Where Is Cousins Beach? The Complete Guide to the Iconic Summer I Turned Pretty Location

Introduction

You binge-watched The Summer I Turned Pretty, and now you can’t stop thinking about that gorgeous beach. The golden sand, the old beach house, the summer magic — it all feels achingly real. You’ve typed “where is Cousins Beach” into Google more than once, hoping there’s a real address you can drive to. Here’s the truth, and it’s actually more fascinating than a simple pin on a map: Cousins Beach is fictional — but the real places behind it are absolutely worth exploring.

Where Is Cousins Beach? The Straight Answer

Where is Cousins Beach? Cousins Beach exists inside the world of The Summer I Turned Pretty — a beloved YA novel series by author Jenny Han and the hit Amazon Prime Video series adapted from those books.

In the story, Cousins Beach sits along the coast of Massachusetts, USA. It’s a small, charming beach town where the Fisher family owns a stunning summer home, and where Belly Conklin and her family spend every summer. The town has a boardwalk, a local bookstore called Whale of a Tale, a country club, and enough summer memories to fill three books.

Jenny Han confirmed on her own website that Cousins Beach is not a real place. She described it as a blend of Cape Cod, the Hamptons, and “just a splash of the Outer Banks.” That combination perfectly explains why Cousins Beach feels so vivid and real — it pulls from three of the most iconic beach destinations on the East Coast of the United States.

Where Was Cousins Beach Actually Filmed?

Since where is Cousins Beach as a real town doesn’t have a GPS answer, the next best thing is knowing where the show brought it to life on screen.

The production team filmed The Summer I Turned Pretty primarily in Wilmington, North Carolina and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. These locations offered the wide sandy shores, charming coastal architecture, and warm summer atmosphere that matched Jenny Han’s vision perfectly.

Key filming highlights include:

• Wrightsville Beach — used for many of the wide beach scenes that define the show’s visual identity
• Wilmington, NC — served as the base for production, with various town scenes filmed here
• Private beach homes in the Wilmington area — used to build the iconic look of Beck’s Beach House
• Local businesses and boardwalk areas — dressed and styled to match the fictional Cousins Beach aesthetic

North Carolina’s coastal landscape gave the show a timeless, dreamy quality that felt true to Jenny Han’s original writing. The natural light, the wide open beaches, and the character of the local architecture all made Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach the perfect stand-in for a fictional Massachusetts beach town.

What Is Cousins Beach in The Summer I Turned Pretty?

Understanding where is Cousins Beach means understanding what it represents in the story — not just a physical place, but an emotional one.

The Summer I Turned Pretty revolves on Cousins Beach.Every summer, Laurel Park (Belly’s mom) brings her children Belly and Steven to stay with their closest family friends, the Fishers — Susannah, her husband Adam, and their two sons Conrad and Jeremiah. Cousins Beach is more than simply a holiday destination for Belly.. It’s the one place in the world that feels completely like home.

The beach holds every important memory Belly has — first loves, painful heartbreaks, long summer nights, family traditions, and the slow, bittersweet process of growing up. Each summer at Cousins marks a new chapter in who she becomes.

Jenny Han built Cousins Beach as a place where time feels different — slower, softer, and full of possibility. That feeling is exactly why millions of readers and viewers fell in love with it.

The Fisher Family Beach House: The Soul of Cousins Beach

No answer to where is Cousins Beach is complete without talking about Beck’s Beach House — the stunning Fisher family home that anchors the entire story.

Susannah Fisher (affectionately called “Beck” by her loved ones) owns the beach house, and it becomes the central gathering place for both families. The house represents warmth, belonging, and the specific kind of magic that only summers can create. After Susannah’s death, the fate of the beach house drives much of the emotional tension in Season 2 and beyond.

Key details about the beach house:

• Located directly on the beach in Cousins
• Passed to Susannah’s sister Julia after Susannah’s death
• Nearly sold in Season 2, triggering a desperate effort by Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah to save it
• Stripped of all its furniture by Julia, erasing years of family memories
• Represents Susannah’s legacy throughout the entire series

The beach house is far more than a building. It’s the physical memory of everything the families shared — and losing it means losing her all over again.

Cousins Beach Key Locations: A Complete Guide

Cousins Beach is a fully imagined town with its own distinct places. Here’s every notable spot that appears across the books and the Amazon Prime series:

The Real Places That Inspired Cousins Beach

Jenny Han didn’t pull Cousins Beach from thin air. She blended three of the most beloved coastal destinations in the eastern United States:

Cape Cod, Massachusetts — Cape Cod gave Cousins Beach its sense of old-money New England charm. Think shingled beach houses, grey sand dunes, lobster shacks, and the particular quality of summer light you only find in Massachusetts. Cape Cod also provides the fictional geography — the show places Cousins in Massachusetts, directly nodding to this inspiration.

The Hamptons, New York — The Hamptons added the upscale social atmosphere to Cousins Beach. The country club scene, the debutante ball, the summer society events — all of that carries the distinct energy of Hamptons culture, where old families and summer rituals define the social calendar.

The Outer Banks, North Carolina — The Outer Banks brought a wilder, more windswept feel to the setting. The open beaches, the sense of remoteness, and the bonfires on the sand all carry that Outer Banks spirit that feels untouched and unforgettable.

Together, these three places created something better than any single real beach could offer — a fictional paradise that captures the best of all three.

