Area Info

Oxnard’s oceanfront beaches offer white sands, Pacific blue waters and a variety of sun-and-surf activities that will make your vacation endlessly fun.

Whatever your preference, Oxnard offers many ways to enjoy its spectacular natural setting along California’s Central Coast.
Oxnard’s oceanfront beaches offer white sands, Pacific blue waters and a variety of sun-and-surf activities that will make your vacation endlessly fun. Feel like going for a swim, catching a wave, or fishing along the shore? How about something a little more adventurous-like sportfishing, scuba diving or setting sail for a Channel Island’s weekend adventure? Nearly year-round tem­perate weather, stunning beaches and a harbor filled with waterside activities are yours to enjoy.
Oxnard is a city in the United States, located along the Coast of Southern California. It is the 19th most populous city in California and the most populous in Ventura County. The city lies approximately 35 miles west of the Los Angeles city limits, and is part of the larger Greater Los Angeles area.
Oxnard is also a major transportation hub in Southern California, with Amtrak, Union Pacific, Metrolink, Greyhound, and Intercalifornia stopping in Oxnard. Oxnard also has a small regional airport called Oxnard Airport (OXR).

California Strawberry Festival

Each year Oxnard hosts the California Strawberry Festival during the summer at Oxnard College, featuring vendors as well as food items based on the fruit such as strawberry nachos, strawberry pizza, strawberry funnel cake, strawberry sundaes, and strawberry champagne.

Transportation

Road and rail

The Ventura Freeway (US 101) is the major highway running through Oxnard, connecting Ventura and Santa Barbara to the northwest, and Los Angeles to the southeast. The Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) heads down the coast south to Malibu. And Highway 232 (Vineyard Avenue), heads northeast, providing connections to Saticoy and Santa Paula.

The Oxnard Transportation Center is served by both Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight train routes, as well as Metrolink’s Ventura County Line.

The Port of Hueneme is located south of Oxnard in the city of Port Hueneme and is jointly operated by the United States Navy and the Oxnard Harbor District. The port is the only deep water port between the Port of Long Beach and the Port of San Francisco as well as the only military deep water port between San Diego Bay and Puget Sound.

The Port of Hueneme is a shipping and receiving point for a wide variety of resources with destinations in the larger population centers of the Los Angeles Basin. Resources include automobiles, pineapples, and bananas. Agricultural products such as onions, strawberries, and flowers are shipped. The United States Navy maintains a facility at Port Hueneme, in support of the naval air station at Point Mugu to the south, with which it comprises Naval Base Ventura County. Port Hueneme is the West Coast home of the Construction Battalion, the “Seabees”, as well as a link in the coastal radar system.

Harbor

Oxnard is home to one harbor: Channel Islands Harbor, with Ventura Harbor located seven miles (11 km) north in adjacent Ventura. Channel Islands Harbor is located on the south shore of Oxnard and is nicknamed the “Gateway to the Channel Islands” because of the high number of operations that sail to the islands out of the harbor. Both harbors are vital fishing industry harbors.

Culture and the arts

Oxnard offers several cultural institutions. These include the Carnegie Art Museum, founded in 1907 as the Oxnard Public Library by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie; the Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife, founded by the late Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler, which housed the largest collection of rare and vintage automobiles in the nation until the contents were auctioned off following Chandler’s death in 2006; the Murphy Auto Museum, founded by neurosurgeon Dan Murphy; The Heritage Square[disambiguation needed], a collection of restored Victorian and Craftsman houses which were once owned by Oxnard’s pioneer families (Heritage Square is also home to the Petit Playhouse and Oxnard’s award-winning Elite Theatre Company); the Ventura County Maritime Museum, The Gull Wings Children’s Museum, The Henry T. Oxnard Historic District; the Herzog Winery and wine cellar, the nation’s largest collection of fine kosher wines; the Seabee Museum and the Oxnard Performing Arts and Convention Center, home to the New West Symphony. It is also home to the award winning Oxnard Independent Film Festival and, since 2010, the annual Channel Islands Tall Ships Festival.

Music

Hip Hop producer Madlib and bands in the punk “Nardcore” music scene are from Oxnard, including Dr. Know, Agression, Scared Straight, Ill Repute, False Confession, Ten Foot Pole, No Motiv, and Habeas Corpus. The city and neighboring Ventura both maintain a thriving punk music scene to this day, driven by a fusion of both the skater and surfer cultures. Death and Thrash bands, such as Decimus and Hostile, respectively, are also prominent in the region. Oxnard is also home to the annual Oxnard Salsa Festival, which takes place on the last week-end each July. For two days Oxnard hosts both local and international salsa bands in Plaza Park.