Newport Beach

[Lorraine]

We are looking at staying a week at Newport Beach in California for a week in Aug proir to the Repo Cruise. Has anyone stayed there? IT says 20 miles from Disneyland, I was wondering if this is drivable on a daily basis - we will be up early because of the time difference! We also want to go to Universal at least once, this seems to be further away but is it still do-able?

It would be nice to stay on site, but we like to have a kitchen and two bedrooms.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions for any where else we could stay - cant see anywhere that looks near though.

Lorraine

 

[dis-happy]

How many days are you planning to drive to DL? One or two might be okay, but I promise that the drive will be a lot longer than 20 minutes, plan on at least an hour with southern Cal. morning traffic. (If you stay for fireworks, the drive back home won't be too bad.) OTOH, Newport Beach is a pretty neat place in and of itself, so you will have a good time there---lots of interesting restaurants, plus the beach, etc. HTH!!!

 

[Cora]

Yes, you can drive from Newport Beach to DL daily. However, plan on delays and slow moving traffic. That is life is southern Cal. Universal is in Universal City which, in a perfect world, is about an hour's drive from Newport Beach. I would plan on at least 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours depending on traffic.

I have family in Newport Beach and family in Glendale (near Universal). The last time I was there it took me close to 2 hours to get there.

Just keep in mind that in southern Cal there really is not a rush hour...it's all day. However, you can learn to manage it and work with it. Use the commuter lanes (if you have the proper number of people in the car), also leave early to your destination (have breakfast in the car or when you arrive) and head back home late. Try not to get frustrated (I know it's hard).

As the previous poster said, Newport Beach is gorgeous. Don't miss Balboa Island (take the 'harbor' cruise), drive over to the Queen Mary, try to get to Catalina Island (you have to take a ferry), San Juan Capistrano is fantastic and the Laguna Beach area is beautiful. Also, if you can the San Diego Zoo is not to be missed and I understand Legoland is really neat.

Good Luck

 

[Merilyn]

We stayed at Newport Beach when it first opened. We had a trade there with our points. It is a week trade, not by the day. It is very nice but it is located in a very upscale residental area. There is not much around. The beach is down the hill, not on location. You can see the water but it is a drive away. Ask for a pool view for the best view. The room is rather small compared to DVC. The second bedroom was suppose to have 2 beds, but it was a bed and a small sofa bed. With it all opened you could barely walk around. I really think we would stay there if it were in another location but southern CA didn't turn out to be our favorite place to visit, too much traffic and hard to get around.

 

[LeftCoaster]

Speaking as someone from the area, that is a loooooooong drive if you end up driving during rush hour traffic. Plus, with the cruise going from Long Beach, that will be even further away.... And I won't even tell you about the drive to Universal from Newport Beach.

 

[Lorraine]

Thanks for all the reponses, they are all very helpful. In view of the comments does anyone have any other recommendations of accomodation in the area that may be better. I have been through the guide and cant see any others nearer, but it is difficult to tell using a map what is close and what is miles away! We have just bought more points to enable us to buy a week, but maybe we would be better off banking them and getting somewhere near Disneyland or Universal. Difficult one really as we are doing the cruise this year we were going to take it easy next year so could end up losing points if we dont spend them.

Thanks for any other info you may have.

Lorraine

 

[llp479]

Getting into the Marriott Newport Beach in summer is a very difficult trade, even for Marriott owners who get priority. What if you used some of your points to stay onsite at DL, and then found a hotel for the other nights? We've stayed at several of the Residence Inn's in So Cal and found them to be quite nice.