Californivacation (Give it Away Now) OFF
We have a first trip to California booked for July for myself, DW and DD (14). More colour to follow later but here's the main itinerary:
Travel Day - Fly into San Diego (4th July) 8nts San Diego at Hotel del Coronado (the hotel that Coronado Springs at WDW is based on) for beach and unwind time in San Diego Drive to LA for 2nts at the Loew's Hollywood on to Anaheim and 3nts at the Disneyland Hotel :inlove: (can't wait for this) and visit the parks Drive to Palm Springs (shopping related :mad:) and fly to San Francisco 3nts at Hotel Zephyr in San Francisco (Fisherman's Wharf) then fly home Will be doing a trip report, with my family expect lots of nice food :tongue: |
Sounds great, look forward to reading more!
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Yet again, following with much interest :smile: We spent 6 nights in San Diego in 2012 and I've been plotting our return ever since :D Such a dreamy place, absolutely loved it. Off to look up your hotel choice - looks fantastic! |
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A little more detail and notes on the first leg (San Diego). We fly out from Heathrow 4th July, hopefully no issues with celebrations at the other end but anyway we don't have a hire car for the first few days so it will be a cab to the hotel.
Hotel del Coronado This is such a beautiful hotel, original Victorian and supposed to be the largest wooden building in the US. I read that there was some link between this and the Coronado Springs hotel at WDW but they look nothing alike (in fact Hotel del Coronado seems to be on a longlist of Disney Vacation Club options so there is some connection). I haven't told the other 2 yet that I recently noticed articles about it being haunted :omg: Mind you it's owned by Hilton now so let's hope it's not a case of being haunted by DISAPPOINTING SERVICE :d: is a Ghost View more or less $? The hotel is right on a gorgeous looking Coronado beach with the whole Coronado area out on a sandy spit of land central to San Diego with ferries across the water etc. We TBH mostly intend to relax for this part of the trip as there's a lot of moving around thereafter. Really need this right now! Can't see us doing too many activities in that first week or so. We have it planned to go to Balboa Park and also tour the museum on the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier (San Diego is a big US Naval base). Balboa Park has free outdoorsy stuff Potentially we won't go any further than that plus short trips to local shops and restaurants, there's a whole run of places to eat in Coronado but with a car on I think it's Day 5 we may get more adventurous. Rough list of possible places to eat (work in progress!): Hotel: Sheerwater (any meal), Serea (dinner), Crown Room (brunch) Coronado 'Island': Moo Time Creamery (ice cream), Clayton's (Breakfast or Lunch), Miguel's Cocina (Lunch), Coronado Brewing Company (if they insist on a mall trip they can leave me there ;)) Primavera, Peoha's, Stake (all dinner) Lili Piggy's BarBQ (lunch) San Diego options to be investigated and added |
Your plans are looking good! We’re heading to San Diego for the first time in a few weeks and I’m so looking forward to it. We only have 3 nights but planning to do Cabrillo national monument, old town trolley tour and USS Midway as well as a mooch in Balboa park. I got trolley tour and midway tickets on Expedia/ebookers when they had discount deals on. Something that might help you out?
Also looking forward to visiting Coronado island and looking round the Del! It’s one of the buildings which inspired the Grand Floridian in WDW :) Happy planning and looking forward to reading more about your trip. |
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Grand Flo makes a lot more sense :thumbs-up I was wondering where I'd heard that clearly they used the look as inspiration in one hotel and the name in another. Frank Oz lived on Coronado (his old house can be viewed or visited I believe) and supposedly the hotel was also an insipration for the Emerald City/Wizard of Oz |
Hotel Del Coronado looks fantastic - whoever designed the Grand Floridian was clearly more than 'inspired' by it ;) We never made it to this area so here's my excuse already for going back.
Balboa Park is beautiful - we hired a quad cycle which was a lot of fun for my, then, 3 year old daughter, but equally fun for us. The weather in San Diego is just about the most perfect weather possible (it certainly felt like heaven for us, visiting from the midwest). In the mornings it was often sunny and cool, and by noon sunny and warm - but not too warm, and not humid. And not a drop of rain in a week (this was June). We went to SeaWorld (which I now wouldn't, knowing what I've learnt subsequently) and the San Diego Zoo is in a league of its own, though I suspect your teenage daughter has outgrown a visit to the zoo quite some time ago :D The old town is nice, as is the Pier. We absolutely adored La Jolla and equally loved Del Mar (had a superb New-York style pizza, just up the road from the beach). |
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SeaWorld me and DW visited in Orlando, DD hasn’t been so it’s not impossible even if the ethics are a complex tale :erm: San Diego itself sounds great, wish it was a hundred days sooner! |
Hi, we were in San Diego and Disneyland just before Christmas so can offer some insight into the places you have planned to visit!
A few random bits and bites: Coronado is really lovely - we stayed just opposite the Hotel Del Coronado. It's a gorgeous hotel but be aware that it's open to the public so loads of random people roam around it gawping at the place - justifiably because it's so pretty! It was like a fairytale at Christmas time, just beautiful. There's a room full of info and memorabilia from 'Some Like It Hot' which was filmed there. We went to Peohe's restaurant on Christmas day and had a nice meal there, and would recommend adding Bluewater Boathouse and Grill (ask if you can go up to the top level for a great view of the area!) plus Henry's Bar to your list of eateries. Miguel's Cocina is also nice but usually packed - make a reservation if you can. Once you're over the bridge and into San Diego be aware that you really should travel by car as there are a lot of areas of downtown that are not great for walking through. There's a lot of homelessness and poverty a short distance from all the touristy attractions. We were shocked by the scale of it, but apparently it's an ever-increasing problem all down the West Coast. Balboa Park is good, lots to see and do - same as the waterfront area. Busy though! DCA and Disneyland were great: DCA was so much fun! It was better than we had expected. Cars Land is amazing, and don't forget the dill pickle popcorn (yummy!). DH and DS now rate Grizzly River Run as one of their top Disney rides! Disneyland is gorgeous: the level of detail is just fantastic. We liked the fact that it was kind of familiar but at the same time it was different. Loved it! Any questions don't hesitate to ask - it's all still fresh in the memory :-) |
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