Santa Ana
Check out Santa Ana, a fun city in the middle of Southern California’s fun.
Santa Ana is the cultural, entertainment, and food hub of Orange County. It has a lot of real history and hidden gems that you can’t miss. The city’s location makes it easy to get to all of Southern California’s attractions, such as day trips to Los Angeles, stops at the many nearby theme parks, and the beautiful Pacific Ocean sunsets that can only be seen on the Golden Coast. But if you stay a while, you’ll be amazed at how much art, culture, and interesting things you can only find in old Santa Ana.
Funky art and museum finds
Art can be found all over Santa Ana, in museums, alleyways, and small shops and studios. It pours outside, and bright murals cover buildings all over the city. On the first Friday of every month, more than 20 shops in Downtown Santa Ana host art shows, performances, and live music. The Bowers Museum has a fixed collection of over 100,000 different works of art, as well as traveling shows from major art museums like the British Museum, the Vatican, and the Shanghai Museum.
Other interesting cultural spots in Santa Ana are the Santa Ana Zoo, which has a large group of primates, the Lyon Air Museum at John Wayne Airport, which has a lot of military vehicles and rare cars, and the Heritage Museum of Orange County, which focuses on teaching with a Southern California theme. Take a historic architecture walking tour with Preserve Orange County if you’re interested in architecture. You can look at the beautiful Spanish scrollwork on the Santora Building or the grand Romanesque arches of the Old Orange County Courthouse. With more than 100 hands-on science exhibits, the Discovery Cube Science Museum is a standard kids’ museum. Try your strength and speed on a one-of-a-kind adventure: The American Ninja Warrior Adventure Park has the famously difficult obstacles from the TV show, as well as a huge inflatable obstacle course.
Neighborhoods with history Full of fun things to do and places to see
People can spend days exploring the Downtown Santa Ana Historic District, which is spread out over 9.9 hectares and has art deco buildings and public art that will inspire you. Craft drinks and tasty food will also wake you up. The Frida Cinema is Orange County’s film festival all year long. It shows good movies all year long, such as independent, student, avant-garde, animated, and famous classics. The 4th Street Market is across the street and is an original food hall with a changing roster of cutting-edge food creators. The Yost Theatre is a vaudeville theater turned small live music spot that has shows every week and is only a block away. A proposed streetcar route that is 6.75 kilometers long will open in 2024 and make it even easier to see this beautiful area.
The area of French Park, which is right next to downtown and on the National Register of Historic Places, is made up of 20 square blocks lined with grand homes from the 1880s. If you want to enjoy some tasty drinks at the Blinking Owl Distillery, you should first take a tour of Orange County’s craft distillery. The Floral Park area is just north of downtown. It has more than 600 stylish homes that were built in the early 1900s, as well as gardens and orange trees. MainPlace Mall, which is at the northern tip of the neighborhood, has more than 200 stores, ranging from big-name names to small shops. The Observatory is a great place to see live music on the south side of town. Every night, big names and up-and-coming local artists take the stage.