Guidebooks Take Different Views on Good and Bad of Travel in O.C.

Come summer vacation time and some of the people who know Orange County least--tourists from Nebraska to Nepal--decide to pay Orange County a visit.

One travel book, “Birnbaum’s United States 1989,” explains the tourist lure of Orange County with one word: Disneyland. “For many people this is the most compelling magnet in all of Southern California.”

But there are many more travel books--and as many differing views--that give tourists an impression of Orange County long before they step off the bus. And the more they read, the more confused they can get.

Read “Los Angeles Access” (1987) and you want to book your flight right now. This book regards the Orange County coast as “an earthly paradise of temperate climate, a shoreline of alternating smooth sandy beaches with majestic rocky promontories, green canyons, rolling hills and a feeling of suspended time.”

But read “Let’s Go: Budget Guide to California and Hawaii” (1989) and you’d rather visit a Pittsburgh slag heap:

” . . . Orange County was divided and subdivided. Ridiculously broad avenues formed an immense grid, which the years filled with cookie-cutter copies: gas stations on every corner, supermarkets on every block, and other necessities of life provided at more malls, plazas, squares, centers and markets than any real city could handle.”

Some cities are praised:

” . . . Laguna is undoubtedly Orange County’s vacation paradise, with more charm per square inch than any place south of Carmel. . . . The incredibly lovely setting and the small-town atmosphere will leave you feeling renewed, relaxed and refreshed.” (“The Best of Los Angeles,” 1988).

And some cities are merely dismissed:

“Anaheim is Disneyland,” concludes “Frommer’s Dollarwise California and Las Vegas” (1989), and “there is no reason to stay here unless you plan to linger at the Magic Kingdom,” according to “Let’s Go.”

That is what hundreds of thousands of tourists do year after year--check into an Anaheim motel and soak up the amusement park scene.

“Anaheim is indisputably the West’s capital of family entertainment,” states “Fodor’s 89 Los Angeles.” “With Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and Movieland Wax Museum, there are as many rides and attractions, color and merriment as anyone could want.”

Certainly as much as the John and Kay Duplock family wants. Their devotion to Orange County tourism could qualify them as the tourist bureau’s poster family.

Last week, the Duplocks traveled yet again to Anaheim from their home in Leicestershire, England, with their son Richard, 6, daughter Laura, 9 months, and John’s parents, George and Ruby Duplock.

It was the Duplocks’ third trip to “the states,” which to them always means a trip to Anaheim and Disneyland.

John, a painting contractor, said it was the family’s ninth day spent at the park.

‘Everything’s So Cheap’

“We don’t go to L.A. much,” said Kay. “We took a tour that shows you the sights, but we never stepped off.”

“Everything’s so cheap here,” John said. “Your houses are expensive, but where we ate last night my meal cost me seven dollars fifty for the whole lot. That’s about 6 (actually closer to 4.50). In England, that meal’s 10 or 12 pounds.”

Kay estimated that by the time the family returns home, their trip to Orange County will have cost them about $6,000, not including the grandparents’ expenses.

“Next year’s a car,” John said. “Then we’re back here.”

So what do the Duplocks think of Orange County? “We always stay in Anaheim mainly,” John said. “Everywhere it’s clean and tidy.”

The Hughes family from Moline, Ill., were also staying in Anaheim but conceded they knew little of Orange County outside the park’s perimeter.

Jim and Ellen Hughes with sons Steve, 12, and Andrew, 5, had arrived Tuesday and had toured Disneyland. When the family heads home, they will have bestowed most of $3,000 on the Orange County economy, Jim estimated.

Had they formed any impression at all about Orange County?

“The traffic isn’t as bad as people said it was going to be,” Ellen said. “It seems a lot better than last time.” The family last vacationed in Anaheim in 1973.

Jim said he had certainly formed one impression. Back at the motel “they don’t trust anyone,” he said.

He was going to call Dodger Stadium for baseball tickets, “and to start with, I can’t believe that calling Dodger Stadium is long distance.”

Anyway, “the manager says we can’t call without putting down a $20 deposit, and I was using my credit card.”

