Coastal Orange County
Just south of the Laguna Beach boundary, this 18-acre county-run park is popular with surfers, sunbathers, bodysurfers and tide poolers. Families make the most of the park’s picnic tables, grills, restrooms and showers – all sprawling beneath the elegant bluff-top Ritz-Carlton resort. Open in summer, a beach concession stand rents boogie boards, beach chairs and umbrellas. Pay-and-display parking costs $1 per hour.
Call ahead to check the center’s opening times, which are subject to change.
29.97 MILES
What started as a simple berry farm is now a sprawling 160-acre operation with rides, live shows and lovable Peanuts characters roaming the grounds. Knott…
3.87 MILES
Famous for its swallows that fly back to town every year on March 19 (though sometimes they’re just a bit early), San Juan Capistrano is home to the …
27.56 MILES
It's easy to spend an hour in this heartfelt museum of surf artifacts, from a timeline of surfing history to surf-themed art and a radical collection of…
21.52 MILES
From its stately, Spanish Colonial–style shell, the Bowers Museum explodes onto the scene every year or so with remarkable exhibits that remind LA-centric…
22.27 MILES
Follow the giant 10-story cube – balanced on one of its points – to the county's best educational kiddie attraction. About 100 hands-on displays await,…
25.6 MILES
After checking in at the Grizzly Peak Airfield, fasten your seat belt and take off (as if hang gliding) before a giant, 80ft projection screen that really…
25.7 MILES
Formerly known as Space Mountain, Tomorrowland’s signature attraction (and one of the USA’s best roller coasters), has been given a Star Wars–themed…
25.39 MILES
Paradise Pier's state-of-the-art roller coaster resembles an old wooden coaster, but it’s got a smooth-as-silk steel track: it feels like you’re being…
1.34 MILES
This child-friendly educational center encompasses four separate ocean-centric ‘adventures.’ It is mostly reserved for school groups on weekdays, so it's…
1.95 MILES
Jealously guarded by locals, Thousand Steps Beach is about 1 mile south of Aliso Beach, hidden off Hwy 1 just south of Mission Hospital. At the south end…
2.26 MILES
Adjacent to the southern border of Dana Point Harbor, this mile-long beach is great for swimmers, surfers, surf fishers and tide poolers. You’ll also find…
2.55 MILES
South of central Laguna, this beach has long been a hangout for Laguna's (and the OC's) LGBT community (with an emphasis on the G). The eye candy can be…
2.97 MILES
South of downtown Laguna Beach, the locals’ favorite Aliso Beach County Park is popular with surfers, boogie boarders and skimboarders. With picnic tables…
3.73 MILES
This Old West–style park lets little ones get up close and personal with llamas, cows, pigs, chickens, and lots of bunnies and guinea pigs. There's a…
3.74 MILES
Operated by the San Juan Capistrano Historical Society, this board-and-batten construction cottage in the Los Rios Historic District shows off 1880s-era…
3.76 MILES
One block southwest of the mission, next to the Capistrano train depot, this peaceful assemblage of a few dozen historic cottages and adobes now mostly…