Hiking BOF

I'm not organizing this one, but I know the area a bit (went to grad school at UC Irvine for 5 years), so I'm posting what I know so others can use it as they like to satisfy their hiking/running/walking urges:

Running/Walking

There are plenty of options for short, mellow runs/walks around the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel itself is located in the middle of Fashion Island, which is basically an upscale outdoor mall surrounded by office buildings/retail parks (and a really nice movie theater with one of the largest screens on the West Coast - it's huge... but I digress).

So anyway, the first quarter mile or so of any run/walk FROM the hotel would involve escaping the Fashion Island area, which isn't too bad - you just need to dodge a few gigantic SUVs...

The back bay is quite close to the hotel, so you could probably get there quickest, and that's good for a short run (probably up to 3-4 miles) - you can also easily join that up with heading onto the UC Irvine campus and running through there for another 2-3 miles.

For longer runs, I'd head towards the beach - Crystal Cove state park is about 4 miles from the hotel (not a great idea to run there though - you'd be running along PCH, probably on a crowded sidewalk most of the way, although there might be some bike trails/paths around). Once you're in Crystal Cove, you can run along the beach on a fairly flat trail (or on the beach itself if you're into that) or run in Crystal Cove/El Moro Canyon, which is pretty rugged if you like trail running.

Hiking

The back bay, as mentioned above, is pretty nice, but it's more of a "walk" than a hike. It's quite close to the hotel though, and good for a quick escape. Crystal Cove/El Moro Canyon is a bit more rugged. Aliso and Woods Canyon in Laguna Beach is probably about 10 miles from the hotel, and has some great trails in the canyon (no ocean views once you're in the canyon, but a nice view from the top before you hike down...)

(disclaimer: I'm not really a hiker - but I'm familiar with most of those trails from mountain biking, and always saw a lot of hikers when I was out riding, so I assume they're just as good for hiking as they are for riding!)

Maybe a local can update/add more information...

Interested persons