Season-by-Season: What Happens at Cousins Beach

Season 1 — First Summers, New Feelings

The Conklin-Park family arrives at Cousins Beach for their annual summer stay with the Fishers. Right away, the town comes alive with activity. A beach bonfire leads to a confrontation with local police. Belly joins the Country Club as a debutante. Susannah organizes Laurel’s book launch at Whale of a Tale. The Fourth of July brings the entire town together for clam steaming, fireworks, and family traditions. A charity volleyball tournament draws the whole community. Summer love blooms — and hurts.

Season 2 — Fighting to Hold On

A year later, Cousins Beach carries grief alongside joy. Belly and Jeremiah return to Cousins searching for Conrad. The devastating news arrives: Beck’s beach house is up for sale. Aunt Julia, who now owns the property, moves forward with plans to sell. The kids fight back — Steven sabotages the air conditioning to delay a realtor showing. A day at the boardwalk arcade becomes a desperate attempt to help Skye (Julia’s child) understand what Cousins truly means. When they return home, the house has been stripped bare. The physical heart of Cousins Beach has been emptied.

Season 3 — The Final Chapter

The story reaches its conclusion, with Cousins Beach serving as the backdrop for the final choices, confessions, and resolutions that define who Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah become. The beach witnesses the end — and the beginning.

Cousins Beach Characters: Who Calls This Place Home?

The people of Cousins Beach make the town as real as the sand and the sea.

Why Do Fans Search “Where Is Cousins Beach” So Often?

The answer reveals something powerful about great storytelling.

Jenny Han wrote Cousins Beach with such specific, sensory detail that readers genuinely believe it exists. The smell of salt air, the sound of screen doors, the ritual of steaming clams on the Fourth of July — every detail is so precise that the brain files it alongside real memories.

When the Amazon Prime series brought those images to life with real locations, real light, and real waves, the fictional became almost tangible. Fans finish episodes and immediately want to go there. They want to walk the same boardwalk, sit on the same porch, watch the same sunset.

That desire is the mark of truly great world-building. Cousins Beach doesn’t exist on a map, but it lives completely inside the people who experienced the story.

Can You Visit Cousins Beach? What Fans Actually Do

Since there is not a precise location for Cousins Beach on a map, fans who wish to feel that way have a number of great options:

Visit the Filming Locations:

• Wrightsville Beach, NC — The closest real-world version of what you see on screen. Beautiful wide beaches, coastal town feel, and the exact landscape where the show was filmed.
• Wilmington, NC — Explore the city that served as the production base and see the neighborhoods used for various town scenes.

Visit the Inspirations:

• Cape Cod, MA — Drive the Cape, rent a beach house, and experience the New England summer atmosphere that gave Cousins its soul.
• The Hamptons, NY — Feel the upscale summer energy that shaped the social scenes in the story.
• Outer Banks, NC — Experience the wild, open beach feeling that Jenny Han wove into Cousins Beach’s DNA.

Read the Books: The original trilogy by Jenny Han gives you more of Cousins Beach than any screen adaptation. The details, the internal emotions, the specific memories — the books build the most complete version of the location.

The Summer I Turned Pretty: Book vs. TV Series at Cousins Beach

6 Frequently Asked Questions About Cousins Beach

1. Where is Cousins Beach exactly?

Cousins Beach is a fictional town set in Massachusetts in The Summer I Turned Pretty universe. It does not exist as a real place. Author Jenny Han confirmed that she based it on a blend of Cape Cod, the Hamptons, and the Outer Banks.

2. Where did they film Cousins Beach for the TV show?

The production team filmed Cousins Beach primarily at Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington, North Carolina. The open coastline and coastal architecture matched Jenny Han’s vision for the fictional Massachusetts town perfectly.

3. Is Cousins Beach based on Cape Cod?

Cape Cod is one of three inspirations. Jenny Han based Cousins Beach on Cape Cod, the Hamptons, and the Outer Banks combined. Cape Cod contributes the New England atmosphere and geography, since Cousins sits in fictional Massachusetts.

4. Who owns the beach house at Cousins Beach?

Susannah Fisher (called Beck) owns the beach house throughout most of the story. After her death, ownership passes to her sister Julia, who nearly sells the property in Season 2 — driving one of the most emotionally powerful storylines of the series.

5. What are the must-see locations in Cousins Beach?

The most significant locations in Cousins Beach include Beck’s Beach House, the Whale of a Tale bookstore, the Country Club, Cousins Boardwalk & Arcade, Rosie’s diner, and Scoops ice cream shop. Together they form the geography of Belly’s summers.

6. Will there be more Cousins Beach in a Summer I Turned Pretty movie?

Yes. Amazon confirmed a movie continuation of The Summer I Turned Pretty after Season 3. Fans will have another summer in the cherished made-up town of Cousins Beach with the return of the well-known characters..

What Makes Cousins Beach Unforgettable

The real answer to where is Cousins Beach isn’t a location — it’s a feeling.

Cousins Beach represents every summer that ever felt too short. Every friendship that felt like family. Every first love that rewrote everything you thought you knew about yourself. Jenny Han built a place that holds all of those things at once, and she built it so carefully that it feels as real as anywhere you’ve ever been.

The reason fans search for where is Cousins Beach with such urgency is that the place genuinely matters to them. Not because they want to stand on a specific beach, but because they want to feel the way Cousins makes them feel — warm, alive, and full of the kind of hope that only summer can carry.

That’s the real address of Cousins Beach. It lives in the books, in the show, and in everyone who ever wished they could spend one more summer there.

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