Huntington Beach/Cypress Visitor Information (Long Beach, Orange: rent, how much, neighborhoods)

[ayelene]

Hi all -- My husband and I are going on a business trip (well, business for him, I'm just tagging along).

We are staying in Cypress, which I'm told is about 8 miles from Huntington Beach. I'm from the east coast (currently living in Florida but originally from the Northern NJ/NY area); I've wanted to visit the west coast practically all my life, and I'm so excited to finally have this opportunity.

Anyway, I have no idea what the area is like and was hoping to get some info/advice about what to do/where to go. Is public transportation a viable option in that area, or should we rent a car? The beach is a top priority, but we'd like to do limited sight-seeing, etc. in areas fairly nearby. My husband will be in class during the majority of day, but (of course) he'd like to "play" when he has down time.

Suggestions on restaurants would be great if anyone knows some good spots -- I heard Ruby's (on the pier) is supposed to have great burgers...
We're mostly on a budget, but a splurge once or twice might be nice.

Oh, and what is the weather like this time of year? We'll be there for a week at the end of the month (September). Also, in case some venues might be geared toward a certain age group, we are in our mid 40s.

This is my first time posting asking for info on an area I'm completely unfamiliar with, so please bear with me and let me know if I left out anything that would be helpful in making a suggestion.

Thanks and I look forward to your responses!

[EscapeCalifornia]

Rent a car unless you want to spend your whole trip sitting around waiting for a bus.

You could go down to downtown Huntington Beach, park in one of the structures, and walk around the area, eat, and see the beach. Main St. has a bunch of restaurants and intersects Pacific Coast Highway right where the pier is.

The weather will probably be T-shirt weather in the day but you might want a light sweat shirt at night.

[raisun]

You'll definitely need a car...but you will have a lot of options as far as places to eat. Right around Cypress you'll find some of your standard chains: El Torito, Chili's, Red Robin, etc. However, I would recommend checking out the Katella Deli (if you're into deli food, its one of my favorites...and it has a huge menu and bakery), the Fish Company, and the Gourmet Pie (its in Los Alamitos now, but its been a local institution forever). All three are in Los Alamitos which is right next door to Cypress.

In additoin to Huntington Pier, I would suggest going down to Seal Beach. There are some nice shops and restaurants down there as well. If you are looking for good, relatively inexpensive mexican food check out Yucatan Grill. Its a family owned and run place, and VERY good.

If you are looking to splurge, and like Italian, I would recommend Spagatini's. Its right off the 405 and Seal Beach Blvd, and they have good food.

Depending on how much time you have to explore, you might head towards 2nd street in Long Beach (Belmont Shore area). Again, lots of good restaurants and shopping. From there, its a short drive to downtown Long Beach. If you have some time, there is the Aquarium of the Pacific there as well as the Queen Mary. Both good tourist attractions.

One last thought if you are going to be staying over a Fri/Sat or Sun night. Disneyland is about 7 miles East on Katella. If you're on a budget, you may not want to go into the Disneyland, but you can park at Downtown Disney for free, shop, eat, and/or catch a movie. If you are there on the weekend, Disneyland runs their fireworks at 9:25, and you can walk through Downtown Disney right to the entrance of Disneyland and see them.

Where in Florida are you? Orange County is MUCH less humid than FL. I'm familiar with Central FL and Jax areas, and I tend to think that at the end of September, the temps are similar (maybe a few degrees cooler than Central FL), but much drier.

Hope that helps. Enjoy your trip!

[bhcompy]

for pure beach, goto bolsa chica beach. cypress is intersected by valley view and you just take valley view south all the way there(puts you at the end of sunset beach and the start of bolsa chica state beach.

as far as stuff to do, huntington and seal beach should both be places to check out.

As far as food selections and what else to do, raisuns post is pretty good.

I would also add Knotts Berry Farm if you're looking for some fun. I'm not sure if it's still on, but they have a summer special after 4pm only 20$ to get in. Some fun roller coasters and some interesting shops and shows in Ghost Town.

If you've got any specific types of food you want, please ask for it and we can provide specific locations.

[pittsteelers247]

Huntington Beach has a very fun and lively downtown on main st. and the neighborhoods and parks surrounding it are beautiful. Downtown HB has great restaurants, definitely go to Sugar Shack for breakfast, its really cheap. A lot of buildings have 2nd floors with cool restaurants and bars. Fred's is on Main and PCH and is up top which is fun but a little pricier. Same goes for Huntington Beach Brewing Company but that is fun to watch sports in and Hurricane's is across the way. Perq's is a locally famous lounge/club where they have many famous blue's artists play. Also Killarney's Irish Pub is fun and Sharkees is close to it as well. There is also a lot of cool shopping downtown such as HSS, the Closet (Very expensive though), and other cool little shops. Anyway this is all within two blocks of downtown and the Pier is good for a night stroll cuz you can see the lights on shore. (HB Pier is one of the longest in California). If it isn't too much of a hassle, you should try to get down PCH and see Newport and Laguna Beaches for a more scenic area and their downtowns are very fun as well, although a little more expensive. I hope this helps and I hope you get a chance to see most of it.

