What’s the Very First Ventura Thing You’ll Do?

by Visit Ventura

Dreaming is good, because some dreams come true.
Returning to a wide-open Ventura, for one. We’re not there yet, but the day will come, and, when it does, just for fun we’d love to hear what’s the very first thing you’ll do. After spreading your arms to the sky.

Spread-wide-beneath-the-sun beaches where you can hear yourself think, or catch your first wave. A downtown where you can wander, inhaling the happy din of art galleries, boutique shops, antique stores, craft breweries and restaurants. A Taco Trail where you can taste the best Mexican food you’ve never had. A Harbor where you can sample fresh-off-the-boat seafood, sample ice cream and chocolate like you’ve never tasted, or hop a boat out to the Channel Islands. Ah, the Channel Islands. A wild and wondrous place where housecat-size foxes scamper through fields of Seuss-like flowers, and moon and sun shine down on the untamed and the empty; hiking, camping, scuba diving, whale watching. Kayaking into a sea cave, half-light and half-dark, drifting inside Nature’s consummate organ as it plays the song of the sea. Feel it.

So take as long as you like to indulge in your own happy Ventura daydream. Then let us know what you dreamed about.

Here are some personal testimonies from readers on what’d be the first thing they’d do:

Hit up all our favorite restaurants. Victoria Pub, Cronies, Spencer Makenzies, J Wolf, Caribbean Haven, Cask, Grapes & Hops, Tavern, Cask, Winchester’s, 805, Margaritaville, Rincon, and some places in Oxnard. (Just to name a few). Especially the places where we can sit and listen to music and be with friends. 

– Tami Emmerson Caldwell, Idaho

Thrift shopping! VTA Flea Market! Local Punk Rock bands at The Garage and Ventura Theater! Marie Shannon Bakery! 

– Machii Michelle Lapointe, Oxnard

Visit The Cross, beach then HAPPY HOUR at LURE!

– Susan Pollard

See a concert at the Majestic Theater. 

– Richard Bannister

Take an Island Packers boat out to Santa Cruz or Anacapa Island and go snorkeling!!

– Christina Kennedy

Take a picnic and sit in the little sand hills in Ventura across from the Ventura Harbor! Then shop at the harbor shops!!

– Jennifer Siebers

Looking for second, third and fourth fun things to do, when the time comes? Our Ventura Inspiration Guide has hundreds of insider secrets. View our latest Ventura Inspiration Guide online, or order your own free hold-in-your-hand copy here.

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