Initial planning and a few questions

[jdouds]

Hi again I think at this stage keep Yosemite in your plans, can you imagine floating in a raft in the middle of the mountains. 10.000 ft up playing in the snow. Being up in the mountain tops is an incredible sight. As far as driving goes it a very easy dr which we broke up with a stop for an hour at a mall with dicks sporting goods.
Yosemite to Monterey is 3.5 hours so not to bad. If you do go to Yosemite have a look at the films the dawn wall and free solo about the famous climbers , one of which climbed , free solo no ropes up el Capitan 3000 ft, incredible.

[400ixl]

You need to think about the members of your group. At the age they will be travelling would they prefer the scenery side of things that you get with Yosemite or the interactive elements you would get with San Diego.

In San Diego, you have Seaworld, Legoland, San Diego Zoo, Old Town, Trolley transport system, USS Miday etc.

North Cali you have San Fran (although you don't appear bothered on that front), Yosemite and then down PCH with Monterrey.

Yosemite won't be going anywhere, so I would consider the interests of the party and their ages first.

Always good to have something to return to, that Could be Yosemite or San Diego.

[KayLouise]

It's so difficult, isn't it? We aren't going until 2021 but when I recently started planning, my list was as long as my arm. After looking up hotel prices and having a good look at Google maps at the actual locations I quickly realised that there's no way we could fit in everything on our budget, in 2 weeks and with 2 young kids (Will be 5 and 9 when we go.)
So I pretty much halved our rough itinerary. Cut out the north Cali part (reason for another trip in the future!) and concentrate on the south.
We are planning on 4 Nights in LA, doing Griffith Observatory and park, a hike to the Hollywood sign, Walk of fame, La Brea tar pits, possibly a Dodgers game if on and a day at Universal. I felt a bit disheartened reading a lot of reports on here at first as it seems a lot of Dibbers aren't fans of LA but I'm looking forward to it so much.

From LA we will have some nights in Palm Springs, probably at a nice Airbnb, have some relaxing pool time, visit Joshua Tree national park, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, Living Desert zoo, Cabazon dinosaurs and a longish drive out to Calico ghost town.
From Palm Springs we are driving to Disneyland for the end of our holiday, 4 nights I think. Likely staying at a non Disney hotel.

So that's our rough itinerary, probably a bit rubbish compared to the epic trips on here but it fits with our family and within our budget. We will definitely plan another trip at some point as there's so much more we want to see and do in California. We would rather do them on another trip than squeeze them in with no time and no budget to do them properly.

No idea if this ramble is of any use to you haha but happy planning!

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by KayLouise

It's so difficult, isn't it? We aren't going until 2021 but when I recently started planning, my list was as long as my arm. After looking up hotel prices and having a good look at Google maps at the actual locations I quickly realised that there's no way we could fit in everything on our budget, in 2 weeks and with 2 young kids (Will be 5 and 9 when we go.)
So I pretty much halved our rough itinerary. Cut out the north Cali part (reason for another trip in the future!) and concentrate on the south.
We are planning on 4 Nights in LA, doing Griffith Observatory and park, a hike to the Hollywood sign, Walk of fame, La Brea tar pits, possibly a Dodgers game if on and a day at Universal. I felt a bit disheartened reading a lot of reports on here at first as it seems a lot of Dibbers aren't fans of LA but I'm looking forward to it so much.

From LA we will have some nights in Palm Springs, probably at a nice Airbnb, have some relaxing pool time, visit Joshua Tree national park, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, Living Desert zoo, Cabazon dinosaurs and a longish drive out to Calico ghost town.
From Palm Springs we are driving to Disneyland for the end of our holiday, 4 nights I think. Likely staying at a non Disney hotel.

So that's our rough itinerary, probably a bit rubbish compared to the epic trips on here but it fits with our family and within our budget. We will definitely plan another trip at some point as there's so much more we want to see and do in California. We would rather do them on another trip than squeeze them in with no time and no budget to do them properly.

No idea if this ramble is of any use to you haha but happy planning!

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There isn’t any ‘a bit rubbish ‘ about it at all. There are some rather more unusual and interesting things in the itinary and it is clear that you have done good research. I will be looking and researching your plans myself , later this evening as there are some things that I have never considered..

