Santa Monica Pier - Worth It?

[AshleeH]

As of now, it's on the itinerary, but if something's got to give, would this be the best choice to cut?

In the entire state, our big stops include:

Golden Gate Bridge/Park
Fishermen's Wharf
Alcatraz (not the tour of the facility, just seeing it from the mainland)
Lombard St. (not a long stop, just driving it probably)
Disney Museum
Grauman's
Hollywood Sign
Walk of Fame
Universal (not an option to cut this one)
Disneyland (definitely going here)
San Diego Zoo (definitely going here)
Madame Tussaud's
Santa Monica Pier
SeaWorld (tentative)

More might be cut as we're into the trip, but we're doing Universal, DLR, and then the zoo all within one week (with the Pier in the same estimated timeframe)/

 

[bcla]

I would think Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk would be a better seaside amusement park experience. It might be a bit out of the way though. You could combine it with a trip to Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad.

 

[StageTek]

You can see Grauman’s, the Hollywood Sign and some of the Walk of
Fame by walking for ten minutes. Madam Tussaud’s is in my opinion a
complete waste of time. However I know many people really get a kick
out of seeing a wax celebrity so if you are one then it’s a must see. You
add that to the Hollywood section and you still haven’t taken a full day
- even if you drive up the hill to get closer to the sign.

Spend three hours in Hollywood then drive to the pier to watch the sunset
and you’ve spent half a day. Or you could cut the trip to Santa Monica
(about half an hour from Grauman’s) and spend two hours in Hollywood
and the rest of that day at Universal.

How much time are you planning to spend in the Hollywood/Universal area?

 

[AshleeH]

Thank you! Madame Tussaud's is a question mark (the kids would get a kick out of the Spider-man statue, etc.) so it will be a wait and see option.

My husband and I discussed it today and he's not too excited about Universal (we each thought the other really wanted to go), so we're probably going to not go there and put that day as an add-on for San Francisco or San Diego. Plus it would have been a Sunday and we'll be going to Disneyland Monday-Thursday (not that it's too many theme parks for us, but we might prefer a more low-key day).

As of now, we've got (tentatively) 3 days in San Fran., 2 days in L.A., 4 Disneyland days, 1.5 in San Diego, and the rest are travel days with some fun stops along the way.

 

[StageTek]

With two days in the Hollywood/LA area you can keep Santa Monica
Pier on your itinerary. It’s (at most) a coupe of hours. You still can
see Madame Tussaud’s (1 hour), Graumans (30 minutes), Walk of Fame
(walk all the way to Hollywood/Vine and back - 30 minutes) and drive
up to Griffith Observatory to see the Hollywood sign closer (1 hour).
Double those times and you have six hours in Hollywood then the drive
to the pier for the sunset and you have one of your two days in Los Angeles.
No need to drop the pier or the wax museum.

 

[AshleeH]

Thank you! Having a time-frame is nice - I had no idea how to judge about how long at each location .

Although we're finalizing our plans and I think we might be coming into LA through (or very close to) Santa Monica, so we might stop there on arrival night and save the rest of the sights for the next day.

 

[RSWA2]

Golden Gate Bridge/Park
Fishermen's Wharf
Alcatraz (not the tour of the facility, just seeing it from the mainland)
Lombard St. (not a long stop, just driving it probably)
Disney Museum

/

The SF stuff can easily be done in 1 day. You drive down Lombard along the way to Fisherman's Wharf and you'll see Alcatraz from there, then drive to the bridge, then the park. Then go to the Disney Museum. Or use 2 days and spend more time at the Wharf and Park and Museum. But depending on how much time you want to spend looking at the ocean, shops, park and museum will determine how much time you need over 1 day.