Hello All, Long time lurker but first time poster. I will be taking my girlfriend to a relaxing trip to Laguna Beach March 14th - 19th. This will be our first trip to the region and I am looking forward to some relaxing time out of the office. I had a few questions for anyone from the region. Are there any spotters recommendations for good areas to spot. I'm sure my girlfriend will want to do some shopping in the region & I am hopefully I can set that up in a decent spotting area so I can have some fun as well Supercar Sunday seems like a great event. Would everyone recommend attending? Are there any friendly dealerships that it wouldn't mind if we poked around one afternoon? I am open to any other recommendations non car related such as great dining, things to do, etc...like I said this will be our first trip to the area so we are a blank slate. Thanks for all of the help and recommendations
I'm sure there are places closer to Laguna, but a trip to Beverly Hills would provide you with the spotting you want, & the shopping your GF wants. And you can get some good meals around there too. You could go to Supercar Sunday, but that's a little further away than BH. Saturdays they have the cars & coffee in the Irvine area, much closer to you.
Fun spots in Laguna.. 1. Rooftop Bar - Awesome views. 2. The Deck - great bar and rest on the ocean. 3. Sands hotel - great dinner 5 star i think rest on the sand. 4. Las Brisas - mexican rest with great ocean views and a gazebo deck. Def should try to make cars and coffee in Irivne, sat mornings at 7ish. Best cars in so cal all in one parking lot. As the previous post mentioned Beverly Hills is also a great idea.. I live in Irvine if you have any questions feel free to hit me up. Have fun and enjoy your trip!
Brian and Alex thank you for taking the time to respond and the good recommendations. I think we will definitely put the the Irvine Cars & Coffee on our to do list. Is there a set location or does is change weekly?
Supercar Sunday is well worth the drive if the weather is good. Follow that with a ride up through the canyons on Mulholland Drive and breakfast at the famous Rock Store or even at Neptune's Net at county line. Mabe lunch at Duke's on the way back down the coast through Malibu. Epic morning!
one of the best malls in the country is "south coast plaza" in costa mesa. your gf will thank you. ed
Although South Coast Plaza is great for shopping, if you want that plus exotic car spotting, go the Fashion Island in Newport Beach. They have 3 valet stations, although you'll see more Bentleys and MBZ than some others on most days. They have a Tesla Dealer in their mall, lots of boutique stores plus Neiman's and a few others, excellent casual and upscale dining, etc. On Jamboree Blvd along the west border of Newport Center (within which Fashion Island sits) is Newport Aston Martin. Newport Beach Ferrari is at 1000 W Pacific Coast Highway, and you'll pass by Newport Bentley on the way there (along with a couple other exotics dealers on PCH). Drive a little further and Newport McLaren is just before you get to PCH/Newport Blvd. Amongst those dealers, you should be able to see most anything you might want. You could visit all of them after dropping your girlfriend off at Fashion island- she'll be so busy she probably won't notice you're gone. You could also eat along PCH in Corona Del Mar en route back to Laguna and watch expensive things drive by. Outside of Beverly Hills, probably no better place to spend too much money (which is a requirement in Newport...). Bob H
Laguna Beach is a great relaxing vacation. Around the area I'd recommend: C&C irvine sat morn 7 am to see 300+ amazing cars. Fashion Island for GF shipping Obviously spend a day at the beach Maestro's Steakhouse for a dinner Las Brisas for brunch or sunset dinner Crab Cooker for lunch and maybe get ice cream in Balboa Island (ride the car ferry) Nightlife - Javier's or Sutra to see Real Housewives of OC's finest (sarcasm)
Beverly Hills/Hollywood is a long drive from Laguna and SoCal traffic is unpleasant. I suggest staying down in Laguna and save coming into LA for another trip. Plenty of great car spotting on Pacific Coast Highway (main street of Laguna) on any sunny weekend. Scott
Like Ed said C&C in irvine on saturday morning will cure all your spotting needs...South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island should have your girl emptying your wallet pretty quickly...all the restaurants mentioned are great...Villa Nova in Newport is awesome and i heard is going out of business soon...try it for dinner and get the fried mozzarella appetizer! Have a fun trip.
