Feeling a bit overwhelmed...

[livvyloo1991]

So we have booked a trip to the West Coast in May and are looking for some advice on how to spend our time (particularly in tackling DisneyLand!). Our very basic itinerary is this:

17th - 19th May San Francisco
19th - 26th May Anaheim (to include sights in LA - should we book a few nights at a more central hotel?)
26th - 31st May Las Vegas

I'm most concerned about getting the most time out of our Anaheim/LA stay, I'm worried that we don't have enough time. How many days would you spend in Disney? It's just 2 of us so long days is no problem, I know there may be Grad nights on during this time?

I've read a few trip reports but really don't know where to start with planning l. Any help/advice would be really appreciated!

Happy New Year to you all x

[Guest]

With just two of you a week should be ok. There are only two Disney Parks which helps.

I would suggest the most important things to do are:

1. Disneyland Park
2. Disneys Calafornia Adventure
3. Universal Studies
4. Hollywood
5. Rodeo Dive

4 and 5 can be done in a day. We bought 5 day Disney passes but were there a couple,of weeks and you can do comfortably in 3.

Other good things include

- must go to one of the Beaches (we like Huntingdon)
- space mussium with the Space Shuttle and it is next door to the LA Olympic stadium.
- San Diego zoo is really good. It is a great drive down the PCH and SD is much nicer than LA!

Personally I wouldn't bother with a stay in LA unless you really want to see some of the City centre sites.

[HappyGoLucky]

We stayed in Hollywood for 4 nights to see the sights including the Walk of Fame, griffiths observatory, santa monica beach, Universal studios, Beverly Hills tour etc

Lots to see if you havent been before

[Guest]

we split our stay too and it worked very well. Loews Hollywood to do Universal, Hollywood, observatory and also an organised Hollywood tour which was great!
We had to but the FOL pass for nicer sale as it was end of August and the park was rammed! We wouldn't have been able to do all if the rides without it.

We had two nights at Santa Monica to do the beach, Venice beach etc which was nice to gave downtime and relax.

We also 5 nights at Anaheim, we had 5 day park tickets as visited for shorter times on some days as we went to see the football. 3 days is long enough to cover the parks. But splitting the satay was so much easier and I'm glad we didn't have to tackle the drive each day.

[tonymc]

As noted above, two days should be enough for two of you to visit both of the Disney Parks. Unlike Florida, they are literally a minutes walk between entrances, which makes the hopper option to the ticket much more useful as you can flit between the parks at will, and also hold Fastpasses for both parks at the same time.

When we visited, we stayed in Anaheim and did consider visiting the "downtown" LA/Hollywood areas, but didn't bother due to the amount of time to get there. When we drove over to Ventura, we passed the Hollywood sign and it took us over an hour to get that far! The above suggestion to split your accommodation is a good one - maybe two nights in Anaheim, then the remainder nearer to downtown.

[sunseeker]

You have only given yourselves 1 day in SF, Assuming the 17th and 19th are travel days, I would be taking less time in LA. 4 travel days in 2 weeks holiday is a lot IMHO.

Dave

[daytonababe]

We've got 2 days in Disney next month one for each park , the parks are nowhere near as big as Florida .
3 would probably have been better but we want to go to universal too .

You don't need much time for LA itself ( if your short on time and would rather be elsewhere), I had wanted to go for years and within 2 hrs I was sick of Hollywood Blvd ..

Last year in a day we did the California science Center and space shuttle ( had 2/3 hours there ) Olympic Stadium next door , Hollywood Blvd , sign , Beverly Hills , Melrose Avenue , Rodeo Drive and had a good ride around the area looking at the homes etc .

Never been to San Francisco but from everything I've read you need more than 1 day there .

[daytonababe]

As for where to stay , last year we stayed in Anaheim and travelled into LA twice once for the day and then for Warner Bros and tbh we lost a lot of time travelling .. 90 mins each way because of the traffic .


So this year we are having one night at the Sheraton Universal to do Universal Studios and then moving to Anaheim for Disney .

[Guest]

As others have said I think two days in Disney is plenty. One thing you might want to think about is combining Hollywood, rodeo drive with an afternoon in Santa Monica. I think you have to do Hollywood but as pp says a couple of hours is plenty. We jumped on a tour bus for Rodeo Drive which was also plenty then headed off to Santa Monica which we loved.

Worth a thought.

We stayed in Anaheim in a little condo. We found it a great base.

You are going yo have a fabulous holiday xx

[400ixl]

Do you have a view of what you want to do in LA? There is loads to do there and you could easily lose a week or more in just seeing what there is to do there. Many don't like LA, but also don't look past the glitz of just Disney, Universal and Hollywood.

2 days is enough for Disney to get around everything, 3 days is more of a leisurely pace.

I take it you are flying from SF to LA? will you then be getting a car for LA to get about? To make the best use of time it is advisable to have a car and split your time between north and south LA as it can take an age to drive between them. You will probably need longer in North LA as there is more within easy reach of there than south, that's really for Disney and places like Long Beach.