With 42 miles of coastline, Orange County’s beach cities have spent this decade forging a national identity, its hotels and resorts remodeling and expanding, positioning the area as a year-round upscale leisure and meetings destination. Multiyear renovations are wrapping up and several new properties are opening.
“We now have the ultimate luxury coastal resort collection in North America. It has become a pretty exclusive destination. It’s all very positive and has helped boost the county,” says Charles Ahlers, president of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau.
TV shows such as The OC and The Real Housewives of Orange County helped elevate the coast’s profile. But in an unusual coalition, its major hotels and resorts also joined together to give the coast prestige.
“The coast has been doing a great marketing job,” Ahlers says, referring to The OCeanfront, a destination alliance now in its fourth year of promoting the coast’s four major destinations of Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Dana Point.
The alliance is composed of 12 leading hotels and resorts, plus golf clubs, shopping venues and three CVBs.
Blaise Bartell, chairman of The OCeanfront and general manager of Laguna Beach’s Surf & Sand Resort, says the coast is positioning itself as “a one-of-a-kind, world-class destination.”
“What happened was lots of new product opened and many people thought Orange County was just Disney and central OC,” he says. “It was the perfect time to get the message out that we are a sophisticated and unique destination.”
Huntington Beach
Recalling early California beach towns and known worldwide for its waves, Huntington Beach stretches with uninterrupted beaches for eight miles.
The laid-back town, trademarked “Surf City USA,” has a historic pier, is packed with restaurants, pubs and one-of-a-kind-stores, hosts professional surf and beach volleyball contests, and has 1,979 hotel rooms.
Feb. 17 will mark the centennial of its incorporation as a city, and special events and exhibitions will be held throughout the year.
“This will be big for us, a citywide celebration with a different theme each month—history, sports, arts and culture, the environment,” says Donna Mulgrew, marketing vice president at the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau.
This fall, the bureau added an RFP section and meeting specs to a revamped website.
Meetings business took off after the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort opened in 2003, offering 100,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor function space. Close by is the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort.
Two new hotels are coming, thanks to new mixed-use retail, restaurant and office projects. The 157-room Shorebreak Hotel, a Joie de Vivre property with 8,000 square feet of meeting space, is slated to open by March as part of The Strand development. The 250-room W Huntington Beach Hotel & Residences, with 11,000 square feet of meeting space, is expected to open in 2010 as the central element of the Pacific City development.
Newport Beach
Fashionable, affluent and trendy, Newport Beach has nine miles of beaches, one of the world’s largest small boat harbors and 350 restaurants, many along its waterfront.
With more than 2,600 committable rooms and 150,000 square feet of meeting space, plus more opening at the ultra-luxe Resort at Pelican Hill, it is second only to Anaheim in its amount of Orange County meeting space.
Tim Aylesworth, vice president of sales for the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau, says the city gives visitors the chance to experience the “good life of Southern California.”
“We have everything—championship golf, spas, world-class shopping, a wide-range of dining, a recreational yacht harbor, nine distinct neighborhoods that each have their own unique culture and charm, acres of woodlands, and of course the beach and perfect year-round weather,” he says.
Opening Nov. 26 is The Resort at Pelican Hill. Reflecting the work of 16th century architect Andrea Palladio and reminiscent of a Tuscan village, Pelican Hill will feature 204 bungalow rooms and suites, 128 villas, 20,000 square feet of function space, a pool with an amphitheater, a spa and a wedding chapel. The two existing Tom Fazio-designed golf courses reopened with a new clubhouse a year ago.
Thierry Grandsire, the resort’s general manager, says the resort will strive to personalize and customize every aspect of a guest’s stay. Group bookings, he says, are a 50-50 mix of incentive and corporate meetings.
“Pelican Hill will take Newport Beach to that next level of high-end luxury and will rival some of the world’s best resorts,” Aylesworth says. “Our hotel portfolio is the best it has ever been. Within the last few years, nearly all of our major hotels have completed major renovations or significant upgrades.”
That list includes top meetings properties such as the Island Hotel Newport Beach, the Balboa Bay Club and Resort, the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, the Newport Marriott Hotel & Spa and the Fairmont Newport Beach.
