I sure each person will answer this differently. This is just MY opinion.

Environment: NB is old money and over all very expensive with many nice expensive restaurants, a beautiful /harbor bay area with $$$$ homes along the shore. Some rich snobby people and some very nice people. Celebrities live there too. NB is an upscale community when you compare it to HB. We are mostly a surfer, family community.

Beaches: pretty much the same looking but in NB they allow houses to line the boardwalk whereas HB doesn't allow building on the beach side. All properties (sans one) are across the street from the beach in HB. In NB, most but not all homes that dot the boardwalk are notorious for beach parties as they are mostly rentals. Hence..I think it is more of a party beach than HB. HB city beach is very family oriented, very organized with events, very local but has plenty of tourists, especially Europeans this summer.

Atmosphere: HB no drinking allowed on beach and since no homes on beach it is pretty mellow.

Visitors: Lots of tourists because of the big hotels (Hyatt Regency and Waterfront Hilton) across from the beach. At night the fire pits attract more of a wild bunch. This year there are a lot of Europeans and a huge influx of the Irish.

Residents: HB is pretty down to earth but not surfer grungy like it use to be since they did a huge redevelopment downtown 20 or so years ago. Everyone wears board shorts and flip flops. All ages, some wealthy too but not "old money". Some celebrities too live here or drop by to visit.

Restaurants: Well NB wins hands down. HB does have a great Main Street with lots of bars and restaurants but none expensive except Silvera's which just opened up(owned by a celebrity) and we have a new restaurant that has a bull riding machine(does that explain a lot?)

HB is NEXT to Newport. If you were at the pier in HB, it would take about 10 or less to drive to NB and cross over the city line. We have the same beach just NB is south on the map of our beach.

Hope that helps..maybe some will chime in on their opinons too.

We spent the weekend in Laguna Beach for the 4th, it was great fun! Try to get over there if you get the chance, they have great restaurants, scenic beaches and lots of cool art galleries to stroll through.

Most of the surfing was black-balled in Newport yesterday due to the high crowds. We loved our time at Fashion Island if shopping interests you, this is an amazing complex that also has a movie theater and lots of good restaurants. :)