The generation of laser‐induced stress waves in liquids by the vaporization process and the thermoelastic effect was studied experimentally. A high‐speed camera and special high‐sensitivity stress transducers with a response time of a few nanoseconds have been used for these investigations. The experimental results obtained for water,n‐heptane, and carbon tetrachloride are discussed. For the first time, the individual contributions of vaporization and the thermoelastic effect on stress generation are separated. In addition, tunable high‐frequency acoustic waves, with frequencies up to 60 MHz, have been generated in water by the impact of a laser pulse exhibiting longitudinal mode beating. Since existing theories on the thermoelastic generation of acoustic waves do not yield satisfactory agreement with our experimental data, a new spherical model is proposed, where the transient heating caused by the laser impact, is represented by the three‐dimensional heat pole. This solution of the equation of heat conduction corresponds to a Gaussian distribution of the excessive temperature in space, and thus to the TEM00mode of the incident laser beam. An analytical solution of the thermoelastic pressure wave is derived for this case of temperature distribution. Its good agreement with the experiment is discussed for various liquids and for two different laser characteristics.