First trip to DL / So. Cal - Need Advice

[racefans44]

My sister and I, along with our four adult children are planning our first trip to Disneyland for June, 2017. We are staying 5 nights in a two-bedroom suite at the DL Hotel. We are now planning on staying a couple of extra days to see some of the sights around LA/Hollywood. Does anyone have any advice on where we might stay that's somewhat affordable? We are trying to save a little $ on the extra nights because we have definitely splurged on the suite. At first, I was leaning towards the Universal Studios area because a couple of the kids want to go there on one of our extra days, but now I am considering just staying in the DL area of Anaheim and commute to where we want to go. The Good Neighbor Hotels seem to have very good reviews and are reasonably affordable. We are planning on taking a "Grand" tour of LA with a tour company to get an overview of everything and are considering maybe some hop on / hop off bus tours to get around. Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated. No one in our group has ever been to Southern California before.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Well, you could move slightly to Buena Park, which has Knott's Berry Farm and Knott's Soak City, two great family Dinner Theaters, and hopefully the Butterfly Palladium will be open.

www.visitbuenapark.com

So you could stay at one of the many Anaheim Hotels, a Buena Park Hotel, or even Orange or Garden Grove.

www.visittheoc.com

Or look at a beach city, either the Huntington Beach Pier area or Long Beach are good bases.

www.surfcityusa.com

www.visitlongbeach.com

 

[danceanddisney2010]

I vote for Huntington Beach! We LOVE staying there But we have family who live there so I don't know off hand of any hotels ...

 

[Darkbeer1]

I vote for Huntington Beach! We LOVE staying there But we have family who live there so I don't know off hand of any hotels ...

Huntington Beach is a large city, the tourist area is near the Pier, and most of those Hotels can be expensive, but nice.

 

[danceanddisney2010]

Huntington Beach is a large city, the tourist area is near the Pier, and most of those Hotels can be expensive, but nice.

Yeah... that is why we are lucky to have family to stay with!

 

[DLRExpert]

If Universal is on your agenda, I would visit that park first when you arrive and stay in that area for a couple of days to visit Universal and do the tour of LA. If you go during the week the traffic can be bad, but the park will not be crowded. Hence, why staying nearby is a better idea.

For the rest of your visiting days, I would stay on Disney property.

Top tour destinations in LA include:
Hollywood and Highland
Griffith Park / LA Zoo / Observatory
Universal Studios
Warner Bros Studios
Santa Monica Pier
In-N-Out Burger
and of course Disneyland (however, not part of LA county)

Just don't make the mistake of thinking everything is close in LA. Our public transportation is not the best and that is why the majority drives, which in turn causes the traffic nightmares.

ME

 

[racefans44]

Thanks for the help, everyone.

 

[ashley0139]

I would definitely stay in LA for the LA portion of your trip. That 35 miles is LONG when there's traffic. If you stayed in OC you could spend upwards of 3 hours commuting each day.