Laguna Beach
Featuring more than 100 galleries and artist studios and stretching seven miles along the coast, Laguna Beach is known for its art scene. It has the Laguna Playhouse and Laguna Art Museum, as well as art, music and dance festivals throughout the year.
It packs in 30 coves and beaches and a tree-lined downtown of quaint shops, cafes and bars.
Eleven properties have meeting space, including notable options like the Montage Resort & Spa, which opened in 2003, and the Surf & Sand Resort, which completed a $9 million renovation late last year.
“Laguna Beach is a walking village with shops and galleries and everything accessible—a retreat with quick air access and where meetings are a very important part of the business mix,” says the Surf & Sand’s Bartell.
Dana Point
With beaches carrying names such as Doheny and Capistrano, Dana Point attracts 2 million visitors a year.
The city’s harbor, with slips and moorings for 2,500 boats as well as dozens of shops and restaurants, is the base for a host of activities ranging from sport fishing to kayaking.
Its renowned Ocean Institute delivers 5,200 square feet interactive exhibits and a variety of marine science programs, as well as a conference center and an event-ready outdoor courtyard. It also offers team-building programs, whale-watching cruises and sailing.
Among the city’s properties are some of the coast’s most upscale meetings resorts, including the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa, the recently renovated Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel and the Laguna Cliffs Marriott.
Another option is the Doubletree Guest Suites Doheny Beach, which unveiled a 5,000-square-foot executive conference center in June.
San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Seal Beach
Just south of Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano is home to the 10-acre Mission San Juan Capistrano, which dates to 1796 and has space for daytime seminars, banquets and receptions. The city’s Rios Historic District is Orange County’s oldest neighborhood.
Six miles to the south is San Clemente, the “Spanish Village by the Sea” built by Ole Hanson on 2,000 acres in the 1920s. His estate, now the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens, is popular for concerts and corporate events.
Seal Beach, just southeast of Long Beach, has a historic Main Street full of shops and restaurants.
Close to the Coast
Separated by John Wayne Airport are the cities of Costa Mesa, about four miles from the beach, and Irvine, around eight miles from the coast.
Costa Mesa has 10 hotels, more than 2,200 hotel rooms and 101,000 square feet of hotel meeting space, and its 2.6 million-square-foot South Coast Plaza has more than 280 stores. The adjacent Orange County Theatre District includes the Orange County Performing Arts Center, home to several unique off-site venue options.
“We get a combination of leisure and group business,” says Diane Prichett, executive director of the Costa Mesa Conference and Visitors Bureau. “We’re centrally located, and there’s so much to do here.”
Within easy walking distance of the shopping and theaters are meetings-friendly properties such as the recently renovated Westin South Coast Plaza, the Wyndham Orange County and the Costa Mesa Marriott, and about a half-mile away are the Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa and the Holiday Inn Costa Mesa.
Home to some 100 regional, national and international corporate headquarters, Irvine has 13 hotels and 3,260 rooms.
“We are the business capital of Orange County,” says Jennifer McLaughlin, director of tourism at the Irvine Chamber Visitors Bureau. “With the corporate business, it’s an easy weekday sell and our lower rates help. We’ve been promoting weekend group and leisure business. We have lots of family attractions and lots of shopping, and are near biking, hiking and nature trails.”
Meetings-friendly properties include the Hyatt Regency Irvine, the recently renovated Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport, the Irvine Marriott John Wayne Airport, the Atrium Hotel at Orange County Airport, and the recently renovated Embassy Suites Irvine-Orange County Airport.
For More Info
Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau 714.765.8888 www.anaheimoc.org
Costa Mesa Conference and Visitor Bureau 714.435.8530 www.costamesa-ca.com
Dana Point COC and Visitor Center 949.496.1555 www.danapointvisitorcenter.com
Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau 714.969.3492 www.surfcityusa.com
Irvine Chamber Visitors Bureau 949.660.9112 www.irvinecvb.org
Laguna Beach Visitors and Conference Bureau 949.497.9229 www.lagunabeachinfo.org
Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau 949.719.6100 www.newportbeach-cvb.com
San Clemente COC 949.492.1131 www.scchamber.com
San Juan Capistrano COC 949.493.4700 www.sanjuanchamber.com
Seal Beach Chamber and Business Association 562.799.0179 www.sealbeachchamber.org
