Anaheim is home to the “Happiest Place on Earth,” but visitors don’t have to set foot in Disneyland to feel the love.
“Anaheim and Orange County, we’re your quintessential California destination,” said Junior Tauvaa, senior vice president of sales and services for the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau.
Although it’s 25 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Anaheim sometimes gets lumped in with its colossal sister city. Because of that, people may assume Anaheim is a sprawling metropolis with crawling traffic and iffy areas, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Anaheim is home to about 347,000 residents and is a safe destination where “the vibe is sun, palm trees and an easy, laid-back personality,” Tauvaa said.
At night, “Anaheim really shines,” he said. “People don’t roll up the carpet and go home. There’s a lot of activity that goes on at night.” During the day, Anaheim is also hopping. Center Street anchors the city’s revitalized downtown, where every retailer and restaurant fits the area’s all-local, nonchain vibe. Examples include the Gypsy Den, a coffee shop/wine bar, and Barbeer, an old-timey barbershop that serves up hot shaves and cold beers. The palm-tree-lined promenade is also home to art crawls, farmers markets and local festivals such as Q’ing and Brewing, and OC Fest of Ales.
Orange County is first and foremost a destination, both for leisure travelers and for meeting groups, Tauvaa said. That is, in part, because Anaheim is home to Disneyland and Disneyland California Adventure Park — Knott’s Berry Farm is also nearby — and because Orange County has 42 miles of coastline with six vibrant beach cities. To serve all those visitors, the city has more than 9,000 hotel rooms within half a mile of the Anaheim Convention Center, and that number jumps to nearly 19,000 hotel rooms within a mile of the complex.
“It’s a destination that has great things for the leisure traveler and your family vacation, but also for groups or from an event perspective,” Tauvaa said.
Anaheim Convention Center
The Anaheim Convention Center opened in 1967 across the street from Disneyland. Originally built as a basketball arena, the convention center has since undergone six renovations and expansions. Today, the complex is the West Coast’s largest exhibit venue, with 813,000 square feet of exhibition space as well as 160,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space and 200,000 square feet of prefunction space. Crews broke ground this spring on the center’s seventh expansion, which will be complete in summer 2017. The $190 million project will build a two-level addition with 200,000 square feet of flexible space that can be used for meetings, exhibits and banquets.
Citrus Heritage
The 1919 downtown building where crews once packed orange crates is now a hip indoor market and artisanal food court packed with vendors and merchants. The Anaheim Packing House is filled with options to make foodies drool: soul food, fresh fish and Indian street fare, a creperie, a chocolatier and a bulk spice shop. There’s even a hidden speakeasy. The historic Spanish-style warehouse was meticulously restored, salvaging the original wood floors and giant windows. The garden level, which is open to the mezzanine level above, has space for groups of up to 100, and a patio can be reserved for private events.
