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It’s not surprising that Newport Beach, immortalized in such recent cultural touchstones as “The O.C.” and “Arrested Development,” is so popular with TV and movie producers. A picturesque city of lavish homes and pristine beaches, where sun-kissed surf bums rub elbows with millionaire yachters, Newport Beach epitomizes the stereotypical Good Life. And though the cost of real estate here might be too stratospheric for most, it’s easy to sample the Good Life for a day or the weekend.

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MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

Morning

Start the day off right -- or at least not in a food court -- with the delicious buckwheat pancakes and fresh-squeezed juice at Alta (506 31st St., [949] 675-0233). Borrow a book from this organic coffee shop’s lending library (located below a shelf of “privately owned customer mugs”) and soak up the sun at an outdoor table. Afterward, wander across the street to the Trovata flagship store (505 31st St., [949] 675-5904). With upscale surfer-preppy designs (above) for sale alongside vintage cameras and bicycles, it’s an elegant riposte to Fashion Island’s chain-store hegemony.

READY, SET, CHARGE!

Ah yes, Fashion Island (right). OK, it’s not technically an island, but one can certainly get as lost at sea as Robinson Crusoe drifting among this mega-mall’s shops, which include Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus and seemingly countless others. (905 Newport Center Drive, shopfashionisland.com)

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Afternoon

CHILL OUT WITH THE ‘COOL’ CROWD

Happily, a tonic for all this conspicuous consumption lies just across the road in the form of the Orange County Museum of Art, where “Birth of the Cool,” a celebration of midcentury modern design, is on exhibit until Jan. 8. Admission to OCMA is free on the third Thursday of every month. (850 San Clemente Drive, ocma.net)

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT

Newport Beach’s most famous landmark, as well as its oldest standing building, is the Balboa Pavilion (400 Main St., [949] 675-1905). Hastily erected at Newport Harbor in 1906 to coincide with the completion of the Pacific Electric Railway red car line extension, this Victorian structure has functioned as a bathhouse, a bandstand and a site for gambling. Today, it mainly serves as a hub for marine recreation, where visitors can book a ride on a ferry to Catalina Island, or to the man-made Balboa Island just across the harbor.

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Night

A VERY GRANDE DAME

Cineastes and architecture fans alike will appreciate the historic Lido Theater (3459 Via Lido, [949] 673-8350), an Art Deco jewel (above, right) built in 1938. Boasting red velvet floor-to-ceiling curtains, walls painted with leaping neon dolphins and a ladies’-powder-room homage to Bette Davis, the Lido screens first-run and independent films, and in the summer plays host to the Newport Film Festival.

IN 3-D: DINING, DRINKING AND DANCING

When it comes to night life, there are two distinct camps. For the well-heeled, an evening’s activities might include splashing out for a sushi dinner at the Cannery (3010 Lafayette Road, [949] 566-0060), followed by strategic attempted mergers at Tentation Ultra Lounge (4647 MacArthur Blvd., [949] 660-1010), where internationally known DJs such as Steve Aoki spin Thursdays to Sunday. Or they quaff cocktails at one of the oldest watering holes in town, the District Lounge (121 McFadden St., [949] 673-4470), which operated as the Stag bar between 1914 and 2006. The laid-back locals, on the other hand, favor spots like Malarkey’s, a pretension-free Irish pub with a dartboard and killer jukebox (3011 Newport Blvd., [949] 675-2340).

FEEL LIKE CRASHING? PLAN AHEAD

If you really want to make this a getaway, stay the night. Though accommodations tend to be pricey, a notable exception is Crystal Cove Beach Cottages (35 Crystal Cove, [949] 497-0900). This enclave of 46 cottages was built in the 1920s and ‘30s. The state recently bought the land and began renovating the cottages for public use. Only 13 of the cottages are available for rental, and given their bargain rates ($165 to $200), competition is fierce. But no one said the Good Life came easy.

-- Pauline.OConnor@latimes.com