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SoCal with kids vacation

rh71

rh71

No Lifer
Been to SF/LA/SD but not with kids before and we only hit a few touristy areas. The boys are 9 and we have a week in August - plan to rent a car. We're not keen on staying in any one area for the whole week so I noticed the distance between Santa Barbara and San Diego was only a 4 hour drive and we can do LA and Catalina Islands (for kids?) too. Does this sound like a decent plan with kids? Is there a decent National Park nearby that we could also do? We don't have to do too many beaches (have that here in NY) or Disneyland (been to DisneyWorld x2) but if it fits or if a cluster of vacation spots are better up there, I'd be for that too. Thanks for any tips.
 
You should try the ATV tours out in the Palm Desert/Indio area. Have to be 16 or older to drive your own ATV but you can pay a little bit more for the double seat ATV's. Fun for kids and adults.
 
^^

it's too fucking hot to do death valley and joshua tree right now. DONT DO IT. I say this as someone who loves death valley and joshua tree.


1pch SB -> SD is awesome BUT don't do it on a weekend.


In San Diego, there's this:

https://www.nps.gov/cabr/index.htm
 
Stay near the coast. Catalina is nice but it's an all day excursion.

Definitely don't go to Joshua Tree in August. It will be 115+ degrees out there and you'll be miserable. Death Valley would be even worse, plus it is like an 5 hour drive north of Los Angeles and there is literally nothing out there.

Downtown San Diego is nice. If you haven't done it, I recommend a tour of the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier museum. Coronado is nice and has a small town vibe despite being adjacent to a very large city downtown area.
 
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JulesMaximus said:
Stay near the coast. Catalina is nice but it's an all day excursion.

Definitely don't go to Joshua Tree in August. It will be 115+ degrees out there and you'll be miserable. Death Valley would be even worse, plus it is like an 5 hour drive north of Los Angeles and there is literally nothing out there.

Downtown San Diego is nice. If you haven't done it, I recommend a tour of the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier museum. Coronado is nice and has a small town vibe to is despite being adjacent to a very large city downtown area.
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Wimps! Its just a little heat, what's wrong can't handle a car full of screaming hot kids? Sounds like vacation bliss to me. There is a desert to see in death valley and if you look closely there is plenty to see. Fock it go to some airconditioned mall and spend three days shopping. You'll see the real there america anyway. 😉
 
Thebobo said:
Wimps! Its just a little heat, what's wrong can't handle a car full of screaming hot kids? Sounds like vacation bliss to me. There is a desert to see in death valley and if you look closely there is plenty to see. Fock it go to some airconditioned mall and spend three days shopping. You'll see the real there america anyway. 😉
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There is plenty of scenery but that's about it and with temps around 115 degrees you'll be confined to the car so I'm not sure a couple 9 year old kids would find that very much fun. YMMV.
 
Didn't realize Disneyland is actually in our target zone too. I suck at geography. Guess that will take care of 1 day?

I also see Malibu there. Is the coastal drive worthwhile? Pacific coast highway the same thing? Big Sur?
 
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rh71 said:
Didn't realize Disneyland is actually in our target zone too. I suck at geography. Guess that will take care of 1 day?

I also see Malibu there. Is the coastal drive worthwhile? Pacific coast highway the same thing? Big Sur?
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big sur is too far north. disneyland is probably okay if you've never been there before (esp. if you have kids), but supremely expensive and tiring (it's actually quite hot in anaheim and you will be standing/walking outside a lot).

if you take PCH from Santa Barbara to San Diego, you will drive through Malibu. IMO good for views and to live there if you're rich, not much else going on that isn't a tourist trap.
 
rh71 said:
Didn't realize Disneyland is actually in our target zone too. I suck at geography. Guess that will take care of 1 day?
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It kinda depends on what your vacation preferences are and how much you want to spend. If you want do both Disneyland and California Adventure, that's easily more than a day. It's warm enough in August that water rides will feel great and personally I love the Grizzly River ride in California Adventure. The park hopper pass allows you to make use of both parks.
 
I've lived in SoCal within an hour drive of Disneyland/California Adventure for the past 27 years and I've been to Disney twice during that time and if I never step foot in another Disney theme park as long as I live I wouldn't mind one bit. My wife and I took our son when he was 5, about ten years ago. It cost us $250 just for admission.

I've never been to California Adventure.
 
We sort of just did this trip... Stayed in Anaheim for a few days and hit Disneyland, and the Warner Brother's Studio tour. Then drove to San Diego, stayed at Pacific Beach, did San Diego Zoo, Legoland. Went to downtown and did Seaport Village(shopping) and went on the USS Midway. My second visit to the Midway, and it's always fun.
 
