Gastric HCl secretion by the parietal cell involves the secretagogue‐regulated re‐cycling of the H⁺–K⁺‐ATPase at the apical membrane. The trafficking of the H⁺–K⁺‐ATPase and the remodelling of the apical membrane during this process are likely to involve the co‐ordination of the function of vesicular trafficking machinery and the cytoskeleton. This review summarizes the progress made in the identification and characterization of components of the vesicular trafficking machinery that are associated with the H⁺–K⁺‐ATPase and of components of the actin‐based cytoskeleton that are associated with the apical membrane of the parietal cell. Since many of these proteins are also expressed at the apical pole of other epithelial cells, the parietal cell may represent a model system to characterize the protein‐ protein interactions that regulate apical membrane trafficking in many other epithelial cells.