Family holiday LA/SAN Diego road trip

sims2208

I have searched the forums, and read many similar threads, but nothing that quite matches the info I am looking for so any ideas/advicecomments would be greatly apprecaited!

We are trying to plan a budget mini road trip. mMe, hubby, and our 2 girls (9 & 11 years) fly into (and out of) LA in April and have 15 days. Will hire a car from the airport (slightly worried about being ripped off after reading all the threads about USA car hire!)
My main aim is to go to SD, as I went there many years ago and loved it, so the zoo and seaworld are def on our to do list. Do not want to do too much driving (i.e. Vegas and San Fran are out of the question). We plan to spend a couple of days in LA - universal studios for the kids and general sight-seeing (but not Disney as we are not really into that!).

We then plan to drive down the coastal road to SD, and maybe stop somewhere on the way - any ideas?
We'll spend a few days in SD, before heading up to Big Bear for a few days and maybe Joshua Tree or Palm Springs.

We do like the outdoors and want to see more of the 'real' California, not just the bright lights and big city, but must appeal to the kiddies as well!

Would appreciate any ideas on anything really! other places we could visit perhaps off the beaten track? bargain places to stay and eat,
thanks in advance

Alan_Bowen

What a great holiday to look forward to. Book car hire in advance and I suggest staying overnight in a hotel close to LAX as driving after a 11 hour flight isn't always a great idea. You will wake up very early the next morning and can pick up the car and do Universal or something similar to keep everyone awake on your first day. Staying on the beach is simple Santa Monica or even Marina del Rey where most hotels have a shuttle to the airport.

The drive to SD should be less than 3 hours, I drive from SD to Newport Beach in less than 2 hours, often to catch the ferry to Catalina which is a great day out, you could stay in Newport overnight, its a great little town and if you need retail therapy there are a couple of huge shopping centres a few miles inland. We saty at Humphreys on Shelter Island in SD, very relaxing, not super luxury but great to chill out. Its only 10-15 minutes drive to downtown and you are bound to want to spend Sunday in Balboa Park, driving up the steepest street, Laurel, in SD to get there.

Inland you could drive to the Wild Animal Park and on to Julian for some real old time apple pie. Anzo Borrego desert is not too far away and April would be a good time to visit. Palm Springs doesn't work for me but each to their own. we have even been known to book Southwest Airlines tickets in a sale and fly from SD to LV for the day, knowing that you can get back to SD and sanity the same day!

sims2208

Thanks for the suggestions Alan, I will look at Catalina for the day or even LV!