West Coast Itinerary Advice

[daytonababe]

Disney hotels are too expensive for us.. well I can't justify spending that much on hotels we just sleep in..

Last month I stayed for the 4th year in a row at good neighbour hotel , there are so many good ones within a 10 min walk of Disneyland . I paid £295 for 3 nights.

[bambikate]

Originally Posted by the_lemms

One thing that to consider is who is going and ages? as others have said there is so much to do and see is it worth sacrificing some stuff for a disney fix?

We love Orlando and the parks but decided not to bother with any of it in California and were so glad we we didnt, Disney will will always be there for another visit but we made so many new memories as a family visiting places like glacier point, driving tioga pass, monterey wharf drinking coffee watching the sea otters and seals swim by, alcatraz, pier 39, the elephant seal beach in San Simeon, eating clam chowder on morro bay... we even renewed our wedding vows with Elvis in Vegas (it was our 20th anniversary on the day)

We are a family of 4 with 2 dd aged 16 & 14 when we went and they both agreed disney is just disney we can always go another time..

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Thanks so much that's really helpful! Sounds amazing! My two will be 9 and 7 when we go.

Originally Posted by KarenG

Kate, we are DVC members and have stayed onsite at Villas at Grand California (which was amazing) and also offsite. The price differential was massive; I think maybe £250/night more, which paid for a lot of cocktails at Trader Sam's one night

Although of course we preferred our stay at VGC (how could we not?!) I'm not sure I'd want to pay loads more to do so. There are so many affordable options situated an easy walk - in some cases closer in fact - to the parks than at least one of the onsite hotels. We also liked being almost next door to a range of dining options that gave us a lot more choice (at much less cost).

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Thanks so much. Yes, having looked at it again I do think the price difference is just too much to justify as they are all so close to each other.

Originally Posted by jocat

I think your itinerary could definitely be tweaked a little - we did Anaheim for 3 nights and that was sufficient for a Disney visit. This would allow you to tag extra nights on other stops.

We didn’t have a 1 night stay anywhere, and still felt we didn’t really see enough of places.

Our itinerary was:
3 nights Anaheim
3 nights LA/Universal
2 nights Cambria
2 nights Monterey
3 nights Yosemite
4 nights San Francisco

1 night in Yosemite would not be worth doing for me - you just wouldn’t have time to see anything, and it’s too fabulous to rush.

Have a read of some trip reports. I found them so helpful when decided an itinerary. I’d have never discovered Yosemite without them, as that definitely wasn’t on our first draft itinerary. It soon became a must do! Can you tell that I’m a fan?

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Haha yes I can!

Thanks that's really helpful. We have decided to shorten Anaheim and lengthen the road trip (to have less one night stays) can't wait to get researching on things to do!

Originally Posted by miked1e

We loved Disneyland hotel... was worth the money for us! Being 'onsite' and part of the action is always important to us!

Was expensive compared to other options, but this was our first and only (at least for a while) time to Disneyland Anaheim so we had to do it our way!

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Well it certainly looked amazing! Thank you

Originally Posted by bLaZeR666_uk

Yep I would drop disney, there is a decent theme park in SF anyway (Six Flags Animal Kingdom) also a six flags Magic Mountain in LA as well if you need a theme park fix.

We avoided Anaheim purposely. Plenty to do and see elsewhere in LA.

Also like Daytonababe it took us 2 hours to clear security then another 2 hours to get to hotel which was about 12 miles away

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Thank you. Oof that's a long time. Think we have decided to stay close "just incase" now.

Originally Posted by daytonababe

Disney hotels are too expensive for us.. well I can't justify spending that much on hotels we just sleep in..

Last month I stayed for the 4th year in a row at good neighbour hotel , there are so many good ones within a 10 min walk of Disneyland . I paid £295 for 3 nights.

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Wow great price! Yeah we've ran the calcs again an can't justify. For us, the price would be £1,200 more! Thank you for your advice

[enjibenji]

Depends what you like. I loved the road trip as much for on the road as the stopovers. We did 13 nights and out of that stopped 9 x 1 night and 2 x 2 nights and I was itching to get back on the road. We love seeing all the different places and are doing another one this xmas but like I say, it all depends what you like.

[Cannavar]

5 nights Disneyland is my recommendation. It is a lovely place that you need to spend time relaxing in. We usually do it at the start of the holiday. I love walking through downtown Disney in the early hours when no one else is around because if the jet lag

You could try renting points to stay at the DVC in Grand Californinan? It was lovely to be in the park and wake up to the sounds of the forest (not real )

Due to the travel times, 2 nights in Yosemite is the minimum.

Very jealous of you

[Eccle]

I think from the time you have, I would drop some time from Disney. With the two parks so close you can easily get between them and I think you can cover everything in less time than you have. I would also stay offsite, there are lots of hotels in walking distance. We stayed at the Sheraton Park hotel and had a view of DCA.

I also think too many one nights would be hard with children. We did the PCH pre children and it was great, but my two older children are similar ages to yours and I don't think I'd do it with them yet as I suspect they wouldn't appreciate it and would just moan about time in the car! But that might just be mine! Monterey is worth doing, we loved the aquarium there.

I think you will need more than two nights in SF

[PantherMum]

I'm sure you would find plenty to do in 4 or 5 days at Disney! You've picked a great week to visit - the crowd predictor websites show manageable crowds on week days at the end of Aug.

We did 5 days on our first cali trip 3 years ago, and we are planning to repeat the experience 27th to 31st Aug. I know that would be too long for a lot of west coast dibbers, but it worked for us. My son is now nearly 11 and I think this might be the last year I can get away with so much time in Disney...

Actually we are also booked into the Anaheim hotel too. Location looks fab, hoping it's only about 15 mins walk from the parks to the pool!

I have read some of you Orlando reports - your lovely family will have an amazing trip whatever you decide to do!

[PantherMum]

Ps Knotts Berry Farm and Soak City are easily do-able from Anaheim (think it took us 20 - 30 minutes drive)

[MrsMoney]

Originally Posted by Cannavar

You could try renting points to stay at the DVC in Grand Californinan?

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We attempted to do this back in January (we too are going to California for 16 nights mid-late August) and were already out of luck so I very much doubt you’ll be able to rent points for there at this late stage.

However Tom Bricker wrote a fabulous article on Anaheim hotels which helped us pick a highly recommended hotel pretty much opposite the DL Park for an awful lot less than the GC!

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by MrsMoney

We attempted to do this back in January (we too are going to California for 16 nights mid-late August) and were already out of luck so I very much doubt you’ll be able to rent points for there at this late stage.

However Tom Bricker wrote a fabulous article on Anaheim hotels which helped us pick a highly recommended hotel pretty much opposite the DL Park for an awful lot less than the GC!

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You're right on the studio availability, no chance of a four night stay at this point. It's tough sometimes at seven months, even. It's definitely a way to save money, but renting points is still a lot more than nearby offsite options.

[AlexE]

We flew into LAX and picked up a car for our road trip ending our trip in Anaheim and dropping the car at Alamo on W Katella. That way it saved a few days rental and we got a super Shuttle to the airport - saved stress of driving to LAX.