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Old 29 Oct 17, 08:13 AM  
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zoemoo
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California without a car

The first thing to say is, california is a beautiful state and vast! But, we didn't feel as though we missed anything by not taking a car...
Our trip was to 3 main places; Anaheim, Hollywood/LA and San Francisco.
Anaheim:
We stayed at the Grand Californian hotel which is well located (just by both parks and has its own entrance too!) and is a beautiful resort.
The main reason for this part of the trip was to get our Disney fix and relax, we achieved both! Disneyland is lovely. Not as small as I imagined it would be and we loved the theming around the rides. It's far more old fashioned than WDW, but this makes it all the more endearing and for us this was what made it special.
California Adventure was lovely to walk around and I loved Cars Land, very cute! But overall the park wasn't our favourite place to go.
Positives - the food was much better than WDW and less rushed, less crowds so you could soak up the atmosphere. Negatives - tickets a little expensive
Overall we enjoyed our visit here, we didn't feel the need to venture out as we wanted to relax and recoup - the pool was a welcome resting place! There was more than enough to do for the 5 nights we stayed.
Getting to Hollywood was easy. Concierge sorted a taxi out at a fixed price of $100. That's a lot, but it was a 45-60 minute journey at around 35 miles. Oh boy the traffic in LA! It has to be seen to Be believed!
Hollywood/LA
We were staying at the Hollywood Roosevelt right on Hollywood Boulevard. Location is brilliant as its a couple of minutes from the Metro and opposite the Starline office where we picked up the HOHO bus.
The hotel is really nostalgic and a great place to stay if you love old Hollywood and movies. Lovely pool and really good service. Hollywood Boulevard is... An experience! It's quite like Leicester Square in terms of crowds, but it did feel a bit unsafe although I cannot honestly say why I felt that way.
We booked two tours, both were brilliant. The first was a night tour around LA with movie locations. It was a great way to see LA for the first time. We saw some actors homes, Hollywood sign. Various movie locations and The Griffith Observatory. The tour stopped for dinner at the Farmers Market which we really enjoyed, it's full of life and has some lively stores and great places to eat.
The next couple of days we spent hopping on and off the bus. We visited all the usual places and got to spend time in Santa Monica, which we loved. Felt quite disappointed with Beverly Hills as it wasn't the opulent place we expected it to be, but we certainly saw some amazing houses!
Last day in LA was spent at Universal Studios. It was brilliant. Quite different to US in Orlando as the highlight of the day is a tour of the real studios. It was very exciting and we enjoyed seeing some of the sets for our favourite films. Obviously there are lots of rides which were very similar to Orlando, but this was our first experience of HP. It was immersive and very cleverly done, we felt like we were IN the movie, a great experience.
Positives it was brilliant to see movie locations and experience La La Land and the beach! Negatives just something about the place that we didn't like, 3 nights was enough...
San Francisco
What a place, we loved it!
Stayed at Fairmont on Nob Hill which is a down hill walk left to Union Square or right to Fishermans Wharf. It was a special treat to stay here (anniversary) and it was worth every penny. The hotel was beautiful.
The city has a real laid back vibe. You can relax whatever your style, sexuality, religion etc. It felt very welcoming.
Union Square is all about the shopping. It's nice, like NY for stores. We did a bit of shopping, but we aren't big shoppers so enough said. Our first experience of Cheesecake Factory too - wow 😀😀
Chinatown was brilliant, really amazing to be in a us location where everyone spoke Chinese! We had a fantastic meal for $40 including beer!
Fishermans Wharf was our favourite spot and we spent a lot of time eating here and soaking up the atmosphere. The food in SF is incredible and didn't disappoint once. We ate at so many restaurants too many to name. We loved Boudins bakery and had a fun time at Bubba Gumps. Bubba Gumps is at the end of the pier on FW and has the best view of the bay so it's well worth a visit just for that!
Our hidden gem was the Presdio area, in Particular the Palace of Fine Arts. It was beautiful walking around this area. Lovely houses to look at, beautiful gardens to walk around and finally - the Walt Disney family museum. What a place. If you love Disney you just have to visit. It's home to all of the oscars Disney was awarded and a number of very special pieces including some very unique drawings of Mickey (believed to be the very first), original Mickey toys and the model that Disney used to describe his vision for Disneyland. It was a truly special visit and I cannot recommend it enough for any true fan!
We also went in a day trip to Monterey, Carmel, 17mike drive and Pebble Beach. This was well worth it, glorious coastline and great places to visit Monterey is awesome!
No visit to SF is complete without a visit to Alcatraz. It's a heritage site and the history here is worth preserving even if it was gruesome and terrible. The prison is just as you would imagine, putting you off ever commuting a crime for fear you might spend time there! The views the prisoners had were brilliant!
I'm sure I've missed lots of detail around our visit to SF it was just an amazing city.
Positives were the laid back style and quality of food negatives the numbers of homeless people and apparent lack of help these people are getting, very sad...
So, we didn't miss anything by not having a car. It was easy to get around and not a problem. We did stay within the city on each of the parts of our trip which made it simple. If you wanted to go to the National Parks or frequently visit beaches in LA then a car would make it easier...
Back to Florida next year, but we will visit San Fran again definitely!
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Old 16 Dec 17, 03:29 PM  
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fab. how did you get from lA to San fran?
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Old 16 Dec 17, 06:29 PM  
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We chose to fly in the end as it took less time. But, there is an Amtrak train which takes you direct from LA to SF along the coast. If we had a little more time I think this might have been good fun, maybe next time!
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Old 16 Dec 17, 07:06 PM  
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looks like u had a fab time
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Old 17 Dec 17, 11:03 AM  
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Sounds like a fantastic trip. Thanks for sharing.
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Old 17 Dec 17, 12:57 PM  
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This trip is exactly what we're hoping to do next October, thanks so much for sharing! Did you fly into LA and out of San Francisco? And how did you get to Monteray, was it an organised day trip? Ooh and how long was your trip in total? Thanks so much in advance! x
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Old 18 Dec 17, 09:52 PM  
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zoemoo
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We did a day trip to Monterey which included a visit to Carmel and the 17mike drive via Pebble beach - awesome day!
Yes, we flew in to LA and out of San Fran.
The key is choosing the location of your hotel well. The hotel in Hollywood was such a great spot and whilst we didn't really enjoy Hollywood, we couldn't have asked for a better location to get where we wanted to go. We visited Universal via the metro (like the tube in London) and another day we visited Santa Monica and Beverly Hills via the hop on hop off. I'm sure we would have had more flexibility with a car, but we didn't feel we missed anything.
In all we stayed for 14 nights - 5 in Anaheim, 4 in LA and 5 in San Fran. We stayed a long time in Anaheim as we wanted to relax a little. In all honesty this was a little too long maybe an extra day in SFran might have been nice as we would have liked to ride bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge... Next time 😂😆😂👍🏻
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