Is FunAheim a thing?

February 2, 2025 10:29 AM

Looking for some cool things to do in/around Anaheim, CA this summer.

Every year, our crowd of Portland Timbers season ticket holders friends picks one city to go to an away game to. This year, we've picked LA, for LAFC in July. Of the eight of us that are going, seven really want to go down and spend a couple days in Anaheim, going to Disneyland. I, on the other hand, would rather do literally anything else than go to an overcrowded hugely expensive theme park that I guarantee I will not have fun at.

So! At the start of this trip, I will have at least one full day, maybe two, in and around Anaheim to explore, while my friends Disney it up (and yes, we'll be staying in Anaheim the first couple nights of this trip). What's cool down there? Assume for the purposes of this question that I've got LA covered; that's the rest of the trip, and I have been to LA enough that I know what it is I want out of the city, mostly. One of the nights in Anaheim will be at an Angels game, but otherwise my days are my own.

Parameters:

- I will have a car
- I like museums, galleries, and things like that, especially local history/non-mainstream type stuff
- Good record stores/book stores would be great to find
- Food: Good Mexican, good Korean, good anything that isn't super-touristy really. No significant dietary restrictions, open to pretty much anything
- doesn't have to be Anaheim specifically, could be anywhere in that area - I just know I'll be on my own for at least one full day after they head to the park, needing to be back in/around Anaheim probably around 11PM, and I'm willing to drive a bit if something cool is to be found close by (but again, LA is taken care of on the rest of the trip).

So what fun stuff is down there just waiting to be found?

posted by pdb to Travel & Transportation around Anaheim, CA (12 answers total)

This is my favorite restaurant
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:33 AM on February 2

My family was sure it was horribly risky, but I went to Watts Towers with an adult nephew and it's very cool and the trip was otherwise uneventful. I didn't go to nearly enough museums, but there was family stuff.
posted by theora55 at 10:40 AM on February 2

Response by poster: (as mentioned in the question, LA itself is not the subject of this ask - thanks for the recs but I'm looking for Anaheim/Orange County-specific recs here. Watts Towers is super cool though!)
posted by pdb at 10:51 AM on February 2

I was visiting SoCal over Christmas and was surprised to find a flyer in our hotel room touting Santa Ana as the go to for Cannabis tourism. Which may or may not be your thing, but they mention there is a “multicultural playground of complimentary sensory experiences” to pair with your buzz. Here is their art crawl.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 11:00 AM on February 2

There’s good Ethiopian food in the area, as well as good Indian and Filipino food in nearby Artesia. It’s kind of far but in Costa Mesa the Mercado Gonzalez has a ton of food selections in little booths. In nearby Long Beach there are some cool art museums, too. Not sure if you’re down for hiking but there are some good trails in the area like Caspers Park and various trails in the Saddleback region as well.
posted by miltthetank at 11:29 AM on February 2

Best answer: Two non-major museums in the area: the Hibert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, is about 10 min. from Disneyland. And the American Museum of Ceramic Art is in Pomona, about 30 min. away.

I haven't been to either, but they're both on my radar because they show work from famed SoCal ceramic muralist Millard Sheets. His large-scale work adorned many "important" buildings like banks, and many have been destroyed or are at risk because of stupid capitalism. I grew up seeing this mural daily; it's now the front of the Hilbert Museum.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:44 AM on February 2

Best answer: If you don’t get a lot of seaside time up in Portland, you’re up for a bit of a drive and the forecast for inland OC that day is unacceptably hot, you might enjoy doing a loop from Anaheim down to Balboa Island/Newport Beach and having a coffee by the hopefully marine-layer-covered and thus cooler pier, heading south through Corona del Mar toward Laguna Beach stopping at Crystal Cove State Park’s tidepools, enjoying the frankly picture-postcard views south from Heisler Park’s clifftops just north of Laguna’s Main Beach, having lunch and looking around the art galleries in Laguna Beach, and then either heading back north to Anaheim via Laguna Canyon Road and Interstate 5 or pressing on south along Pacific Coast Highway through to Dana Point, then south further stopping perhaps at Doheny State Beach and/or the beaches of San Clemente before heading back up Interstate 5, stopping at San Juan Capistrano’s historic Spanish mission and downtown.

