Currently reporting for duty by the pool in our villa hotel, with a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. My Monday view could be worse! With everything going on, Akash & I decided to move back home to Dallas for the foreseeable future. There was a ton of back and forth when making this decision, but ultimately we decided that it was a good opportunity to stop paying dead rent since we were spending the majority of our time back in Dallas anyway, and to take advantage of spending quality time with our families back in Texas during quarantine. Of course I’m devastated to leave LA, but we both agree it’s the best thing for us at this stage.
All that said, I’m determined to see everything in California that’s been on my list to do/see that I just haven’t gotten a chance to yet. Starting with a staycation in Laguna Beach! We’ve stayed in the Laguna/Newport area before, but never really explored it extensively. This time around, I wanted to spend a couple days here, recharging by the water & relaxing (safely, of course) at a hotel. It’s turned out to be the absolute best decision, and I’m so happy we took some time to recharge.
Laguna Beach has been such a dream, so much so that it inspired me to write a blog post and share about our trip. And of course share some of my favorite snaps from the weekend!
Laguna was a short hour-ish drive from LA, which wasn’t bad at all. We headed down PCH and arrived by around 10am. Here are some of the highlights from our trip!
Where to Eat:
Picnic on the beach
Out of all the meals we had, this one was most definitely my favorite. Akash & I LOVE trying new foods, and exploring new cuisines. We’re definitely self-proclaimed foodies. After looking at the options in Laguna, we were pretty underwhelmed. The places we went to were decent, sure, but nothing worth writing home about. There are a few places that have cult followings in the area, and we gave them a shot but honestly I can’t wholeheartedly recommend them because we were underwhelmed by the food here.
Nick’s Restaurant
Get the butter cake!!! We got takeout and ate it by the beach. Fair warning though, this restaurant’s pretty pricey. The butter cake alone was $16, yikes.
Rasta Taco
If you’re looking for some interesting Jamaican flavors, Rasta Taco might be the place for you! We got the Carne Asada, Jamaican Jerk, and Al Pastor tacos. I wasn’t a huge fan, but Akash enjoyed them. They only have outdoor seating, so if the weather’s nice it’s a great place to have a meal!
Driftwood Kitchen
IMO, this place is way overhyped. That said, if you want a good IG pic, definitely stop here. I found this place & The Deck on nearly every travel blog when I was prepping for our trip, so naturally it was the first place we hit up when we arrived. At 9:45 am there was an hour long wait, and the food was subpar (and expensive.) The view is incredible, but ONLY if you sit on the edge of the restaurant. Unfortunately when we were there, the only tables available were inside the restaurant, so while we could see parts of the water, it definitely wasn’t the view we were hoping for.
Akash ordered the crab cake benedict here, but it was pretty bad. We love a good crab cake Benedict, but this one just didn’t hit the mark. Fair warning, don’t come for the food.
Where to Stay:
Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa
I loved our hotel so so much! I felt so much safer here than a huge resort or hotel, because it’s a boutique style villa. There are only 20-something rooms in the whole property, and the staff here is so kind. They were super respectful and honored COVID precautions, and everything was cleaned well. Our room was on the smaller side, but it didn’t even matter to us because we spent the majority of our time on the property by the pool. We spent a whole afternoon soaking up the sun in the pool, and it was the best time. There’s a gorgeous view of the ocean, the breeze feels amazing, and the pool was really clean.
There are a ton of different areas on the property where you can sneak away to read a book, take some pictures, listen to the waves, or even just relax for a bit. I’ve actually spent the entire day here so far – started the morning with a walk to the beach, had breakfast by the pool, and have just been chilling here ever since. Definitely can’t complain.
Where to Play:
Obviously since right now there’s a pandemic going on, we wanted to make sure all the activities we did were safely practicing social distancing and we weren’t in any areas where there would be major gatherings. If we were to come back outside of COVID, this list might look different, but we made the best out of the situation!
Thousand Steps Beach
Since we stayed through a Monday, Akash had to work on our last day in Laguna. I didn’t mind at all though, because I love exploring alone! I spent the morning walking a couple miles down the Pacific coast over to Thousand Steps Beach, and walked down a thousand (okay, maybe like 200) steps to see the tide pools. I went around 7:30am, and it was so beautiful and serene. If you’re looking for a place to get your sweat on, this is a great one.
*Quick note* it’s a little hard to find at first, but just park along the South Coast Highway and find the entrance along 9th Street! The GPS takes you to a random residential street that’s private, so you have to do a little bit of digging to find it. Worth it though!
Victoria Beach
First off, this beach is BEAUTIFUL. If you were to go on a weekday, or maybe some time during the off season, I would 10000% recommend. Unfortunately, we came on a weekend in the dead of summer, so this beach was super crowded. It took us quite a bit of time to find a spot to settle in, and then even afterwards finding a spot without a ton of people to wade in the waves was tough to find.
Once we finally did though, we had a blast! Unfortunately after getting into the water, I was obliterated by the waves over and over (lol.) The waves here were no joke – Akash was laughing his ass of the entire time because the waves just kept sweeping me in, and I was knocked over a million times. I was left with a few battle scars on my legs, but we’ll just call them souvenirs.
Even though my knees are still in rough shape, we had so much fun in the water. Definitely a must-do if you’re in the area!
Lido Marina Village
This area is so cute! I had it on my list to stop by the new LoveShackFancy store, and it turned out to be a fun surprise that the whole area was so cute. There’s a Jenni Kayne store, a Malibu Farm, a bookstore, and a Nobu here. A fun place to walk around and window-shop for yachts too, haha.
Main Beach
This beach is right by downtown Laguna, so there were a ton of people nearby. That said, it’s a super nice beach to take a picnic at! This is what we did – there’s a Whole Foods maybe 5 minutes walking away, so we picked up a couple sandwiches and some drinks to have dinner by the beach. There’s a little patch of grass, some picnic benches, and of course the sandy beach.
I’d avoid this area if you’re visiting while COVID’s still happening, but otherwise it’s awesome. We visited here last time we were here and really enjoyed it!
Top of the World Hike
These trails are great for any level! Akash & I are both beginner hikers (as in we frequent trails in LA, but 3-4 miles is about our max.) The views are incredible here. Make sure you come early enough in the morning so it doesn’t get insanely hot. The sun beats down pretty hard after 10, so keep that in mind.
Fashion Island
A great little shopping center to walk around! It’s pretty filled with chains here, but nonetheless a good place to walk around. There’s a ton of restaurants to stop for a meal and eat al fresco.
Downtown Laguna
A fun spot with some souvenir shops, restaurants, and for rentals. There’s not a ton to do here, but if the weather’s nice and you want to walk around and explore, it’s great! Lots of food options.
Have y’all traveled since COVID began? Are you planning to? If anyone’s curious about our experience traveling during the pandemic, I’d be happy to share more info. Let me know!