Balboa Fun Zone is perfect for an exciting family outing in Newport Beach. Situated on the Balboa Peninsula, the park offers a wide variety of things to see and do.The on-site Balboa Village features a beach area, scenic boardwalk, and a number of restaurants and shops.On-site amusements include the Ocean Motion bungee ride and the iconic waterfront Ferris wheel. Harbour cruises are available, and a historic pavilion and several arcades are also on site.

Enjoyed our stay at Balboa Fun Zone. Water Park was great. Family trip of 15. Everyone had a great time. Food at the Fire Grill Restaurant was okay...(theyre not known for the food). Bowling alley was fun and adults in the group had a good time lounging by the pool. It was a little humid, but with the holiday crowd this is expected. Would certainly go back again.

Nice place... fun family tradition spot. Needs better shopping choices.

Located in the heart of Lake Merrit (more like the side) is a place call Balboa Fun Zone. It is not a big place (10 acre) but not too small that the kids will run out of things to do. The family took my little sister here and we stayed for about 3 hours. That was also because we love taking pictures and there were shows to watch.

Fantastic rides. I had so much fun and enjoyment.

Lots of fun! Parking is insane to find on weekends so go early. Nice place to take the kids since playgrounds are still shut down.

So much to learn and so much to see! Great day at the Balboa fun zone. We had a day full of activities and ended it on fun not with the mini arcade. Kids learned about whales, sea lions, boats and crabs. We highly recommend this place if to ueant to take your kid out for the day or as a family day. Kids will be entertained and grownups can enjoy a relaxing day at the beach

I used to come here as a kid. Everything is pretty much the same and its great! Simple rides and a arcade, its nice to sit on the chairs watching the boats go by while eating a Balboa Bar.

I took the boat tour from here. Nice! Worth it!

Very beautiful place it was my first time going and I absolutely loved this place. Its like a very minature version of the santa monica pier. The prices here are good as well. Not expensive at all. I was unfortunately unable to go on the rides since Im pregnant, but I will definitely come back soon after my son is born and experience this amazing attraction with my family

Love to spend my Summers here! We always get a unlimited pass for the kids at the fun zone and we have a season pass to the activities the kids can use every summer! We also love Cowifornia for ice cream and across from the candy store gyros are delicious!

Lots of fun for kids. Great activities, food and snacks.

So fun!!! Kids will love it. We did our show here. Perfect setting

Lots of food, boats and wholesome fun for the whole family and free motorcycle parking

It is not so fun.

Awesome place for a quick family getaway... entertainment for everyone... miniature golf is a good way to develop motor skills, spend some funny and quality time with the kids, friends or other family members... also great for photography

Fun activities but not that many things to do

So cute! good views!

Love the ferries wheel ride. The staff are super friendly and supportive. Wish that the two arcades combine tickets for our young ones. Visit The Mermaid store and get a slice of pizza near by. Best thin slice I have eaten in a while.

Great amusement to make my kid happy and energetic! We keep coming here from another city even though my city has boomers! Highly suggest to parents!

Went here on a boat ride and saw a whale!! The gift shops were nice, and they got a arcade I went to but the candy was stale so dont go to the candy claw machine!! best place though I went here a year ago

A great time. We took the ferry back and forth and hung out at the fun zone and had iced tea! Fun place to people-watch.

A 45 minutes cruise getting to see the nice Balboa peninsula houses, boats, sea lions, relaxing time and nice view, best of all, very inexpensive $14.00.Great place to take your guests for a lovely afternoon.

Fun place... go for the 90minute boat tour?

Fun place to go on a date or hangout with family for a couple hours

This is lots of fun. Like an old fashioned amusement park. Kids enjoyed the rides and Ferris wheel.

This is certainly an iconic place with lots of history and my younger daughter loves it. There are games, rides, souvenir shops, and plenty of food selections. However, each of the times Ive gone over 30 years, I cant help feel it has a run down feel to it. That may be part of the charm, though. It is a great family place and if one is in the area, worth a visit. Keep in mind parking is an issue in the summer.

Took my 10 year old daughter on the 90 minute Harbor Cruise and she absolutely loved it!! We even got to see sea lions hanging out on the buoy! Such a great time!

Yeah, I would get on my beach cruiser, hop on the ferry, head over to Pizza Petes for a slice and spend hours at the Balboa Fun Zone for hours as I was growing up. At some point (say, 16) I made frozen bananas for tourists--sheeeeeeeesh, and I hate bananas! But I really loved this place...and am happy to bring my New York City kids to see this slice of their Daddys history a couple of times/year!

