Southern California’s Orange County comes with great weather all year and many inviting places for outdoor activities and walking around. There are times I’d rather walk around for people watching and cultural visuals than the nature trails of the great outdoors; in other words, free attractions & destinations.
Downtowns (and, the 1st 5 cities below have Art Walks)
- Orange cityoforange.org
- Fullerton downtownfullerton.com
- Santa Ana downtown-santaana.com
- Huntington Beach (Pier & Main Street) surfcityusa.com
- Laguna Beach lagunabeachcity.net
- Newport Beach: Newport Pier & Balboa Pier balboapavilion.com & Balboa Fun Zone thebalboafunzone.com
- Balboa Island balboaisland.com
- Tustin tustinca.org
Outdoor malls
- Irvine Spectrum shopirvinespectrumcenter.com
- Bella Terra bellaterra-hb.com
- Fashion Island (Newport Beach) shopfashionisland.com
- Metro Pointe at South Coast metropointe.com
- The District at Tustin Legacy thedistricttl.com
- Irvine Marketplace / Tustin Marketplace shopthemarketplace.com
- The Camp (Costa Mesa) thecampsite.com
- Downtown Disney District disneyland.com/downtowndisney
- The Outlets at Orange theoutletsatorange.com
- Diamond Jamboree diamond-jamboree.com
Indoor malls
- South Coast Plaza http://southcoastplaza.com
- Anaheim Packing District http://anaheimpackingdistrict.com
- Brea Mall http://shopbreamall.com
- The OC Mix http://shoptheocmix.com
- The Lab antimall (Costa Mesa) http://thelab.com
- Union Market (Tustin) http://unionmarkettustin.com
- Asian Garden Mall (Westminster) http://asiangardenmall.com
- The Shops at Mission Viejo http://shopsatmissionviejo.com
List of OC Shopping Malls http://orangecountyresourceguide.com/shopping-malls.html
The most notable & popular destinations for outdoor walking enjoyment of the OC:
The OC Loop = “66 miles of seamless connections and an opportunity for people to bike, walk and connect to some of California’s most scenic beaches and inland reaches” with direct access to Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, La Habra, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Yorba Linda
Orange County Great Park http://ocgp.org
Dana Point Harbor http://danapointharbor.com
Beach Cities http://visittheoc.com/beaches/beach-cities/