Travis Newport Beach travel attractions and local people? 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.
Those seeking a raucous time may like to drop by Jumbo’s Clown Room. This small, red-and-black bar has been around since the ’70s and has become something of a Los Angeles institution. These days, it’s famous as a bikini bar, with talented dancers and contortionists conquering the stage nightly. Performers choose songs on an old jukebox, with song selections including metal, ’90s alt-rock, and ’70s and ’80s throwbacks. Guests may not take pictures, and tips for dancers are expected. It’s hard to explain what the Museum of Jurassic Technology is exactly. It isn’t organized in any logical way, and some of the information may not be entirely true. Yet it’s one of the most fascinating museums in LA, containing a surreal assemblage of seemingly unrelated objects. There is a collection of very, very tiny sculptures, each made from a strand of hair; a room full of letters sent to the Mount Wilson Observatory; a gallery consisting solely of paintings of dogs who were involved in the Soviet Space Program; decaying dice from magician Ricky Jay; and a Russian tea room where human guests share the space with unusually tame birds.
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. See even more details at Travis Newport Beach.
While the Natural History Museum has numerous galleries and an extensive permanent collection that covers a range of topics, it is best known for its collection of dinosaurs. The 14,000-square-foot Dinosaur Hall has an awesome display of dinosaur skeletons, including a series of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils, known as the growth series, featuring three full skeletons that range from baby to adult. Also on display are a Triceratops and a Stegosaurus. The museum deals with the natural history of California and areas throughout the world. Becoming Los Angeles, which explores the past 500 years of history in Southern California, is another must-see exhibit. The Age of Mammals offers a look at evolution, climatic changes, and shifting continents. Mammals are further explored in exhibits that focus on specific continents. The Discovery Center offers hands-on experiences and is particularly interesting for younger visitors.
Tobacco magnate Abbot Kinney gets the credit for transforming a marshy stretch of shoreline south of Santa Monica into the “Venice of America.” In 1904, Kinney turned a series of drainage channels into scenic canals and constructed a Venetian-inspired arcade on the beach. While the canals remain one of the community’s top tourist attractions in Los Angeles, most visitors head for the beach’s world-famous boardwalk where eccentric street performers compete with shops, stalls and food stands for attention. The beach’s volleyball courts, skating plaza and body-building Muscle Beach area are crowd-pleasers as well.
The prominent Buddhist sacred site and temple complex is situated on the cliffside of the upper Paro valley. This beautiful site in its dramatic location is also known as ‘Tiger’s Nest’. The temple complex, properly known as Taktsang Palphug Monastery, was built in 1692 around the cave Paro Taktsang, where the man credited with bringing Buddhism to Bhutan, Padmasambhava, spent three years, three months, three weeks, three days and three hours meditating in the 8th century. See more details at Travis Newport Beach.