I am dying to stay in one of the crystal cove beach houses but haven't had much luck getting reservations. I thought that was further away than 30 minutes though, at least in daytime traffic? I google mapped nearly everything last spring and I had a hard time finding anything within an hour.
Should be around half hour if not during rush hour, unless the 55 is really bad. I sometimes work in our Newport beach office not far from Crystal Cove, and sometimes meet the family at DL after a half day. The 55 can get bad at lunch and various other times, so i sometimes go the "back way" up 405 then through fountain valley/garden grove up. Its more like 45 minutes but pretty predictable surface streets. And there are a lot of places to grab a Banh Mi and vietnamese coffee along the way.
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