The name says it all. Fun and beautiful ️. Always a good place to take the kids. Adults will enjoy great food and stunning viewing areas. The rides cost a bit but so much fun. Several places to eat and drink. Boat rides for yourself and or your car. Yup a ferry to and from Balboa Island. People can fish right from the deck. We had the best time. We stayed most of the day. Parking spots were a little hard to find. And we used a meter to pay. The meter took cash or credit cards. Gorgeous yachts sailing by. Very easy to get a boat to rent. There are also several tour boats. Many more fishing trips or whale watching tour. Dolphin and porpoises are abundant. I will return soon. Such a contrast between Missouri and California.

We stayed in the area May 28th through June 2nd, 2018. The harbor is beautiful and Balboa Fun Zone was fun, small and a little limited but fun. They have a ferris wheel, a jump on a trampoline game, and a few others plus the small arcade. The arcade takes coins between .25 cents and $1.00 to play. As always the winnings are silly and youll need at least 10 tickets to get one small candy. The ferris wheel was $4, and my kids loved it. Small but worth the ride, beautiful view from the top. The other rides are run by the Discovery cube childrens center and it cost $5 p.p. The discovery center was really great. My 3yr old loved it. The price is for all 3 areas. There are a few places to eat. One ice cream place and one with churros and funnel cake. Yumm. Have fun!

Came out to go whale watching. Fun boardwalk and pier to spend the day at as well! This was a fun day!

Love it here!! everyone can be a kid also we loved all the teenagers from ireland.

Been going here since I was a child. Love taking my kids now.

Worth the visit. The family will surely have a great time

This is a nice spot to bring your kids on by water. Theres a ton of food for the young ones and adults. Theres an arcade along with rides. It seems to be geared towards kids under 12 for the most part The fun zone isnt that big but everyone seems to be having a good time! You can also rent some boats there and head out on the water.

Fun and take the ferry ride.1 dollar each way... a fun 2 dollar ride.

Great hidden gem. My first time there for whale watching. I loved the ferry that transported people and cars from one side of the island to another.

Kinda cheesy but it is free and the ferry ride is cheap. Walking around Balboa and Newport is a great way to spend a day.

The Ferris wheel there is nice. You can go to Catalina from there. Other than that, they need to clean up the place.

Lots of fun fit adults and kids. Great place to take a date or keep your kids entertained for a few hours. Parking can be a challeng, but theres lots of Adirondack parking across the street by the pier. It can get a little hectic and crowded at times, but that doesnt detract from the experience.

I love this place!! There are so many places to get great food, very child and pet friendly as well. He scenery is wonderful and there are a couple great arcades and fun places to hang out.

The only reason Im giving Balbo fun zone 3 stars is because its really gone downhill In the area. My daughter did not feel safe down there and it was rather dirty I thought.... Ive been there years ago and it was fun And it was clean.....

Kids had an awesome time! Boat ride was great. Food great. Rides were great! Highly recommend checking it out!

The farris wheel ride was great.

Its the best place to spend time at the beach with activity

Great place to have family fun.

Not as nice as when i was a kid but still not to bad. My wife and Iwife had a good time!

Brought the kids here. Not a bad place. They had a good time and I had a good time watching them. It is also educational. I will bring the kids here again.

This is a fun strip to walk down. Cool little attractions and food.

Expect cheesy arcade and carnival ride fun and youll have a great time!

Best place for a staycation. Or little getaway.We love to visit this area.

Great fun for the kids!

The seanery the fun the boat ride tour and the friendly people.

Its a beautiful place to visit.

Great place to take the family...restaurants, shops, fishing charters, whale watching.

Dont go in here expecting a huge Boardwalk style Amusement area. Theres only a handful of things to do, and a bunch of beachfront style shops and arcades. Definitely a mini Amusement area. But all of the stuff they have is solid and theres a lot of cool things like ice cream and Beach things to do. Thats a really nice area and its generally so beautiful. Just dont go expecting roller coasters and things like that

This area is way too crowded with the absolute worst signage. The attempt at a boardwalk feel pretty much fails. Laguna Beach is much nicer and better planned and laid out.

The grown man running the ferris wheel this week was an awful businessman and exceptionally creepy. I didnt trust him for a second. It wasnt clear how to pay as I had a card. He asked for $12. I said I only had a card. Instead of indicating whether he took credit or not, he just yelled at me to pay before we boarded, which is what I was already attempting to do. I left with my kids in tow and very glad we left. He seems to need a little TLC, so if youre his mom, please make him his favorite meal and have a little sit-down talk with him about how to be nice to people.

