WHY YOU SHOULD BE TRAVELING TO THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RIVIERA THIS SUMMER

BY BOOTH MOORE

Orange County is calling with newly refurbished hotels, award-winning restaurants and nostalgic faves, world class art and cultural events and South Coast Plaza shopping outshining Rodeo Drive.

June 23, 2025

It’s happy hour at Splashes Bar at Laguna Beach’s super-chic, just-renovated Surf & Sand hotel, which hangs so far out over the sea, it feels like you’re on a yacht. Gin, cucumber, tarragon and mint champagne cocktails are on order, sea spray is floating in the open windows, and the kids are laughing as they’re being tossed around by the sun-drenched waves below.

Summer doesn’t get much better than this.

The call of the Southern California Riviera is strong this season, with newly refurbished Orange County hotels, coastal wildlife, award-winning restaurants and nostalgic favorites, world-class museum and cultural events, multiple golf courses with postcard views, and South Coast Plaza shopping outshining Rodeo Drive with first – to – SoCal Alaïa and Khaite stores, new Eres and Dior Beauty outposts, and more.

“South Coast Plaza is more than a shopping center, it’s a portal for anyone serious about luxury fashion,” says Nicole Pollard Bayme of L.A.’s ultra high-end global shopping agency LaLaLuxe catering to royals, Hollywood execs and Silicon Valley CEOs. She is one of 50 image makers available through South Coast Plaza’s unique Personal Stylist Program, connecting the world’s top luxury houses with the most discerning clients for private shopping, wardrobe planning (and even meditation!) in the plush Access Suite with champagne and on-site tailors at the ready.

At the Costa Mesa fashion destination with more than 250 shops and restaurants, where the who’s who of luxury brands are consistently jockeying for more space, shoppers turn out in their best Chanel and Hermès even on a Monday morning, fueling up on “Ladies Who Lunch” salads, the most divine ratatouille egg and crostini, and escargot ebelskivers dishes at the rock n’ roll Cal-French restaurant Populaire Modern Bistro with Rat Fink cartoons, photos of Mick Jagger, Ozzy Osbourne and other rockers on the wall.

“People come in and load up the whole banquette with their shopping bags,” says Chef Nicholas Weber, who runs the restaurant with Ross Pangilinan, of the intense shopping scene.

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South Coast Plaza is more than a shopping center, it’s a portal for anyone serious about luxury fashion.

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NICOLE POLLARD BAYME, LALALUXE

Need a post-lunch pick-me-up? The Segerstrom Center campus has 14 public art pieces by Richard Serra, Henry Moore, Joan Miró and others, which were collected by South Coast Plaza co-founder and arts patron Henry Segerstrom and can be enjoyed on an outdoor Art Walk where the family’s lima bean fields once grew.

Not to be missed is Isamu Noguchi’s tranquil sculpture garden “California Scenario,” paying homage to the state’s diverse natural landscapes, including “Forest Walk,” a patch of California redwoods between the skyscrapers; “Desert Land,” with succulents atop a gravel covered mound; and “Water Source,” a thirty-foot sandstone triangle at the base of a jagged, modernist-looking stream.

Between ritzy Newport Beach, charming Balboa Island, bohemian Laguna and fashion and culture center Costa Mesa, Orange County also has a varied geography, with 45 miles of coastline and plenty of wilderness ready to be explored.

Orange County has this Americana energy,” explains local artist Ali Rybczyk of Le Feels Illustrations, who has lent her work to brands and spaces up and down the California coast. “Getting to take a duffy out with your friends, the surf culture and beaches drawing people from all over the world, hiking in the mountains…People forget there is a lot of earthiness here, too—and artsy-ness with the Sawdust Art Festival,” she says of the nine-week Laguna Beach event running June 27 through August 31, featuring more than 185 local artists displaying their work along sawdust-covered paths. That event along with the concurrent Festival of Arts and immersive Pageant of the Masters theater experience, carry on the creative spirit of the enclave that has drawn plein air painters, old Hollywood stars and 1960s flower children to its coastal bluffs.

Also on the calendar this summer? American Ballet Theatre’s “Giselle” at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts July 24-27. The Lincoln Center of the West has six stunning venues in Costa Mesa for theater, concerts and dance, as well as South Coast Plaza’s shops and restaurants within walking distance. (Pro tip: reserve a table at chef Amar Santana’s fab modern Spanish eatery Vaca, and after you enjoy a frozen Vaca tonic, divine erizos con huevos with sea urchin, a juicy aged steak and some crispy veggie paella, leave your car at the valet and collect it after the performance. Or make a night of it, and stay at The Westin South Coast Plaza hotel right in the middle of all the action.)

