Things to Do in Huntington Beach | Fun Low-Cost Activities

Huntington Beach can get expensive quickly if the day revolves around restaurants, rentals, and major attractions. Yet some of the city’s most distinctive activities cost less than a movie ticket, and several cost nothing at all.

These things to do in Huntington Beach have another requirement besides price: there needs to be an actual reason to go. Hit baseballs, see championship surfboards, make art, hear live surf music, enter a 19th-century home, or turn Tuesday night into your entertainment.

Start With Your Budget, not a Giant List

Here is the short version:

That means a $20 budget does not automatically reduce the day to “walk around and look at things.”

For $0: Go See What Huntington Beach Artists Are Making

The Huntington Beach Art Center at 538 Main Street charges no admission for its exhibitions.

More importantly, the exhibitions change.

As of September 2026, two exhibitions run through October 24: the fiber-art show California Fibers, and VAALA’s Make it Home. The center also hosts free activities on selected dates, including a Family Art Activity on September 5.

Give it about an hour if:

  • you like contemporary art
  • you need an indoor activity
  • you want something before another Main Street stop
  • you are trying to spend almost nothing

Gallery hours:

  • Tuesday: 12-8 p.m.
  • Wednesday-Thursday: 12-6 p.m.
  • Friday-Saturday: 12-5 p.m.

This works particularly well as a first stop because leaving after 40 minutes does not feel like abandoning an expensive admission ticket.

For a Donation: See 50 Years of Pro Surfing History

Huntington Beach calls itself Surf City USA, so seeing the objects behind that identity makes more sense here than visiting a generic museum.

The International Surfing Museum recently opened at its new home at 525 Main Street. Its current featured exhibition covers 50 years of professional surfing, using historic surfboards, championship memorabilia, photographs, and material connected to the sport’s major figures.

The museum lists hours of:

  • Tuesday-Thursday: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
  • Friday-Saturday: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Admission operates through donations rather than a fixed ticket price.

Make this more interesting: Do not treat it as an isolated museum stop.

Afterward, find Huntington Beach’s Surfing Walk of Fame and Surfers’ Hall of Fame downtown. You have just turned one small museum visit into a mini surf-history hunt for very little money.

Try the Batting Cages at On Deck

Here is the pick for anyone bored by another sightseeing recommendation.

On Deck has moved to a new Huntington Beach facility at 7442 Vincent Circle, with indoor cages for baseball, softball, and cricket.

Because the operator has been updating its pricing around the move, check the current rates before planning the day around a specific dollar amount.

The format is simple: a set number of minutes against a pitching machine.

Turn it into a challenge

Give yourself a simple scoring system:

  • 1 point for contact
  • 2 for a clean hit
  • 3 for the hit everyone talks about afterward

For two people sharing a session, it becomes competition rather than batting practice.

This is one of the few Huntington Beach activities where the fun comes from being bad at it first.

For $0: Make Tuesday Night the Activity

If you are in Huntington Beach on Tuesday, Surf City Nights can replace a paid evening attraction.

The weekly downtown street fair takes over the first three blocks of Main Street with live music, local sellers, food, kids’ games, produce, artwork, ceramics, handmade goods, and other stalls.

With the kids’ games in the mix, it folds easily into a broader day of family activities rather than being an adults-only evening.

You do not need to buy anything for the street fair itself to work as entertainment.

The useful part: It works best in the evening, once the daytime plans are done.

Hours are currently 5-9 p.m. on Tuesdays. Verify the event calendar before going, particularly if the weather is questionable. So, if your Tuesday already includes the Surfing Museum or Art Center, you have a natural second half of the day that costs nothing to enter.

For $2: Enter a Huntington Beach Home From 1898

The Newland House Museum gives you an unusually cheap look at the city before surf culture became its international identity.

The Newland family home once sat at the center of a 500-acre agricultural ranch. Today, visitors can tour furnished rooms inside the historic property.

The unusual part is the price:

  • Adults: suggested $2 donation
  • Children: suggested $1 donation

Tours currently run on the first and third weekends of the month from 8 a.m. to noon.

This is not an all-afternoon museum, and that is actually useful. Treat it as a short historical detour rather than trying to extract three hours from a $2 visit.

For $0: Catch a Surfin’ Sunday

If your dates match and you want something uniquely Huntington Beach, this is probably the strongest free option on the list.

Surfin’ Sundays brings instrumental surf music to Pier Plaza, and admission is free.

Across the September 12–13 and October 24–25 weekends, the Surf City Marketplace runs both days, but the live instrumental surf music happens only on the Sunday. That is worth checking before you turn up on Saturday expecting the concert.

Catch it after the International Surfing Museum and the weekend turns into something specific to Huntington Beach: see the history indoors, then hear the culture out on Pier Plaza.

How to Actually Spend the Day

There is no “number one” here. Pick by what sounds fun today, not by ranking.

Two rules keep a low-cost day from falling flat:

  • Two stops beat six. Once tired feet set in, extra stops tend to add less than they promise. If the day mixes ages or crosses the city, it helps to sort out how you’ll get around ahead of time, rather than working it out at 4 p.m. with a worn-out group.
  • Make them different in kind. One where you look and one where you do, or one indoors and one out. On a Tuesday, the Surfing Museum followed by Surf City Nights is an easy pairing; on other days, the Art Center then a batting-cage session works just as well. Either beats four rushed stops chosen just because they sit close together.

A low-cost Huntington Beach day does not have to feel like a compromise. Pair one activity you actively do with one piece of local culture, and the city gives you plenty to work with before the bigger-ticket attractions even enter the conversation.

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