LA or Las Vegas for longer?

Starrystarrynight

While there isn't much to do in LA itself, the surrounding areas and beaches are, as PhilipP says, absolutely lovely. I adore Balboa and Balboa Island, part of the Newport Beach area. Dana point is very pretty and I loved gawking at all the yachts at Marina del Rey! Laguna Beach is lovely and is full of art galleries.
We stay at Anaheim Resort so we're not too far from all these places and usually do a day trip to LA. We're close to Disney and love to visit the restaurants at the Garden Walk and Downtown Disney.
Know what you mean about supermarkets, Traincrashing! We make a point of visiting Walmart and a mexican supermarket called El Super. So cheap!!

C_Mababejive

I honestly would say that you should not bother staying in LA. If you must check it out,then just do a daytrip with an organised tour bus so that you get to see what sights there are. It really isnt anything special..just a vast sprawling Metropolis.

Last time i was in the area I booked into the fabulous Georgian Hotel on the front at Santa monica. I did a days tour which was early morning pickup from the hotel.

Dont waste any more in LA.

You could pickup a hire car and drive along the magnificence pacific coast highway to San Francisco.

Or if that seems a bit much,fly to SFO and spend 2 or three days there,no more than three certainly.

Again SFO is an interesting place,the main sights are fairly compact and anything more than three days would be too much. I;d cut it to a busy two days if your pushed.

Las Vegas is worth 2 to three days...especially if you havent been before. Having said that,use one of those days to drive out to the Hoover dam and other similar sights.

If driving,get a decent sat nav such as Tomtom with USA (and Guam !) maps...

Traincrashing

Can you get bus tours from the centre of LA out to see all the beaches? We debated on renting a car but I won't be driving then and I'm not sure if my boyfriend will be able to handle the LA traffic and everything being back to front so I've decided against it. I think we'll maybe take a day out of the LA part and add it on to the Las Vegas. Yous are convincing me too much

C_Mababejive

Incidentally,for those interested,the drive from say,San Francisco to Santa Monica may not look much on the map but if you were to do it in a day,you would have to get up early especially if you plan any stops along the way. We overnighted about half way in Pismo beach. It isnt really doable comfortably in a day.