensive? Did you pick up a job? If so did you get it before you went out there?

Cheers

cooperguy

10 is a good number for a holiday rental. Yes a holiday rental can be expensive but split between 10 its not that bad. If you want to have somewhere before you go out you will definitely have to hand over money before you go. Nobody will hold a place without a deposit and probably first months rent (no different from here). The best you can hope for without handing over money is to book a viewing for when you arrive. Also if you were to go down the holiday rental route you would have to do this very quickly (as they will obviously be taking bookings for summer!) you need to get in before more that a week or two are booked up (just go on a road trip to Vegas or whatever if the place is booked out for a week).

I was on J1 in 2008, the banks were still doing things like interest free loans for student travel so I didnt really have to worry about doing much work but a good few of my friends did get work. There is a giant hotel resort that look for alot of staff at one end of the Pacific Coast Highway (The Hyatt or The Waterfront or something), there is also a chain of surf board/bike rental places along the beach called zacks I think. There is also a Starbucks on mainstreet and an Albertsons (California version of Tesco) nearby. Its about an hour bus from the beach but Knotts theme park hire loads of people aswell (its well worth a visit over the summer too) There are a good few posts on this forum about Huntington, you might get some more information if you search through them aswell.

One other important thing is to make sure you bring ID with you. Californians are very strict letting you buy drink in most places.

cianmcs56

'J1 Huntington Beach 2014' Facebook page has been set up! So post all info there aswell please!:)

ZomB13 F1Sh

I was passing through hunntington spent a few days hanging around with people on J1s, they lived ages away from the beach said they couldn't get/was too expensive living near the beach. There must have been about 20 people sleeping on the floor of this tiny house haha. I'd advise trying to get accom as near the beach as possible because there dosent seem to be any good public transport and you don't want to be cycling home on the middle of the night drunk! Having said that it was one of my favourite places in america but I wouldnt have went there on a j1 seeing how far away most of the people were staying from the beach!

Farrell555

Hi Kevcol,

I stayed in Huntington beach last summer and yes, we were at least a 40 minute cycle from the beach, or indeed, from anywhere. no buses, they suck. you won't swing an apartment close to the beach as they're too expensive and they know about the irish coming over every summer. we were even lucky to get our place and met plenty of people who ended up stranded and having to desperately post on fb pages looking for a bit of floor to sleep on. lots of stories of evictions too.

my advice is to consider staying in newport beach, which is a stones throw from huntington. after a few weeks all the irish would just go out there! it has a better nightlife, bigger main street (huntington is tiny), more shops, and probably most important for you, less irish living there! this increases your chances ten fold! most apartments in huntington know about the irish invasion every summer by now (hence the increased distance from it!). we even all found jobs close by at the OC fair after having terrible trouble!

just think about it

kellyd87

Pretty good article from somebody who was on a J1 in Huntington beach before http://thestudentsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/

Matt Redmond

I'm heading over on the 30th of May if anyone's up for sharing accommodation

robyn4

Hey there are four of us looking to share accommodation there if you still havent found anywhere? Don't have anything sorted out yet though

NicoleJ

Hi, We are group of three girls going to Huntington Beach from the end of may to the start of September! We are a really cool group of bitches who are looking for fun, friendship and maybe something more. In the group we have mad moff shes a crazy little ginger, then there is naked nicole shes a nudist and then theres me the greatest person you will ever meet!! we are looking for some pals to join us on this amazing journey, if your hot and can drive a car thats a total bonus hope to hear back from you soon! p.s we have skype #skypesex xoxoxoxo but for real we need roomates and as you can see we are totally funny and would be a bitta craic for all you sxc farmers out there hehe

TripleSSS

Was there last summer, lived two blocks from the beach and only 3 blocks to town. Was an unreal spot, but tricky enough to get into. We had to lie about jobs that we hadn't got (for a full year long. We got to know an irish pub owner over there fairly quick so he helped with that even though he didnt actually have jobs for us!!) and also signed a lease for 12 months that we just broke when leaving but didnt really get in too much trouble over it cos they were happy to see us leave in the end! The majority of the residents in the complex loved us too!