Thank you all for the responses, they are greatly appreciated! Between the beach,great dining recommendations, cars, and overall scenery it's sure to be a great trip and a nice break from the usual grind.
+1 on Mastros and Javiers! Check out Pelican Hill resort in Newport Coast.....guaranteed to a Ferrari, Lambo, Bentley..etc out by the valet.
The responses that came in have been great. I've got one last question to get everyone's opinion. I was all set to head to the C&C irvine event while out there but some recent posts about the event highlighting some changes going on with the event. I was original torn between that event or supercar sunday and may only have time to go to one or the other. Which would everyone recommend we attend? All the other recommendations have been great. I've already booked sunset dinner reservations at Mastros and made plans around many of the others. Thanks again for the help, it's sure to be a great trip!
Personally, I like C&C better....usually it has more unique cars. Crowd is pleasant and decent breakfast served on site. More variety of cars. SCS has more vendors on site - AutoGallery, some wrap companies, etc. SCS has marque days I believe first of each month. You can't go wrong with either
Something else...The Montage hotel in Laguna Niguel is very nice for drinks and/or walking around. Beautiful sunsets from their property. They have a fantastic restaurant, but its pricey.
Out of Supercar Sunday and C&C, I prefer C&C. It's a much different feel than Supercar, and I've found that more oddball, vintage vehicles show up at C&C. At Supercar, I've found that you will see long lines of the newer exotics. The best part of Supercar is the drive back to the coast afterwards. As many have mentioned, take the scenic windy roads and since you're already way up that way, might as well go a bit further north on the coast and see a local legend- Neptune's Net
As mentioned many times, C&C irvine. Fashion Island inferior shopping than South Coast but superior car spotting. Valet station by starbucks is best. Ferrari of NB (Newport Beach) Lamborghini of NB McLaren of NB
I want to thank everyone that took time to offer recommendations to help make our trip to Laguna a success. The trip was absolutely wonderful and we had a great time in the region. We took advantage of nearly all the recommendations; outstanding dinner at Mastro's, Javier's, crab cook, Nick's, Las Brisas, The deck, and many others. All of it was excellent and made for some great dining and drinking. Cars and coffee was blast, and what a treat to see the rosso Dino Enzo, a Bugatti, the vintage ford gto, among the countless other amazing cars. I think I spotted atleast half a dozen cars every time we went down the PCH so I more than filled my spotting needs. I missed supercar Sunday, but made up for it with a trip to the Marconi auto museum. Great chance to walk around an F40, F50, and was blown away by the sultans FX. Overall just a great trip. Thanks for all of the helping making it one!
We did have an opportunity to get out and enjoy some of the winding roads, but not as many as we would have liked. I bet those things are a blast in an F car vs the rental we had. I think the girlfriend enjoyed the trip overall. We did a little bit of everything between the beach, fashion island, and the plaza. She appreciates my interest in cars so she actually got a kick out of cars and coffee and all of the cars we spotted driving around. Although now that she has spent some time up close with some Lamborghini's she is pushing me in that direction now vs the ferrari, so we'll see how that ends up going lol I think her favorite thing was the dinning and entertainment. We spent most evenings enjoying cocktails at various places with a view and getting a good meal. Cooking is a big passion of hers so she enjoyed some of local takes on dishes. We also spent many evenings going through the art gallerys on our way up and down the street. In the end it wasn't fashion island that put the biggest dent in my wallet it was the art we purchased, so that actually worked out in my favor! All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our time out there. If it wasn't such a flight for us from Cleveland, I could see us hoping out there for some three day weekends. But we will definitely be back
