Booked for 2020, where to start?

[charleion]

We taken the plunge and booked 11th - 27th July into Vegas and out of SF. Could you lovely Dibbers give me an idea of where to start, any tips on where to book hotels, which hotels and roughly how long to spend where.
We want to Disney and Universal as definates but other than that no fixed plans. We're 2 adults and 2 teens that like a good mix of sightseeing, theme parks and relaxing, oh and plenty of food 😊

Any advice would be great x

[star89]

Hi
We are looking to go next year too. Who did you book your flights with?
Cheers 😊

[danisleigh]

We have booked for next year too from 22nd August to 7th Sept and booked the flights with Thomas Cook.

[cornishfrogboy]

Hi there.. and congrats.

This is the bestest, greatest vacation that we have experienced to date. We always DIY and this area initially looked daunting... so this is what we did and it worked!

We researched on the DIBB like mad, reading the various posts each day and more importantly, the trip reports section. Based on this, we booked into SFO and out of LAX. We chose these because we had seen good savings at Easter and the only thing that this seemed to preclude was Yosemite due to possible remaining snow. We then had breathing space and a framework to fill. We then realised that San Diego was floating our boat more than any of the other, more well known areas and that we definitely wanted to include it in our tour (Thanks Aims!).

We then spent quite literally weeks, shuffling locations, number of days in each, new ideas etc etc etc until eventually we had a word generated table and things to do for the 14 days vacation. We had decided that we wanted to avoid central LA and thus planned to drive round the back, taking in 6 Flags and Disney before heading down to San Diego for as many days as possible. As we were flying out of LAX, we opted to spend our penultimate day, driving up from San Diego to Long Beach as we really fancied staying the night on RMS Queen Mary. Our last day was a drive across the front of LA to Santa Monica that placed us very close to LAX. From there we did our guided tour of Hollywood before flying.

Las Vegas I cannot help you with as it did not form part of our plan. Others can and will. For the rest, I can suggest my trip report ‘California N to South at Easter’. This has the convenience of having a whole trip in one single thread. That will get you started.

From this, you can then research ‘10 things to do in’ to your hearts content and form your own individual plan. With hindsight, we learned the following things that would affect planning another trip.

1. We were glad we used public transport in SFO and didn’t have a car. Besides being useless, car parking is extortionate.
2. We should have stayed near Fishermen’s wharf rather than Union Sq (although this saved us plenty).
3. We picked up our car in the perfect place.
4. Monterey is beautiful and I wish that we had planned 2 days instead of 1 (same hotel, though!)
5. Driving from Monterey to North LA is a very long way and requires an overnight. The Madonna Inn lived up to expectations.
6. We were wrong time of year for the Monarch Butterflies in Pismo beach (you are probably just right). I really wanted to see this.
7. For us, part of the PCH was blocked by a mudslide. I wish that it had been otherwise.
8. The Reagan Library was really good.
9. 6 Flags made Busch look small and Disney like a kids playground. The Hotel that we stayed in worked out perfect.
10. Disney was disappointing (but then again, we are not in to Disney).
11. LA traffic on the I5 was the heaviest, slowest and most unhelpful that I have ever witnessed. It is 10 times as bad as you may imagine.
12. San Diego is the best, lushest, most beautiful city that I have ever visited and I could have stayed there for ever.
13.We should have waited till summer, had 3 weeks and to hell with the cost.
14. The Queen Mary was an amazing night.
15. I wouldn’t live in LA, Santa Monica or most certainly Hollywood if you paid me.
16. The Hollywood walk of fame is not very nice.

Those are only my views and others may think totally differently.

[charleion]

Originally Posted by star89

Hi
We are looking to go next year too. Who did you book your flights with?
Cheers 😊

See more...

Hi we've booked with Thomas Cook too, prices were very reasonable

[jdouds]

Hi enjoy the planning west coast is great.
Possibly
3/4 n vegas. Drive to La
3/4 n max, Disney etc
1 n Santa Barbara
2/3 n Monterey great place , 17 mile dr,Carmel ,aquarium and our highlight on both trips whale watching.
Depending on what you plan you could go to yosemite for 2 n and then the last 2/3 n San Fran.