Things to do in Anaheim

Food · Downtown, Anaheim Boulevard

A 1919 Sunkist citrus packing house converted into a two-storey food hall, with the 1920s Packard showroom next door and an outdoor stage between them.

Local tip: Go on a weekday evening rather than a Saturday, when it fills with families from the Resort. The Filipino, Mexican and Middle Eastern counters are the reason to come; the cocktail bar hidden behind the unmarked door is the reason people stay.

Neighborhood · West Anaheim, Brookhurst between Ball and Broadway

The first formally recognised Arab American district in the United States, designated by the city council in August 2022 after more than twenty years of campaigning — Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and Egyptian bakeries, butchers, restaurants and hookah lounges along a mile of Brookhurst Street.

Local tip: Come for the bakeries in the morning and the grills after 9pm, when the district is at its liveliest. It is a working commercial strip rather than a heritage attraction, which is exactly what the twenty-year campaign was about.

Culture · North and east of downtown

The original 1857 German winemaking colony's street grid, now one of California's largest concentrations of preserved Craftsman, Victorian and Spanish Colonial Revival houses — several hundred of them on the streets around Center Street Promenade.

Local tip: Walk it on a Sunday morning. 'Anaheim' is 'Ana' for the Santa Ana River plus the German 'heim' for home, and this is the only part of the city where that history is still visible on the ground.

Nature · Anaheim Hills, east of the 55

Fifty-eight acres of oak woodland in a canyon at the eastern edge of the city, with trails climbing into the Santa Ana Mountains foothills straight out of a residential street.

Local tip: Go early between March and May when the hills are still green — from July they are golden, hot and closed on red-flag days. The canyon holds shade far longer than the ridge trails do.

Nightlife · South-east Anaheim, either side of the 57

Angel Stadium and the Ducks' Honda Center face each other across the freeway, with ARTIC's cathedral-like transit hall between them and a multi-billion-dollar mixed-use district being built around the arena.

Local tip: Take Metrolink or the Pacific Surfliner into ARTIC for a game rather than driving — the walk is ten minutes and it saves you the stadium car park and the post-event queue onto the 57 entirely.

Landmark · Downtown Anaheim

The pedestrianised heart of the old downtown, with the MUZEO museum in the 1908 Carnegie Library building and a Thursday farmers market that has been running for over a decade.

Local tip: This is where Anaheim is a normal city rather than a resort. Most visitors never leave the Harbor Boulevard corridor two miles south and have no idea it exists.