The resort is set on it’s own bay
Recently, I was…”compelled” to go to a family wedding in Newport Beach, CA. If you have ever been to Newport, you know it’s where the rich people in Orange County park their yachts. So it surprising to me that tucked between five star hotels and multi million dollar condo’s was a beach front RV resort called Newport Dunes.
Maybe it’s just me, but a name with “Dunes” denotes a windy, dusty, sand in places you don’t want it type of experience. That was NOT what I found. Instead I discovered a top rated resort circling around what amounts to it’s own private bay. Located in an area of Newport Harbor known as the “Back Bay”, it’s a little slice of quiet fun right next to pretty much everything. While the main harbor is busy just about any time of day the back bay and the river feeding into it has been set aside and preserved from any development.
The resort itself circles it’s own little inlet and when we visited, it was amazing to me how nice of place it was. While my parents were suffering in the posh 5 Star Hotel nearby, my little family got to pull up right up to the water for the night. You can imagine how my kids felt when they saw a beach right at their doorstep. With little wave action, it was an ideal swimming place for my little boys. They were also jazzed by the “Pirate Playground” on the beach with “concrete wildlife” including Moe B. Dunes (a whale) to play on.
As the sun started to set we hit the pool and the whirlpool spa. It was well kept and did a sufficient job in sucking the energy out of my kids. This meant my little ones went down early and my wife and I got our sunset walk on the beach. This is where I found the one drawback to the resort. The beach is deceivingly long. While we decided to walk over to the restaurant for a quick bite, we didn’t realize how far away it was. We ended up having an even longer “sundown” hike to get back to the RV.
All in all this was one of those resorts I’d recommend to anyone traveling through Orange County. Its close to many of the major amusement parks (e.g. Disneyland) but it is in it’s own little world. While I have seen many “OC” campgrounds that double as parking lots, you’d be hard pressed to find another one with as ideal location as Newport Dunes RV Resort.