[400ixl]

Originally Posted by KayLouise

We are planning on 4 Nights in LA, doing Griffith Observatory and park, a hike to the Hollywood sign, Walk of fame, La Brea tar pits, possibly a Dodgers game if on and a day at Universal. I felt a bit disheartened reading a lot of reports on here at first as it seems a lot of Dibbers aren't fans of LA but I'm looking forward to it so much.

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We really like LA and your LA agenda looks good to me.

La Brea Tar Pits is actually surprisingly good and you can easily spend the best part of a day there. We got there about 10am and left about 4pm.

Griffith Observatory is nice as well. You get a decent view of the Hollywood sign from there and from the shopping mall at the walk of fame.

With children of the age you have Santa Monica Pier would be a good visit and going down the coast a little to Venice Beach where they can have a go on the monkey bars etc in the muscle beach and watch the skateboarding there.

The Science museum in LA is also really good and they have one of the Space Shuttles there along with loads of interactive displays.

We could easily do a two week holiday just in LA without going anywhere near any of the theme parks. Such a diverse culture, unfortunately that puts many off who only want to see the very tourist focused parts of the city.

[ocaz]

Originally Posted by KayLouise

It's so difficult, isn't it? We aren't going until 2021 but when I recently started planning, my list was as long as my arm. After looking up hotel prices and having a good look at Google maps at the actual locations I quickly realised that there's no way we could fit in everything on our budget, in 2 weeks and with 2 young kids (Will be 5 and 9 when we go.)
So I pretty much halved our rough itinerary. Cut out the north Cali part (reason for another trip in the future!) and concentrate on the south.
We are planning on 4 Nights in LA, doing Griffith Observatory and park, a hike to the Hollywood sign, Walk of fame, La Brea tar pits, possibly a Dodgers game if on and a day at Universal. I felt a bit disheartened reading a lot of reports on here at first as it seems a lot of Dibbers aren't fans of LA but I'm looking forward to it so much.

From LA we will have some nights in Palm Springs, probably at a nice Airbnb, have some relaxing pool time, visit Joshua Tree national park, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, Living Desert zoo, Cabazon dinosaurs and a longish drive out to Calico ghost town.
From Palm Springs we are driving to Disneyland for the end of our holiday, 4 nights I think. Likely staying at a non Disney hotel.

So that's our rough itinerary, probably a bit rubbish compared to the epic trips on here but it fits with our family and within our budget. We will definitely plan another trip at some point as there's so much more we want to see and do in California. We would rather do them on another trip than squeeze them in with no time and no budget to do them properly.

No idea if this ramble is of any use to you haha but happy planning!

See more...

Ha! Seem in a very similar boat to me and your ramblings are very useful as pretty much where I am going back and forth on things as no way I would be able to do what I want to do in one trip.

As my youngest wouldn't be much older than yours the revelation of drive times when I've been doing various routes on Google maps kind of sways a similar call to focus on the south.

Planning and revising the plans is part of the fun especially as I have until 2021 😁

[KayLouise]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

There isn’t any ‘a bit rubbish ‘ about it at all. There are some rather more unusual and interesting things in the itinary and it is clear that you have done good research. I will be looking and researching your plans myself , later this evening as there are some things that I have never considered..

See more...

Thank you Cornishfrogboy 😊

Originally Posted by 400ixl

We really like LA and your LA agenda looks good to me.

La Brea Tar Pits is actually surprisingly good and you can easily spend the best part of a day there. We got there about 10am and left about 4pm.

Griffith Observatory is nice as well. You get a decent view of the Hollywood sign from there and from the shopping mall at the walk of fame.

With children of the age you have Santa Monica Pier would be a good visit and going down the coast a little to Venice Beach where they can have a go on the monkey bars etc in the muscle beach and watch the skateboarding there.

The Science museum in LA is also really good and they have one of the Space Shuttles there along with loads of interactive displays.

We could easily do a two week holiday just in LA without going anywhere near any of the theme parks. Such a diverse culture, unfortunately that puts many off who only want to see the very tourist focused parts of the city.

See more...

Thank you for the tips, I had forgot we wanted squeeze a beach day in there somewhere too, Santa Monica and Venice sound perfect for us. Also the Science center sounds fab, we would love to see Endeavour but not sure if we will find the time. There's honestly so many things we wish we could fit it 🙈

Originally Posted by ocaz

Ha! Seem in a very similar boat to me and your ramblings are very useful as pretty much where I am going back and forth on things as no way I would be able to do what I want to do in one trip.

As my youngest wouldn't be much older than yours the revelation of drive times when I've been doing various routes on Google maps kind of sways a similar call to focus on the south.

