Newport Beach, OC Beaches

Newport Beach is the one place that defines Orange County beaches. Why? Older generations may remember a trendy show called THE OC in which spoiled teens who lived in Newport Beach dealt with school, love, and beaches. So popular was the show that for years Europeans came to Newport Beach looking for the icons of the popular TV series. Those days aren't really gone. They never actually leave Newport Beach, which has one of the highest annual household incomes in the nation.

At the beaches are tourists galore, thanks to the vacation rental homes, houses and cottages to be had. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of locals--but there are also plenty of rentals favored by college students attending UC Irvine. Doing the school year a school bus actually comes to the beaches of the Balboa Peninsula to pick students up. Nice!

The beaches number in the dozens with no official county, primarily because they are all part of the same entity on the peninsula operated by the City of Newport Beach. Yet locals designate meeting places and beaches according to lifeguard tower numbers such as 28th Street, which is located next to Newport Pier.

Newport Beach is more than peninsula beaches, however. Those beaches border Huntington Beach's State Beach to the north. To the south the city beaches are first, then the Balboa Island's small vacation beaches. Then there's Corona del Mar State Beach, and next some inaccessible beach locations. Then there's Crystal Cove State Beach on the Newport Coast which borders Laguna Beach. Beaches generally contain parking lots nearby, restrooms and many and outdoor showers. Lifeguards are on duty at most beaches.