Back to California 20 years later, to celebrate the big 40!

[Guest]

DH, DD(will be 6) and I have booked to go to California/ Hawaii for almost 3 weeks in July next year. DH and I will both be 40 next year and it is also our 10th anniversary year so we decided (after a lot of debate) to go to California. I was there on a road trip in 1995 when I drove with a friend 6000 miles across America on £2000 each including flights, all spending money and hotels. This one is going to be a good bit dearer

We are flying Edinburgh to London, London to San Francisco with Virgin. Debated about PE but prices skyrocketed so we didn't book it. Still deciding whether to try for extra leg room or not or whether to wait and see what PE options there are later.

Have 3 nights in San Francisco at the Holiday Inn Suites at Fisherman's Wharf. Found it hard to decide on accommodation in SF. It is super scary and we really would have liked a room with a balcony/ alcove area to sit when DD asleep. However hoping it will be okay.

Have hired a car for 7 nights on leaving SF. Driving to Yosemite and have 2 nights booked there at the Yosemite River View Lodge.

Next we are heading to Pismo Beach for the night. This is a short time and would have liked longer but it is really hard to try and balance out distances/ what we want to do/ not exhausting ourselves. Staying at the Cottage Inn by the Sea.

Onto LA next for 3 nights at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. Planning a visit to Universal for the day. Also the usual sights. Also want to head to Venice as that's where I stayed 20 years ago and want to see it again.

After that we are flying LAX to Honolulu for 5 nights at the Hawaiian Village. DH very excited about this one. Going to Pearl Harbour and I want to see where Jurassic Park was filmed. We will hire a car for a day probably to visit the other side of the island. Will use airmiles for this. Seeing this as our 'rest' time. We are all keen swimmers so looking forward to a bit surf!

Next we are flying back to LA and then heading straight to San Diego for 3 nights at the Handerly. This one I am still not convinced about it but time to sort it out yet. We are planning a trip to the Zoo and possibly SeaWorld. There is so much I want to revisit in SD.

Finally we are heading to Anaheim and the Doubletrees. Stay free with points. Not telling DD about this as she will wish away the rest of the holiday!

Flying back LAX- LHR PE on the 5pm flight then back up to Edinburgh.

Super excited now it is booked. Time to start saving though. Need to start thinking about the things we want to do and get them booked. Thinking about one of the special tours at SD Zoo. Probably a princess/ character breakfast in Anaheim.

[CrispyA]

Sounds like a wonderful trip!

[Guest]

A few months later and a good few changes now!

We found out that there are closures due to ecology work at Yosemite so we would not easily be able to get to see the Redwoods with out daughter. So, have rejigged the timetable. Also, Virgin changed our flight a number of times so we are now heading to Heathrow the night before so the journey doesn't become 22 hours long!

- After 3 nights in San Francisco we are heading to Yosemite for 2 nights. From Yosemite we are heading to Sequoia for 1 night so we can see the General Grant/ General Sherman and tour through the park. It is going to be a long drive but was the best compromise we could come up with.
- In LA we have changed our booking to 2 days at the Hyatt and then a night at the Embassy Suites North at LAX. The flight to Hawaii is 10am on Monday morning and I started to get cold feet about how early we would have to leave to ensure we made the flight to Hawaii. We will leave Venice/ Santa Monica to the Sunday and then it is at least in the vague vicinity for the airport.
- Have sorted San Diego plans. 2 days in San Diego and then head to Legoland for the day on our way to Anaheim. In San Diego we have booked our zoo tickets now and also Backstage Passes for the zoo which just looks fab- animal feeding and meet and greets.

Think that is us. Starting to look at tickets and trips now and get them booked. Disney next on list as I have heard rumours that ticket hikes are imminent!

[amy56]

Hiya

I was interested to read your posts as we too are visiting Hawaii and California this summer to celebrate our 40th birthdays! (Although we will both be 41 by the time we go, as it's taken us so long to save up!)

We are going in August, so will probably miss you - flying out on Aug 8th to San Francisco for 3 nights (Holiday inn Fisherman's wharf!) & then we fly in to Honolulu for 12 nights, then back to LA for 8 nights.

We had originally planned more of a Californian road trip, but our boys are not too keen on too much travelling/sightseeing - so we are planning lots of pool time!

Happy planning!

[Guest]

Despite the best intentions this has been sadly neglected!

However...

documents for travel came through today so it is all starting to feel very real!

Have booked our tour time for Pearl Harbour. Got 1pm as it will allow us to tour the rest of the site and museums beforehand. Think it will make best use of the day too as will hit the beach on the way back.

Made lots of big decisions about Disney too. I know it is sacrilege on this site but we have decided that as this is not a Disney trip, we are just booking one day tickets and will only go to California Park. Lots of reasons why but the biggie being that we want to spend the day before in LEGOLAND not Disney as Emma is crazy about it just now. We fly out the day after the planned Disney day and will have the morning free to chill or shop as we wish. However, I have booked for lunch at Aerial's grotto with the princesses.

4 weeks on Friday!

[smedley]

Sounds like it's coming along nicely

Looking forward to reading all about it