Looking at California this year

[Thecornflake]

Hi,

I’ll try and summarise this without writing a big essay.
2 adults 2 kids (10 and 16). Have done Orlando twice - 2016 and 2018 - and this year (for a variety of reasons) we’re talking about a less hectic holiday spending most days doing parks and build in some different things. Initially we looked at doing Orlando with a 7 day Disney flex and then doing more beaches etc and other bits. However we’re also looking at California as it would be nice to see a different area of America while still getting a Disney fix.
Looking at 2 weeks in total at the end of August,possibly changing location half way through e.g. Anaheim to SF or a bit further away). We’d potentially like to see San Francisco etc and it looks like driving there for a day trip is a bit far if we stayed in the Anaheim area
Staying somewhere with at least 2 bedrooms in a nice quiet area if possible, and a bit nicer than a standard hotel - we’re used to villas normally but I’m aware we wouldn’t find the same style with private pool etc.

Any hints, tips etc welcome.

[jdouds]

First of all you need to be realistic, look at driving distances and what are the main things you want to see. For most people 2/3 days in Disney LA is enough. For a bit of perspective LA is 100 miles across and traffic is or can be a nightmare. To go to the west coast we would recommend 5. Days max LA area, 2/3 days driving up the coast to Monterey2/3 days. Definately do whale watching, 17 mile drive,aquarium,Carmel and after this 3 days min San Fran . Hopefully this is food for thought. Happy to help in any way. So much to see west coast don't waist it all in LA.
And we haven't even mentioned yosemite and vegas,Palm springs,San Diego or any of the other national parks, plenty of years to expand your holidays.

[Vinniecat]

We loved California. It actually was a lot harder to plan than Florida and I nearly gave up. So glad I didn't as California was amazing. My son and I said San Francisco was our favourite part and my husband's was Monterey my daughter's favourites were San Diego and Anaheim. We all enjoyed everywhere we visited though. Anaheim is a long way from San Francisco and you are probably better staying over at one or two places en route. We did Monterey, Pismo beach and Santa Barbara along the coast two nights at each.

[Thecornflake]

Thanks for the replies, dont know much about Monterey at all and for San Diego I've only heard of the zoo?

[Vinniecat]

San Diego zoo is fantastic. Well worth a visit.

[Alices Aunt]

Sounds fun to plan.

Have a look at flying into LA and out of San Fran or the other way round so you don’t have to circle back on yourself.

2-3 days is plenty as Disney but if you want to take it slower then well its your holiday.

Read trip reports, use trip adviser, visitcalifornia.com, google maps etc to get a feel for what you want To do. There is so much cool stuff in land that you don’t need to stick to the coast. Yosemite has been mentioned but there are other places as well. I really like gold country although after the bush fires I’m not sure what it will look like now.

Have fun planning.

[red cuillen]

It is alot harder to plan for SoCal. Flying in and out of different airports works pretty well, into SFO and out of LAX is the obvious one, (doing all the touring at the start and finishing up at Disneyland).
You can find hotels with suites. We've used Holiday Inns at Solvang which had a mezzanine level bedroom, at Watsonville 2 rooms with interconnecting door, a Hilton Doubletree Suites at Santa Monica with a closed off master bedroom, and a Best Western in Yucca Valley again with separate bedroom. Likewise quite a few hotels at Anaheim have suites - eg Marriott Springhill Suites, so it is doable with a bit of searching, but expensive. Start collecting hotel points if you can!

[tonymc]

We have been twice - in 2013 and 2017 - with DD who was age 15 and 19 on the respective trips.

On our first trip, after a few days in New York, we flew over to the west coast and had 5 night in San Diego and 5 nights in Anshan.

San Diego was fantastic - plenty to keep kids/teenagers interested. We only had a one room (2 queen bed) accommodation at the best Western Island Palms which was great, but you may want to look at the likes of Airbnb, Homeaway, Trip Advisor for apartments.

As you mention, there is the zoo and also Bilboa Park that could take up a day. Coronado Island is good for a chilled beach day, as is the beach at La Jolla. There is the Old Town area, the downtown area, Seaworld, and a little further out in the hills, the Safari Park. Our own DD really enjoyed San Diego.

We then drove up to Anaheim where we had a three day Disney “Park Hopper” ticket. As mentioned above, you only need 2 or 3 days here, and the parks are literally a minutes walk away from each other. Also plenty of accommodation and restaurants within a short walk of the park gates, and we had booked a one bed suite for our stay here.

Second time round in 2017, we flew into San Francisco and set off towards LA, stopping overnights at Pismo beach. We rented a one bed condo on a complex at Marina del Rey, a short walk from Venice Beach and about 10-15 mins drive to Santa Monica. We actually used our stay here just to chill out, but we did go up to Hollywood on the Sunday (took about 30 mins to drive there) to the Warner Bros Tour, then we visited Hollywood and had a drive around Mulholland Drive and Beverley Hills before returning via Santa Monica Boulevard.

However, I don’t think this location would be good if you wanted to visit Hollywood/Universal a few times, as traffic is usually horrendous around LA. Equally, it is probably too far from Disney for convenience, and many other dibbers recommend splitting an LA stay to around Universal/Burbank then Anaheim.

We also had a four night visit to Las Vegas, then flew back to San Francisco for 4 nights. Plenty to do in SF as well - we used the Hop On/Off bus tour to get our bearings, and had a few rises on the cable cars from our base at the Hilton over to Gishermans Wharf.

In Vegas we had a one bed condo, but only a twin bed room in SFO. Again, I had checked Airbnb and the other websites for accommodation, but as I had sufficient Hilton points for our stay, we saved around £1,500!

As an aside, I have noticed recently that quite a few of the hotel and comparison websites are showing one and two bed suites now, but they do seem to be expensive compared to booking through the holiday rental sites.

[miss_mouse]

I'm so excited for you.
We are taking our teens to the West Coast for their first time and also going at the end of August like you

We are familiar with the area as we had a sneaky week away together without the kids in 2013 with work plus hubby worked near Anaheim for a few months in 2000 and I have done the whole PCH trip before we were together, so that's made it easier as we know what we want to see this time.

Here's how we've spread our time so you can see as an example.

SanFran for 3 nights.
(we booked Columbus Motor Inn as was recommended here on the dibb. Great price plus the kids have a separate room off ours and parking is free).

Whale Watching in Monteray on the way down to Cambria where we are staying over night as it's a good half way point.
Stopping at Solvang for lunch on the way to Hollywood.

We've booked 4 nights at a house in a really pretty area in Hollywood.
(kids even have their own top floor with bathroom).
We plan to go to Santa Monica/Venice one day, We have a couple of hikes planned in the Hollywood Hills, Universal another day and the usual Hollywood touristy stuff for the kids to see.
Then we have 7 nights in a beautiful house with a pool just 20 mins walk from Disneyland.
We also plan to visit Palm Springs whilst we are here and go on a roadtrip down the coast stopping off at all the little coastal towns and showing the kids where hubby worked.

I've booked both houses through Homeaway.
Really nice and spacious so the kids have their own bathroom and space and both with parking.

I hope this helps

[Thecornflake]

Can you give a better idea of areas where you found accommodation so I can narrow it down a bit? Seems to be a big variety of places listed on Homeaway in lots of different areas and not sure which ones are better (we'll have a car but obviously want somewhere reasonably safe and hopefully close to areas we can eat out)