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drquest said:
We sort of just did this trip... Stayed in Anaheim for a few days and hit Disneyland, and the Warner Brother's Studio tour. Then drove to San Diego, stayed at Pacific Beach, did San Diego Zoo, Legoland. Went to downtown and did Seaport Village(shopping) and went on the USS Midway. My second visit to the Midway, and it's always fun.
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How many days - would a week including Santa Barbara be sufficient? Was curious because that's listed as one of the top vacation destinations in the country. Is their airport large enough to fly into? Recommendations for start and end order like fly into Santa Barbara and leave from San Diego?
 
Santa Barbara airport is tiny, has 5 gates. you can fly into it, but you will not have many options.
 
quikah said:
Santa Barbara airport is tiny, has 5 gates. you can fly into it, but you will not have many options.
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And it will be expensive.

Fact is there are a ton of things to do here. You have to figure out what you are interested in and then tailor your vacation around that. If you want to see things in central California then do that. If you want to do Disney, then I would fly into LAX or John Wayne and stay in that area.

This area is huge and diving times must be factored into everything. Just driving from north county San Diego to the South Bay Area of Los Angeles can take 2.5 hours and that's only 85 miles. I do this drive probably every month on weekends and it gets worse every time.

My wife and I drove from our house to Paso Robles last year to get away for a few days and it took us 6 hours to do that drive going up through Santa Barbara and along the coast. Paso Robles is central California about 30 minutes from the coast. We took the 101 on the trip up there, it only took 4 hours to drive home on the 5 freeway but you are literally driving through endless miles of nothing but desert wasteland and Los Angeles inland empire... which is also wasteland.

Last couple years we have been doing little overnight staycations in downtown San Diego and Coronado. We have also done this in Rancho Palos Verdes. These are fun because we get a chance to spend a day or two in these areas that we are actually fairly familiar with but we get to explore a bit of the local flavor with none of the annoying air travel as it is only an hour or two from our home. It is great fun to do these little getaways.
 
rh, What do you like to do? I live one hour away from Santa Barbara, in fact my daughter went to UCSB. There no doubt that it is a nice place, but I don't know if it would be worth your time. Traffic is getting pretty bad around there. My daughter has said that it is more of a two hour drive, and has taken her three hours.

SB is one hour to the north. One hour south of me is Los Angeles. LA has Six Flags Magic Mountain, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and lots other things, including traffic. LA to SD is about two to three hours south. Last year we took our vacation in San Diego. We rented a condo on the beach, although that might be getting a little late for you to do that. We rented a boat two of the days and went in the bays. One day I took my son to Legoland in Carlsbad.

Remember CA is a great place to live and visit, but it is certainly in no way a scenic place. I don't think that SB would be worth your time. It will take at least 2 days out of your trip. A good trip would be to fly into LA. LAX is a big huge airport. Burbank is great to fly into and out of because it is small. Although I don't know how it is to rent a car. You could spend a couple days in LA and then go down to San Diego.

There is also Universal Studios. They have the new Harry Potter land there. They also have the City walk which is a bunch of shops outside of Universal Studios.

If you give us a little more of what you like to do we can narrow it down for you.
 
agreed with the above; decide what you want to focus on and we can help you. that's why people live in CA, because you can do anything/everything here.

Remember CA is a great place to live and visit, but it is certainly in no way a scenic place.
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what kind of stupid ass nonsense is this. CA is fucking huge, if you don't see awesome scenery you're simply not at the right place.
 
Ns1 said:
what kind of stupid ass nonsense is this. CA is fucking huge, if you don't see awesome scenery you're simply not at the right place.
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So Cal is not what I would call picturesque right now. Granted there is the ocean and it would be cool for NS1 to drive on PCH to drive next to the ocean. But when you are flying into LAX at this time of year no one ever says "Oh look at all those brown hills just waiting to catch fire. Aren't they beautiful?" When I fly back east I see green grass and large beautiful trees everywhere. Now that is scenic to me. Yes CA is huge and you can find it but you have to go looking for it.

And no I don't find palm trees attractive, even though I have 3 in my back yard. Or maybe it is because I have 3 in my back yard that I don't like them.
 
So Cal is not what I would call picturesque right now. Granted there is the ocean and it would be cool for NS1 to drive on PCH to drive next to the ocean. But when you are flying into LAX at this time of year no one ever says "Oh look at all those brown hills just waiting to catch fire. Aren't they beautiful?" When I fly back east I see green grass and large beautiful trees everywhere. Now that is scenic to me. Yes CA is huge and you can find it but you have to go looking for it.
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Wow, you've descrbed SoCal using the 1 square mile radius around LAX - congrats. You want green grass and large beautiful trees, drive 50 miles outside of LA or go to griffith park. Therein lies the crux of SoCal - we got everything, you just gotta drive for it.

Also, when I fly into Newark, I'm not thinking "wow this area is beautiful".
 
Stopsignhank said:
Whatever dude.

Have fun on your vacation in Newark.
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I sure will, because I understand the area that I'm flying to is more than the area around the airport. Besides, picturesque means so much more than just nature. You ever see the eye candy around Santa Monica at this time?

O_O
 
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