You will never hear a Californian say they are Going To The Shore or Ocean. They will say they are going to Pismo, Monterey, Santa Cruz etc. I was a kid in New Jersey and going to the SHORE was a common expression. Word usage varies as we all know, depending on what part of the country we live.
Going to the beach would come the most naturally to me except that, living in Maine for the past twenty-one years, I have to acknowledge that we don't really have beaches. The Atlantic shoreline in Maine mostly consists of rocky cliffs. So, on the rare occasion that I do that, I would say that I was going to the ocean if I didn't have a particular destination in mind; otherwise, I'd say that I was going to whichever locality along the shore I might have in mind, such as Pemaquid.
When I was growing up in Sandpoint, we had a huge, beautiful city beach on Lake Pend O’reille. The water was clear, and the beach was all white sand. When we went there, everyone in town just called it The Beach. There were other places to swim near town, but they weren’t called by any particular name, except for one, which was called Dog Beach. No dogs were allowed at the city beach, so people who wanted to take their dogs along swimming went to Dog Beach, a small unsupervised area of the lake, great for swimming, not usually crowded, and we could take the dogs if we wanted to do that . Later in life, when I lived in Western Washington, if we went to the lake , we called it the lake, and if we went to the ocean, we called it the ocean. I have never called anything “the shore”. The one-minute tour of the beach at Sandpoint.
^^This^^ My sister's in-laws owned a place outside of Atlantic City NJ and they always went to "the shore." It's most often referred to as "The New Jersey Shore." Everyone I know "goes to the beach." I "go to the beach." I've never heard anyone say they are "going to the ocean." That being said, I wonder what those who live in these coastal towns & cities say. I live 100 miles inland and call it "the beach." Do people who only live miles or blocks away from the waterfront call it "the beach"?
For the 10 1/2 years we lived in Jacksonville, Florida, we'd say "we are going to Jacksonville Beach". The city of Jacksonville is right next to Jacksonville Beach, separated only by intracoastal waterway and bridge. Now, for those that live in Jacksonville Beach, they'd probably say "let's hit the beach today". For us now, it's the local State Park lake. There is a sign, right inside the Park, that has an arrow pointing to, and saying, the Swim Beach. However, we don't go to the Swim Beach, because we have the boat.
Sometimes I go to the ocean, meaning an intention to get wet and sticky with salt. But more often I go to the coast, meaning the likelihood of parking on a cliff or sitting on a hotel balcony and wave watching. I never go to the beach. Sand is to be avoided, especially in my car and between my toes. Not a beach person.
Funny, but for the 10 1/2 years we lived in Jacksonville, FL, and was only some 20 miles from the beach of Jacksonville Beach, we only went three or four times. Not much for someone who lived that close to a beach city. The beach area we really, really enjoyed was Blackbeard's Island in Nassau, Bahamas. The most beautiful, clear water I'd ever seen! This was from taking a Bahamas Cruise in 2008.
I say going to the beach, however, if staying in a little town named Ocean Shores, I say the beach at Ocean Shores.
Be that as it may, one such as myself, a west coast beach broad, headed out for such in Jersey, would never the less say the beach, if you know what I am saying, unless my cabbie took a wrong, got caught in jughandle, blew the boardwalk, dropping me at the diner for some morning pig fat and cawfee.
Beautiful lakes in Northern Idaho and nice beaches. I think the beach covers it all in the Northwest, lakes, rivers, and the pacific.