Southern California Universal and Sea World planning

[mrs.ariel]

Hi all! We've been going to DL the last few years, but this year my DH wants a non-Disney trip, so.....

This year we are planning a SoCal trip including Universal Studios, LEGOLAND and SeaWorld.

I am thinking of early June, what hotels would you recommend? How many days for each park?

We are driving down from the SF Bay area...

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[Lynne G]

I'd stay in Hollywood for Universal. The closest hotels are the Hilton and Sheraton, you can walk from both - from the Sheraton you go through the grounds of the Hilton and cross the street via an overpass, about a 10 or so minute walk to Citywalk and the park. There are many hotels a little further away that have shuttles. Check Trip Advisor. We stayed at the Sheraton and it was fine, not deluxe, but we liked the closeness. Then stay in Carlsbad, if your kids are young, there's some trip reports on the Legoland hotel here on the DIS, otherwise, I'd check around the Carlsbad area, as SW is closer to SD than Legoland. I only drove from DL to Legoland, so I have no hotel advice. For SW, we stayed at a hotel on Mission Beach, as my DD wanted to be "on the beach" and we did the Zoo, SW and saw a baseball game in downtown SD.

Have a great trip as we enjoyed Universal (my kids are teens) and a few years ago we enjoyed Legoland and 2 years ago we enjoyed SW, as we were Platinum Busch parks passholders, and we tried to visit all the Busch parks, and my kids enjoyed SD SW also.

 

[jakesmum]

Last year we stayed at the Legoland hotel for 3 nights with our children aged 5, 3 & 3yrs old. The hotel is amazing for children!! The rooms are all themed, and the disco elevator's are a lot of fun for everyone! I would recommend 2 days for Legoland, as the Waterpark will also be open during June, and there's an aquarium as well.
We also spent half a day at the Carlsbad premium outlets, which are only a short drive from the legoland hotel.