Laguna Beach provides a wide variety of services, including police, fire, paramedic, marine safety, recreation, parks, public works, community development, transit, information technology and animal control. The City employs more than two hundred full-time employees and an additional hundred part-time employees during the peak summer months. For only seven miles of ocean beachfront, Laguna Beach holds the distinction of having one of the greatest number of localized beaches of any city on the California coast.

The list includes the northern beaches of Irvine Cove, Crescent Bay, Shaw's Cove, Boat Canyon, Diver's Cove, Picnic Beach and Rockpile. Central Beaches include Main Beach, Sleepy Hollow, St. Ann's Street, Thalia Street, Oak Street, Brook's Street and Mountain Road Beach. Southern Laguna Beach (South Laguna Beach) beaches include Bluebird Canyon, Pearl Street, Wood's Cove, Moss Point, Rockledge, Victoria Beach and Treasure Island. The city's most famous institution is the Festival of Arts, an annual art exhibition in the summer which has given the city a reputation for being "artsy." Apart from bringing together artists and art collectors, the Festival is also famous for the Pageant of the Masters, an annual living statue show where local volunteers reproduce several dozen famous artworks in an evening (with the help of elaborate costumes and makeup). The Pageant is apparently the only show of its type and scale in western North America. Another famous annual event is the Sawdust Art Festival. Its summer art show features local artists exhibiting paintings, sculpture and fine craft in an artist village which is built each year. One interesting yet largely unknown fact regarding Laguna Beach is that it is the world mecca for skim boarding, the sport having been invented by the town's lifeguards over half a century ago.