A bit outdated, nice for younger kids but not for older ones.️

Its been since 2008 thst I have been there. But I loved my visit to Balboa Fun Zone.

Great fun during Christmas boat parade! Plan early for parking, hike in, or pay :all lots full, except for one lot for $60 a space. Still fun a event for family.

This was my daughter’s experience here yesterday...I was at the arcade on Thanksgiving day. The attendant told us the arcade would be closing in 5 minutes. We played the Big Bass Wheel game about 5 more times and eventually won the 1000 ticket jackpot, all before the 5 minutes were up. However, the tickets were taking a while to come out. We asked the attendant to wait to shut off the machines because the tickets were still coming out. He just shrugged and turned off all the machines. Then, when we told him again that the tickets weren’t out yet, he was gruff and unfriendly. He said, “I told you they would shut off in 5 minutes!” So, we only got 100 out of the 1000 tickets. He could’ve just given us the credit for 1000 tickets without waiting for the tickets to come out. Instead he only let us redeem the 100 tickets that we had, without saying a word about the other 900 tickets. If our parents had been there, I can’t imagine he would have taken advantage of us this way.

Soooo much fun!! Great chocolate dipped bananas!

Great place to take the kids

Love this place we go here when ever we travel to California!

Nice atmosphere on clear harbor water.

We visit this park every year almost without fail.All of us enjoy it every year, we appreciate the friendly staff and the reasonable priced food.I hope to see continual improvements in the park and we will be back for years to come!

Less crowded but just as fun as other pier amusement.

The fun zone is a great place to take children of all ages, I have been coming to the fun zone for 20+ years, and it still brings out the little girl in me! I love taking my grandchildren on the ferry as it was their first boat ride, the ferry in itself was quite an adventure for them and is always a great prelude to our days at the fun zone.There is an old fashioned carrousel and ferris wheel, skee ball, and arcade. Also there is a trampoline that you strap into and can watch daring kids and adults do incredible acrobatic flips on!I love the fun zone, but the only gripe I have is parking, and I wish there was some type of unlimited ride pass for the day would make the experience more affordable, but I just love the fact I get to bring my grandkids to a place with bumper carts and skee ball so they can experience some of the carnival fun I did as a youth!

Fun.scenic.not over priced.lots to do!

It’s aight

Really fun for families and couples. Got to the pavilion

There was nothing here. There is just a ferris wheel and a couple of other things to do for kids. There is an arcade here and a bunch of food joints. Parking in the garage was 25 dollars for the whole day or 6 bucks an hour. There really wasnt much to do here unless youre taking a boat ride.

Brings back memories of childhood everytime I visit. Great to stroll through the area and hit the penny arcade.

Waste of time and money. This place needs a lot of help!!!

Not much of a fun zone I was pretty deserted only right that is open was a ferris wheel that was pretty small.

Such a lovely little town... Everybody having fun.

Ferris wheel @ the Funzone!

Fun place, but there is no parking and not a lot of rides for the kids.

Friday at 6.10 PM in December. Pretty much everything was closed. No fun for us in the Fun Zone

Rented a boat for an hour. Road the Ferris wheel. Bought some great drinks at multiple bars. Great area and super fun. Must see.

The kids had fun. Small but was worth it

A fun place to visit if youre there for a whale watching tour.

Cute area, nice stop on our vacation. Most of the rides were down.

Not fun and smells like sewage. Will definitely never return.

Its old and run down. They need newer everything. People dont care for arcades anymore.

A nostalgic fun zone, but dont expect anything too high tech

Wonderful place to bring the kids to go nuts and run around.Plenty of adult activities any which way you go as well.

Over rated. Just a couple of old rides for younger kids

Great atmosphere and beautiful to walk around, only complaint is the parking situation is so extremely bad that it actively deters me from wanting to go here.

It’s a small fun zone designed for tourists. Parking can be challenging. They have kiddie rides, boats rentals and tours and there are restaurants around.

Great for kids, though parking is an issue on the peninsula. Meters everywhere with a 2 hour max.

Great place for fun with the family or a date. From the Ferris wheel you can see the ocean and pier over the rooftops as well as one of the best views of Newport harbor and all of the boats. For a great meal I recommend Balboa BBQ right across the walkway from the Ferris wheel.

Always super fun!

Fun for the kids with lots of little shops

A bit crowded and expensive. But fun overall

Great for kids! Could be beter maintained! Borderline obsolete!

OMG..so much fun.. a very low budget family time..

The staff is really nice here, but the place is a little run-down. I expected a little more seeing as how it is in the middle the Orange County.