Disneyland and other theme parks- Stay in one location or change hotels?

[disneyfanforever]

We are planning a trip to Southern California next June, and I am not sure the best way to work out the lodging. We want to go to Disneyland, Legoland, Knotts Berry Farm, Sea World and a beach (Huntington, perhaps?).

Is it better to have one hotel the entire stay and just drive back and forth to the parks? If so, what city is a good base camp? Or would it be better to stay in Anaheim and do Disney and Knotts and then stay near San Diego and do Legoland and Sea World? Then perhaps go to a hotel on the beach and stay a few days?

I have no idea which would be the best way to handle this. Is traffic a big problem?

 

[bumbershoot]

Traffic between San Diego and Anaheim is a pain for those not used to it. My brother lives in SD and he doesn't mind it at all, but I very much do.

Legoland is quite far from San Diego (what we think of SD), so I would stay in Anaheim for Knotts and Disney, then check out early, go to Legoland, leave Legoland, and go down to a hotel in SD. Unless you want to stay in Carlsbad for a night after Legoland, that is....Carlsbad is where that park actually is... Then stay right in SD for Seaworld.

That's what I would do.

 

[CinderellaDreamer]

We are staying in Anaheim for DL and then checking out to go to SD for the rest of our trip. We did this the last time that we went to DL too. Its nice to experience both cities, and waaaay too much driving for me to go down to SD. It can be done, but its not worth it for us. We even have friends who offered to let us stay with them for free in the L.A. area, but we are going to stay in SD for Legoland and the zoo.

HTH!

 

[godalejunior]

We have always stayed at DL and ventured out for our trips, renting a car from Alamo in DTD for the day. Last year we did a Legoland trip for the day and had absolutely no traffic issues until we got a mile from the DL exit and it delayed us about 10-15 minutes in stop and go traffic.

This last January we rented a car for the day and went to the Disney outlet in Fullerton and spent the day at Knotts. We are doing this again for our trip in Jan.

The best tips I can say is plan out your trip, if you are travelling during rush hour traffic, I am sure you are going to hit some yourself. We have brought our GPS with us on our trips as well as mapquest directions and it has worked out great!

I was a little nervous venturing out but it worked out so well for us. If you are wanting to spend more than one day at Legoland I would book a hotel closer to that park. Knotts is very close to DL.

 

[BC Disney Lover]

We started our trip in San Diego and we stayed there for 3 nights. Then we drove to Legoland and spent the day there with our stuff in the van. We stayed in Carlsbad had dinner did some shopping and left to head to our Anaheim hotel leter that evening. From our anaheim hotel we also went to Universal. Have you looked into the Citypass, it was a good deal for us.
http://www.citypass.com/city/socal.html

Have a great trip!