[ayelene]

Thanks everyone for the information and your helpful suggestions. I appreciate the input and know we'll put it to good use!

[ayelene]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Rent a car unless you want to spend your whole trip sitting around waiting for a bus.

You could go down to downtown Huntington Beach, park in one of the structures, and walk around the area, eat, and see the beach. Main St. has a bunch of restaurants and intersects Pacific Coast Highway right where the pier is.

The weather will probably be T-shirt weather in the day but you might want a light sweat shirt at night.

Thanks for the good info! It's still hot here, so it's good to know we'll need something a little warmer in the evenings.

[ayelene]

Originally Posted by raisun

You'll definitely need a car...but you will have a lot of options as far as places to eat. Right around Cypress you'll find some of your standard chains: El Torito, Chili's, Red Robin, etc. However, I would recommend checking out the Katella Deli (if you're into deli food, its one of my favorites...and it has a huge menu and bakery), the Fish Company, and the Gourmet Pie (its in Los Alamitos now, but its been a local institution forever). All three are in Los Alamitos which is right next door to Cypress.

In additoin to Huntington Pier, I would suggest going down to Seal Beach. There are some nice shops and restaurants down there as well. If you are looking for good, relatively inexpensive mexican food check out Yucatan Grill. Its a family owned and run place, and VERY good.

If you are looking to splurge, and like Italian, I would recommend Spagatini's. Its right off the 405 and Seal Beach Blvd, and they have good food.

Depending on how much time you have to explore, you might head towards 2nd street in Long Beach (Belmont Shore area). Again, lots of good restaurants and shopping. From there, its a short drive to downtown Long Beach. If you have some time, there is the Aquarium of the Pacific there as well as the Queen Mary. Both good tourist attractions.

One last thought if you are going to be staying over a Fri/Sat or Sun night. Disneyland is about 7 miles East on Katella. If you're on a budget, you may not want to go into the Disneyland, but you can park at Downtown Disney for free, shop, eat, and/or catch a movie. If you are there on the weekend, Disneyland runs their fireworks at 9:25, and you can walk through Downtown Disney right to the entrance of Disneyland and see them.

Where in Florida are you? Orange County is MUCH less humid than FL. I'm familiar with Central FL and Jax areas, and I tend to think that at the end of September, the temps are similar (maybe a few degrees cooler than Central FL), but much drier.

Hope that helps. Enjoy your trip!

Yes, this is very helpful info. We're in Lakeland, which is pretty much between Tampa & Orlando.. We're about 45 minutes from Disneyworld and have visited Downtown Disney, it sounds pretty much the same as the one here.

Your suggestions sound good - we've got an excellent family-run Mexican restaurant near where we live and love to go there. We're looking forward to trying the one you mentioned. Actually, all the places you mentioned sound good.

Thanks for all those great suggestions - very helpful!

[ayelene]

Those sound like good ideas, bhcompy - thanks! We're all about the roller coasters, so I think we'll try getting over to Knott's Berry Farm.

As for food -- we like just about every cuisine and like to take advantage of ocean views whenever possible. Being near the west coast of Florida, we've enjoyed many sunsets over the gulf (one of my absolute favorite things to do), but I'm sure they won't compare to those over the Pacific. Around here, it can be difficult to come by restaurants with views like that, though -- how is it over there?

Like I said, we do enjoy just about everything type of food and haven't really thought about any one in particular. If you know of a place that offers, say, the best sushi, curry or pho you've ever had (or maybe close to it ), we'd love to hear about that, too!

[bhcompy]

there are various coastal areas with dining like that. newport beach has upscale dining. huntington beach and seal beach have rubys(50s diner) on the piers. long beach has shoreline village, which has restaurants on the water that overlooks long beach harbor and the ocean. bonus views of the queen mary and the old spruce goose dome as well. long beach also has the long beach marina, which has some semi-upscale dining next to the marina were you can look out into the marina and out over the ocean depending on location.

for pho, i dont know any specifics, but garden grove is close by and has a huge vietnamese population in an area called little saigon. there are a lot of places that offer pho around there.

for curry, artesia has a little india in it, and that is less than 30min from where you are. good eats there as well. again i dont know any specific restaurants.

sushi varies, plenty of places offer sushi. you'll find some in westminster, garden grove, cerritos, etc.