Order of California Trip

[Scarlet_J]

Thinking about a California trip soon. Would like to do a couple of days in San Diego, a couple in LA, and the rest in Disneyland. We would likely fly there from the east coast on a Saturday and return the following Saturday.

One thought would be to fly in or out of LAX and do the reverse flight at San Diego airport. That might save some driving time back and forth from San Diego to LA/Anaheim area.

Any advice on the best order to do this would be appreciated.

Kids will be about 9 and 5.

In San Diego, we probably want to mostly do the zoo. In LA, I'd like to see some of the main touristy sites (Chinese Theater, Hollywood sign, etc). And whatever else would be good for the kids.

 

[bcla]

Thinking about a California trip soon.

You might try asking on the Southern California forum. The link to it isn't on the front page of DIS, but is at the top when you're on the California & the West forum.

http://www.disboards.com/forums/southern-california.130/

 

[scottmel]

We did similar trip last summer and planning one for next summer! Last year we were on an Adventures By Disney Backstage Magic and flew into LAX, spent time in LA and then traveled to Disneyland. Traffic horrible from LAX to Disneyland almost 3 hours...Did not do San Diego last summer instead flew out of SNA which is super close to Disneyland. However you could do a day trip to the zoo from Disneyland about an hour return to disneyland and fly from SNA instead of SAN if you wanted to do that. LAx is so awful and we had such great experience with SNA airport. You just really got to leave early to beat the traffic from LA to Disneyland as in like leave by 8 am...

 

[StageTek]

The order as you have it seems great; a couple of days in San Diego then on to Los Angeles for the Hollywood touristy sites and then on to Disneyland leaving from LAX.

You should check the timing and cost of the car rental. It might be cheaper to head back to San Diego after DLR - yes it's a drive (about 95 miles) but depending on the time of day it may actually take less time then DLR to LAX. And a round-trip car rental is always cheaper.

 

[Revan]

Thinking about a California trip soon. Would like to do a couple of days in San Diego, a couple in LA, and the rest in Disneyland. We would likely fly there from the east coast on a Saturday and return the following Saturday.

One thought would be to fly in or out of LAX and do the reverse flight at San Diego airport. That might save some driving time back and forth from San Diego to LA/Anaheim area.

Any advice on the best order to do this would be appreciated.

Kids will be about 9 and 5.

In San Diego, we probably want to mostly do the zoo. In LA, I'd like to see some of the main touristy sites (Chinese Theater, Hollywood sign, etc). And whatever else would be good for the kids.

Hi Scarlet J,

My family just came back from a two week trip up the coast, from San Diego to San Francisco. I'll weigh in on what I would do and not do. My kids are 16 & 18, a bit older than yours. Separate airport flights will cost you a bit more, the San Diego Airport is extremely easy to get into and out of. I would consider leaving from San Diego to keep the stress level down on getting to your flight. You'll have to be careful about a car rental, some agencies will want to charge you a one-way fee, we used AAA and got a rental car (A Toyota Highlander) from Hertz with no one-way fee, unlimited miles at a $353 weekly rate from San Diego. It came to just under $900 with taxes.

San Diego Zoo is fantastic, as with Disney, get there early, especially if you are interested in the Pandas. My older children were initially doubtful, but loved it, we spent about 6 hours there. We didn't visit USS Midway, but it looks interesting. One thing to consider, surfing lessons for the kids at Pacific Beach - both my kids loved it and there were lots of younger kids as well. San Diego Surf School was great. Legoland or Sea World is probably something your kids would enjoy.

Visit la Jolla Cove to get up close to the seals, it's fascinating to see them. La Jolla (Scripps Park) is also a really nice place to watch the sunset and get some Gelato at Bobboi Natural Gelato.

For LA, a warning, the Chinese Theater and Hollywood is located downtown, it's dirty, sketchy and crowded. We went to Amoeba Records and then over to Umami Burger, we didn't feel very safe and I work in Cambridge/Boston.

Griffith Park is amazing with great views of the Hollywood sign and the observatory. It's incredibly busy, I would get there early and be prepared to park on the road and walk up a steep hill/road to get to the observatory. I would have loved to hike in the park.

We also visited Huntington Beach, which was a fun, crowded beach. We stayed there over the 4th weekend and it was very very crowded.