Kids first trip to CA next month! What to see?

[ceopamom3]

I posted this on the Theme Park board by mistake... I'll try again...

We are traveling to CA flying into San Diego 5/19 to 5/26. OUr kids are 12, 10 and 9.

So far we plan on staying one night in San Diego and going to the Zoo on Sunday, 5/20.

Then we move up to Marriott Newport Coast Villas for a week. I would like to do two or three days at DisneyLand, and the rest exploring So Ca. My kids have been to Disneyworld, Sea World Orlando and Universal Orlando many times. I would like to get the more unique things in the area in CA (besides theme parks)..

DH and I lived in LA briefly in the early 90s when he was in the military stationed at Long Beach - so we know the area to some extent and will have a rental car.

Ideas needed:

1) Can we do the La brea tar pits, Hollywood and the Griffith Observatory in one day? Is the parking safe for the observatory in Hollywood if we linger into the evening hours (it is so funny worrying about this now - we went everywhere living in LA in our early 20s w/o kids!). What day is best for this effort - has to be a weekday ...

2) Is Venice beach kid friendly nowadays? I have to say, we live in a very small country town - but the kids aren't raised narrow-minded - just don't see alot of different people where we live.

3) Beaches - I was thinking of Huntington Beach and Newport beach? Any other suggestions? Is there anything close enough to Anaheim to spend the a.m. and the park and evening at the beach?

4) Queen Mary and Getty villa - are either of these worth a trip? We enjoyed the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose in our single days.

5) Warner Brothers studio tour - the 2.5 hr tour - is this worth it? My kids are big Harry Potter fans, do they still have the large exhibit there?

5) Sea Lions - can we see these in the area in May? Near LaJolla perhaps? I would love to see them!

6) Traffic - how bad is it now traveling from Newport to Hollywood? I remember my DH trip to work varied from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours! and we had a motorcycle then too....

Thanks so much for the help! We loved living in CA and are excited to bring our kids too!

 

[tracys2cents]

Yes you can do the tar pits etc in one day.

I'm not a fan of Venice beach especially with kids that age.

The WB Tour still has the Harry Potter museum but prepare the kids, this is just a WORKING TOUR and lecture about the history of Warner Brothers in a big golf cart...it is not rides and amusements like Universal Studios.

You could actually do WB late morning, then lunch and go down to the La Brea Tar Pits & Page Fossils museum, then spend 90 min in Hollywood at the Walk of Fame, then head over to the Observatory...........all in one jam-packed day.

Consider the San Diego Wild animal Park in Escondido for kids that age. It's much different than the Zoo but is run by the San Diego Zoo. In fact, if you are only down that way one day I would choose the Animal Park over the zoo, and then maybe do the Los Angeles Zoo instead of WB.

 

[SILLYANDI]

If you are Star Wars Fans, the California ScienCenter has a really cool interactive Star Wars Themed area right now.
My kids love just hanging out on the beach. Newport or Bolsa Chica are good kid friendly ones. I personally wouldn't take mine to Venice (living in Ca we get our share og encounters with nuts and "different" people-they don't need any more than that!
Also, Pirates III is coming out around that time, go see it at the El Capitan theater while you are in Hollywood. It's really worth the extra money (I heard they are showing all three Pirates Movies back to back there on the 24th.)

My kids also love to go to Raging Waters-it's a water park here in San Dimas.

We have recently camped at Carpinteria (Ventura area) and Leo Carillo state beach (Malibu) and saw sea lions at both. Leo Carillo has some really cool tide pools and caves to explore.

 

[missstcroix]

My kids are 12 and 10 and 2 years ago we spent one day just on Hollywood...walk of fame, chinese theater, Hollywood Wax Museum...they loved it.

Santa Monica Pier is fun...the beach is decent there too.

 

[sharoncity]

Venice Beach - we were there last week with our two kids(DD - 14 DS - 9). We ate at the Sidewalk Cafe - food was good, nice place to sit and people watch. However, the People watching is not what I expected. Theye are very unique and all, but very unsavory too. I did not feel overly comfortable there. I feel more comfortable walking around in NYC than I did there. Maybe its just me..... We walked down to muscle beach went to one or two tee shirt shops and then left. Lots of pipe stores in between the t-shirt shops.... Did not feel too comfortable with where we parked the car either.....

We LOVED the San Diego Zoo. Drive down the street from there to El Prado - the buildings are SO beautiful! We enjoyed walking around there for 20 minutes or so, even though we were exhausted from the zoo!

Traffic - it took us about an hour to get from Huntington Beach to Venice Beach. Traffic was not too too bad by So Cal standards. Hollywood to DL took us about 1 hour 15 min due to traffic. DL to Long Beach airport took us about 40 min at 10 am in the morning. Probably one of the easiest drives we had.

There is a little part of Rte 66 still left very close to LA. That might make for an interesting ride one of the days.

 

[eeyoresnr]

go to www.anaheimoc.org ... it has lots of ideas... have fun