HELP! California road trip advice needed

John259

I'd agree with reducing the time in Los Angeles, except that IMHO Disneyland is worth a day if you haven't visited any Disney parks before.

jackieblack

John259 wrote: »

IMHO Disneyland is worth a day if you haven't visited any Disney parks before.

Or even if you have!
I much prefer both the Anaheim parks to any of the other ones.
I'd want a day in each park.

OP, if your children are confident swimmers there are some great surf schools in the San Diego area, we used one in La Jolla, it was fantastic fun, also my husband went sea kayaking there

Murphy_The_Cat

Kel wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, beem really helpful and after that and a bit more research I have tweeked the plan somewhat:

Any recommendations for cheap/good hotels that sleep 5 or other things to see/do would be great:D

I do a road trip to the Sates each year with Mrs Cat, annd the kittens, now aged 11 & 8. From our trips, we've found that
LA is a dump, pass straight by.
LV isn't a family friendly destination. You won't feel comfortable with your children walking down the Strip at night.

Hire a large vehicle with 3 rows of seats - the children will apprecaite the space. You'll appreciate the harmony.

& the biggie -- ask the children what they want from a California holiday. You may be very surprised at what they'd like to do.

Accomodationwise, Homewood Suites, prebooked, all the way. Seperate bedroom area, free cooked breakfast each day, free wifi, free welcome home evening meal/snack (including booze, Mon-Thur. Enrol with HHonors and rapidly build up to a free night.

The youngest will probably enjoy Legoland, just north of SD.

We enjoyed the Napa Wine country to the North of SFO.
Taking a few days to travel the PCH and stopping several times would work well. Monteray, Santa Barbara and our favourite place in the world San Luis Obispo and all worth of a stopever.

Death Valley is a wonderful place to vist and probably unlike anywhere else you have ever been to, but possibly to much of a detour.

Have you ever done an American driving holiday before ?

John259

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

ask the children what they want from a California holiday

That's a superb suggestion.

Can I ask - what would the kittens recommend to the OP's offspring?

Kel_3

Thats so much for all the replies, going to have a proper read in a minute but had a quick look over and there are some great suggestions!

Our flights are all booked and some of you will be pleased to hear that we changed our minds at the last minute and have scrapped Vegas (due to how hot it would be, I've been to vegas before and wouldn't have a problem taking my kids there otherwise) so have 3 nights to us up elsewhere.

We would love to do Yosemite, but the accomodation is coming in soooo exensive for 5 of us Any ideas for saving a bit of money?

Kel_3

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I do a road trip to the Sates each year with Mrs Cat, annd the kittens, now aged 11 & 8. From our trips, we've found that
LA is a dump, pass straight by.
LV isn't a family friendly destination. You won't feel comfortable with your children walking down the Strip at night.

Hire a large vehicle with 3 rows of seats - the children will apprecaite the space. You'll appreciate the harmony.

& the biggie -- ask the children what they want from a California holiday. You may be very surprised at what they'd like to do.

Accomodationwise, Homewood Suites, prebooked, all the way. Seperate bedroom area, free cooked breakfast each day, free wifi, free welcome home evening meal/snack (including booze, Mon-Thur. Enrol with HHonors and rapidly build up to a free night.

The youngest will probably enjoy Legoland, just north of SD.

We enjoyed the Napa Wine country to the North of SFO.
Taking a few days to travel the PCH and stopping several times would work well. Monteray, Santa Barbara and our favourite place in the world San Luis Obispo and all worth of a stopever.

Death Valley is a wonderful place to vist and probably unlike anywhere else you have ever been to, but possibly to much of a detour.

Have you ever done an American driving holiday before ?

Thanks Murphy, so great information. We haven't done a driving holiday as such in the US, but have done quite a bit of driving in the many times we have been there, so me and hubby will likely share the driving:).

Kel_3

jackieblack wrote: »

Or even if you have!
I much prefer both the Anaheim parks to any of the other ones.
I'd want a day in each park.

OP, if your children are confident swimmers there are some great surf schools in the San Diego area, we used one in La Jolla, it was fantastic fun, also my husband went sea kayaking there

The kids have done WDW a couple of times and DLP, so we aren't too fussed about spending much time at Disney. I quite fancy the California Adventure one as it looks a bit different from the rest.

I love the surf school idea and think my boys would too

blindman

Kel wrote: »

Thats so much for all the replies, going to have a proper read in a minute but had a quick look over and there are some great suggestions!

Our flights are all booked and some of you will be pleased to hear that we changed our minds at the last minute and have scrapped Vegas (due to how hot it would be, I've been to vegas before and wouldn't have a problem taking my kids there otherwise) so have 3 nights to us up elsewhere.

We would love to do Yosemite, but the accomodation is coming in soooo exensive for 5 of us Any ideas for saving a bit of money?

Cheapest option is to stay outside the Park and drive in.

Not ideal due to traffic and driving time but accomodation inside the park is always expensive.

Have you looked at VRBO or AirBnB for accomodation nearby?

Southwest thread I posted earlier has info on Yosemite.

If you do go there you need to book accomodation asap.

Las time we went I got a cabin for 4 so can;t help with 5 I'm afraid.

Where are you flying back to UK from now-LA ??

John259

Kel wrote: »

Any ideas for saving a bit of money?

As Blindman says, stay outside the park. Nearly all the towns have motels and restaurants. You can use Google Maps to search for motels in each town and that will give you a rough idea of comparative rates. Then you can decide the balance between reducing the cost but increasing the driving into and out of the park. You can also use StreetView mode in Google Maps to look at the outside of motels and their surrounding areas.

FWIW I stay in Merced, but that's a bit too far away for many folks. Try El Portal, Mariposa (the town, not the grove) and Oakhurst.

All the roads into the park are good quality and very scenic, so driving on them is part of the pleasure of a visit.

davetrousers

I went to California in 2011 and 2012 (flying in to LA each time) and did circular routes.

In 2011 I did:
LA (Night 1)
Laughlin, Nevada (2)
Grand Canyon (3, 4)
Bryce Canyon (5, 6)
Vegas (7, 8)
Death Valley (9) Stovepipe Wells but with hiundsight probably should have done Furnace Creek
Magic Mountain (10)
Anaheim (11,12) Disneyland
LA (13,14) Knotts Berry Farm, The Hollywood Stars

In 2012:
LA (1)
Morro Bay (2) via Solvang, then via PCH to
Monterey (3) did Aquarium and whale watching boat trip
SF (4,5,6)
Yosemite (7,8)
Kings & Sequoia (9,10)
Laughlin, (11)
Vegas (12,13,14)
Palm Springs (15)
Anaheim (16)