So I’m finalizing a job offer in Orange County for a company with an office on the border of Anaheim and Yorba Linda (where 90 meets 91FW). I’ve been told by a friend that if I want to be close for commute, to live in Orange or Anaheim Hills, but if I want better lifestyle amenities to look at Laguna Beach or Laguna Hills.
From a triathlete training perspective, would it be better to live out by Orange and save the time on commute, or to live out by Laguna Hills and take the toll roads 30 miles to work each day? Any advice on locations for long rides (with climbs preferred), good pools, and running locations would help.
To give you perspective, I consider myself a spoiled athlete for locations: I lived in San Diego by the beach, then moved to Santa Barbara, then moved to SF and Portola Valley in the Bay Area most recently. It’s going to be hard to compete with riding in the Santa Cruz mountains as my backyard, that’s for sure!
I think you’d be fine anywhere in Orange County, but I’m partial to Irvine. You can take the 241 toll road and be in Yorba Linda in 15-20 minutes. Most communities have a lap pool where you’ll never share a lane. There are bike lanes on every road and you’re only about 15 minutes from the ocean depending on where you live.
Laguna Beach probably is cost prohibitive for most people. Plus, it seems like it would be a pain to commute to/from there. Laguna Hills is fine, but nothing spectacular. Housing may be a tad cheaper than Irvine.
Again, I think you’ll be fine wherever you choose.
I grew up in Yorba Linda and I think YL and Anaheim Hills offer great running options. There are a lot of dirt horse trails that wind through both cities, lots of hills, access to Chino Hills State Park, and the river trail (boring but flat). Cycling would be ok but not great.
I lived in Irvine and would agree with jamlo, this area might be your best option. Good running with a combo of dirt and paved trails, easy cycling access to the inland routes (Santiago Canyon) and the coastal routes through Newport and Laguna. A lot of the Irvine communities have amenities that include 25yd lap pools, so you’d have super easy access to year-round swimming. There are a couple of Masters programs (Nova and UCI) nearby. As mentioned, you have the toll road over the hill into YL from east Irvine, which gets crowded but not the traffic you’d see on 55 or 91.
I live in Anaheim Hills (border Yorba Linda) and love it here.
Quick recap:
Training it’s A+
Training rides A+
Gravel Trails A+
Central Location A+
Day to Day Cycling B
Long Fun rides C-
Group rides D
Masters D
Training purposes: I live right next to Yorba Regional Park and it’s amazing. I didn’t know about this area prior to moving and I feel truly lucky to end up here. I have a dirt and paved bike/running trail that heads 22 miles straight to the beach (and another 7 miles the other direction towards Corona). The Santa Anna River Trail although super boring is fantastic for long continuous training rides. I get in TT and just zone out… I do intervals… stay in aero… it’s great for training (round trip from my house is like 2:10 hours). You can head onto the PCH if you want or just lap it. Is it super fun for a “fun†ride? No. If I have an hour lunch ride or AM ride that’s not interval base I’d usually head into YL and it’s very safe with bike lanes and light traffic. If I’m doing a big fun cycling ride… I hop in my car and drive to Santa Monica (50 mins in the AM) and ride in the SM Mtns. or drive the 35 mins and do GMR/Baldy. You are truly central to everything.
I also have a gravel bike and can reach a legit gravel/fire road trail within a 10 min bike ride from my house (Chino State Park). You can also drive to Irvine Reg Park for legit single track riding or ride 20 mins from my house to Coal Canyon and ride the Main Divide. If you want flat… ride the Santa Ana trail dirt all the way to the beach. Gravel riding here is incredible and vast (I was told once by someone there are 90 miles of continuous trails from Chino State Park… which seems right).
Swimming Masters - only issue for some. Closest masters is at Janet Evan’s in Fullerton and it’s 20 mins away. I tend to swim solo and just do the local 24 hour fitness (outdoor pool) instead. So I don’t care about that but I did do it a few times and if its early practice then the 91 is fine. If you do lunch it’s a little congested.
If you decide to move closer to the beach like Laguna Hills. Daily cycling is limited and more congested… also a ton of lights. The only benefit living there is living closer to the beach. Which is awesome. Decent smaller trail system.
Orange is an amazing town but make sure you are close to the River Trail bc I would feel trapped if I was closer to their downtown. Also schools aren’t great in that area.
Irvine is great. Great schools. Great masters program and pool. To congested for me on daily rides and I feel their bike trail system is fine but not as continuous as the one next to my house.
