Son off to Irvine
 

Hi
My son has just been accepted to do the second year of his University degree at Irvine. He's thrilled at the prospect and the University are giving him lots of help and advice. We are English, living in the North of England, and I want to investigate more about where he is going as it's going to be somewhat different!!! We also want to visit him, maybe in the new Year, but don't have a clue where to base ourselves etc. I have only ever been to Florida and New England before. Any ideas where we start? Book to read? Places to stay? Anything will be greatly appreciated!
M

Dear friend,

Congratulations on your son's acceptance to Irvine, I know plenty of people who have gone there and it has a reputation as one of the better schools in California. I love England, I use to live about 45 minutes north of Birmingham. Anyway, your question...

If you are going to visit him, I would take these steps...as for a book there are plenty, the thing about Irvine as that it isn't a destination in and of itself, it's in Orange County which is south of LA and north of San Diego, so I would get a book on Southern California specifically as one on California in general will probably not give you much info about Irvine...Places to stay---like i said, since it is not a "destination" kind of place, you might want to include it as part of a trip---base yourself out of Los Angeles and drive to see him (just don't drive down in the morning!!!), Irvine has plenty of Hilton-type chain hotels, so you shouldn't be at a loss of a place to stay there. Whatever you do, make sure to see other places as Irvine is not that interesting, and Southern California has a lot to offer. Have a good trip.

Morgana: pleasegodnotme is exactly right in his assessment of the area aounr UC Irvine-- which is indeed an excellent school. Irvine is the epitome of the sprawling southern California suburb, with office parks and large hotels serving a steady business clientèle. Nearby communities of similar character include Costa Mesa, Tustin, etc. However, Orange County has some gorgeous coastal communities that are well worth visiting while you're in the area, including Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.

For your first visit, I would personally plan on staying in Irvine near the UCI campus, and take road trips to explore a bit. Next time you're here (and you'll probably be back many times, even after your son's back in the UK), you can stay somewhere on the coast and have some real fun.

A pretty good place to find out about the high points of "the OC" is the Orange County section of the California information on this website. Happy researching!

Hi Morgana!
Congratulations to your son. What a perfect excuse for a trip. I live and work in cities next door to Irvine. I disagree with the advice to stay in Los Angeles and commute to Irvine to see your son. It is a long commute and there is some degree of traffic all day long. As the mother of a son in college away from home I am sure you would rather be close to where he is! I would stay in the Newport Beach area and venture out from there. There are plenty of places to stay and it is only 10 or 15 minutes from the UCI campus. There is a nice Marriott Suites overlooking the back bay that is right next to the campus. Irvine is a very safe city and is a "planned community" so everything is very clean and well kept. You will find plenty to see and do in the area. Have fun planning your trip!

I also disagree with the advice about basing yourself in Los Angeles. UC-Irvine is quite close to the John Wayne-Orange County Airport and there are dozens of hotels in a variety of styles and price ranges to choose from within minutes of the UC-Irvine campus. Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are also quite close. Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach are only a little further away. On the other hand, depending on where you stay in Los Angeles, you will be at least 30 minutes and often as much as 2-3 hours from the campus.

Since your son will already be here, he can give you advice about where to stay when you come or you could also probably get good advice from the University. They may even have special discounts arranged for visiting parents.

As others have said, UC-Irvine is a world-class university located in the heart of our Paradise by the Pacific. I'm sure he and you will treasure the experience.

I completely agree with the advice to stay near UCI. Not only will that make it easier for you to spend time with your son, but you will be well located for a variety of day trips. From there, you can easily go north to explore LA, Santa Monica, etc., or south to San Diego.

Our weather at the beginning of the year can be cool, though much warmer than your home area! At that time of year, we pray for rain, but unfortunately haven't got much for the last few years. That will probably be a plus for you.

Good luck. I hope he has a wonderful time in California. It is completely different from anything he's used to.

