#1 San Diego, CA

Metro Population = 2,906,000
Median Household Income = $54,972
Median Home Price = $379,000
Climate = 70s year round, 9 inches of rain, and 267 days of sunshine per year

With endless sunshine and an average daily temperature of 70.5 degrees, San Diego's blessed climate doesn't just make the weather boys' job easy. It's one of the main reasons this gleaming city by the sea has expanded from a sleepy military town to the nation's seventh largest metropolis. It's why 26.4 million tourists travel here every year. And, of course, it's a big part of how San Diego landed atop our best gay ocean city list.

Sunglasses, flip-flops, and surf trunks are the uniform here. Some of the best gay bars don't have roofs. Surfing is in season year-round.  A recent gay visitor to San Diego commented that “Any city that’s home to the entire Pacific fleet, several naval bases, a marine recruit depot, AND a naval air station cannot help but be a great place for gay men to visit.”

San Diego proper huddles up against the Pacific around a recently revitalized - if somewhat homogeneous - downtown, then spread up the coast in a series of palm-fringed beach towns, each with its own personality.Take, for example, San Diego’s superb coastline, its popular beaches (including some, like Black’s Beach, which are quite famous for nude sunbathing), its near-perfect year-round climate, and the San Diego Bay itself. There is also a thriving gay community in San Diego. Hillcrest, one of the city’s finest gay neighborhoods, is home to many great gay bars and restaurants.

A couple things tie it all together. One, there's the proximity to the border, which has infused every part of the city with Mexican culture and spawned the ubiquitous hole-in-the-wall taco shops that define the local cuisine (fish tacos are the specialty.) Two, there's the fact that San Diego is a town of transplants, which indicates that there are jobs aplenty (unemployment is a low 4.3 percent) and that you won't encounter hostility from the locals.

There's a price for paradise: The cost of living here is the 14th highest in the nation - a fact San Diegans refer to as the "sunshine tax." You can still pick up a one-bedroom condo eight miles from the beach for $250,000. A three-bedroom in Point Loma with a Spanish-tile roof and view of the beach runs about a million.

#2 Seattle, WA

Metro Population = 2,468,601
Median Household Income $69,730
Median Home Price = $258,300
Climate = Wet and mild, 39 inches of rain, 15 inches of snow, and 136 days of sunshine per year

Still booming, despite the tech slide and end of grunge.  Credit all the skiing, hiking, climbing, sailing and more.

In this fairly gay-friendly city, the gay and lesbian community is spread across Seattle's many neighborhoods. But the main stretch of gay sidewalk can be found on Capitol Hill's Broadway, from East Roy to East John Street, with the way-gay Broadway Market at the epicenter of the gay scene. The whole Capitol-Hill neighborhood, however, is filled with gay nightlife, bookstores and community services.

#3 Santa Cruz, CA
Metro Population = 253,814
Median Household Income = $69,148
Median Home Price = $447,000
Climate = 265 days of sunshine, 21 inches of rain, and year-round moderate temperatures

Santa Cruz is a city of contradictions: Long stretches of sand abut redwood-covered mountains; dreadlocked vegan '60s holdovers rub elbows with transplanted Silicon Valley millionaires and ruddy-faced, Teva-wearing tourists. Then there are the surfers. Longboarders and novices cruise the lazy waves at Cowell Beach, while the pros carve some of the best breakers in California at Steamer Lane. "We don't want to tell too many people about that, though," says lifelong Santa Cruz resident Darryl "Flea" Virostko. "The surfing is so good -- we don't want it to get too crowded." Flea perfectly embodies this crazy-quilt town. When he's not busy cementing his legend as one of the most insanely daring big-wave surfers ever, he likes to relax by playing golf and tennis, and he says he's glad the dot-com boom happened because it increased the value of his house.

Not quite what you'd expect from a surf rat, but the fact is one can't live in Santa Cruz without thinking about money. As with most California beach towns, the cost of living here is well above the national average -- 78 percent higher, to be exact -- so dropping out to move here and surf all day may not be an option. The University of California-Santa Cruz is the major employer (bonus: Your mascot will be a banana slug), but many of the other jobs are in tourism, and thus subject to the whims of the larger economy. Silicon Valley is always an alternative -- it's about a 45-minute commute on a good day -- but the salad days there are over.

Let's say none of that's a problem for you, though. Well, you're in luck. Life in Santa Cruz is an outdoors-lover's dream. Aside from the surfing and the white-sand beaches, there's hiking and mountain biking on the 34 miles of trails in Wilder Ranch State Park that can be accessed from downtown. And, the weather here being nothing short of perfect, there's no need to go inside for dinner; patio tables at local favorites like the Seabright Brewery generally outnumber those indoors. And if you need some gay culture, San Franscisco is not far away.

Expect to pay up to half a million dollars if you want a little space (emphasis on little). That'll get you a two-bedroom condo on the west side of town, sans ocean view. A two-bedroom on Monterey Bay can fetch up to $2.7 million.

#4 Apalachicola, FL
Metro Population = 2,334
Median Household Income = $23,073
Median Home Price = $83,000
Climate = Year-round moderate temperatures, 57 inches of rain, and 220 days of sunshine

Smack in the middle of the Florida panhandle's "Forgotten Coast," 62 miles and a world away from the more popular speedo boys cities, lies Apalachicola, where nobody hurries much and locals spend time casting for spotted sea trout and exploring the St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge, a 12,490-acre barrier island.

Work here comes in the form of fishing, guiding, and construction. That's right, construction. Development has reached St. George Island, 15 minutes away, and folks hope to someday bring in commercial flights.

While this is no gay mecca, it is ideal for gays and lesbians who enjoy ocean sports. It's affordable and quiet. And let's face it, the speedo boys are not really that far away. Our suggestion: Hurry.

#5 Charleston,SC
Metro Population = 566,728
Median Household Income = $37,069
Median Home Price = $125,315
Climate = 51 inches of rain, 0.5 inches of snow, and 211 days of sunshine

Astronomers are pretty sure that Charleston is not the center of the universe, but the city's residents would like a second opinion. Fierce local pride is a Charleston institution, and it has helped sustain the city for more than 300 tumultuous years -- from colonial times, through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, to the present.

Pride has also sustained thousands of historic buildings that have been built over the centuries, and this is a big reason that travelers visit today. Stroll through the blocks of pastel houses bedecked with their breezy piazzas (the grand Charleston word for porches), and you'll better understand where the pride comes from. Spend some time lolling in the near-tropical warmth of the state's coastline, called the Low Country, relaxing on the area beaches, and you'll likely find this a very pleasing corner of the cosmos.

It also has a small but welcoming gay/lesbian community with Folly Beach County State Park having a section at the end of the island reserved for gay and lesbians, social groups and supporting networks.