At the arts center as well, the Orange County Museum of Art’s “California Biennial: Desperate, Scared But Social” exhibition celebrates the heady subject of adolescence with multi-media works by author Miranda July, Huntington Beach artist Deanna Templeton, Riot Grrrl band Emily’s Sassy Lime and punk band the Linda Lindas among others.

Completed in 2023 by Thom Mayne and Brandon Welling of Morphosis, the Pritzker Prize winning architecture firm, the at-once undulating, angular and free flowing building is a marvel to behold, with 25,000 square feet of gallery space, a cool great shop and café, and outdoor art projects drawing a cool crowd.

It’s not the only arts institution in the area. Just steps away from the Heizler Park Gazebo, which was a makeshift studio for a watercolor painter on a recent early summer afternoon, the Laguna Art Museum also celebrates SoCal’s creative voices, including the late feminist artist Carole Caroompas, whose engaging “Heathcliff and the Femme Fatale Go on Tour” series is on display through July 17, with mixed-media painting, collage and found embroidery works inspired by literature, pop culture and mass media — recasting the “Wuthering Heights” character Heathcliff as a rock star.

Further afield, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, founded in 1936 and located in a picture book Spanish Revival building, made international headlines in 2008, hosting the U.S. premiere of the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang’s Terracotta Warriors, buried in his tomb in 210 to 209 BCE to protect him during the afterlife. The following up exhibition, “World of Terracotta Warriors: New Archaeological Discoveries in Shaanxi in the 21^st Century,” has new finds uncovered in the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization, including more warriors with their distinctive facial features imitating real life soldiers from the time, impressive chariots, jade and gold jewelry. (If you’re feeling inspired, perhaps one of the haute joaillerie stores at South Coast Plaza could serve up something similar.)

The museum’s colorful collection of California plein-air paintings is highlighted in “California Bounty,” a journey through California’s history as a place of produce and plenty, including the citrus fruit that gave Orange County its name in 1889, became its main crop, and helped shape its identity.

On a truly special, 28-acre regenerative organic farm in the midst of the urban sprawl of San Juan Capistrano, the agricultural legacy continues at the Ecology Center founded in 2008 by Evan Marks, which has emerged as a hub of the Southern California ecological movement and welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a year.

Built on the pillars of “Grow, Eat, Make, Peace,” the farm, school and community gathering place hosts culinary, wellness and educational programs, and is must stop for its farm stand selling the sweetest strawberries you’ll ever taste, organic lettuces, avocados and more grown on site, as well as pantry products made there such as Salad Seed Crunch, Salsa Macha and Heirloom Grilling Spice. The Campesino Café serves blue corn waffles, “hippie sandwiches,” fish tacos and more, and the Grateful Dead, as you might expect, is often on the soundtrack.

“This is really the least obvious place for this because the stereotype here is consumerism and cul de sacs so it’s been rewarding that it’s been so well received,” said Marks. “We’re here to nourish the body and spirit.”

Here are a few more ways to do that and more in Orange County this summer.

BEING IN NATURE

Ever since Duke Kahanamoku, Tom Blake and others pioneered riding the waves in Corona del Mar in the 1920s, Orange County has been the epicenter of American surf culture. (The history can be explored at the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach, and at the Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center in San Clemente). There are amazing surfing spots from North to South Orange County, including Huntington Beach Pier (hosting the US Open of Surfing July 26 to Aug. 3), the Santa Ana Rivermouth, Upper West Newport, and the famous Wedge, which can break at 20 feet just a few yards from shore. In the South, Laguna’s Salt Creek, Dana Point, and San Clemente are good bets. If lounging, snorkeling or tide pooling are more your style, there are plenty of places for that, including Treasure Island Beach, Shaw’s Cove and Victoria Beach.

One could also start the day hiking or biking the 40 miles of trails in the coastal canyons of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. Or doing a brisk walk at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, offering 1,300 acres of coastal wetlands surrounding a saltwater estuary, where birdwatchers can spot Least Terns nesting, and Great Blue Herons enjoying a snack, as morning joggers pitter patter by.

Continuing on the nature trail, about 10 miles south in Corona del Mar, The Sherman Library and Gardens is a highly-Instagrammable horticultural oasis hidden in a residential area, to stop and smell the roses…and Brunfelsia latifolia–and watch turtles cavort with koi fish in the tropical greenhouse.

Chef Jessica Roy’s garden-to-table restaurant 608 Dahlia on site is a must for salads, quiches and farrottos with seasonal produce and herbs, plus her famous buttermilk chive gruyere biscuits. For dessert, head to the Original Frozen Banana stand Sugar ‘N’ Spice, a fixture in the harborside community since 1945. The throwback sweets spot serves tropical treats-on-a-stick coated in chocolate or caramel, with nuts, sprinkles and other toppings, and it inspired Bluth’s Original Banana Stand in TV’s “Arrested Development.”

