TheLakeInsiderThe insider's guide to America's luxury lakes
← Big Bear Lake
The local guide

Everything worth doing.Within 20 minutes.

Editors' picks across 8categories — the dock with the deepest channel, the winery with the view, the restaurant with the right wine list, the trail nobody's on at sunrise.

The table

Restaurants

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Big Bear Lake
Grizzly Manor Cafe

A breakfast-and-brunch institution on Big Bear Boulevard — large portions, waffles, and American classics, a locals' favorite for decades.

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Big Bear Lake
Teddy Bear Restaurant

An American classics diner in the Village serving comfort food and homemade pies — a Big Bear staple since 1944.

The water

Boat launches

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Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Marina

A full-service marina off Big Bear Boulevard, walking distance from the Village — pontoon and WaveRunner rentals, wakeboarding and skiing guides, fishing charters, and a tackle shop.

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Big Bear Lake
Pine Knot Marina

The marina where the Village meets the lake — pontoon and jet ski rentals, kayaking, and the Miss Liberty paddlewheel boat, a 90-minute narrated history tour dating the lake's story back to 1845.

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Big Bear Lake
Captain John's Fawn Harbor & Marina

A full-service marina on the lake's north shore — canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, pontoons, bass boats, and electric boats.

Iconic stops

Iconic stops

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Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Dam

The lake's origin story in two dams: a 53-foot granite arch dam built in 1884 to irrigate Redlands' citrus groves proved too small, replaced in 1912 by a 72-foot multiple-arch dam that more than doubled the lake's capacity to 73,000 acre-feet.

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