The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 5 letter word SAN DIEGO
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
S
A
N
D
I
E
G
O
More clues leading to the result SAN DIEGO
- Girl to depart for city in US
- I repeatedly must follow beach leading to Pacific port
- Diane's arranged to leave US city
- Son and I twice spotted in US coastal location
- Coastal city beach that’s on journey
- Drunken sea-dog in coastal location
- Agonised after explosion in US port
- Work on beach that is in US city
- Smooth self-confidence about one in the city
- Shaw’s good old city
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "coastal location" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case coastal location = san diego.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.