Coastal Luxe Lodging

Orange County over indexes on luxury accommodations along its stunning coastline. Located above a 150-foot bluff In Dana Point, the 386-room Ritz Carlton Laguna Nigel has panoramic views, newly renovated rooms with fire pits for roasting marshmallows, easy access to Salt Point Beach for surfing and Dana Harbor for whale watching, and top-notch service. Bar Raya and 180blu offer dramatic sunset views and are just two of the many food and beverage options on property. Rooms start at $897.

Set back about a half mile from the beach in Dana Point, the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach is a beachside destination for serious golfers. The sprawling, palatial property has 400 rooms, two pools overlooking the award-winning Monarch Beach Golf Links designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., and 175 acres of gardens with plenty of the hotel’s namesake butterflies. A private beach club is accessible via a 10-minute tram ride, with surfing, paddle boarding, beach chair, umbrella and towel service, and a full restaurant and bar hosting movie nights and other activities. Rooms start at $770.

The Montage Laguna Beach is a more intimate experience, with California Craftsman décor, 262 rooms and bungalows with balconies overlooking the water, the stunning Mosaic pool, and meandering paths down to the beach, which is part of Laguna’s marine sanctuary, and offers surf and kayak lessons. Fun fact: Once home to Treasure Island Trailer Park, the hotel’s coast bluff was the set for the 1953 film “The Long, Long Trailer” starring Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. During the filming, two small palm trees, leaning romantically towards each other, were planted, and are now named after the iconic couple. So, too, is the Lucy and Desi’s Mai Tai on the menu at the cozy Lobby Bar. Rooms start at $1,167.

Spread over 87 green acres where the canyons meet the sea, The Ranch Laguna Beach continues its homesteading legacy from the 1800s with 97 rooms, a 3,000 square-foot indoor-outdoor spa, two pools and a half acre biodynamic farm supplying ingredients for the “farm-to-fork” California cuisine at its excellent Harvest restaurant and Lost Pier Café at Aliso Beach, that is a 350 yard walk or quick golf cart shuttle ride away. The rustic-chic property is a leader in the sustainable tourism as the founding member of the Beyond Green initiative, recycling glass bottles for the sand on its golf course (the only course in Laguna Beach), planting trees in partnership with the Ecology Center and more. Rooms start at $549.

In June, following a three-year renovation, Surf & Sand Laguna Beach debuted 165 redesigned guest rooms with a California Mediterranean modern look, and an open-air Lobby Lounge with dramatic ocean views upon check-in. Helmed by Chef Ron Fougeray, the Splashes restaurant has elegant California ingredient-heavy dining on deck with a dramatic Dale Chihuly chandelier for a focal point, second only to the dramatic crashing waves below. Rooms start at $998.

Tapping into Laguna Beach’s artistic history, the 70-room oceanfront Casa Loma Beach Hotel recently debuted a $15 million renovation, adding bohemian style with handcrafted wood furniture, tapestries and vintage record players, and thoughtful touches like welcome Madre Mezcal cocktails. The hotel is right in the middle of the action on the Pacific Coast Highway, just steps away from the Laguna Beach Art Museum and the town’s galleries and shops, but also right on the beach, with ample opportunities for chilling out and tide pooling on the sand just steps away, as well as a cliffside pool. Rates start at $495.

Located just above Shaw’s Cove, about a block and a half from the beach, Hotel Joaquin brings a boutique experience to Laguna with an adults-only property that oozes cool. The décor was inspired by the island of St. Barths, 1950s SoCal beach culture, and the Mediterranean coast, and each of the 22 rooms nestled around the tranquil pool designed with one-of-a-kind vintage pieces. Rooms start at $548.

The Resort at Pelican Hill is the Newport Coast’s luxe golf destination with two 18-hole courses designed by Tom Fazio, the “Coliseum Pool” that’s billed as one of the world’s largest, and a 23,000 square foot spa with steam rooms, saunas and saltwater Roman soaking tubs. Set on 504 acres, with trolley access to the beach, the property features 204 guest rooms and 128 one-, two-, and three-bedroom villas with their own butlers and garages. Rooms start at $1,093.

The Balboa Bay Club first opened in 1947, welcoming Hollywood stars and power players including Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Lauren Bacall, Joan Crawford, John Wayne and President George H.W. Bush among others. Then in 2003, the 159-room Balboa Bay Resort opened to the public. The only four star resort on Newport Harbor, this is the place for the quintessential harborside experience, with its own private dock offering boat, duffy and Host of the Coast yacht rentals, as well as a sparkling swimming pool and delightful waterfront eatery A+O Restaurant and Bar on property. Rooms start at $1,017.