LA, San Diego and Hawaii

[Bellasmummy]

You’ve basically just described our 2018 trip 😂 except we had a car.

We flew into LAX, 4 nights at Hilton universal and used that for a base to do universal, Warner Bros studio tour, Hollywood. Driving and parking were fine even though we were expecting it to be difficult and busy. It was certainly no worse than Orlando when we were there at the end of August.

From there we had 2 nights in Long beach before moving over to Anaheim for 3 nights at Grand Californian (rented dvc points)

We had 2 days at the parks but I think if we were to repeat the trip we’d drop Long Beach and spend the extra nights in Anaheim.

Back to LAX for flights to Honolulu. We had 2 nights in Honolulu before moving to Aulani for 5 nights. Again if we repeat we’d spend the whole week at Aulani.

We flew back to LAX as flights to San Diego were really expensive, picked up the car and drove down to San Diego. We stayed at the Best Western Palm Island, it was nice but next time I want to stay at the Del.

We had 5 nights in San Diego which was lovely, we visited the zoo and Sea World, and generally explored the area at our leisure.

We drove back to LAX for the flight home, expected traffic so left plenty of time, but again it was on our side. An easy drive with a nice stop at the outlets for lunch and last minute shopping.

We hope to do a West coast trip next summer, we may well redo some of the elements we did in 2018, though I worry we would be disappointed trying to replicate what was an amazing trip.

[Princess Alison]

We did a family holiday a few years ago with 7 nights la, 14 Hawaii and then 3 nights nyc

Happy to answer questions to help plan your trip

Very doable and very enjoyable

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by Evil queen

I think we’d probably have 17/18 nights depending on what we can negotiate with work.

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Have you been to California before?

I ask because we’d done California a few times before going to Hawaii, and having been to Hawaii I’d go there in preference to California now, but only because I’ve done California if you know what I mean.

If you’re just after beaches I’d stick to California and save Hawaii for a future trip I think.

[Evil queen]

Originally Posted by KarenG

Have you been to California before?

I ask because we’d done California a few times before going to Hawaii, and having been to Hawaii I’d go there in preference to California now, but only because I’ve done California if you know what I mean.

If you’re just after beaches I’d stick to California and save Hawaii for a future trip I think.

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It would be our first time over on the west coast, I think we may stick to California this time and do Hawaii at some other point assuming we get back over there. I’d like to visit Vegas at some stage and various other places have caught my eye. It’s so tempting to cram loads in but I’d like to feel like we’ve done it justice, so a good excuse to go back!

Looks like I’ll have to spend a few more hours perusing trip reports-shame!

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by Evil queen

It would be our first time over on the west coast, I think we may stick to California this time and do Hawaii at some other point assuming we get back over there. I’d like to visit Vegas at some stage and various other places have caught my eye. It’s so tempting to cram loads in but I’d like to feel like we’ve done it justice, so a good excuse to go back!

Looks like I’ll have to spend a few more hours perusing trip reports-shame!

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I think with 17/18 nights and Hawaii involving so much extra travel you’ve made a good decision! The problem with Dibb trip reports is they make me want to go to places I didn’t know even existed 😂

[Bella Girl]

Just to throw a curve ball into the discussion, last year we did a cruise to Hawaii that started and ended in LA. Amazing and worth considering.

We have also done a couple of road trips in California and loved it. There is so much to see and do. The pacific highway is a fantastic trip. We stayed in a few lovely Airbnbs but be aware that hotels costs are significantly higher than Florida.

Personally, I would do a Cali road trip and Hawaii on separate holidays.