Sights in Orange County
-
A
Main-Street USA
Upon entering the park, you're funneled onto Main Street USA. Fashioned after Walt's hometown of Marceline, Missouri, it resembles a classic turn-of-the-20th-century all-American town, before the advent of the mall. Everything here is designed to celebrate an idealized vision of the USA. The music playing in the background is from American musicals and there's a flag-retreat ceremony every afternoon.
Have your picture taken with Mickey or Minnie or any of the other oversized characters prancing around. You can also catch the Disneyland Railroad, a steam train that loops the park and stops at four different stations along the way. Pay attention to the wonderful optical…
reviewed
-
B
Laguna Art Museum
With its back to the Pacific Ocean, the Laguna Art Museum is a great example of a local gallery - dedicated to supporting and exhibiting the work of local artists, past and present. It also plays a significant role in Californian art conservation and scholarship.
Laguna has an enduring reputation as an artists' haven, despite the ineluctable creep of real estate (and Republican) values. While the heady days of the 20s (in which it was estimated that artists made up half the town's population) are long-gone, this little museum keeps the flame burning. The permanent collection holds more than 5000 works by over 800 different artists, documenting Californian art since the…
reviewed
-
C
Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve
You'd be forgiven for overlooking Bolsa Chica, at least on first glance. Against a backdrop of nodding oil derricks, this flat expanse of wetlands doesn't exactly promise the unspoilt splendors of nature. However, more than 200 bird species aren't so aesthetically prejudiced, either making the wetlands their home throughout the year, or dropping by mid-migration.
Other than two circular embedded gun batteries (a legacy of WWII fears of Japanese invasion) this 'Little Pocket' of estuarine tidal saltwater marsh - home to loons, ducks, terns, sandpipers and rare species such as the white pelican - is largely untouched. This preservation hasn't come easily, however: decades…
reviewed
-
D
Hollywood Pictures Backlot
Designed to look like the backlot of a Hollywood studio, this attraction includes a mishmash of building styles, with everything from a Frank Lloyd Wright knock-off to a Pantages-style theater. If you're early, you'll have an unobstructed view of the forced-perspective mural at the end of the street, a sky-and-land backdrop that looks, at least in photographs, like the street keeps going.
In the air-conditioned Animation Building you can put your voice into a Disney film and find out which Disney character you're most like - perfect for little ones. Across the street you can see Kermit at Muppet Vision 3D. The big attraction, though, is the 183ft-tall Twilight Zone Tower…
reviewed
-
Balboa I sland
In the middle of the harbor sits the island that time forgot. Its streets are still largely lined with tightly clustered cottages built in the 1920s and '30s when this was a summer getaway from LA. That said, from the promenade that circles the island (and makes a terrific car-free stroll or jog), you can see right into the marble-and-glass monsters that have gone up along the waterfront. The whole place is like a rich, conservative, Midwestern suburb, but with much better weather.
The island is connected to the Fun Zone via a tiny car and passenger ferry (car & driver around US$2, per person around US$1; h05:30-02:30). It lands at Agate Ave, about 11 blocks west of…
reviewed
-
E
New Orleans Square
Adjacent to Adventureland, New Orleans Square is a refrain of that city's French Quarter, minus the marauding drunks. Pirates of the Caribbean, the longest ride in Disneyland (17 minutes), opened in 1967 and was the first addition to the original park. You'll float through the subterranean haunts of tawdry pirates, where buccaneers' skeletons perch atop their mounds of booty. This is the only ride in the park that addresses sex ('Buy a Bride') - blame it on the '60s.
At the Haunted Mansion, '999 happy haunts' - spirits and goblins, shades and ghosts - evanesce while you ride in a cocoon-like car through web-covered graveyards of dancing skeletons. The Disneyland Railroad…
reviewed
-
F
Golden State
Broken into sections that recognize California's cultural achievements, the Golden State has several distinct areas. Condor Flats, a nod to the state's aerospace industry, features Soarin' Over California, a virtual hang gliding ride using IMAX technology. Keep your nostrils open for the smell of the sea, orange groves and pine forests. Grizzly River Run takes you 'rafting' down a faux Sierra Nevada river; you will get wet so try it when it's warm.
Raise a glass to the Napa Valley at the Golden Vine Winery. At the Palace of Fine Arts in 'San Francisco,' check out Golden Dreams, where an eerie embodiment of Whoopi Goldberg takes you on a 22-minute film journey through…
reviewed
-
G
Newport Harbor Nautical Museum
If you've had your fill of the through-the-looking-glass excesses of Disneyland, and are ready for slightly less giddy amusement, the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum may be for you.
Located on Balboa Peninsula (the sandy spit that encloses the Harbor and supports some of the most outrageously expensive real estate in the OC) the Museum aims to preserve and showcase the area's nautical heritage. Occupying much of the former site of the Balboa Fun Zone (a 1930s amusement complex, of which only the ferris wheel and carousel remain), it also promotes awareness of marine environmental issues. As a good museum should, the NHNM manages to strike the right balance between…
reviewed
-
H
Disney's California Adventure
Disneyland resort's larger but less crowded park, California Adventure celebrates the natural and cultural glories of the Golden State but lacks the density of attractions and depth of imagination. The best rides are Soarin' Over California, a virtual hang-glide, and the famous Twilight Zone Tower of Terror that drops you 183ft down an elevator chute.
reviewed
-
I
Tomorrowland
The future looks different now than it did in 1955 when this exhibit opened, so in 1998 this 'land' was revamped to honor three 'timeless' futurists: Jules Verne, HG Wells and Leonardo da Vinci. Don't miss Space Mountain, one of the park's signature attractions and one of the best roller coasters in America. It takes your head off as you hurtle into complete darkness at frightening speed.