Planning and revising the plans is part of the fun especially as I have until 2021 😁

See more...

Ha yes planning is all part of the fun and we have such a long while. I have to keep reading Dibbers trip reports to keep me going in the meantime. Can't wait to be able to actually start booking things! 🙂

[jengibbo]

Hi,
We did an epic Easter trip this year. First family trip to west coast but me and DH went for our honeymoon. Kids were 10 and 7. It was our favourite holiday to the US. We flew in and out of LAX from Manchester via Heathrow with a BA flydrive which was £2200.
We stayed 4 days (5 nights) in Anaheim at the Best Western Stovall in. Basic room but clean and decent size. Breakfast included, nice coffee and good muffins. Parking was extra.
We did 3 days at Disney and 1 day at Knotts Berry farm. Loved all parks. We ate at Tony Roma’s, dominos and a independent restaurant. Lunch in the parks.
From here we drove to Palm Springs and had a day and overnight stay here. Nice motel good pool and restaurant. Went on Aerial tramway which was amazing. From here we then drove to the Grand Canyon approx 7 hour drive. So yes a long way and a day in the car but th journey was very interesting and kids chilled out. 3 nights in GC which gave us two full days in the GC. Then we drove to San Diego which was 10 hours with stops. Very long journey and very boring. Had four nights in San Diego and loved it. Chilled and friendly city. Stayed at Best Western on shelter island not cheap but great location. Visited Balboa park, USS Midway, Coronado island, Pacific beach and La Jolla. Finally day drove back to LA and went to Griffith park. Although we had two long travel days we had a brilliant holiday. We saw dramatic scenery and experienced lots of different weather. It was 25-30 in Anaheim, 30+ in Palm Springs, then there was snow at the top of the tramway. It was 0 in night in the Grand Canyon and then a fresh 25 in San Diego. I would go back tomorrow if I could but instead I’ve got Ofsted.

[donna252]

I have nothing useful to add I’m afraid but I’m following this thread with interest as considering a similar trip with kids of a similar age!

[ocaz]

Originally Posted by jengibbo

Hi,
We did an epic Easter trip this year. First family trip to west coast but me and DH went for our honeymoon. Kids were 10 and 7. It was our favourite holiday to the US. We flew in and out of LAX from Manchester via Heathrow with a BA flydrive which was £2200.
We stayed 4 days (5 nights) in Anaheim at the Best Western Stovall in. Basic room but clean and decent size. Breakfast included, nice coffee and good muffins. Parking was extra.
We did 3 days at Disney and 1 day at Knotts Berry farm. Loved all parks. We ate at Tony Roma’s, dominos and a independent restaurant. Lunch in the parks.
From here we drove to Palm Springs and had a day and overnight stay here. Nice motel good pool and restaurant. Went on Aerial tramway which was amazing. From here we then drove to the Grand Canyon approx 7 hour drive. So yes a long way and a day in the car but th journey was very interesting and kids chilled out. 3 nights in GC which gave us two full days in the GC. Then we drove to San Diego which was 10 hours with stops. Very long journey and very boring. Had four nights in San Diego and loved it. Chilled and friendly city. Stayed at Best Western on shelter island not cheap but great location. Visited Balboa park, USS Midway, Coronado island, Pacific beach and La Jolla. Finally day drove back to LA and went to Griffith park. Although we had two long travel days we had a brilliant holiday. We saw dramatic scenery and experienced lots of different weather. It was 25-30 in Anaheim, 30+ in Palm Springs, then there was snow at the top of the tramway. It was 0 in night in the Grand Canyon and then a fresh 25 in San Diego. I would go back tomorrow if I could but instead I’ve got Ofsted.

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Thanks for that - that is some epic long drives and gives me a bit more comfort especially if you managed it with kids similar ages to mine and still had the best holiday!

Keep going back and forth on plans but think I am settling on flying in and out of LA.

Initial few nights in LA with long drive one evening to Fresno then stop for night there before driving to Yosemite early next morning then staying for a 2 to 3 nights before making our way to Montery then back down coast to LA.

Funny side note regarding Yosemite.

Was talking to a woman at work who'd done a west coast trip and I have been saying Yosemite as "YOZ-MITE" to my wife as I'd only seen it seen it written and incorrectly assumed that is how it was said.

It wasn't until she corrected me to say it as YO-SE-MI-TEE felt slightly embarrassed but made me laugh when I told my wife