Newport Beach Attractions

Orange County

Location and urban features

Newport Beach, often likened to Cannes on the French Riviera, does indeed have a beautiful sandy beach over 5.5mi/8km long, but it is extensively urbanized. Newport Beach includes Balboa, Balboa Island, Corona Del Mar, Newport Heights, Lido Isle, Harbor Island, Bay Shores and Linda Isles. There are luxury hotels with hundreds of rooms, as well as magnificent villas, elegant shops and first-class restaurants. Sunning themselves in Newport Beach will be found the rich from Orange County and Los Angeles, which is less than 37mi/60km away on the CA 1 coast road. Not far from Newport Beach lies the campus of the University of California of Irvine - the whole region once formed part of the Irvine Ranch, the rural character of which has long been lost.