Newport Beach

Newport Beach is a beach town first. Ten kilometres of sand run along the Balboa Peninsula, from the surf breaks by the piers to the Wedge, where waves are famous for being dangerous. Corona del Mar State Beach and its small rocky coves are calmer, and inside the harbour there are sheltered strips of sand where small children can paddle. The tide pools at Little Corona and the coves of Crystal Cove State Park lie just to the south.

The water is the limit. It reaches about 20-22°C in August and September and is much colder from late autumn to spring, and the June mornings are often grey with sea fog. Many people bring wetsuits, surfboards or boogie boards rather than coming to float in warm water. In summer, beach life is still what the town is about: volleyball nets, bikes on the boardwalk and families settled in for the day.

Eating here means waterfront seafood, polished Californian restaurants and a lot of casual beach food. The harbour and Lido area have dining rooms with boat views, Corona del Mar has relaxed brunch places, and on the Balboa Peninsula you eat fish tacos and burgers by the sand. The local treat is a frozen banana or ice-cream bar on Balboa Island. Neighbouring Costa Mesa adds more range and better value, and Little Saigon in Westminster, about twenty minutes inland, has some of the best Vietnamese food in the country. It is a comfortable, well-fed town without a cuisine of its own, and prices are high for what you get.

This is not a place for sightseeing. The Balboa Pavilion of 1905 and the little Balboa Island ferry give the harbour some old resort charm. Architecture fans seek out Rudolph Schindler's Lovell Beach House on the peninsula, a landmark of early modernism, and Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar is a quiet spot for an hour. The serious art museum for the area sits next door in Costa Mesa. Beyond that, what a visitor looks at here is the harbour, the yachts and the houses on the bluffs.

Going out in Newport splits into two worlds. Near the Newport and Balboa piers there are loud beach bars and dive bars, packed on summer weekends with a young local crowd. Around the harbour and in the shopping districts, wine bars and hotel lounges suit people who dress up a little and are home before midnight. There are no real clubs, last orders come at 2am under state law, and out of season the town goes quiet early. Anyone after a big night drives up to Los Angeles or into Costa Mesa.

The best outdoor feature is Upper Newport Bay, a large tidal estuary inside the city. A paved loop around it is popular with cyclists and runners, and in winter its marshes are full of herons, egrets and migrating shorebirds. South of town, Crystal Cove State Park has bluff-top paths and canyon trails in its backcountry, and these link to the Laguna Coast Wilderness hills behind.

The harbour is good for kayaks, paddleboards and small sailing boats, and boats leave it year round to watch whales, mainly grey whales in winter and blue whales in summer. Surfers pick their breaks along the peninsula. For pine forest and real elevation, the Santa Ana Mountains and Cleveland National Forest are about an hour inland.

Southern California is all within driving distance. Laguna Beach, with its galleries and coves, is about twenty minutes down the coast, and Mission San Juan Capistrano, one of the most atmospheric of the Spanish missions, is half an hour away. From Balboa a ferry crosses to Catalina Island in a little over an hour, and you can spend the day in the small harbour town of Avalon. Huntington Beach and Long Beach are close, Los Angeles is about an hour north, and San Diego is around an hour and a half south.

The catch is the car. Almost all of these trips are on freeways, and rush-hour traffic can easily double the times.

Newport makes a very easy base for children. The harbour beaches and Balboa Island have shallow water for small swimmers, and the old Balboa Fun Zone has its ferris wheel and arcades. The small car ferry to the island is a ride in itself, and whale-watching boats, tide pools at Crystal Cove and the bike paths round off the days. The town is safe, tidy and used to families.

The big draw is distance. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in Anaheim are about half an hour inland, with Knott's Berry Farm close by, so many families stay by the sea and drive to the parks. Expect traffic, parking and a lot of time in the car.

Plan on a car. The town spreads along the coast and up the hills, the buses are slow and infrequent, and the theme parks, malls and nearby towns are all reached by freeway. Some areas work without one. The Balboa Peninsula is flat and good for walking or cycling, with a boardwalk running beside the sand, Balboa Island is small enough to wander, and the little ferry links the two. Parking near the beaches is hard to find on summer weekends.

Shopping here means luxury brands in large, well-kept malls. In town, an open-air shopping centre above the harbour has department stores and designer names among fountains and palms. Ten minutes inland in Costa Mesa is one of the largest luxury malls in the country, where most of the big fashion houses have stores. For something smaller, there are boutiques along Coast Highway in Corona del Mar and the nautical gift shops on Balboa Island's Marine Avenue, plus plenty of surf shops on the peninsula. Markets, crafts and independent design are thin.

Newport Beach is expensive, even by Californian standards. Beachfront and harbour hotels charge resort prices, especially in summer, and restaurants charge for the views. Parking, car hire and fuel add up, because you need a car to get around. You can save a little by staying inland in Costa Mesa or Irvine and eating at casual taco and burger places, but this is not a budget destination.

Newport itself has little live performance, but the region's main arts complex, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, is about ten minutes away in Costa Mesa. Its large hall stages touring Broadway musicals and ballet, and its concert hall is home to the Pacific Symphony. Next door, South Coast Repertory is a respected theatre company known for staging new American plays. In Newport there are summer concerts by the water and some live bands in the beach bars. Opera, jazz clubs and big-name concerts mostly mean driving to Los Angeles, which turns a night out into a long trip.

Relaxation in Newport comes from the pace rather than from bathing traditions. Mornings start with walks on the bluffs and a coffee by the harbour, and evenings end with a sunset over the water. The luxury resorts on the hills above the coast have full spas, and there are plenty of day spas, yoga studios and massage places around Corona del Mar and Fashion Island. There are no thermal springs or public bathhouses. Summer weekends crowd the peninsula, so visit outside the peak months or stay in the quieter areas to the south.