- Yellow Productions presents the ten best things to do
on Balboa Island in Newport Beach.
I'm Chris, this is Topher, and I'm joined by my good friend
Jeff Graham, and Jeff's got a Youtube channel too.
Jeff, tell us about it.
- It's called Photowalks.
I wanna bring your photos to life
and light up your Instagram, as opposed to Chris
who wants to tell you all the great places
to see and do and eat.
- Absolutely!
So Jeff's gonna join us telling us things to do.
When you're done with this video,
watch the photo walk that we did together
to see some photo tips and best places to take pictures
on Balboa Island.
- Can't wait for those Balboa Bars!
- The first best thing to do when you come to Balboa Island
is to walk around the island.
And Jeff and I, we're walking around the island,
and Jeff, you were just here walking yesterday, right?
- Lot of flags, lot of American flags, very patriotic.
Lot of school flags, UCLA and USC.
And beautiful homes that I'm told
sell from two to seven million
dollars. - Absolutely.
This is like when you walk around Balboa Island,
it feels like living the good life.
The streets are named after gemstones,
and these beach cottages,
they're like these whimsical beach cottages
that sell for millions of dollars.
- I'd love to have one.
- I bet you would. (laughs) - Yeah, I would.
- [Chris] I would too, and it's also,
you don't just get a beach cottage,
but many of them have private docks
in front of the houses too.
- [Jeff] Right, and beaches, which are,
some private, some not private, I think.
- Absolutely, yes.
What's also interesting about Balboa Island
is it's one of the densest places in the U.S. actually.
There's 3000 residents that live on this island
in just 0.2 square miles,
which is actually more dense than San Francisco.
- In a small period, and by the way,
this seems really popular.
Right over there, SUP. - Yeah, yeah.
- [Both] Stand up paddle boarding.
- Here, we'll take a look at this guy.
So, this is it, this is living the good life.
So come and walk around and just explore Balboa Island.
2.7 miles around, about an hour if you walked
around the whole thing.
Totally worth it, one of my favorite walks in Orange County.
- Well, Chris, I think the number two tip should be
after you're walking on the beach,
you wanna come through great, historic Marine Avenue.
Really nice main street America
on a good mom and pop stores.
It's a lot of fun, even if you don't buy anything,
and you can get a lot of really fun things to eat, as well.
- Absolutely, and we're gonna get to those things to eat
in number four, so stay tuned for that.
But when you come into the island,
if you're driving in, you'll drive in on Marine Avenue.
This is where the bridge comes in,
so you'll drive through it.
Parking can be tough,
but make sure you walk back through here.
- So, yeah, Chris, what's really interesting here is
you don't see McDonald's, and Taco Bell and, El Pollo Loco.
Chain stores are almost nonexistent
with the exception of two. - Two, right.
Starbucks Coffee, for all you Starbucks lover after there,
and Fresh Produce, a little clothing store
that's on here as well.
What souvenirs should you bring back form Balboa Island?
Well, some signs that talk about the beach,
like "Gone to the beach", "Mermaid", "Welcome to the beach".
Everything here is about living on the beach or on a boat.
The third thing to do on Balboa Island
is to visit the Balboa Island Museum.
This is on Marine Avenue,
just right where the bridge comes in.
It's open Wednesday to Sunday, ten to four.
It's built in a 1945 historic cottage.
They've got lots of pictures of the history of this island,
but when we got here it's after four, so it's closed.
What are we gonna do?
- Go online.
- Go on-- - They have a whole collection
online. - Totally.
If you're interested, find the link
in the description, you can check them out online,
and learn all about the history of this island.
You know it's interesting,
in 1919 the mayor of Newport Beach,
when Balboa Island was annexed to it said,
"This place is a total dump."
Well, it would not be a dumb today 'cause, actually,
this island, it's manmade, and it used to be a swamp.
Can you believe this used to be a swamp, Jeff?
- Hard to believe.
Yeah, if only it was still a swamp
we could buy a few nice little plots.
Perfect. - We could.
If only we could go back in time
in our Back to the Future DeLorean
or something. - That's right.
Yeah, I'd love to have a swamp by the sea, wouldn't you?
- (laughs) I would, yes.
Parking on Balboa Island can be quite a challenge,
but if you have a golf cart,
they actually have special parking spaces
just for golf carts.
- Wooo! - Yum.
- The fourth thing to do when you come to Balboa Island
is to eat the local desserts.
And we are at Dad's Donuts, and their famous,
for the Balboa Bar and the frozen banana.
I've got a Balboa Bar topped, well,
there's ice cream in the middle,
topped with sprinkles and almonds.
Jeff, what did you get there?
- Everything.
- Everything?
- Almonds, nuts, sprinkles, you name it, and it is fabulous.
- Yeah, there's a great debate,
there's four different places that sell
Balboa Bars and frozen donuts on Marine Avenue,
their main street here, and the great debate
as to which one's the best, we asked some of the locals,
and quintessentially, they said this one, right?
- Definitely, yes. - Definitely, so--
- But you can't go wrong anywhere, really.
- No, you can't go wrong, and so Jeff,
what do you think about that?
