Thoughts from 2 Weeks in Southern CA

[Libby]

DH and I (both in our late 50s) returned from 2 weeks in Southern California yesterday. I do intend to write a trip report at some point, although I may have to make up the last few days from my photos as I stopped making notes towards the end.

Anyway here are my general views on what we did. We didn’t do anything “celebrity” in LA (not even the Hollywood sign) nor did we visit beaches or whale watch. But we did fill our 14 days with stuff that was fun for us.

BA Flights We were caught in the IT debacle on the way out and one piece of luggage was late arriving. All handled well by BA staff. PE outbound flight was very good and food the best I’ve had on an aeroplane. Coming back we had a 4½ hour delay. Not handled well by BA staff. PE seats good but food awful and not suitable for time of day now we were later leaving.

Driving DH was the only driver for the trip. He found things much faster and more aggressive than our trip to New England last year. Drivers have no concept of a safe stopping distance and pushed in from both sides. The road exits were sometimes hard to find because the Satnav often used road names but the signs used numbers. We went wrong quite a few times.

Universal Studios We had 2 short days here. I loved the place. We bought tickets online and got early entry both days. Well worth it to ride Harry Potter and Jurassic Park rides. We couldn’t make it into the evening as still jet lagged.

Warner Brothers Tour Despite only knowing about 1% of the shows mentioned we found this really interesting. Loved the mixture of tram tour and getting out to se sets and props.

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway I’m terrified of heights so had my eyes closed for a lot of the journey! The top of the mountain was amazing. We did a 1½ mile walk at the top and got some brilliant views. It was good to go earlier in the day while it was still cool at the top.

Palm Springs Air Museum Obviously run by dedicated volunteers. DH enjoyed getting close to the planes and I enjoyed the personal stories that were told here. Quite a short visit as it became a bit samey after a couple of hangers.

Drive from Palm Springs breath taking scenery.

San Diego Safari Park Not a safari park as I understand it. I expected to be able to get a bus around the vast distances but unless we paid for a safari tour there was just a small part of it that had transport. It was very hot and lots of empty exhibits. A bit disappointing.

San Diego Zoo I loved this zoo. Lots to see and not too far between exhibits. There was even a bus included in the entry. Glad we did this after the safari park.

USS Midway We were here for over 2 hours. Lots of planes to see and also interesting to walk below deck and find out how life was for the personnel.

Old Town San Diego We ended up here on a trolley tour. There was much more here than I expected. Behind the tacky tourist shops is a recreated town of old buildings and most were free to visit.

Baseball Game Petco Park is very different from Fenway Park that we visited last year. Once again, despite not being big sports fans, we enjoyed the game and the atmosphere of the evening.

Balboa Park Fascinating to look at the architecture and to read about the history of the place. Lots of museums here. We decided to visit the Natural History Museum and were very impressed with the way the got visitors to look at clues in their exhibits rather than just say what things are/were.

Disneyland Oh my! We finished our trip here and stayed on site at Paradise Pier Hotel. We had 3 day park hoppers. It was just how I remember my first visit to WDW. Lots of queues 20 minutes or less. However the Stars Wars land was a bit out of place and it felt like they were mismanaging the Millennium Falcon queue to make it seem longer - we didn't ride it. A few rides had paper fast passes which we used well. We didn’t pay for Maxpass and didn’t really need it (might be worth it for people who want photos.) Loved, loved, loved both parks.

I hope that was of some interest.

[emmabanana]

Sounds like a great trip, thanks for posting.

[MichelleB]

Thanks, very interesting. We are off very soon!

[KayLouise]

Sounds like a fab trip! Would love to see some photos from the Aerial Tramway if you do a trippy. It's one of the things I'm most looking forward to doing when we go. 😊

MichelleB, hoping you do a trippy too (and have an amazing holiday, of course!) Can't get enough SoCal trippies, think I've read them all. I've got such a long wait, I need more to keep me going 😂

[minnie52]

Thank you - found this really helpful.

A lot of these are on my list for our trip next year so good to know others thoughts