Still, he said, it’s better than going to Walt Disney World in Florida. “Disney World is nice, but there’s not as much to do around there.”

How Others See Us

Comments on Orange County excerpted from these travel books:

“Los Angeles Access” (1987)

“The Best of Los Angeles” (1988)

“Let’s Go: Budget Guide to California and Hawaii” (1989)

“Fodor’s 89 Los Angeles” (1989)

“Frommer’s Dollarwise California and Las Vegas” (1989)

. . . one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, struggling with issues of growth and traffic. . . . The county has been shaped by large capitalist forces. Much of it is owned by several of the powerful companies that helped build it: Irvine, Segerstrom, Koll. Many of the newer cities (such as Irvine) are planned communities that serve as models for other cities around the world.

Fodor’s

For tourism purposes, Orange County can be divided into two areas--the coast and the inland region, each with a totally different feel. There is the hustle-bustle on the inland, with its family-oriented attractions, and there is the more low-key ‘cas’ beach atmosphere. Not that there is nothing to do at the beaches besides loll in the sun, but the pace really is different.

Fodor’s

Although physically Anaheim, Buena Park and Irvine are among the most unprepossessing towns in California, they are also the ones that attract the most visitors. For if the natural surroundings are uninspiring and the streets lack any vestige of charm, the man-made attractions off the streets are enchanting.

Frommer’s

Disneyland is the kingdom where fantasy and magic are around the next turnstile and dreams are as advertised.

L.A. Access

Anaheim is Disneyland.

Frommer’s

Anaheim is not exactly one of the world’s gourmet capitals.

Frommer’s

The Orange County restaurant scene often seems to be playing catch-up with Los Angeles, but it’s certainly a leader when it come to airport restaurants. While LAX is notoriously bleak dining territory, John Wayne Airport benefits from Orange County’s habit of putting its fanciest restaurants in hotels.

Best of L.A.

Everything here operates on the scale of the automobile, so forget about walking or biking.

Go

Let’s Go

The Orange County Transit Department (sic) will take you virtually anywhere in the county, but, again, it will take time.

Fodor’s

Tourists continue to flock here in record numbers. For good reason: When the Beach Boys sang about ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ and ‘California Girls,’ they were singing about Orange County’s beaches.

Best of L.A.

The best thing behind the Orange Curtain is access to a variety of beaches. The coastal towns from Seal Beach to San Onofre offer everything from unstudied California cool to overpowering quaintness.

Let’s Go

Laguna Beach is an art colony as intimate and colorful as any seaside resort on the French Riviera.

L.A. Access

The coast between Huntington and Newport beaches is one of the only stretches of shoreline between Los Angeles and San Diego free of condominiums. Unfortunately, what is there is worse: a huge power plant, miscellaneous power lines, acres of oil wells and miles of rusty chain-link fence.

Let’s Go

Newport Beach is the place to summer if George and Barbara haven’t invited you to Kennebunkport. All those L.L. Bean and Land’s End catalogue boys and girls can feel right at home here among other California prepsters similarly mad about madras. The rich tend to be nouveau, and the sunglasses are Vuarnet (on a neck cord).

Let’s Go

Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve. Perhaps our favorite place in the Newport-Laguna area. Its serenity is broken only by singing birds and duck discussions--or by an occasional motorist. . . . The silence here is a welcome respite.

Best of L.A.

The most famous and most scenic route in Orange County is, without a doubt, the Pacific Coast Highway. . . . The most spectacular view (one threatened by development and which may already be gone by the time you read this) is between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach.

Fodor’s

More tourists than swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano. . . . This ‘jewel of the missions’ offers a peek at what, to Californians, is ancient history. . . . The swallows are scheduled to return to Capistrano on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19, but being neither religious nor punctual, they show up even when there aren’t busloads of tourists hanging around.

Let’s Go

San Clemente is probably best remembered as the site of the Western White House during the Nixon years. . . . Perhaps even more infamous than Nixon’s house is the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant (sic), a controversial installation lending an eerie feeling to the nearby beach.

Fodor’s