Start from 45 curated places around Newport Beach, CA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Marche Moderne
Florent and Amelia Marneau's bistro at the Crystal Cove Shopping Center — proper French cooking with California ingredients (the rabbit pithivier, the foie gras parfait, an unmatched cheese cart), Michelin Guide-listed, and the dinner reservation OC sends its visiting parents to. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Five Crowns
A 1965 mock-Tudor steakhouse on PCH built as a replica of England's oldest country inn — prime rib roasted on a salt crust, an old-school dessert cart, and a fireplace dining room with wing-chair tables. The Lawry's family's other restaurant and the Corona del Mar special-occasion play.
Trails & outdoors
Back Bay Loop Trail
A 10.5-mile paved-and-dirt loop around the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve — bluffs, salt marsh, the year-round resident herons and egrets, and three-thousand acres of estuary that's somehow within the city limits. The Newport equivalent of going to the country.
Castaways Park
A small bluff-top park overlooking the entrance of Upper Newport Bay — half-mile loop, paved, dog-friendly, and the best sunrise view of Back Bay if you don't want to commit to the full loop. The locals' five-minute walk.
Things to do
Balboa Island Ferry
A 1919 three-car auto ferry that crosses the 800-foot channel between Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island — one of the few remaining auto ferries in the country, with electrification underway via a state grant (expected complete late 2026). Three dollars per car each way, two dollars to walk on.
Discovery Cube OC
A 71,000-square-foot interactive children's science museum in Santa Ana — earthquake simulator, water-play table, planetarium, the rainbow staircase that ends up on every preschooler's Instagram. The rainy-day kid-with-energy plan and the most-bang-for-the-buck attraction in OC.
Landmarks & sights
Balboa Island
A 0.4-square-mile man-made island in Newport Harbor lined with cottages-turned-mansions and a two-mile esplanade you can walk in an hour — Marine Avenue is the three blocks of shops and restaurants that anchor the visitor experience. Walk the loop, get a frozen banana, watch the bay.
Lido Marina Village
Two blocks of restored 1960s waterfront shops and restaurants on Lido Isle's bay-facing side — upscale boutiques, the Lido Bottle Works and Nobu, and dockside dining where the boats pull right up to the seawall. The walkable evening pre-dinner stop.