Los Angeles, San Diego & Las Vegas Tips...

tux130582

Hello,

Ive literally just booked flights to USA, not a great price but other things in life have stopped me booking sooner now to relieve the stress its booked

return from Heathrow to LA on 15th August to 30th 2008

We now have the following plan

15 - Arrive
LA – Town
16
LA – Town
17
LA - Town
18
LA - Town
19
San Diego
20
San Diego
21
San Diego
22
San Diego
23
San Diego
24
Las Vegas
25
Las Vegas
26
Las Vegas
27
Las Vegas
28
LA - Beach
29
30th Leave
LA- Beach





Does everyone thinks this plan looks ok?

Now looking to find the best areas for hotels for as cheap as possible can anyone recommend hotels in nice enough areas for the following


Los Angeles for site seeing
San Diego for site seeing / beaches
Vegas in general
and Los Angeles for beach

Also looking to see what excusions I MUST see and do when I visit all these places, the obvious ones I can think of it a helicopter ride to the grand canyon? and some film sets in LA but I am open to all suggestions and want to gather as much information asap!

Also should i book excursions now or when I arrive?

I am going to now read through mountains and mountains of threads on here and see what I can find but all info would be much appreciated

look forward to hearing from you

Tux

Blue264

It all depends on you and what you like?
There is an excellent Las Vegas thread already on this forum which is stuffed full of good advice.

I've never been to San Diego myself, but all my friends who have done the California coast preferred San Francisco.

For bang on central L.A., I'd go for the Hollywood Roosevelt...

http://www.hollywoodroosevelt.com/index.php?page=hrh

It's not to everyone's liking and there are far more luxurious hotels, but I liked the atmosphere and the location facing Mann's Chinese Theatre.
Some of my friends stayed at The Grafton and loved it!
http://www.graftononsunset.com/

This pub is worth checking out some afternoon...
http://www.yeoldekingshead.com/
It close to Santa Monica beach and has a relaxed, if too familiar, atmosphere. A lot of the Brit stars in L.A. hang out there, and I narrowly missed an impromptu acoustic gig by Noel Gallagher there.

Universal Studios is fantastic!
I'm not a fan of amusement parks but I wanted to go back every day I was in L.A. and catch the sunset over the city from there again.
A large part of the back lot was recently destroyed by a fire so check out more info before you go there and also check out their special events.
One of my mates spent last Halloween on a ghost hunt around the set of 'Ghost Whisperer' and loved it!

wayne77

San Diego is fantastic. Check out Catamaran Hotel and visit the Zoo,Sea World and Coronado .

tux130582

thanks so far keep um coming! would you book universal etc in advance or when you get there? and if so what are the bext websites to use?

Diamond_Olly

My niece just came back from a trip round California. Felt unsafe in LA, loved San Francisco but the best was San Diego. Very laid back and relaxed there. I found the tourist board website good http://www.sandiego.org/nav/Visitors and they went to watch the dogs surfing competition which was on there. They stayed at the Dana on Mission Bay and they thought it was great.

boombap

I'd suggest staying in the Santa Monica area of LA. It's very central yet it's got a very laid back vibe, a great beach and has been the setting of many filsms so you recognise it. Whilst staying in Santa Monica we took in a tour of celebrities homes around which was great fun although you do feel a bit of a voyeur!

We've been twice to California and the first thing we do after picking the hire car up is find the nearest AAA (American Automobile Association). They've got heaps of very detailed road maps of great quality which are free if you're a member of the UK.

They also give you tons of leaflets for motels and money off vouchers. We tended to stay in motels in the Best Western chain as they had some sort of deal going on with the AA. Obviously you can book your accomodation in advance but we enjoyed not being tied to a schedule.

Hope the above has been of help/interest!

Enjoy your trip,

Squee.

arnie&caseysma!

I love San Diego!
I also visited the zoo, Sea World, etc. Went up into the Old Town and did the hop on hop off bus tour which takes you all around San Diego - across into Coronado aswell (the hotel on Coronado Island is just fab!).

Find someone that knows about the bus service and use them as much as possible - they are so cheap and when you go to Sea World drop you right outside with a pick up from the same point.

Find somewhere to hire bikes and cycle the board walks - you will cover miles and see so much without realising.

Massive Skechers store aswell which is near the beach just off Grand if I remember correctly (I got 4 pairs for £50!)!

So jealous that you are going and not me! Have a great time!

mitchg

In my opinion i think your planning too long a stay in LA do Hollywood and Rodeo drive then Santa Monica and Venice for a couple of days, then head off to San Diego but your not taking into account the distance from San Diego to Vegas its a long way and why not take in a couple of places en route Sedona perhaps or Palm Springs too depending on which way you wish to go. San Diego visit the Zoo Old Town and the Harbour area on the way down from La stop off at La Jolla and a couple of other beach sea side resorts. For shopping there are some outlets on the route down or in Vegas or in Palm Springs lots of high fashion brands at good prices

Baz_2

We stayed in The Sofia Hotel in the gaslamp quarter in San Diego. Would recommend it to you.

Also do go to Seaworld, it was one of the highlights of our 17 day Honeymoon all over California. It is that good. Get there early. Also do look at the Dine with Shamu buffet, it is well worth it. Good food aswell.

You can get coupons that can be printed for various discounts that you can use on the day.

We went to the Zoo the day after but felt it was a let down after going to seaworld.
So if you want to do both I would suggest doing the Zoo first.

We didnt really have enough time to do much else though.

tux130582

do you get the coupons there? is it the thing to buy all trip tickets when in the country to make use of the dollar prices?

Murphy_The_Cat

Personally, I'd drastically curtail the time that you are spending in LA and instead spend some time between LA & SD and definitely take an east trip to Las Vegas, via some of the nicer places in Arizona. (Sedona is just gorgeous)

But just be aware that Arizona & Las Vegas will be very, very hot indeed in August