Southern California South Cali itinerary help

[SaskDisneyFan]

I am taking my wife on a "2nd honeymoon" in May of 2014, and am looking for a little advice on planning a good itinerary.

We will be arriving at LAX the night of May 12th and leaving via San Diego (SAN) on May 21st. (The potential flight out could change by a day or two later if we need to).

We don't have any hotels booked, so I am looking for suggestions on good places to stay (on a budget).

Also looking for overall itinerary ideas, the only mandatory date is May 14th has to be at Disneyland (anniversary)

Some of the things we want to see include:

Disneyland/California Adventure
Sea World
Universal Studios
Wax Museum
Hollywood
San Diego Zoo

The rest of the trip is up in the air, as we don't really have anything specific in mind.

Any advice would be appreciated

(Or, if you can link me to a thread that has good itinerary ideas laid out, that would be great too. I tried to search, but I am inept when it comes to Forums)

 

[SaskDisneyFan]

Obviously we would keep San Diego to the end, since we are flying out of SAN at the end of our trip.

Would be willing to switch hotels to make travel easier, and plan to rent a car for a portion of the trip (once we are done with the Disney/Cali adventure or stuff that we can easily shuttle too)

 

[Itinkso]

I would plan on 3 nights in the San Diego area. There are a lot of reasonable hotels in the Hotel Circle area off of the 805/8 area. The La Jolla area is nice - you can try Priceline for better rates. I always check biddingfortravel.com before placing a bid.

Sea World is in the Mission Bay Area if you wanted to be close to the park.

For Anaheim, the hotels on Harbor are very reasonable compared to the DLR Hotels. We like Camelot and Tropicana: bei-hotels.com You can use Anaheim as your base and drive to see the other sites.

 

[stacy~**]

I completely recommend the Los Feliz Lodge for your stay in the LA area. It is so cute and would be perfect for a couple (a bit cramped but doable for a family). The immediate area has lots of nice bars/restaurants you can walk to. We found it to be pretty central to a lot of the things we did in the area. I have more info about it in my trip report in my signature.

 

[rmgreenesq]

Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park is gone. The building is still there and is presently being rented by The Bodies Exhibit.

Rick

 

[GrandBob]

The OP was probably thinking of Madame Tussauds in Hollywood. It's still there, and kind of a kick. I didn't think I'd like it, but we took DGD there and had a ball.

For a good place to stay in San Diego, check out the Homewood Suites Liberty station, as recommended in this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2793314

As I said in that thread, we'd go back there to stay in a heart beat.

-Bob

 

[ILUVALASKA]

Getty Museum, Los Angeles Walking tour, Laguna Beach, Getty Villa, Catalina Island, Pasadena-Huntington Library and Garden

 

[Purrkins]

I would do my best to avoid "Hotel Circle" in San Diego. Urban Sprawl. Try Mission Bay/ Mission Beach area which is what most people look for when they think of Southern California.

VRBO is a good bargain in this city.

 

[starshine514]

We've stayed in the Hotel Circle area when going to Sea World and thought the area was fine - lots of restaurants, etc. for tourists. We won't stay at the Travelodge there again, though (we love the Travelodge in La Mesa, but it's area is neither touristy nor California-y - but the hotel is nice).