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If someone were visiting the OC, what are the top 10 places (or more) you'd suggest the person sees? NOT all in 1 day, but a day trip for each place. Nothing that involves smoking, drinking, dancing, or partying. Thanks!
laguna beach, dana point, san clemente, disneyland, knotts berry farm, huntington beach. pretty much the theme parks and the beaches are the only thing of interest to a tourist in OC. there's also a couple of smallish museums and a zoo, but those aren't worth your time. i'd also probably go to a ball game if i were visiting during baseball season.
Thanks, but when you list certain cities, what specifically in those cities? For example, a specific museum, shopping area, unique way to enjoy the day, etc. & if you remember any names of places within those cities, that would be appreciated!
In OC:
Disneyland
Huntington Beach State or City Beach - Ain't called surf city for nothin'
Laguna Beach Downtown & Beaches - Visit the art galleries &/or see the Sawdust Festival or Festival of the Arts if in season. Definately hit the Pagent of the Masters if you are in town duing its run
Crystal Cove St. Beach (catching the theme here yet? )
Knotts Berry Farm
Shopping & fashionista watching at South Coast Plaza & Fashion Island
Drive PCH from Dana Point to Long Beach
From OC you can day trip to:
San Diego Zoo
SeaWorld San Diego
San Diego Wild Animal park
LegoLand in Carlsbad ( for 3-9 y/o kids)
Universal Studios theme Park
NBC/Universal Studio tour
Santa Monica -Peir
Getty Museum in West LA
Palm Springs - Tram ride, Outlet shopping, desert life
laguna beach, dana point, san clemente, disneyland, knotts berry farm, huntington beach. pretty much the theme parks and the beaches are the only thing of interest to a tourist in OC. there's also a couple of smallish museums and a zoo, but those aren't worth your time. i'd also probably go to a ball game if i were visiting during baseball season.
People forget about places to hike as well. There are several regional and state parks as well as the Cleveland National Forest. Whiting Ranch Park in Lake Forest has areas where you would think you were in the middle of the wilderness (red cliffs and all). Check out the backcountry....if you want to get away from the tourism "rat race".
Frankly, Disneyland isn't all it is cracked up to be, either. Think about it....you are paying money (a good chunk of it) to be hornswoggled by people making stuff up. I guess if you have never been before or if you have kids it is worth it. Downtown Disney is free, though.
Catalina, absolutely but I would go from Long Beach or Newport Beach, not Dana Point. Long BEach is cheaper and has more frequent boats, but the Catalina flyer from Newport is faster and close to most of Orange County. If you go on a warm day, rent snorkling gear and swim around fishermans cove. If you do nto mind colorful fish swarming around you and possibly nipping at your fingers, bring some hard pieces of toast in plastic bags. Open one bag, swim down and release the toast. Huge swarms of colorful fish wll surround you. It is really cool. Be sure to hang onto the toast bags. The fines for dumping litter in the cove are steep and they do watch. YOu can rent a bike or ride a shuttle up into the hills and see wild buffaloe that were left on the island after filming a western movie in the 1930s or 1940s. You can eat buffaloe (burgers) at the litte cafe at the airport. I think that other places serve them too. Sometimes, there are a lot of flying fish jumping out of the water on the way out to Catalina and in Avalon harbor.
The Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. This is the only place in Orange County that is (or was) on Foders travel guides list of ten must see places in California. Their exhibits change from time to time, but they get some world class exhibits through there. The nearby discovery science center is very neat as well. That is a typical science museum (many cities have similar centers). Great for kids. THe Bower also has a kidseum for younger kids, I cannot remember what it is like. Have not been in there in years. For food, go north on Main street and eat at Polly's pies in front of the red roof inn.