Depending on how long you plan to visit, you might well consider having one base for part of the holiday, close to UCI, then another one closer-in to the central part of Los Angeles. There are numerous adequate hotels in the UCI area - in Newport Beach, all around the Orange County airport (John Wayne International - he lived in Newport Beach), or down the coast around Laguna Beach, all of which are splendid in mid-winter.

Then you could take your leave and stay for a few nights up around Beverly Hills, using the time to explore LA itself without having to struggle through traffic for an hour or more each way from the Orange County area. The LA area has so much to offer; British pals I've taken around (usually in mid-winter, a great time especially compared to mid-winter in the North of England or in the case of most of our friends, Scotland) invariably start working on plans to relocate.

The Irvine Ranch (where UCI is located) is an interesting mirror of the tangled history of California, and worth a little study on your son's (and your) part if such things interest you. Look at http://www.irvineranchhistory.org/ for a start. Most Californians don't know how colorful the history of these areas can be.

Congratulations to your son; it's a fine university. Just make sure he knows what <i>ZOT!!</i> means.

You are all wonderful! 6 speedy responses full of advice and help - but most touching of all are your remarks about my lad. Thank you! If folk in California are anything like you all then I don't need to worry about him!

No, you don't have to worry about him, but you will. My son was born and raised in So. Cal. and after graduating from UC Santa Barbara he applied to many Law Schools in the LA/Orange County area. Out of the clear blue, he annouced he was off to attend school in NYC! This isn't exactly another country, but it has felt that way for the past three years. We went to visit once (on our way to London) and soon realized, he was all grown up, but we still worry. Good luck to you both.

I would definitely stay close to Irvine. I would stay in one of the beach cities, probably Newport. There are many chain hotels right in Irvine though. You do not want to be making daily trips between LA and Orange County.

Congrats on your son's acceptance- the UCs are getting very, very selective, especially with budget cuts.

I would second the recommendation regarding the Newport Marriott Suites. Quite a nice property with spacious rooms. Also, close to UCI and shopping areas/movie theatres.

UCI is a beautiful campus. I'm sure your son will thoroughly enjoy his studies there (as well as all of the extra-curricular activities!)

sorry can't help wit Irvine, but my son got accepted to a university too, so congratulations to us both :)

Morgana,

You certainly have gotten many responses, but I have to admit my advice was taken out of context. Being close to college age myself, and having parents who came from far away to visit me (cross-country) I was partly basing my advice to base yourself out of LA on the assumption that you're son hasn't spent much time in SoCal either. And I know when my parents visited me in college, I took the opporitunity to get out of my dorm (or wherever I was living at the time) and stay in a nice hotel with my parents. Call me a moocher or whatever else you want, but I think your son would rather stay with you in a nice hotel in LA where there are things for him to do than in a Best Western in dreary Irvine.

Morgana:

You have recieved many posts on the Irvine area and I worked for the city of Irvine in Community Services and it is not a deary town as some as said. We have many beautiful areas and nice parks. The college itself is across from a nice college style mall which connected with a bridge. It also has a theater which plays art films. It is close to Newport Beach which is beautiful and has very nice hotels to stay in. If you decide to stay in Irvine and near the UCI, you might considered any of the hotels in Irvine which are near the business area. They are new and within driving area of the college. Do a search on the city of Irvine's website and you will find a lot of imformation that will help you. I wish your son much success on his second year at Irvine. It is an excellent school.But if you want a taste of your home land, take a trip out to Santa Monica. There are pubs there and the English who move to LA make it there home because the atmosphere is a bit like their home land. It is a bit of a drive but I think you might enjoy it. There are tea houses all over Orange County in San Juan Capistrano and Tustin. The Ritz Carlton in Dana Point has an excellent one that I have had tea at. I am not sure if that is something you want to do. There is a lot So. California has to offer and shouldn't be missed.

pleasegodnotme - I am weighing up all the info! My son has only ever visited America on family holidays with us before - Florida, New England and New York, so he doesn't have a clue what to expect either! However, he is so excited about this opportunity and from what I have seen coming from the University the 'exchange student' scheme is well established and well organised. Irvine is just a name to me right now but I am keen to find out more. When we visit him we also want to do some of the tourist stuff. My husband (very respectable these days!) was a bit of a flower child in the late 60's and wants to go to all the Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead haunts. I believe that's more the San Fran area. I want to see some scenic beauty and also to get some sunshine! We are a long way from planning an itinerary but all this is helping!
Will you let me know what you mean by not driving down from LA to see him in the morning? Traffic gridlock?
Many thanks again!

