First time to SD. Need help.

[Magnod]

Hi All,

We are integrating our yearly Disneyland trip with a SD component for our five year old son in March.

We used our DVC points to book the DL part of the trip but had questions about how to complete our SD portion.

Any suggestions are appreciated:

1. We are flying in from Hawaii. Is it cheaper/easier to fly into LA/Anaheim and drive to SD or vice versa. Keep in mind we may have to drive to our original airport to leave so that we do not acquire any extra charges from the rental car company.

2. In SD, we'd like to visit Sea World, SD Zoo, and Legoland. Is there any particular order we should hit these spots? Is one day at each location enough time?

3. Where should we stay? I've been looking at hotel recommendations and googlemaps. It seems like Legoland is far away so we may want to stay closer to SD Zoo & Sea World. BUT Legoland does have benefits for staying in the hotel there.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[Keyser]

Some of your questions I don't have good answers to, but I feel good about answering the first one. As for cheaper flights - just check the options on Kayak or something. I haven't done flights to Hawaii, but I know the relative costs flying to LA and San Diego can vary - sometimes it's cheaper to fly to one, sometimes to the other. Sometimes it's a big difference.

If the prices turn out similar, and your choices are LAX or SAN, I would go with SAN. First, LAX is on the other side of LA from Anaheim, so you will end up driving an extra 30+miles just to get between the airport and Disneyland. Plus, that is basically crossing LA, so you could have traffic eating up a lot of your time. On the other hand, the SAN airport is located much closer to both Sea World and the Zoo, so it's probably closer to the hotel you will choose. Now, if you were planning to go visit other parts of LA, then LAX might be more of an option. For just Disneyland and San Diego, though, I'd stay away from it.

If you have the option to fly to either Long Beach (LGB) or John Wayne Orange County (SNA) airport, I think either of those would work - they're closer to Disneyland, though still not as close as SAN is to the Zoo and Sea World. However, they are smaller airports, and I don't know if either of them has flights to Hawaii.

I have found the SAN airport to be pretty nice to fly in and out of, and much more convenient to the rest of the city. I have flown to LAX quite a few times, and am used to it, but it's not an airport I enjoy having to deal with. I haven't rented a car at SAN before, but I doubt it's any worse (and might be better) than at LAX.

Oh, I might as well add my 2 cents on the other questions, also, but I don't speak as much from experience.
- I think 1 day is fine for the Zoo and for Sea World. I've been to the Zoo before, and that's about the time I would want (some would say less). I've been to another Sea World, and again, a day was about right. I don't think you need to allocate more than a day to either.
- I've never been to Legoland, but I've heard it's also a 1-day park.
- You might consider making Legoland a stop as you drive betwen San Diego and Disneyland, since it's really in between the two. Leave early, drive to Legoland for the day, and continue to the other location.

 

[Magnod]

Thanks for the great info.


I think I posted in the wrong forum, but your input helped me a lot.

Right now, we're going to fly into SD and rent a car to drive to the three locations. Spend a day at each place (Zoo, Sea World, LL) then either drive, fly, or catch the train up to Disneyland. Then fly out of there.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Shananana]

Right now, we're going to fly into SD and rent a car to drive to the three locations. Spend a day at each place (Zoo, Sea World, LL) then either drive, fly, or catch the train up to Disneyland. Then fly out of there.

The train is a great idea! We usually take the train from Anaheim to SD. It's awesome. I second the PP about making Legoland an in-between day. It's a great park, but not an all day event. And it's closed durning certain days of the week. Be sure to check the website!

 

[Hunnypaw]

I would stay closer to downtown SD or coastal SD. PB or Mission Beach if you can get a place there that meets your budget. A lot of point of interest down there and close to Zoo and Sea World.

Or stay downtown. If you stay in North County SD, you will hit the Del Mar Race traffic (going on now) and rush hour more so. Not critical, but it is an issue.

You kinda need a car to go between these places. Train or the "Coaster" would be harder to do as you still need to get to the Zoo, SW or Legoland from the closest stop.