Newport Beach Beaches:

The manmade islands of Newport Beach serve residential purposes primarily (except for Balboa Island with its delightful 'downtown.')

We're going to try to show them to you with the aerial photo we took from a commercial flight out of John Wayne/Orange County Airport.

BALBOA ISLAND: The biggie of islands in Newport Beach is Balboa. It has a shopping district and ferry service between it and the mainland peninsula. Direct access is also available from Jamboree Road which turns into Marine Avenue, the heart of the little downtown boutique shopping and dining area. From our picture Balboa is located slightly right of center, and in the upper quadrant. If you look carefully it looks like there's a line going through it. The island has a subset, Little Balboa which is accessed over a bridge that hands cars as well as pedestrians.

LITTLE BALBOA:  Little Balboa is accessed over a bridge that handles cars as well as pedestrians. It is another island considered part of Balboa Island. Marine Avenue near the Chinese restaurant intersects with Park Avenue, where you can turn onto Little Balboa. The waterway that runs between Balboa and Little Balboa is called Grand Canal. It is somewhat reminiscent of an Italian canal with homes and small boats and kayaks lining the water.

LIDO ISLE: From the bottom center of the picture go straight up to a long, thin island that looks red or clay colored from above. Those are the roof tops of homes on Lido Isle. From above it's almost shaped like a sock. Lido Isle is not gated and can be accessed from the Newport Peninsula's Via Lido.

HARBOR ISLAND: Harbor Island is south and right next to Linda Isle. It looks like a seed pod, and has just over a dozen or so homes. It is accessible from Bayside Drive near Coast Highway.

LINDA ISLE: In our photo Linda Isle looks like a backwards letter "C".  It is located almost smack dab in the middle of the aerial picture. It is a small, gated residential island with not many homes accessed from Bayside Drive and very close to Coast Highway.

BAY ISLAND: Talk about different! Bay Island with its bay view homes (20 or so) has no car service to the island. There's just a simple walkbridge beyond a locked gate off of Island Avenue on Newport Peninsula. The little island is near Balboa Pavilion and Balboa Village. From one side of the island homes can watch the ferry run all day. From the other side homes can see yachts coming in and out of the bay to Newport Harbor Yacht Club, located a block away from the Bay Island bridge.

NEWPORT ISLAND: Shaped like a triangle, this little island on the Peninsula is accessed on 38th Street. The Rivo Alto channel that runs on the north side of the island overlooks the Balboa Cays gated community that runs along Coast Highway. Newport Island is not gated and contains Newport Island Park, open to the public.