Visiting SO Cal - Where to Begin

[dthogue]

My DD wants to go to DL for her graduation trip next summer - my plans so far include day 1 for travel, 3 days at DL, 1 day at Universal, 2 days for Hollywood/Beach, 2 days for Sea World-San Diego, last day travel home. Nine nights, ten days total.

I have no idea where to start - where to stay, and what to see outside of the parks. If we stay at a DL hotel (or close by) are we close enough to Universal, the Hollywood area and a good beach to drive each day or do I need to switch hotels - if we switch hotels any suggestions on where to stay? This is the part of the trip that I need help with - what sights are good for teenagers to see and what's a great beach to go to?

Thanks,
Tammy

 

[VegasMike21]

The Hollywood/Universal area is about a 45 minute drive from the Disney area during the early mornings, going home is different, it took us almost an hour and a half to get back...lots of traffic. If you were to change hotels which I'm never a big fan of there's a Hilton right by Universal that always gets good reviews.

 

[KLR-wlv]

We are doing a similar trip this summer - 4 nights in W. Hollywood, 3 nights in San Diego and 3 nights at Disneyland. I got the so. cal. city pass from costco - so we'll be doing all the parks on the ticket. We're doing different hotels in the 3 areas, but if you wanted a more central place to stay and tour, look at Huntington or Newport Beach. We got a great rate on Hotwire for W. Hollywood - there's a hyatt in Huntington that looks beautiful and seems pretty reasonable. We stayed in LA 3 years ago for a full 6 days and didn't get to half the things we wanted to do. Santa Monica is a great place to stay - we stayed there last time and you can walk to places there which is a rarity in LA. Hopefully we'll like staying in W. Hollywood this time. I'm hoping to get to the Getty Museum this time, as well as Griffith Park as well as walk around beverly hills and Melrose. With 3 kids it's hard to predict how much we'll actually be able to accomplish each day! Have fun planning!