Top travel locations to visit in Travis Newport Beach? Featuring an array of stunning beaches, nature preserves, a choice of activities and romantic restaurants, Newport Beach is a fun weekend destination. Take in the scenery at Corona del Mar State Beach, go for a walk along the Newport Pier, visit the Orange County Museum of Art and enjoy the beautiful Sherman Library and Gardens. Here are the best things to do in Newport Beach, California. Hours/availability may have changed.
Just south of Santa Monica lies bohemian Venice. A stroll down the iconic Venice Boardwalk provides gorgeous ocean views, shopping opportunities, food, bars and eclectic street performers. Key spots in the area include Venice Skate Park and Muscle Beach Venice. Enhance your stroll with a coffee from Groundwork Coffee Company or Menotti’s Coffee Stop. Rodeo Drive is synonymous with luxury and affluence. Though the Beverly Hills street itself is two miles (3.2 kilometers) long, the Rodeo Drive tourists flock to is a much shorter section bounded by Wilshire Boulevard to the south and Santa Monica Boulevard to the north. High-end stores like Louis Vuitton, Versace and Dior call this area home. Visitors may also want to stop by the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the exterior of which was prominently featured in the film Pretty Woman(1990).
Located on University Drive in Newport Beach, the Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center serves as a visitor center to the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve and Nature Preserve. Opened in 2000, the large 10,000 square foot education facility focuses on estuary history and interactive displays. Visitors are introduced to the estuary at the center so they have a better understanding of what they are seeing as they take guided walking tours or water tours. Built into a bluff on the north side of the bay, the center features a butterfly garden, children’s activity rooms, a movie theater, and much more. There are live amphibian and reptile displays in the classrooms. Find even more information at Travis Newport Beach.
Bordering Los Angeles to the south, about 20 miles from downtown LA, Long Beach extends along San Pedro Bay. This is another community in the Los Angeles area that you can easily spend a day exploring. Worth visiting here are the historic Queen Mary ocean liner, now converted into a hotel and museum, the Aquarium of the Pacific, and the Museum of Latin America. You can also catch the Catalina Express from Long Beach for a trip over to Catalina Island. In Hancock Park, La Brea Tar Pits were formed 40,000 years ago, when oil seeped through the rock. The Tar Pits would entrap passing animals, which would get stuck in the substance. The tar then preserved the fossils throughout the ages, leaving behind an incredible glimpse into another age. The Page Museum shows reconstructed fossils of prehistoric animals found in the giant tar-craters of La Brea, as well as the process of fossil recovery. You can see bones being worked on and learn what takes place behind the scenes, before bones and skeletons are able to be displayed. The museum displays fully reconstructed fossils of a variety of mammals including mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, and others, all dating from between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago. An outdoor area in Hancock Park displays replicas of extinct animals.
The oil magnate Jean Paul Getty was considered one of the richest men in the world when he established the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. Today, the world’s wealthiest art institution funds several institutions, including the stunning billion-dollar Getty Center perched high atop L.A.’s Brentwood Hills. A sleek hover-train funicular whisks visitors up to the museum where an extraordinary collection of artwork from the Middle Ages to the present awaits, including masterpieces like van Gogh’s “Irises,” Monet’s “Wheatstack” and “The Abduction of Europa” by Rembrandt. Outside, sculpture-ornamented gardens offer panoramic views of the Los Angeles Basin.
Gangteng Monastery: This is a very important temple in the Nyingmapa school of Buddhism. Black-necked cranes swoop around the building on their way to and from Tibet, and behind the temple, the Black Mountains rear into the heavens. Dating from the early 17th century, the temple stands in the village, looking down over the beautiful Phobjika Valley far down below. Read extra details at Travis Newport Beach.