Take a picnic lunch and hike to Holy Jim Falls. It is a short hike but it is really hard to get to. It may seem impossible, but you actually can get to the trail head. I made it there in a Camaro Z28 that was full of kids. It was very very slow and we had to get outsometimes and move rocks around, but we got there. You can find directions and a descritpion on the internet. You go out Chapman until it becomes Santiago Canyon road. Turn left at Cooks Corner bar (you will see a lot of motorcycles parked there) and then take that road for a several miles. YOu then turn left into a creek bed that is actually a road. It does nto look like a road and it is not well marked. Then you go forever on the bumpiest rockiest road you will ever see. Eventually you will pass a model airplane airfield - keep going, you are about 2/3 or so there. You will need to buy a day pass for the Cleveland National Forest. It is not really exciting, but it is very very pleasant, probably one of the nicest hikes in all of Orange County. It is short (about 3 miles round trip) and a very easy hike. There is a small waterfall at the end of the main trial which is a great place to picnic. We enjoyed sticking our heads into the waterfall, but that technique is not necessarily recommended.
Alternetely, if you are in good shape, you could either hike or rent a mountain bike and go out to Silverado Canyon and climb the hills. The views are phenomenal. You need a cleveland natnl forest day pass there too. To get there take Chpaman road out of orange and turn left on Silverado Canyon road a ways past Irvine lake. When the road ends, park and walk around the gate. You cna stay ont eh road (closed to cars) or about half a mile back, turn left and take the trail up into the hills. The hill trail is strenuous and you need lots of water and sunscreen.
Whiting ranch is nice for hiking too, but you need to take the side trail to red rock canyon to get away from the mountain bikers. The mountain bike trails are often crazy busy wiht incondierate bikers. The trail to Red Rock canyone is best accessed from the entrance to whiting ranch that is next to a shopping mall. You have to park illegally in the shopping mall parking lot, but I never had any problems in doing that. Maybe someone else cna give you directions to the shopping mall. I can never remember where it is. Do not go into whiting ranch ont he toehr side, it is too long of a hike to get away from the mountain bikers.
Downtown Laguna Beach is a nice place to walk around and poke your head into art galleries and other shops. THe beach downtown is very pituresque and there are great places to eat. If you go during the sawdust festival you can go to an outdoor theater where they remake famous works of art using live people on a stage. It is really neat. Hard to get tickets.
Spend a day in Balboa villiage and beach on the Balboa peninsula in Newport Beach. It is a great beach and the villiage has some neat shops, dining and the Fun zone. It can be fun to ride the ferry across and either bike or walk around Balboa island. Nothing exciting there, just some fancy homes and yachts and a little villiage. Ruby's diner out on the Balboa pier is a neat malt shop type place for lunch. We often see pods of dolphins swimming by when we eat there. You can rent bikes, roller skates, boogie boards etc at various shops in Balboa. I would not recommend renting one of those big four wheel four person pedal platforms. That look really neat, but that are a PIA to move, especially in the wind. Also if you are tall or short, they can be very uncomfortable to ride.
Old Town Orange is a neat place to wlak around as well. It is an old fashioned downtown that is used as the scene for movies fairly often. Stop in at watsons (old fashioned pharmacy/soda jerk cafe type place also often used in movies). There are a lot of other neat places to eat in old town as well. Old town is mostly antique and collectable stores, if you like looking at antique or collectables, it is particularly great. Papa Hassan's resturaunt just north of Chaprman college serves the best middle eastern food that I have ever had. It is a small lebannese restauruant and the shwarma plate is very possibly the best tasking food in existience.
I always enjoy dog beach in huntington beach. Dogs are allowed to run free on the beach there. Even without a dog, it is nice to see all of the different breeds and watch some dogs play in the surf or do tricks.
You can take the train down to San Celmente and go toteh beach for a day. Not exciting, but very pleasant. You can also take the train all the way down to San Diego and ride around on the light rail system to see the city.
