beaches?

[Mary Poppins]

We'd like to take one day for sure, possibly 2, and go to one of the beaches during our stay. Looking at a map it looks like Long, New Port and Huntington are closest to the Disney resort. Any recomendations as to which one we should visit? Or is it worth driving a little further to another? It will be me, DH and 2 DD's (2 and 4) on the trip. Thanks for any input!

[NotaGeek]

Huntington Beach is about 30-45 minutes from DLR ... a drive right down Harbor and you run into the ocean. About 28 minutes by Google Maps. I loved the beach there!

[JRocker]

Seems like it didn't take any more than 30 minutes to get to Newport beach. We really enjoyed that beach. We actually went there a couple of times on our trip.
Never made it over to Huntington.

[doombuggy]

We went to the beach during our 1999 trip, but as I went with a group & was not the driver, I have no idea what the name of it was. We only went for a short while at the end of the day to see the sunset. Mind you, it was early October, and we were all from PA, dressed in t-shirts & shorts, and we froze our butts off. It was windy! But we had a great time seeing the pacific ocean at sunset!

My dad would probably tell you to go to Laguna Beach - he's stayed there a couple of times, but it is a bit farther away than the ones previously mentioned. I think around 23 miles or so.

[WDWizard]

We were there earlier this month and took a day off to relax in Laguna Beach and Newport Beach. Huntington Beach was nothing special, Laguna Beach was by far the most beautiful, and Newport Beach was very active with lots to do along with many shopping and dining options. We stopped by Huntington for a bit, then went to Newport and walked down the pier and around the beaches before visiting the Balboa Fun Zone where we went on the Ferris wheel, had lunch, and watched the boats go by as we had a tasty "Balboa Bar"...then we drove down the Pacific Coast Hwy down to Laguna Beach, we went to the downtown area and browsed the shops then walked to a nice beach nearby.

I recommend Laguna and Newport; go to Huntington if you want to surf. We also went to La Jolla in San Diego, which was beautiful… we watched the seals play along the beach and had a very nice meal. We saw Santa Monica Pier in L.A. which was dirty, lots of vendors selling tourists overpriced items, and the rides were nothing amazing but provided good views of the ocean.
Hope this helps

[BrerGnat]

You have little ones. The PERFECT beach for families with little ones is Big Corona at Corona Del Mar state beach (it's in Newport Beach). There is a parking lot RIGHT on the beach (costs $8 flat rate per car), but you can literally walk right onto the sand from your car. This is hard to find in So. Cal due to all the high cliffs at the beaches. You do NOT want to have to navigate down a steep winding trail with small kids. The $8 cost is totally worth it to have a guaranteed spot in such a convenient location.

The sand there is SO soft and fine and there are hardly any waves, since it's sort of an inlet. There are restrooms within easy access of the parking lot and the beach itself is not too big, only about a 1/2 mile long, so it's compact.

I went there in July this year with my 3 and 1 year old and my MIL and it was a very pretty, but laid back beach. My son loved playing in the water's edge.

You can find more info by Googling: Corona Del Mar State Beach, California. The beach itself is called Big Corona.

It's about a 45 min drive from DL, including traffic and stoplights. It's approx 25-30 miles from DLR.