When is Cruisin' the Coast 2026?

Sunday, October 4 through Sunday, October 11, 2026. It is the event's 30th anniversary. Registration and the Finale Ceremonies are at Cruise Central in Jones Park, Gulfport, and the seven cruise-in venues open Thursday through Saturday, October 8–10.

Where should I stay for Cruisin' the Coast?

Somewhere on Highway 90 between Bay St. Louis and Biloxi, so you can reach every venue without crossing the whole coast in event traffic. Long Beach sits between Pass Christian and Gulfport, ten minutes from Cruise Central, and is residential and quiet at night, which matters after a week of oldies bands and burnouts.

How far ahead should I book?

For 2026, today. Coast-wide lodging books months out for this week and our Long Beach home is already taken for the middle of it. For 2027, book the week the dates are announced. 2027 registration opens on site on Thursday, October 8, 2026, and the people registering are the same people booking next year's rooms.

Is Long Beach close enough to the events?

Yes. Cruise Central in Gulfport is about ten minutes east, Pass Christian about ten minutes west, and Long Beach has its own day on Monday, October 5, with the Show & Shine on Jeff Davis Avenue, the Kick-off Parade at 5:30 p.m., and a band at the harbor that night. Biloxi and Ocean Springs are 25–35 minutes on a normal day. Allow more during the week.

At the Beach Bungalow in Long Beach, yes, up to two dogs. The yard is fenced and large enough that a dog will not mind you leaving for a cruise-in.

Can I park a trailer or car hauler at the house?

The Beach Bungalow sits on a large private lot on a quiet residential street with off-street parking. Tell us what you are towing when you book and we will confirm it fits before you arrive.

Cruisin' the Coast 2026: Where to Stay, Long Beach MS

Cruisin' the Coast 2026 runs Sunday, October 4 through Sunday, October 11, and if you want to sleep anywhere on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that week you need to book now. It is the 30th anniversary of America's Largest Block Party: thousands of antique, classic and hot-rod cars cruising a 30-mile beachside stretch of Highway 90, with cruise-in venues in seven towns, headline bands, a swap meet and the Vicari auto auction. Lodging from Bay St. Louis to Pascagoula sells out months ahead. This is the honest picture of what the week looks like town by town, why our one home on the coast sits in the right place for it, and which nights it still has open.

Where the week actually happens, day by day

Most guides tell you the dates and stop. The thing that matters for lodging is where each day is, because the coast is 30 miles long and the event moves. Here is the shape of it, from the official 2026 schedule. Times can shift, so check cruisinthecoast.com before you drive.

Sunday, October 4 — Gulfport. View the Cruise in downtown Gulfport from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., a cruise-in at Hardy Court, and Cruisin' Through the Decades over in Gautier.
Monday, October 5 — Long Beach's day. Registration opens at Cruise Central (Jones Park, Gulfport), then the Long Beach Show & Shine runs on Jeff Davis Avenue from 9 to 4, the Cruisin' the Coast Kick-off Parade lines up at Long Beach High School and rolls at 5:30 p.m., and The Tip Tops play Long Beach Harbor from 6 to 9. If you are staying in Long Beach, you walk to all of it.
Tuesday, October 6 — Gulfport and Biloxi. Salute to Our Veterans at Cruise Central, a cruise-in at Margaritaville in Biloxi, and the flame-throwing competition at the IP Casino at dusk.
Wednesday, October 7 — Biloxi and the west end. The Biloxi Block Party downtown from 8 to 3, Hot Rods & Hospitality in Waveland, the Blessing of the Classics in Diamondhead, and a new drifting exhibition in D'Iberville that evening.
Thursday through Saturday, October 8–10 — everywhere at once. All seven cruise-in venues open 9 to 5 with bands: Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Gulfport Cruise Central, Edgewater Mall, D'Iberville, Ocean Springs and Pascagoula. The Vicari auction and the swap meet run at the Coast Coliseum. Thursday is Burn 'Em Up in the Pass; Friday is the Ocean Springs Sock Hop and 38 Special at the Beau Rivage; Saturday is the Super Saturday concert and fireworks in Bay St. Louis and Jay Leno at the Beau Rivage. The Country Cruisin' Breakfast is at the Long Beach Yacht Club from 7 to 10 all three mornings.
Sunday, October 11 — Gulfport. Finale Ceremonies at Cruise Central from 9 to 10:30, sixty $500 cash drawings and the Make-A-Wish raffle car.

Why Long Beach is the quiet middle of it

Long Beach sits on Highway 90 between Pass Christian and Gulfport. Cruise Central is about ten minutes east. Pass Christian's downtown venue is about ten minutes west. Bay St. Louis is twenty; Biloxi and Ocean Springs are 25 to 35 on a normal day. That geography is the whole argument: you are never more than a short run from a venue, you are on the cruise route itself, and you are not parked inside Biloxi's casino traffic at midnight. And on Monday the event comes to you.

It is also a residential town. Cars cruise past all week, but at 10 p.m. the street you are sleeping on is quiet, which is not something we would promise about a hotel on the Biloxi strip during this particular week.

Our home in Long Beach, and what is still open

We host one home on the Mississippi coast, and we are not going to dress that up as a portfolio. The Beach Bungalow is a three-bedroom, three-bath home that sleeps nine on a large private lot a five-minute walk from the beach. It carries 126 guest reviews at 4.99 stars, takes up to two dogs, and is set up for the way this week travels: two families or a car club under one roof, a real kitchen, a fenced yard and off-street parking for whatever you are towing.

Checked on September 14, 2026: the Bungalow is booked from Tuesday, October 6 through Saturday morning, October 10. What remains for Cruisin' week is Sunday and Monday nights, October 4 and 5, which happen to be Long Beach's own day, the Show & Shine and the Kick-off Parade, and Saturday night, October 10, the last night of the event, with the Finale Ceremonies ten minutes away the next morning. The week before the event, September 27 through October 4, is open in full if you want to arrive early and have the beach to yourself before the cars roll in. Those dates will move, so check the live calendar rather than trusting this paragraph next week.

A full week or a weekend?

If you are registering a car, come for the week. Registration package pick-up runs Monday and Tuesday, the venues do not fully open until Thursday, and the stamping-card drawings on Sunday require you to have made the rounds. A weekend visitor gets the busiest three days, Thursday through Saturday, but misses the parade and the quieter early-week cruise-ins that longtime attendees prefer.

Whatever you choose, arrive on a Sunday if you can. Saturday check-ins during the event are the hardest driving of the year on Highway 90.

Nothing else on our calendar collides with it

We also host in Starkville, Oxford and Auburn, and we watch the football calendar closely. October 4–11 overlaps none of it: Alabama plays at Mississippi State on Saturday, October 3, the day before Cruisin' begins, and October 10 is a quiet Saturday in all three of our college towns. If you are a coast regular who also follows the SEC, this is the one October week you do not have to choose.

Planning for 2027 already?

You are not early. 2027 registration opens on site at Cruise Central on Thursday, October 8, 2026, and the people who register that day are the same people booking next year's lodging on the drive home. If you want the Bungalow for the 31st Cruisin' the Coast, ask us for the dates the week they are announced and we will hold them.

Booking direct at stayca.life skips the platform service fees you would pay elsewhere for the same home. Our homes carry a 4.95-star average across 3,300+ guest reviews. For everything else about the town, read our Long Beach, MS guide.

Last updated: September 14, 2026 · Written by the Stay'ca team, family-owned hosts based in Laurel, Mississippi