Southern California LA Beaches?

[amystevekai&bump]

Hi all

We are visiting Hawaii and LA next August and would appreciate some help please.

I had originally planned 7 nights in Anaheim (at the HOJO) after two weeks in Hawaii, and taking a day trip from there to Warner bros studio/Hollywood, with the rest of the time being at Disney and around the pool.

I'm now thinking of possibly increasing the SoCal part of the trip to 9 nights, and having just 3 nights at HOJO (to have a couple of full on park days), then 2 nights at a beach to relax after the parks, (doing the Warner/Hollywood day when we checkout of the beach hotel) and then go back to Anaheim for the last 4 nights, but this time staying at the Villas at Grand Californian - hoping to have a more leisurely last few days, with some park hopping and pool time.

My reasoning is that we can't afford a whole week at VGC, and whilst the HOJO looks to have the best pool out of the offsite ones, I'm not convinced we will be overly excited about spending lots of chill out time there (especially following a week in Aulani!) - so I though perhaps a couple of nights at a beach might be nicer (I've been eyeing up the Hyatt regency at Huntington Beach!) and then with the last few nights at the Grand Californian - hopefully finishing the trip on a high - what do you think?

I can see that Santa Monica probably makes more sense geographically for the Warner/Hollywood touring than Huntington, but I quite fancy the Huntington Hyatt, rubys diner on the pier and then the walk to Main Street - is Santa Monica a similar set up? (eg has it got an area of cafes/restaurants near the beach that we can stroll around in the same way that HB appears to?)

Many thanks for any advice - I know there are probably nicer places further afield in San Diego and further up the coast (we loved both la Jolla and Santa Barbara on previous trips) - but we will return in a couple of years for a 'proper' west coast trip -So next year is really about Hawaii and Disneyland, but just thought we'd 'tick' LA off of the list for the boys, as next time we will probably skip it altogether!

 

[ludari]

In Santa Monica you have a couple of options. The SM Pier they are a few resturants and places you can grab some quick snacks, however the Third Street Promenade has all sorts of things for you to do. Resturants, shopping, movie theathres, bars and street performers. It's just a short walk from SM Pier so you can actually do both but if you have a car I say drive it because there is plenty of parking structures around the promenade.

 

[ncc1701]

OP for what it is worth the Hyatt Huntington Beach is one of our favorite vacation hotels. We have been there 4 times. On our first trip I had ideas about going to see various things in the LA area and just use it as a base. However once we got there we didn't want to leave. So we have only left HB twice during our stays. They were 2 morning trips to Anahiem (1 to go to DTD & the other to visit the LA Angels stadium shop to buy stuff)
The walk up to the pier/Main St is about 20 mins. but it is all flat and nothing like walking around WDW all day.
Good selection of restaurants for almost every budget.The ground and pools of the hotel are great.Just so you know there is a parking fee of $30plus a day which is inline with the Hilton next door and a $25 resort fee.We have always booked thru Hyatt and saw those fees ahead of time but I don't know if 3rd party sites list them up front.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Thank you both so much for your replies

Since posting, DH has decided he doesn't really want to drive around LA, so we are thinking about booking a Warner studio/Hollywood tour from our Anaheim base, so think we will stick to Huntington Beach as originally planned - so I'm so pleased to hear you liked the Hyatt there

 

[ncc1701]

OP Just a FYI if you do go to HB here are some of the restaurants we enjoyed

Main Street
Sugar Shack- breakfast , they are also open for lunch
BJs for lunch or dinner
Longboard Pub - lunch . They are also open for dinner.

The Pier
Ruby's - breakfast but they are open for all 3 meals
Duke's - dinner is pricey but we have found it worth it. Also open for lunch and the bar menu is different from the dining room and more casual. The restaurant below them on the beach Sandy's looks good but we never got to try it.

Also the food at Pete's in the Hyatt is good. It is a hotel restaurant so it is a bit more expensive but we ate lunch there when we didn't feel like leaving the Hyatt. They have redone the main restaurant at the Hyatt since our trip last year so no opinion there.