Company trip to Laguna Beach, Now what to do?

74cookiecutter · 74cookiecutter's Garage

I won a company trip to Laguna Beach in mid April. They paid for the wife to come along and some planned group activities for the two of us. Obligatory Spa treatment for the ladies, Catalina island (we don't scuba or skin dive), half day of golf (if I didn't suck at it) and lots of booze at the Montage.
What else is there to do other than shop the local art scene? Any car events or attractions in the area worth seeing? Does anybody rent a Pcar in the area? It surely would be a great driving area. Wife wants to shop for high end casual clothing.
Any suggestions?

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

Congratulations and have fun!! Great restaurants are everywhere!!

daepp · 03-13-2007, 05:56 AM

Make sure you go to the Little Shrimp - JK.

Seriously, if you're there over the weekend go to Cars and Coffee. Just ask someone how to get to Ford PAG at the Irvine Spectrum. The cars there will blow you away.

Take a drive through Bluebird Canyon to Top of the World Park.

Drive north on PCH and explore the coastline and village of Corona Del Mar.

Lots of antiques in Laguna.

Check out European Collectibles in Costa Mesa. (europeancollectibles.com)

You must have some fish tacos at Wahoos.

Contact me if you have nay more questions.

Moses · 03-13-2007, 06:17 AM

Don't overplan. Laguna is a beautiful place. Allow plenty of time for just "being there".

stomachmonkey · 03-13-2007, 07:45 AM

Stay up late, have lots of sex, sleep late, go to the beach and sit, stroll around. Plan to do nothing and you'll end up doing a lot.

the · 07:51 AM

Hopefully your trip to Catalina is a short one. It's a fun boat ride, around 22 miles, and it's kinda neat to see, but there isn't much there. Certainly not compared to the Laguna/Newport area. IMO taking a full day for Catalina isn't the best use of your time, unless you are in the area for 2 weeks or something.

If you do go to Catalina, the best thing there is renting one of the golf carts and taking it around the island. There are some things to see, like the Wrigley mansion. Get it for 2 hours so you don't have to rush.

Be sure to go to Newport Beach a few times. Go to Fashion Island to check out the Beautiful People and the Beautiful Cars. Check out Balboa Island, a really cool place, I used to live on Balboa Island and it's one of my favorite places in the world. You can walk around the whole island, which you should do. Have lunch and an ice cream on the island.

Then you can take the ferry from Balboa Island to the Newport Peninsula - it drops you off in a spot called the Fun Zone. Walk around there, and across the street to the beach. That area is the quintessential So. Cal. beach scene.

From the Fun Zone, you can also rent a small electric boat, which I highly recommend you do one day. You can pick up some sodas and a pizza and eat lunch on the boat. You can drive it around the harbor and bay, and check out all of the houses that must be going for $10-???? million these days.

Be SURE to check out a spot called Crystal Cove. It's off of PCH. An amazing place. From the early 20s until around 10 years ago, people leased cottages down there from the state on long term leases. These were tiny beach shacks. The state kicked everyone out and turned it into a public area, but they have preserved the shacks, which can be rented (one year wait list, I think). But they did a great job preserving the area, and its a really neat glimpse of the beach scene in Orange County in the 20s/30s/40s/50s, when OC was still a distant outpost of LA. The cottage at the very end of the row was where the movie "Beaches" with Bette Midler was filmed. This is a hidden area that can't be seen from the road (PCH), so it doesn't get as crowded as a lot of areas.

Take a drive through the residential areas of Newport Coast. Some huge coastal mansions.

Lots of other things to do. Don't overplan, but don't underplan, either. Laguna Beach itself is nice, but too many tourists just hang around the Main Beach area. There is much more in the area than Main Beach Laguna.

daepp · 03-13-2007, 08:37 AM

The - hold on to your hat - The fun Zone is almost NO MORE! 90% is either torn down or will be. A shame in my opinion - but also not the prettiest part of the peninsula.

the · 03-13-2007, 09:02 AM

That's a bummer. But hopefully the boat rentals are still there. And you can always still walk from the Fun Zone area, across the street to the boardwalk/beach.

yeah, it's not the prettiest part of the Newport peninsula, it never has been, but that area is, IMO, the quintissential, "So Cal OC Beach Scene."

The Fun Zone and that area has so much history, although the Fun Zone itself has been somewhat financially cursed. A lot of investors, including some high profile like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, have lost their shirts there.

