Newport Beach advice needed

[danacath]

DH and I are taking a group of about 40 teens to Newport Beach next Thursday afternoon after flying into SNA from Nebraska. We need to figure out an inexpensive (under $10) lunch stop along the way to Newport Beach, or at the beach, where we can get a group of our size taken care of okay. We've done In'n Out Burger with our group before and really like it, but we're already doing that at the end of the week. We'd like to try another West coast restaurant if possible. Or, if there's a cluster of restaurants within walking distance of each other, that might work, too.

Also, we're trying to decide where to have the charter bus drop us off for our afternoon "beach time"... Newport Pier, Balboa Peninsula, ?? We'll only have a couple of hours to spend there. Some youth want affordable shops for souvenirs, some would love to splash in the waves or see surfers, etc. (Being from NE, many of them have never seen the ocean before.) Since we won't have cars, what would be the best beach location for our situation? I plan a lot of trips, but for some reason, this has got me puzzled.

 

[debk68]

go to Ruby's diner website and if you all join their email club you get a coupon for a free shake. We didn't use ours,but if it is truly free, there is one on the peir at Balboa pennisula. We were at the pennisula and it looked like there was some shopping. and it was a great beach.

 

[danacath]

Thanks for the tip, debk68. We were at the Ruby's in Huntington Beach a few years ago and enjoyed it. The Balboa location looks a bit too small for our whole group to descend on, but maybe the shake lovers among us will want to walk out to the pier to check it out.

As it stands right now, for lunch the bus driver is planning to take us to a street that has a Chick-fil-A and In-N-Out Burger next door to each other, unless we come up with a different idea. Then he plans to drop us off at the Newport Pier area for a couple of hours to enjoy the beach atmosphere. Can anyone tell me about that area by the pier--what's within walking distance, etc.? Will this be a good area for a big group of teens? Any comments at all are really appreciated!

 

[lcasa]

Newport Pier area has lots of food places - Charlie's Chili ( never been but friends love it ), Rock'N'Baja Lobster - and acroos the street is the Spaghetti Factory, which is a lot of food for a small-ish price ( been a year or 2, but think it's still around $10 for spaghetti with ice cream desert, salad, and bread - and maybe iced tea or coffee - and it can accomodate groups with reser. in advance - my son's rehearsal dinner was there and there were at least 25 of us)

It's a very nice, safe area. Just a walk out on the pier is nice. And there's plenty of sand.