Pebble Beach is famous for its golf. The town has seven public and private courses including Spanish Bay, Spyglass Hill, Poppy Hills, and the eponymous Pebble Beach Golf Links. The AT&T Pro-Am (formerly known as the Bing Crosby "clambake") is held here every year, usually in the winter.

Technically, Pebble Beach is not a city at all -- it's a corporation. The state and county consider this land to be the Del Monte Forest, which happens to be privately owned by the Pebble Beach Corporation and managed as a small town. Residents therefore pay no taxes to the state; they instead pay homeowners' fees in lieu of property taxes.

Most first-time visitors expect Pebble Beach to be a ritzy, cosmopolitan town. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are no businesses at all in town (except the golf courses, one gas station, and a deli), no downtown, and no sidewalks. It's extremely rural in character and most of the very expensive houses are hidden behind old-growth trees. It is quiet, secluded, and somewhat gloomy in bad weather.