Still think you'd be missing out if you didn't visit this area!

tabs · 09:45 AM

High end shopping in Newport..U gotta be kidding...that ain't the place to do any shopping unless U want Khatkies and an accompanying empty credit card. The taste level in Newport is about ZERO. Only LV is worse, it has a negative rating. Of course the people who live there have an elevated opinion of there own worth, its called self esteem. U might say thats the reason why they live in Newport and drive all those fancy cars.

Laguna Beach is a bit different, it has a quirkie ambience of shabby chic about it. U might call it artsy fartsy or being proud that your Gay, take your choich. Buying Art in Laguna, ahhhh I don't think I would do that. There is a museum down there that Joan Irvine started that specializes in CA Plein Aire art and an accompanying Gallery. But quite frankly, and you will meet him by the way, U don't have enough of money for the entry fee to get into that Gallery let alone purchasing something. The rest of the art down there is mostly contemporary tourist trash, thats designed to be a souvenier of your sojurn to sunny So CA.

Renting a P car is SO CAL...WHY? U ain't goin nowhere fast. The freeway and major roads are mostly bumper to bumper parking lots most of the day.

Now its not all that negative, there is something positive to be said about SO CAL...LEAVING....

Actually a better place to visit and stay would be Santa Barbara..

daepp · 03-13-2007, 09:48 AM

OMG Tabs - there are so many great places to take a sports car around there. Your post seems a little bitter, but thena gain I do not know you.

There's PCH, Bluebird and Laguna Canyons, CA 73. Beautiful houses and people to see. It is not a cheap place to visit, but if you do so only once in a while there are plenty of fine things to splurge on. Don't bum the guy out - a trip to the Montage is almost enough to die for!!!

Crystal Cove is awesome - drinks at Roys in F.I., dinner at Las Brisas or Gulfstream.

And I'm no art expert, but there is plenty of fine art to see around Laguna - and you don't have to buy it to enjoy it.

tabs · 03-13-2007, 09:50 AM

Hollywood U say...well at quarter to nine every mornining the Bus comes in from Iowa and drops off todays crop of aspiring movie stars..

daepp · 03-13-2007, 09:57 AM

Who said anything about Hollywood?

tabs · 03-13-2007, 10:04 AM

I lived in SO CAL for 48 years..I seen Crown Valley Parkway when it was NOTHIN but rollin hills of grass. Laguna when the Orginal Greeter was on the street wavin at everybody. When I was growin up our neighbors would buy a beach shack on Balboa Island every summer and build a duplex on it. The neighbors across the street owned a coupla cottages on the Beach in Laguna, which they would rent out in the summer. I remember looking at brand new houses in Huntington Harbor with its own boat dock for under 100K. Art by the guys who are in the Irvine museum today. So I seen CA when it was PARADISE on earth. Orange Groves and the smell of Orange Blossoms as far as the eye could see. Today its all changed.

Of course when I talked to the guys who grew up in CA before the war, they said the same thing that after the war CA went to the dogs. So I guess its all a matter of perspective.

Like I said the TASTE level in Newport is about ZERO...I guess if U start callin ***** good, long enough, people will start to believe its good. Then again its what U got to compare it to as well.

tabs · 03-13-2007, 10:11 AM

Well I do have something good to say. If your down in OC land...Out in Lake Forest...El Toro Rd EASTof the 5...there is a Mexican Bakery that makes the best homemade stuff. Their Apple Coffee Cake is to die for and its cheap to... Its called Abels..

BeyGon · 03-13-2007, 02:15 PM

If you do go to the "Little Shrimp" in Laguna, be sure to take your wife with you. If you want her to shop, send her to Fashion Island, that's in Newport, just give her the big check book.
Laguna itself isn't bad during the week, it's the weekend that you can't drive through there.

scottmandue · 03-13-2007, 02:27 PM

For shopping the Irvine Spectrum is just over the hill (picture upscale outdoor mall).

Lots of good food in the area... I presume you know it won't be cheap.

Catalina is fun... no big attractions but the golfing cart thing is always fun.

tabs · 03-13-2007, 05:52 PM

If U have seen one Mall you have seen them all..

BTW thats what people do in Newport to paas the time SHOP AT THE MALL...

sammyg2 · 03-13-2007, 05:57 PM

Laguna? I wouldn't go but if you do, don't look back when you leave or you might be turned into stone.

snowman · 03-13-2007, 06:04 PM

South coast plaza is the ultimate shopping experience, if your into that kind of thing. But its in Costa Mesa, not Laguna Beach. LB is for fags and old people.

74cookiecutter · 74cookiecutter's Garage

Hope my wife likes old people!