While early-morning weekday parking in July won’t be too tricky in any of these places, if you do this later in the day or on a weekend, ask your accommodation for advice on where to park; the town of Laguna Beach runs shuttles to remote lots out in Laguna Canyon.

Alternatively, and probably much more relaxingly, you could take Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner or Metrolink, Southern California’s regional rail system, from Anaheim station (or Fullerton, Orange or Santa Ana, as depending on where you are staying in Anaheim, any of these might be closer to you) south to San Juan Capistrano and both San Clemente and San Clemente Pier (though do check the schedules for San Clemente Pier service as it’s literally a platform on the sand at the beach!). Metrolink also does $10 weekend day passes, meaning you could do all your travelling that day for less than what you’d pay for parking, probably. On the way back, you could get off in Santa Ana for food at 4th Street Market and then rideshare or take one of the many frequent OCTA bus services in that bit of OC back to Anaheim; it’s about a six-mile trip from downtown Santa Ana to Disneyland itself. The train stations in all the places I mention are at the very center of their destinations, and the track from Santa Ana or Irvine south all the way to San Diego is rated for 90-mph operations, which both Metrolink and Amtrak routinely operate at on that stretch, so it’s often faster than driving, too.
posted by mdonley at 11:58 AM on February 2 [2 favorites]

There's a Zankou Chicken in Anaheim! Near enough to the parks that I've left the resort for lunch and gone back in for more rides.
posted by potrzebie at 12:52 PM on February 2 [3 favorites]

for good korean, pretty much anything along garden grove blvd (near the intersection w/ beach blvd) in buena park is going to be among the best in southern california.

you'll also be close to westminster/little saigon, which is around westminster blvd. and beach blvd. probably the best vietnamese food in the country, though you could make a great case for northern california or houston. visit the hyperlocal westminster museum while you're there.

if you want mexican, head up to fullerton and try tacos puro jalisco. absolute goat savants. i think you cannot order wrong.

for cultural sights, head east to the nixon library in yorba linda, or to the hilbert museum for some art. to go deeper, check out the map feature on https://everymuseum.la -- you should find something to fill the days. if you need some nature, the anaheim hills are on the other side of the 55 (headed east) and have respectable hiking.

** you said no LA -- but if you do make it up to Watts Towers, my favorite tamale truck, "Tamales Elena," is on the west side of Wilmington Ave at, like, 110th street and is absolutely phenomenal. Get the champurrado, too.
posted by Foie G Biv at 7:59 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

NB, the Nixon Library made my dad so mad he had to go wait in the car. If you're of a vintage to have lived through the Nixon years, go with the knowledge that it is very much a celebration of Nixon's presidency and doesn't aim to present a balanced or nuanced portrait of the man. At least that was the case when I went some years back, and frankly ol Tricky Dick only looks better as the years tick by.
posted by potrzebie at 7:13 AM on February 3 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Some random thoughts:

Lotta people in your position would spend the day in Seal Beach.

Maybe check out if a band you'd be interested in is playing at the Observatory?

In nearby Orange, there's Left of the Dial Records and Mr. C's. In nearby Fullerton, there's Half Off Books and Records (not the best ever but I have definitely found good things there!)

Fullerton has an arboretum and is a college area.

Also not sure if you'd come as far north as Torrance but if so, Record Recycler is good.

As with most of LA and OC, the main destinations out there are food, as people have made clear in this post. So much good food in that triangle from Westminster to Santa Ana to Anaheim.
posted by kensington314 at 10:10 AM on February 3

Best answer: Downtown Anaheim has a couple of neat things within about a 10 minute walk from each other.

The Packing House/District: https://www.anaheimpackingdistrict.com/
Inside the above is a neat speakeasy--https://www.theblindrabbit.com/

Geeky cafe that has good wifi and a terrific staff--https://www.requiemcafe.com/

Day trip via train to San Juan Capistrano is also nice. Tangentally related to the above is a very good Mexican restaurant: http://eladobedecapistrano.com/the-restaurant/

Downtown Fullerton is walkable, with a ton of restaurants and some cool shops.
posted by luckynerd at 1:15 PM on February 3