California's Sunset Beach is one of the best spots on the California coast to watch sunsets. If you get a chance to visit, be sure to hang around and catch one as you frolick in the sand with friends, family, loved ones or by yourself. The sunsets coincide with stories that surround this quaint beach town, and also the setting sun that the 100+ year old community may face if annexed by neighboring Huntington Beach, which seeks to obtain the 1-mile beachfront community as part of its assets.

Though this Sunset Beach is not quite the same as the famed shores of Sunset Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii, the Orange County, California destination gained recognition among the soap opera crowd when a TV show, Sunset Beach, brought attention to the little town of 1,288 people. Residents were mostly ambivalent as tourists pulled up, looking for the places they'd seen on the show (the settings were really stage sets in Los Angeles.)

Sunset Beach locals have had their share of celebrities living on their sandy shores, including a few soap opera actors. While some famous residents remain incognito and others aren't important enough for paparazzi stake-outs, Academy Award winning actress Sandra Bullock and celebrity husband Jesse James were-and they were unable to escape media attention as photographers with long lenses sat on the sand and the community greenbelt hoping to snap photos of the couple. Before their separation, Bullock took morning jogs along the beach and ordered meals from local take-outs such as GyroKabob. The couple divorced, sold the mini-mansion and left Sunset Beach, ending a chapter of romantic sunsets they once shared.

But the waves keep rolling in, the sunsets never end, and you can watch the same spectacular scenes that the locals enjoy. There are several affordable hotels in Sunset Beach-a Ramada, Best Western and an EconoLodge. There's also a water tower house for rent. It costs around $4000-5000 per week.