Long, Huntington or Newport beach to stay at..

[rmass82]

HI
We will have 3 nights before we start our Disney portion of our trip and looking at the above 3 places to stay. We are flying into LAX and not sure if we will be renting a car. We would like to go to Catalina island for one day and then the beach or shopping or other touristy stuff the other full day we have. I believe Long beach does not have as nice a beach area as the other 2 places but then we could go to the beach on Catalina also? Balboa island also looks neat. We are looking for opinions on which area to stay and what hotels are nice and other points of interest. We have 3 kids aged 9, 7 and 4.5. We will be the area Sept 30-Oct 3rd.
Thanks!!

 

[lorasmom]

Of the three, I like Newport the best. Long Beach does NOT have a beach like the other two do. It's not that far of a drive - maybe 30-35 minutes along PCH, so it wouldn't be that awful to drive to LBC to go to Catalina.

Huntington is fine, just not as nice as Newport, IMO.

 

[pixarmom]

Absolutely Newport. If you want beach time, try to get there early and park near 15th Street. Great burgers at the Stuft Surfer right on the beach. If you keep driving down the peninsula, you'll see Ruby's restaurant over on the Balboa Pier on the ocean side and the FunZone/ferry to Balboa Island on the bay side. Balboa Island is wonderful - Marine Avenue is the main street and it's quaint, family friendly and fun. You can leave your car on the peninsula, take the ferry over, turn right and walk several blocks along the water until you hit Marine - turn left and you're there. "Dad's" has the best frozen bananas ever. Our family history at Newport Beach dates back to the 60's, and three generations keep coming back - great place.

(I also like Catalina, but it's very expensive to get there, and the beach area is quite small.)

 

[HaleyB]

I agree, Newport.

Long Beach is where I went as a teen because that was where the teens went. Plus, no tourists

Or, to throw out something else- Laguna is really nice with kids. It has very accessible tide pools, lots of cute shops to poke around in, lots of choices for eating, an old fashioned candy shop my kids were always thrilled with, a decent playground if you get sick of sand, and it is beautiful.

 

[gabrieltorres]

I would go to Newport

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Newport, hands down. Long beach is industrial, Huntington Beach is mostly geared to local surfers.

In addition to what a previous poster above suggested, things to do in Newport are also visiting Fashion Island for some shopping, Sprinkles for cupcakes, Little Corona beach for the tidepools, big Corona beach for the beach, Bandera to eat, Dad's on Balboa Island for made to order frozen bananas and Balboa bars, Giorgio's on Balboa Island for REAL italian food (Giorgio (may he RIP) and his staff are straight from Florence.

 

[mdb78]

I lived in Long Beach for 5 years when I was in CA. Even though I loved living there, I would go with staying at Newport. Long Beach's beaches are okay, but Newports is nicer. Huntington Beach is nice to, but I agree it is geared more toward surfers. It is fun to watch the surfers though.

If you wanted to hang out in Long Beach for a little bit you can visit the Aquarium of the Pacific (you can pet the sharks) and the Queen Mary. You can also shop, people watch, and walk around Shoreline Village, The Pike and Belmont Shore. If you like bbq, I totally recommend Lucille's at Belmont Shore! Oh and if you want to do some serious shopping, my favorite mall while living there was Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

 

[PHXscuba]

Catalina is a beautiful island, but its "beach" is a very small strip of sand -- no comparison to Huntington or Newport. If I was going all the way to Catalina and spending the money, I wouldn't waste it as a beach day. I'd do some of the tours they have there.

I don't think you could go wrong staying at either Huntington or Newport Beach for a couple days and driving to Long Beach to take the ferry once.

PHXscuba