Do we need a car or does the resort provide transportation?

I will be travelling with 6 people. Does the resort provide transportation to the airport? What about day trips? What is there to do for 2 teenage girls and 2 twenty year old boys? What side trips do you recommend? Is the golf course open yet and what about the construction?

Hi! I just returned from Newport Coast last week. We had a family of eight. You definitely need a car. We had a van. Make sure to get a map from your rental car company and check out the 73 toll road to get to various places in Orange and San Diego Counties. It costs about $5.00 each time you use it but saves that much in gas waiting in traffic.

We went to Disneyland one day. Only took 25 minutes to get there using the toll road. Get there early, around 8:00 a.m. and get fass passes early in the day, otherwise you'll have 1 hour waits for the popular rides.

For activities, we love all of the beaches from Dana Point on up to Newport. Each one offers a new experience. Several times we just found ourselves driving up and down the Pacific Coast Highway and stopping at whatever beach hit our fancy. We were never disappointed, except in Huntington.

We have small children and two teenagers. Our teenagers like Disneyland best, and eating out. We went to Souplantation in Laguna Niguel, and Ruby's down the Pacific Coast Highway near Aliso Beach.

We also spent a couple days swimming at the villas, which all of our kids enjoyed the most out of all of the activities.

If you have access to the Internet, get on Yahoo Maps and put in the address to Newport Coast Villas. On the section where is says browse businesses, you can select categories like shopping, amusements, restaurants, and obtain a list with addresses of all of the businesses near the villas. Then you can go into the driving directions for maps on how to get there.

The best grocery store in the area is Pavillions. It's up the street about 3 miles from the villas on the same street.

Take time to take the hike down to Crystal Cove Beach if you are able. The tidepools were very interesting to see.

Also go to Balboa Island and take the car ferry across. We like to walk around on Balboa and just soak up the environment. The Spaghetti Factory is a good place to eat, but beware it doesn't open until 5:00 p.m. Balboa also has harbor tours and you can take a boat ride to Catalina Island (we have never done that because it costs too much for our crew).

We attempted to go up into Huntington and Long Beach but we found the beaches south of Newport to be so much better. If you like a party atmosphere Huntington Beach is the place, but we felt the atmosphere to risque for our little kids, tons of bars. Lots of good surfing there. Huntington Beach has an oil refinery and the air is very smoggy. We all had trouble with allergies and sore throats.

We enjoy pier walking at Balboa, Newport, and Oceanside which is in San Diego County.

As far as needing a car, we vacation in Southern California every year. A car is a must unless you plan on staying at the villas the whole time. Unlike most places in California, Newport Coast is not a metro area, so you don't have easy access to public transportation. You'll want the freedom of your own transportation because you'll get ideas while you there of things you want to see and won't have public or shuttle options available for them.

Other day trip ideas, San Diego. We loved all of the beach areas in San Diego. The weather is nice, the beaches are nice. We loved Coronado Island, clean and not as crowded.

We enjoy going to Sea World.

There are plenty of day trip ideas to take in LA County but we didn't seem to muster up the time or desire to fight the traffic up there.

Have a nice time.

Would you stay at this location again? We are planning a trip in July to include Disney and a resort stay, but perhaps we just stay in one location the whole time...

Hi, Can you tell me how far is Los Angeles California From your timeshare? Also is the Hall of Fame & the San Diego zoo worth seeing? Thank you!