Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Public parking lots by the pier and beach - when you can even get a spot - are $1.50 per
hour, $15 daily maximum. On-street parking meters cost $1 per 40 minutes.
towns every hour; one-way/day pass $2/5, payable on board (exact change). At press time,
a free
Surf City Downtown Shuttle
( 714-536-5542)
operates from 10am until 8pm on
weekends during summer, making a 3.5-mile loop around downtown to the pier, starting
from the free public parking lot at
City Hall
(2000 N Main St)
.
WORTH A TRIP
BOLSA CHICA STATE BEACH
A 3-mile-long strip of sand favored by surfers, volleyball players and fishers,
Bolsa Chica
State Beach
(
www.parks.ca.gov
;
Pacific Coast Hwy, btwn Seapoint & Warner Aves; parking $15;
6am-10pm; ) stretches alongside the Pacific Coast Hwy north of Huntington Dog Beach.
Even though it faces a monstrous offshore oil rig, Bolsa Chica (meaning 'little pocket' in
Spanish) gets mobbed on summer weekends. All-day parking costs $15. You'll find picnic
tables, fire rings and beach showers, plus a bike path.
tp://bolsachica.org
; sunrise-sunset) may look desolate, but its restored salt marsh is an en-
vironmental success story and teems with more than 200 species of birds on over 1200
acres, which were saved by a band of determined locals.
Newport Beach
There are really three Newport Beaches demographics: wealthy Bentley- and Porsche-
driving yachtsmen and their trophy wives; surfers and stoners who populate the beachside
dives and live for the perfect wave; and everyone else trying to live day-to-day, chow on
seafood and enjoy glorious sunsets. Somehow, these diverse communities all seem to live
- mostly - harmoniously.
For visitors, the pleasures are many: just-off-the-boat seafood, boogie-boarding the
human-eating waves at the Wedge, and the ballet of yachts in the harbor. Inland is posh
Fashion Island, one of the OC's biggest shopping centers.
