Orange County

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Huntington Beach in Orange County in Southern California.

©Hiroyuki Matsumoto/Getty Images

Overview

LA and Orange County are the closest of neighbors, but in some ways they couldn't be more different. If LA is about stars, the OC is about surfers. LA: ever more urban, OC: proudly suburban, built around cars, freeways and shopping malls. If LA is SoCal's seat of liberal thinking, the OC's heritage is of megachurches and ultraconservative firebrands. If LA is Hollywood glam, the OC is Real Housewives.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Knott’s Berry Farm

Orange County

What started as a simple berry farm is now a sprawling 160-acre operation with rides, live shows and lovable Peanuts characters roaming the grounds. Knott…
Bowers Museum

Orange County

From its stately, Spanish Colonial–style shell, the Bowers Museum explodes onto the scene every year or so with remarkable exhibits that remind LA-centric…
Discovery Cube

Orange County

Follow the giant 10-story cube – balanced on one of its points – to the county's best educational kiddie attraction. About 100 hands-on displays await,…
Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum

Orange County

The Nixon Library offers a fascinating walk though America’s modern history and that of this controversial native son of Orange County (1913–94), who…
Knott's Soak City

Orange County

Next door to Knott's Berry Farm is this water park, boasting a 750,000-gallon wave pool, dozens of high-speed slides, tubes and flumes, and one of the…
Christ Cathedral

Orange County

This glass monolith was built in the shape of a four-pointed star and boasts 10,661 windows, seating capacity for 3000 and an organ with 16,000 pipes…
Kidseum

Orange County

Compared with other children's museums, this one is intimate and pretty mellow, with mostly low(ish) tech, hands-on art and cultural exhibits to keep the…
Plaza Square Park

Orange County

This attractively landscaped traffic circle forms the crossroads of Old Towne Orange.