Morgana,

Yes, I meant traffic gridlock. Traffic all over SoCal is horrible, but it seems to increase 100 fold during rush hour. I don't know if you drove in any of those other places you visited, but having driven a bit in England, I know I wouldn't be comfortable going from that to LA traffic. But then again, i'm a bad driver, haha. I think you'll have a great time, it just seems to me that everyone always writes onto here about LA and Santa Monica and San Diego and the beaches and on and on. I grew up there and having traveled much myself, I find many of the respsonses to be of a type, and although I'm not a disagreeable person, I tend to disagree. I think there are opinions that aren't popular but need to be heard. Thank you.

The traffic in greater LA is pretty bad. Going from the central part of LA south to Irvine can be done in the morning, provided you let the peak commuter traffic die down a little. It's not ever un-congested, but it's not ultra-terrible after 9 or 9:30 AM or so, especially if you are careful on route selection. The San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) is like the M25 in the morning and afternoon - you just don't want to use it if you can avoid it; however if you're in downtown LA or Beverly Hills you can cut east to Interstate 5 (Santa Ana Freeway) and it won't be as bad southbound in the morning. But traffic in LA is pretty terrible nowadays.

If your son is like most (well, ours,) then having Mum and Dad hovering around the university will be fun only to a point. Go say hi, get the phone numbers of his room-mates' parents ;), buy him a flash dinner someplace, then go off and toodle around California for a few days - up the coast to San Francisco, sunbreak in San Diego, cruise to Mexico... lots of very cool grownup things to do in the Southland in the winter.

You are so right Gardyloo - I am not sure if our trip is for our lad's benefit or ours! Maybe we can combine the two! The worst bit will be not seeing him at Christmas but he's already had offers of hospitality from some Californian friends who have been at his Uni in London for the last year - so he won't be alone. I am sort of drawn towards the beaches (sorry pleasegodnotme!) for the sheer pleasure of warmth and sea at a time when we will be having snow and ice in Yorkshire! Froggy - I won't miss England too much when I am away but Santa Monica does sound good too. I'll have to go somewhere to have a decent cuppa! There's clearly so much to see that we are going to have to do several trips I think!

I go to UCI currently, but I live in West LA. Don't stay in LA if you plan to visit him, unless he's going to be on Spring Break or something and then he can stay with you. Traffic is horrible on the 405 (which is probably the freeway you'll take). There are some solid hotels in Irvine, but I recommend staying in Newport Beach which is close by Irvine (10 minute drive perhaps) and at least has the beach. Irvine, I'm sorry to say, is somewhat &quot;dreary&quot;, but it's only because it's very much a solid upper middle class suburb. There isn't much excitement going on, so if you'd really like a taste of southern california...visit LA and the South Bay area beaches.

Also a tip to your son...UCI is what people call a &quot;commuter school&quot;...most people that go there live in Southern California (although there are a lot of NorCal folks) so a lot of people go home on the weekend. And because there isn't much to do in Irvine, a lot of people drive to LA on the weekends anyway. If he wants to integrate himself, he should defintely join some sort of organization - be it religious, community service, dorm leadership, fraternity, etc. It'll help. =) Just a tip though. Congrats to your son! It's a great school with great academics and the campus is really beautiful.

Many thanks for all the help - even someone who actually goes to UCI. It's all helped to give me an idea of where to stay (Newport Beach is winning at the moment). Once we start planning our trip I will no doubt have loads more questions!
I am reading 'House of Sand and Fog' at the moment and it suggests that the area is frequently covered in fog! Please excuse my total ignorance here - is this a problem all year round? At the moment we are intending to visit at the end of Jan or beginning of Feb.