How's it taste?
- Absolutely fabulous. - Yeah.
- In fact, I'm gonna quit talking.
- He's gonna quit talking and he's gonna eat.
And so I wonder, what's better,
the frozen banana or the Balboa Bar?
That's why I got both.
(moans)
Banana?
Or, Balboa Bar?
(crunching)
- I would take ice cream any day.
- Yeah, I agree.
I think the Balboa Bar.
They're pretty good.
And
it's a nice smooth ice cream, chocolate.
Though you can't eat it too much without a little thing
'cause it gets messy.
Make sure you get one and decide for yourself.
And if you really wanna do it,
you can try all four of 'em if you really love ice cream.
All four places that sell it.
If you're looking for an alcoholic drink
on Balboa Island at a bar, well, there's only one.
It's The Village Inn.
It's on the other end of Marine Avenue,
right over here by the Newport Beach Fire Station.
They also have live music at night.
- So, number six, Chris, fishing is always fun.
There's a lot of places do it.
I think there's five public docks.
- [Chris] There are five public docks,
four on the main island and one on the little island.
- And a great place to buy your tackle,
we're sitting here right in front of it, JD's.
- JD's Big Game and Tackle.
It's right next to the Balboa Island Ferry, so
bring your fishing rods,
but buy your tackle right here and fish--
And you could probably rent some here too,
as well. - You probably could.
And you could fish for free.
There's actually somebody with a fishing rod right there
on that skateboard
who just passed us by. - It was perfect.
- That was perfect. - Yeah.
- You'd think we paid him.
The seventh thing to do when you go to Balboa Island
is to ride the Balboa Island Ferry.
This ferry right here, it's the only ferry of its type
in Orange County.
It is a car and pedestrian ferry.
It goes this 800 foot crossing.
It's been going since 1919 continuously,
three cars, a bunch of passengers.
A car is $2, a pedestrian is $1,
bikes, motorcycles, a little bit there in the middle.
Kids get a 50 cent discount.
But this is the quintessential thing
you have to do when you visit Balboa Island.
Actually, we just road it.
Jeff, what'd you think about the ride?
- The best thing about the ride, Chris,
besides it being fun, is there's a "Welcome to Balboa" sign
at both edges, and when you arrive
that is a must-have photo.
- That is a great picture.
And that sign, if we just look right over here,
what he's talking about that's that sign,
"Welcome to Balboa."
And the slightly confusing thing about this all
is this is the Balboa Peninsula,
and then that over there is Balboa Island.
You can see that crossing right down there.
- [Jeff] So number eight, of course,
is go on the historic Ferris wheel,
maybe the world's largest.
- [Chris] Might be the world's longest!
- [Jeff] Yeah? - And--
- [Jeff] One of the world's funnest.
- [Chris] It is, and it has some amazing views
from this Ferris wheel.
- You got Zoltar here, who, of course, is dressed in yellow.
The giant Ferris wheel, you can jump up and down
on some of the rides, play video games,
and eat lots of fried food.
- And apparently Zoltar, he's talking in the back.
He really wanted to be in this video.
We were ignoring him, he felt ignored.
And the funny thing about this Ferris wheel right here,
is it has sign that says it's the world's longest
Ferris wheel ride. - Could be.
- [Both] Could be.
- It says "could be" right on top, so that's why--
- But the fantastic views, beautiful sunsets.
- Yep. - That's for sure.
- So when you've ridden the ferry,
while this technically isn't on Balboa Island,
you're gonna ride that ferry,
so check this out at the end of your ferry ride.
About three more blocks that way, it's the ocean.
The ninth best thing to do when you come to Balboa Island
are the seasonal activities, in particular,
Christmastime, the houses here, they go all out.
One of my favorites of Christmastime,
it's the Beary House.
- Anytime, Chris.
- [Both] Anytime.
- Look at all these bears. 4200 bears.
- That is an impressive amount of bears.
- 4257.
4257 bears,
but only 1300 of them come out at Christmastime.
- That's right, so if you wanna see the Christmas bears,
you have to come at Christmas.
And if you're wondering to yourself,
"Where are those 4000 bears?
"That house doesn't look that big."
Well, they are all over the house in every single room.
As we were shooting this video
the owner was kind enough to say,
"Hey, do you wanna see what the bears look like inside?"
And each room has a theme.
For example, the kitchen, all of the bears are chef bears.
And in addition to houses, there's the Christmas Boat Parade
that you can check out.
Or if you come here in the summer,
then you can enjoy a beach and have your own private beach.
- Yeah, but you know, Chris, it's summer every day here.
- It is summer every day here.
Southern California, living the summertime life.
- Yeah, so anytime's a good time to visit.
It's a great afternoon, right?
Absolutely.
Well, thanks for watching.
If you enjoyed this video,
definitely makes sure you hit the subscribe button.
If you enjoyed Jeff and you wanna see more
Jeff's photo walks, find the link in the description below
to the video we did together or to check out his channel.
Jeff, I had a really great time walking with you today.
- It was very tasty, and very fun and informative.
- Alright, well, we won't say goodbye
because we'll see you in the next video.