Long Beach — The Quiet One

Italian immigrants came here to farm truck crops—radishes were the specialty—and the Friendship Oak, more than 500 years old, stands as the town's emotional center. Long Beach sits between Gulfport and Pass Christian on Beach Boulevard, the stretch most tourists skip on Highway 90. No casino towers break the horizon. Locals walk dogs on the beach. What the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast used to feel like before the casinos arrived still holds here. Residents prefer it that way.