Amusement parks abound. Disney is the biggest and best known, but it is often horribly crowded. PErsonally I would prefer a root canal to a day at disneyland. KNotts Berry Farn is a smaller amusement park and more traditional (roller coasters and thrill rides). It is crowded too, but since it is small, it is often a lot less so that Disney. Sea World in San Diego is one of our favorites. The San Diego Zoo is also spectacular. Both are all day vist type places. Plan to arrive early. Legoland near Carlsbad (ont he way to San Diego) is popular with the 5 - 9 year old crowd. It is painfully boring for adulds.
The Crystal Catherdral puts on great shows at Easter and Christmas called The Joy of Easter and the Joy of Christmas. If you are there at that time of year, it is really neat. You probably wnat to go on a night with the primary cast. WE went one time for the secondary cast and the guy playing Jesus was very obese. When he was wearing only a loincloth it was pretty yuck and somewhat distracting from the story.
There is a hiking/biking trail around the back bay in NEwport beach, but unless you just go for the birdwatching, it is kind of boring. Flat and nothing changes much. Great birdwatching there though.
Another great day trip is to drive up to ventura and take a boat out to the channel islands. You need reservations. If you are in good shape and like adventure, you cna arrange a sea kayaking trip out at the islands. One of the trip even goes overnight. When they say to bring EVERYTHING that you need with you, they mean it. There is no food or drinks available. You will see dozens or even hundreds of sea lions, sometimes rays, sharks, and loads of other neat sealife and birds. It is hard to describe, but it is really worthwhile. Not recommended if you are old and frail or have very small children.
This is a hard one! Only 10 things?! I would say it probably depends on the crowd....but if I only had 10 days left in coastal Southern California and would never come back again, I would (in no particular order):
1. Spend the day at Newport Beach. Daytime- do the beach down in the numbers in the Peninsula (free parking, less people!), walk through the Balboa fun zone for lunch and eat a Balboa bar- probably ride the little ferris wheel or do the bumper cars. Stay at the beach until the afternoon, then drive through Lido isle to see the cute houses and in the evening/night hit up Fashion Island for a yummy dinner and some shopping.
2. Disneyland. Not as cool if you go for the first time as an adult- but I was raised on Disneyland. Its still magical since it was magic to me a kid.
3. Getty Center and Getty Villa in Malibu. I would make a day of these two museums. Worth the drive and its and FREE admission for both! On a clear day, you get great views from the tram up to the Getty Center and once you're up there, you can see the ocean. At Getty Villa- its sited to emulate the Mediterranean. You will forget you are in LA. After Getty Villa, you can get a bite to eat in Malibu at the Lumber Yard off of PCH and also do some shopping.
4. Balboa Park in San Diego. Museums! Spanish Baroque Architecture! You can easily spend a day there. At night, I would hit up the Gas Lamp district at night for drinks and eats. (The beauty of OC is you have relatively easy access to SD and LA!).
5. Probably made a day of Laguna Beach- cute shops, art district (maybe catch the Art Walk), good restaurants.
6. Go to an Angel game. I was also raised on the Angels. Its magical there, too.
7. Since I am into architecture, I would do an arch tour (self guided, of course). If your guests want to see what life/living is like here- there are a number of neighborhoods you can gain access to that are pretty impressive and/or have historic architecture (such as Floral Park in Santa Ana). Also would be fun to do this in Beverly Hills, right off of Santa Monica and Wilshire and also above Sunset. Lots of amazing residential architecture to be seen.
8. If they've never been to CA- I would take them to do all the LA stuff....Hollywood sign, the stars, Rodeo, etc. That could easily eat up a day. Kinda' touristy, and honestly, I know tons of Californian's who have never done this stuff! haha! I would do it again just for pictures (if I were leaving the state forever!).
9. Probably make a day visiting the gorgeous beaches in various beach cities....Crystal Cove, etc.
10. Maybe hit up Long Beach- lots to do and pretty local. Shop in Belmont Shores, aquarium, Queen Mary, probably a nice dinner. LB can be a fun day, for sure.
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