One last thing about why I love living in Anaheim Hills is it’s an easier drive to Mammoth… Big Bear… Las Vegas… SD county (via Temecula). Palm Springs is an easy day trip (compared to living on the coast). I really feel it’s central to everything and a great place to live.
congrats and welcome to OC. (i’m an OC native and currently live in Anaheim Hills)
For where to live, that’s very personal, but…
Closer to the beach: that’ll cost you more
lots of cycling along PCH, but lots of cars. Newport Back Bay is a good/popular spot for OWS, bike/running trail that runs inland for 15+ miles
Irvine: good in between area, lots of home options,
great bike lanes, good option for masters (Nova), close access to Santiago Canyon for cycling and also MTB trails
AH/ YL/Orange: nice areas, some more mature homes with bigger lots
good access to SART trail that runs about 30 miles with no lights/traffic. Good residential area riding with several 5-15min climbs. Close options for dirt trails (mtb, gravel, trail running)
oh, and this North OC area has the best concentration of breweries in the county.
One important consideration is air quality. The closer the coast you are the better it will be… and it will be cooler in summer, though none of these will be that hot.
Wow, all great input so far. I was not expecting to cross off Laguna from the list, but the triathletes have spoken. I don’t mind the lack of master programs, since my coach doesn’t let me swim them anyways. Thank you all for the input so far, this is making the decision easier and easier.
I live in Orange, right off the river trail (SART). You are basically centrally located to just about everything. 91/5/57/55 fwys are all here and great options when inevitably there is an accident or traffic on one of them.
Swim: I’m a member of Nova for Masters. 15min drive in the morning to Irvine. 25min drive to Long Beach (Bay Shore), where most triathletes in the area go for OWS and brick workouts. There is the run path in Long Beach & the San Gabriel River Trail (SGRT) that are close options for run or bike. You have Corona Del Mar (CDM) that is another popular OWS spot roughly 25min away. I choose not to swim in Back Bay, someone else mentioned, as water quality is suspect.
Bike: This is where being centrally located really helps. This was covered pretty well but SART is great and Santiago Canyon is about a 12 mile nice warmup ride to get to. About a 35-40min drive away, when you want elevation gain with sustained climbing, you have GMR, Mt Baldy, and SGRT which you can climb all the way to Crystal Lake. For scenic rides, depending on how far you want to go, we ride down the coast to oceanside, Solana Beach or San Diego for pizza & beer, then take the train back. Train Station (ARTIC) is right off SART.
Run: Too many options to list here but if you love trail, you’ll never get bored.
Overall, I’m not sure the added cost, price/sq ft, is really worth it to live in South County. I’d look to stay in the Orange, Anaheim Hills, Yorba Linda, or even Placentia areas. For added cost, Orange Hills or Villa Park have some amazing homes.
One important consideration is air quality. The closer the coast you are the better it will be… and it will be cooler in summer, though none of these will be that hot.
Being close to work is super nice, though.
Air quality is never a concern from South County to North County but the temp difference from Orange to Irvine, you’ll see about an 8 degree drop off. You wont notice most of the year but on those high 90 / low 100 days, the cooler temps near the coast are a nice relief.
I just checked Purpleair.com and was surprised to see the air quality was better than the bay area on most days. I’ve spent a lot of time in Riverside which is a little different in this regard, but Orange area seemed to be very clean.
Anyone know if swimming in Lake Irvine, Lake Elsinore, or Lake Mattews allowed?
Don’t live in OC (but live in LA and spend time in OC) not sure I would base my living decision based on where I can train, especially since essentially all of the OC is great for year round training.
Not sure if you have a family or not, but I’d probably try to be somewhere near Newport, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Coto de Caza, Laguna etc.
Either way, welcome to SoCal and prepared to overpay for everything.
I will throw this out there, as I lived recently in south OC and loved it. I really could not afford most the places everyone is throwing out here, but just inland of San Juan Capistrano and Doheny beach, they are building a brand new city. It is about 9 years old and only half complete, but we were able to get a brand new single family home for under 600k. Probably a bit more now, but if you look in the OC, most of the old homes are near a million, and way up from there.
These communities had lap pools and gyms, so saved there. They are also putting in a series of bike trails, and there are plenty of dirt ones for running and off road riding. And just after I left, they continued the pay fwy right through the neighborhood(241), which makes going north super convenient, and you miss virtually all the rush hour traffic that you get having to use the 405 fwy. Have a look, it wouldn’t be a horrible commute for you, and you get way more for your money there, and if you have kids, great new schools that just went online in the last 5 years…
I would live close to work for you, preferably YL or Anaheim Hills.
Hopefully with a community pool.
Riding and running in those areas is actually pretty good.
I think you could only swim in Elsinore of those lakes, but you don’t want to. Look up fish die offs.
For OWS you would head to the Dunes or the ocean.