UCI student photo shoot at Huntington Beach

With a climate that ranges from 50 to 75 degrees in the winter and 60 to 90 degrees in the summer, and close proximity to the mountains and the ocean, Orange County, California offers a variety of activities from skiing and snowboarding to surfing, sailing and other water sports. In fact, swimming, boating, surfing, skin diving and fishing are year-round sports. Orange County boasts expansive parks, scenic hiking, biking and jogging trails, as well as public golf courses and tennis courts.

Hard-core sports fans will enjoy frequent professional sporting events, including Angels’ baseball, the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks, and horse racing at the Santa Anita and Del Mar tracks.

Orange County is home to the nationally renowned South Coast Repertory, the Discovery Cube, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, art museums, Knott’s Berry Farm, Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, as well as numerous performance and sports venues.

Visitors to nearby Los Angeles will find some of the best entertainment facilities in the country, including the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, the Geffen Playhouse, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theater and the Hollywood Bowl. A variety of smaller stage productions are also available in Hollywood and the nearby Melrose Avenue district. Extensive art collections are on view at the Los Angeles County, Norton Simon and J. Paul Getty art museums, as well as at the Huntington Library, which is home to a world-class arboretum. There are also numerous smaller art galleries throughout the region.

The area’s extensive freeway system makes all of these activities readily accessible. San Diego — with SeaWorld, the prestigious San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park — is only a two-hour drive away.