Day trip to the Beach

[sarawr]

My boyfriend and I are staying near Disneyland for four days beginning next Thursday (26th). We pre-bought our 3 day park hopper passes and plan to use those for three of our days, leaving us one day to use somewhere else.

Being Canadian prairie kids, we've decided to make our way to one of the beach areas. I guess it's probably too cold to swim... we just want to see the coast. I understand that Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach are relatively closeby.

We plan on using public transit to get there and back. Does anyone have any suggestions on which area would be easiest to get to cheaply, and how we should get there?

 

[Funbobbi]

My sister, her boyfriend and I went to Newport Beach when we were there 2 and a 1/2 weeks ago. We rented a car for the day which was really handy. I am not sure about public transit. It seemed quite far!



Disneyland August 1989
Disneyland July 1994
Disneyworld April 1997
Disneyland May 2001
Disneyland December 2005

 

[sarawr]

Thanks Funbobbi - we like the look of Newport. We can't rent a car, though, because of budget restraints... and we're only 19 (myself) and 23 (him) so I'm not even sure we legally could. In Canada it's 25 to rent a car.

Anyone else?

 

[blackjackdelta]

Newport is an excellent beach, I like Mahatten Beach. Use to live there. Very laid back place.

Jack

 

[Ella1]

Theres a bus that goes along Harbor Blvd to Newport Beach and I think its a number 43, we never used it as my friend drove us there but the concierge had told us about it and also theres a beach bus that you can catch, it will pick you up from your hotel.
Not sure on the actual prices, but I'm sure the concierge said the number 43 was $1 but took quite a while to get there.
Love Ella

 

[lntsmom]

transit from Disneyland will take about 2 hours one way! That came from both the Anaheim visitors bureau and the concierge at HoJos.

I ended up booking a limo to take us. It was $100 round-trip to Laguna Beach. The kids loved the whole limo gig...even if we did end up only taking a limo one way. The other way was a van (because I hadn't prepaid...so they didn't reserve the limo for us).

I used Tony the Limo King.

He did try to sell me other tours on the way back to HoJo's, but it wasn't high pressure. It was nice to have him on MY schedule.

Every time I post this here I get a ton of replies saying that it's silly to pay $100 when you can rent a car cheaper. My answer is always that when I'm on vacation I don't want to have to hassle with maps and unfamiliar roads. I want to ENJOY myself...something I can't do if I'm the driver.

You can find Tony by doing an internet search. His name was given to me by the Orange County visitor's bureau...so I would guess he has an established reputation for being reliable.

Hope you have a great time at the beach!

Edited to add: I did months of research and the limo was the best deal I could find. Cabs were going to charge a lot more UNLESS we went straight from John Wayne to the beach. Problem with that: John Wayne has no lockers and will not store your luggage and who wants to go to the beach hauling suitcases? I couldn't find any tour companies that offered rides to the beach.

 

[Pir8girl]

I wouldn't recommend public transportation to the beach - it will take you forever. And do you really want to spend your vacation on an OCTD?
Bus service in So. Cal is not that great.
Newport Beach is the closest to DL. You can go the Newport Pier or farther south on the Peninsula is the Balboa Pier. If you don't want to rent a car, check into cabs or towncar services.

 

[sarawr]

Got back from our Disneyland vacation last night. Just wanted to update this thread, should anyone find it useful!

It turned out that we did take the OCTA bus down to Huntington.

We paid $3 each for our one day passes and caught the 43 South bus on Harbor and Katella. This bus runs up and down Harbor every 15 minutes so it's fairly easy to catch.

It took us about 50 minutes on the 43 to get to Harbor Blvd and Sunflower Ave. We passed through some areas I wouldn't have been keen to stop in, but Harbor and Sunflower felt safe. All nicely manicured colleges and industrial buildings. There is a Quiznos, another sandwich shop and some copy shops at the intersection.

At Harbor and Sunflower, we transferred to the 172 West bus. The stop is across Sunflower Ave from the brick Whittier Law School. This bus only runs once an hour but we timed our buses so that they met up. It was about half an hour on the 172, and it stops on the beach right past the pier on the Pacific Coast Highway.

On the way back we caught the 172 in the same place we were let off (it does a one way loop through Huntington Beach) and met up with the 43 at Sunflower and Harbor again.

It did end up being 1 1/2 hours each way through fairly boring areas, but we were just not willing to put down the money for private transportation (we were told $80 by our hotel), and we really wanted to see the ocean. So... $6 and a fairly painless (if a bit long) bus ride and we got to spend our afternoon at the beach. I think it was worth it!

Hope this helps someone.

 

[Churro]

My DH is a big surfer...so I was wondering where he could catch some waves when we come down in June? We will have our own car and might be able to bring his board, but is there a beach where he could rent one? We are staying at the DLH so please any info would be great.

 

[lntsmom]

that I know rents sand pails, boogie boards, and body boards. I'm not sure if they rent surf boards or not. You might the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce...they could probably give you the name and number of that shop so you could check. Or, they may be able to tell you where you can rent a board if one's available. This is the only beach I know anything about....

 

[Pir8girl]

If you're going to surf, check out Huntington Beach or Newport Beach at the pier. I'm pretty sure you'll find a place to rent boards in HB because they give lessons. Don't know if the surf shops at the NB pier rent or not.
I think the surfing is probably better at HB & NB rather than Laguna. They built a hotel over my favorite spot

 

[Rapunsel]

Laguna is only good if you can go to the private beaches. Like 3 Arch Bay. But we sold our beach house there otherwise I'd give you a code to let you in... .

I'd go for Newport and look online about renting a board. But it can be very crowded so depends on the time of year that you go. My favorite is Hermosa Beach. But I grew up there...

HAve fun what ever you do.