A 2005 revamp means new visual effects, but the biggest improvement is the new sound system, so it seems like Deep Space is penetrating your eardrums.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
J
Fantasyland
At the core of the park, behind Sleeping Beauty Castle, Fantasyland is filled with the characters of classic children's stories, such as Dumbo the Elephant and Peter Pan. Kids love whirling around the Mad Tea Party ride. Peter Pan's Flight, one of the park's original attractions, takes you floating through the air in a galleon.
If you only see one attraction in Fantasyland, visit It's a Small World, a boat ride past hundreds of animatronic children (representing many of the world's cultures) all singing the song of the same name.
reviewed
-
International Surfing Museum
If you’re curious about the reality behind the reality of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County and MTV’s Laguna Beach, then a trip to the OC’s gorgeous beach communities is a must. The county’s northern-most coastal hideaways are Seal Beach and Huntington Beach, the latter boasting the ‘Surf City, USA’ moniker as well as the International Surfing Museum and though both communities are scenic and well-to-do, they’re just a bit too sincere to be the focus of unscripted drama.
reviewed
-
K
Paradise Pier
Paradise Pier is an amalgam of California's beachside amusement piers, like the ones in Santa Monica and Newport Beach. The California Screamin' roller coaster occupies 10 acres and resembles an old wooden coaster, but it's got a state-of-the-art, smooth-as-silk steel track; the beginning of the ride feels like you're being shot out of a cannon. Awesome.
For more bird's-eye views of the park, head to the Sun Wheel, a giant Ferris wheel where each gondola pitches and yaws as it makes its grand circuit.
reviewed
-
L
A Bug's Land
Here the attractions, designed in conjunction with Pixar Studios after its film A Bug's Life, attempt to see the world from the insect's point of view. Kids can splash around the 'irrigation systems' at Bountiful Valley Farm, but the best attraction is the 3D It's Tough to Be a Bug. Hilarious and oddly touching, it packs some unexpected tactile surprises. Other good rides include Heimlich's Chew Chew Train and the Drive 'em Buggies bumper cars.
reviewed
-
Muth Interpretive Center
Inland from the harbor, where run-off from the San Bernardino Mountains meets the sea, the brackish water of the Newport Bay Ecological Reserve supports more than 200 species of birds. This is one of the few estuaries in Southern California that has been preserved, and it's an important stopover on the Pacific Flyway. The Muth Interpretive Center, near Irvine Ave, has displays and information about the 752-acre reserve; call for hours.
reviewed
-
M
Critter Country
Tucked behind the Haunted Mansion, Critter Country is home to both Winnie the Pooh and Splash Mountain, a flume ride through the story of Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear, based on the controversial film Song of the South. Stuffed-animal characters sing and dance as you float by. Right at the big descent, a camera snaps your picture. Some visitors to the park lift their shirts, earning the ride the nickname 'Flash Mountain.'
reviewed
-
N
Adventureland
Dedicated to exploration and adventure, Adventureland is very loosely based on Southeast Asia and Africa. The hands-down highlight is the jungle-themed Indiana Jones Adventure. Enormous Humvee-type vehicles lurch and jerk as they re-create stunts from the famous film trilogy. (Look closely at Indie during the ride: is he real or animatronic?) Nearby, little ones love climbing the stairways of Tarzan's Treehouse.
reviewed
-
Crystal Cove State Park
The 3.5 miles of open beach and 2000 acres of undeveloped woodland at this state beach let you forget you're in a crowded metropolitan area, at least once you get past the parking lots and stake out a place on the sand. Everyone thought the hilltops were part of the state park until the Irvine Company, the actual landowner, bulldozed them to make room for McMansions that are the dream of many an OC resident.
reviewed
-
Corona del Mar State Beach
Just south of Balboa Peninsula is Corona del Mar, a ritzy bedroom community on the privileged eastern flanks of the Newport Channel with plenty of upscale stores and restaurants. Corona del Mar State Beach lies at the foot of the cliffs. Locals enjoy impromptu, not quite legal, cocktail parties at Lookout Point, perched above the beach.
reviewed
-
O
Frontierland
Frontierland gives a Disney nod to the Old West. This is a low-key area of the park, and even small children will emerge unshaken after a ride on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster. Rivers of America pays tribute to 19th-century river culture, with Tom Sawyer's Island in the middle of the water. Take Tom Sawyer's Raft to the island, where kids can play in the woods.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
P
Mickey's Toontown
At the northern end of the park, beyond Fantasyland, Mickey's Toontown is the province of the elementary-school set. This is where Mickey and Minnie make their home (separately, of course; this is Disneyland), Donald keeps his boat and Goofy has a Bounce House.
reviewed
-
Q
Laguna Art Museum
The breezy Laguna Art Museum has changing exhibits usually featuring one or two California artists, plus a permanent collection heavy on California landscapes, vintage photographs and works by early Laguna artists. The museum also makes an effort to support new artists.
reviewed
-
Lovell House
For a striking architectural specimen, stroll past the 1926 Lovell House, designed by seminal modernist architect Rudolf Schindler. Restaurants and bars cluster near the two piers – Newport Pier to the west and Balboa Pier to the south-east.
reviewed
-
R
Laguna Art Museum
The permanent collection in the breezy Laguna Art Museum is heavy on California landscapes and vintage photographs, while rotating exhibits usually spotlight California artists.
reviewed
-
Mission San Juan Capistrano
Mission San Juan Capistrano, about 10 miles south and inland from Laguna, is one of California's most beautiful missions, featuring lush gardens and the charming Serra Chapel.
reviewed