LV to Six Flags & Knotts Berry Farm

[Simba2014]

Wonder if anyone had any feedback on a little trip we have planned. Going to Las Vegas for a week in March, flights and hotel booked so can't really change, and to be honest it was a cheap deal so wouldn't want to change it if I could. However I really want to visit Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain.

We are in Vegas from Saturday to Saturday, hotel is booked for the week in Vegas Downtown. My current thoughts are:

Monday - Pick up hire car . Visit Valley of Fire. Maybe loop round to Hoover Dam.
Tuesday - Premium Outlets in the morning. Drive down to Six Flags in the afternoon. Check in to hotel for one night.
Wednesday - Six Flags Magic Mountain. After the day drive down to Knotts Berry Hotel.
Thursday - Knotts Berry Farm. It's also my birthday.
Friday - Drive back around 10am to avoid traffic. Unsure on the afternoon.

The only thing is it eats time into Las Vegas, which I don't mind as I have been before. I'm also not sure if doing 3 nights in another hotel is worth it as we've paid for the hotel in Las Vegas as part of our package. 2 nights could work if I can work it some how. Presumably the hotel in Las Vegas won't mind if we aren't in the room for 3 days? We can leave our main suitcases behind so they know we are still there.

Park hours for those days are around 10am-6pm as its off peak during the week if that helps. Not interested in doing Universal or Disney as we spent two weeks in Orlando last month. Thoughts?

[grant_w]

We went to Vegas on our last trip, and in the afternoon drove from Vegas to a hotel near Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Went to SFMM the next day, and stayed til about 8-9ish as it was a Fright Night, then we stayed that night on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Then continued our journey the next day

[400ixl]

LV to Six Flags will be somewhere between 4.5-6 hours typically. There are a couple of hotels within just a few minutes on the same freeway junction (Holiday Inn Express and Hilton Garden Inn).

It will then take around a couple of hours to drive down to Knotts Berry Farm where again there are various hotels within a mile or two.

Drive back to LV will again be in the 4.5-6 hour range. Probably at the longer end as with it being a Friday, there is lots of traffic heading to LV from California for the weekend, especially if you leave later. I would perhaps leave the LA area on the night of coming out of the park, maybe somewhere like Ontario Outlets and then head off from there the next morning.

Personally we didn't find Knotts Berry very appealing at all, Six Flags, whilst a bit run down we did enjoy as it has some decent coasters there.

[daytonababe]

Personally I wouldn't drive from LA -Vegas on a Friday daytime, leaving at 10am, you will likely end up wasting the whole day sat in traffic

As for leaving the hotel for 3 days that will be fine, I've done it before in Vegas when we went to Phoenix for 3 nights, I just told reception and made sure we left nothing of value in the room (took passports etc with me).

[Simba2014]

Thanks for the replies all. Tickets are now out for 2019 and costing it up, think we are going to ditch Knotts Berry Farm and just do SFMM. Whilst both parks look great, I went through the ride list and found their was 10 rides that really appealed at KBF, and 18 at SFMM, given it'll be Spring Break at the end of March, and I don't wanna spend all day queuing on holiday we are just going to do SFMM, but with Fastpass ($100 extra each) so hopefully we can cover 18 rides in a day.

[grant_w]

We went to SFMM during FrightFest and we got on all but 1 ride that we wanted to go on (all big coasters) and that was without any passes whatsoever. And we only left then because we were absolutely knackered, we could have got on it if we were desperate.

[Simba2014]

Hi all. Our trip was last week and thought I'd follow up my own reply in case anyone ever has similar ideas and finds it useful.

So in the end I decided I wanted to see both parks, not knowing when I'd be heading back and being a theme park fanatic it was too great an opportunity to pass.

We drove down on Tuesday from Vegas to an Airbnb near Six Flags. Took 10 hours or so, but we did a whole bunch of stops on route and basically made a day off it. We stopped at Primm casino and mall,
Zzyzx, EddieWorld, Peggysues for lunch/dinner, Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch and a photo stop at the Baker Thermometer. We also drove some of route 66 so we took our time and really enjoyed the drive down.

Wednesday we went to Six Flags, had Gold fastpasses, and got there early. Fastpasses holders also get in early which was a nice bonus. Amazing rides, and tiring day! We ended up doing about 25k steps each, and had several head ache moments as the rides were just so intense and there were so many. So many rollercoasters here and a lot that were unique, it was certainly a thrill seekers park. X2 and Twisted Colossus were the standout ones for us. Park closed at 6pm as off season so after we headed to Olive Garden nearby and back to the Airbnb.

We were both feeling quite tired after Six Flags and the drive down, so opted on setting off later on the Thursday to Knott's Berry Farm so we could sleep in a bit. KBF stayed open until 8 anyway and this meant we could miss some of the morning and evening rush hour traffic by arriving later and leaving later. Drive down took about an hour and a half. Knotts was much busier than Six Flags so we picked up fastpasses again to make the day easier. We both hate queuing and having done the Florida parks with fastpasses we don't mind paying extra to skip several hours of queues especially where short on time. As we also didn't arrive til 12ish we had missed any minimal queue levels so it was a good choice. The wild west area theming was amazing, and Ghostrider and Hangtime were some of the best rides we've ever been on. Ghostrider felt insanely fast, but also super smooth. Queues seemed about an hour long for both but we breezed through in about 5 minutes. We ended up doing Hangtime 4 times, and Ghostrider 3 times as they were that good. We skipped some of the older coasters as after Six Flags they didn't have the wow factor, but we also took time to see all the shows and do some smaller rides which Six Flags didn't offer.

We finished on the last ride of the day at 7:59 and were the last people to ride on Iron Reef 4d. Back to the gift shop and left the car park about 9:15. We stopped at EddieWorld once again for clean toilets and snacks. Traffic was good until we hit nearer Vegas where there was a big accident on the interstate. Took about 4 hours in total plus a 15 minute stop.over.

All in, a bloody good trip. It was nice to get away from Vegas for 3 days as I do find it a bit full on at times and both parks had their own highlights. If I could only do one park again, Six Flags would probably just come up top because it has so many types of rollercoasters that are unique and done very well. However Knott's Berry Farm is a great park in its own way, and certainly shouldn't be brushed side for Disney or Six Flags in my opinion. With Hangtime and Ghostrider there it also has plenty for any coaster enthusiast and has its own unique attractions such as a stagecoach and narrow gauge mine train.

Anyway 10/10, worth the crazy drive on both counts and do glad we visited them both.

[kaip]

Ghostrider is the best woodie i've ever been on

[Infinity Red]

Hi , what was the name of your Vegas hotel please? My daughter is looking for a very reasonably priced one if possible for 3 nights in July. I noticed you said it was a cheap deal but you might have meant the flights or package combined. Thanks.

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by Infinity Red

Hi , what was the name of your Vegas hotel please? My daughter is looking for a very reasonably priced one if possible for 3 nights in July. I noticed you said it was a cheap deal but you might have meant the flights or package combined. Thanks.

See more...

For very reasonable in July in Vegas you’re looking at off strip hotels which unless you have transport isn’t a option for most.


Week days will be far cheaper than weekends but if she wants to be on the strip the cheapest hotels will be the best western casino royale and older properties like Excalibur , Luxor , Bally’s