Thought I had better write a trip report whilst it's all still fresh in my head!
Visited from the UK on the 28th April - 12th May, myself, my wife and our 3 year old son Tyler.
I'll cover the hotels/areas we visited first then cover the theme parks next.
California was so much better than we anticipated, we had really regretted not going to Florida instead but we really loved it, it was so different to a Florida holiday and even the weather was great, we had two weeks of sunny days in the high 60's/low 70's but it felt easily as hot as Florida but without the sticky humidity (although the Californian's we spoke to told us it was cold!)
Traffic
We had been really worried about the much talked about LA traffic but to be honest it was no worse than the motorways at home in the UK, we easily found every place we wanted to visit, the roads are wide and well signed and even rush hours the traffic moved at a steady 50-60mph, the reports of a
possible serial killer on the 55 and I5 north, the same roads we used daily did slightly concern us initially!!
Hotels
We stayed at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach and it was fantastic, lovely hotel with beautiful gardens and pools, we had a big room overlooking the heated pool with a balcony, if anyone has any questions please ask! It was only 25 minutes from Disney too.
Humphreys Half Moon - San Diego - Not a big complaint as the hotel itself is lovely and we did enjoy our stay but we had to switch to 3 different rooms to begin with as they kept giving us dark small rooms overlooking the main road/boat yard, these were allegedly the only ones available yet they kept finding replacements! We finally were given a much bigger room on the 2nd floor overlooking the putting green which was a lot nicer. One day we returned to find our room had been left open by the cleaner and not just 'open' but literally the door was ajar! Nothing was missing though and I reported it to the hotel and on the final morning Tyler was hiding under the bed, when we lifted the bed to get him out we found a used condom and wrapper!!!
Also stayed for one night at the Hilton Garden Inn in Valencia, again great hotel, nice big room and right next door to Six Flags.
Newport Beach
Lovely place with a fantastic marina area and a place called Balboa Island, would be a great place to live with little individual houses, I can't recommend this enough to use as a base for exploring, Anaheim looked crowded and noisy compared to here.
LA
We plucked up enough courage to drive down Sunset Boulevard one day (day after we stayed in Valencia to visit Six Flags) so we were already in that general area, after trying to assess if we were in the right place we saw the Kodak theatre and decided to stop, we followed signs for parking
and ended up in a well dodgy looking underground car park! There were no other cars and it was well spooky! We took the graffiti covered lift to street level then followed the pavement stars to the theatre, I think the general feeling we both had was disappointment (I suppose you have a vision of what Hollywood would be like?), we had heard the area was sleezy but it was so run down with homeless people (or were they the people allegedly queuing for Star Wars!), the mall at the side of the theatre was nice though and we managed to get a few photos of the Hollywood sign we had resigned ourselves to not seeing. We then went straight back to the car as it was $6 followed by $1 every 20 minutes or something like that! We then drove down Sunset through Beverly Hills and ended up in Santa Monica. We parked near the pier and had a go on the ferris wheel, I think the feeling here again was surprise at how many homeless people there were. We nearly saw Venice Beach but turned around when realising it was another $10 to park and we only wanted a quick look
La Jolla
Fantastic place, upscale shops and properties, amazing views and caves to explore (well we went into Sunny Jim cave anyway), the day we went it was Mothers Day so a nightmare to park but we found one and had a paddle in the crystal clear sea, this is what I had imagined California to be like, also saw seals on the beach!
San Diego
WOW, what a clean city, everyone seemed well organised and new, Balboa Park is a treat, just wish we hadn't had to visit with a 3 year old who was obviously bored to tears, it's beautiful! Also went on a SEAL tour, it's a tour in an amphibious vehicle, you tour down Harbour Drive and then go into the sea to visit seals close up, well worth catching from the Seaport Village.
Also drove to Coronado and visited a few beaches, with the climate I want to live here!
I'll move onto the Theme Parks on my next post but feel free to ask any questions so far....
Visited from the UK on the 28th April - 12th May, myself, my wife and our 3 year old son Tyler.
I'll cover the hotels/areas we visited first then cover the theme parks next.
California was so much better than we anticipated, we had really regretted not going to Florida instead but we really loved it, it was so different to a Florida holiday and even the weather was great, we had two weeks of sunny days in the high 60's/low 70's but it felt easily as hot as Florida but without the sticky humidity (although the Californian's we spoke to told us it was cold!)
Traffic
We had been really worried about the much talked about LA traffic but to be honest it was no worse than the motorways at home in the UK, we easily found every place we wanted to visit, the roads are wide and well signed and even rush hours the traffic moved at a steady 50-60mph, the reports of a
possible serial killer on the 55 and I5 north, the same roads we used daily did slightly concern us initially!!
Hotels
We stayed at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach and it was fantastic, lovely hotel with beautiful gardens and pools, we had a big room overlooking the heated pool with a balcony, if anyone has any questions please ask! It was only 25 minutes from Disney too.
Humphreys Half Moon - San Diego - Not a big complaint as the hotel itself is lovely and we did enjoy our stay but we had to switch to 3 different rooms to begin with as they kept giving us dark small rooms overlooking the main road/boat yard, these were allegedly the only ones available yet they kept finding replacements! We finally were given a much bigger room on the 2nd floor overlooking the putting green which was a lot nicer. One day we returned to find our room had been left open by the cleaner and not just 'open' but literally the door was ajar! Nothing was missing though and I reported it to the hotel and on the final morning Tyler was hiding under the bed, when we lifted the bed to get him out we found a used condom and wrapper!!!
Also stayed for one night at the Hilton Garden Inn in Valencia, again great hotel, nice big room and right next door to Six Flags.
Newport Beach
Lovely place with a fantastic marina area and a place called Balboa Island, would be a great place to live with little individual houses, I can't recommend this enough to use as a base for exploring, Anaheim looked crowded and noisy compared to here.
LA
We plucked up enough courage to drive down Sunset Boulevard one day (day after we stayed in Valencia to visit Six Flags) so we were already in that general area, after trying to assess if we were in the right place we saw the Kodak theatre and decided to stop, we followed signs for parking
and ended up in a well dodgy looking underground car park! There were no other cars and it was well spooky! We took the graffiti covered lift to street level then followed the pavement stars to the theatre, I think the general feeling we both had was disappointment (I suppose you have a vision of what Hollywood would be like?), we had heard the area was sleezy but it was so run down with homeless people (or were they the people allegedly queuing for Star Wars!), the mall at the side of the theatre was nice though and we managed to get a few photos of the Hollywood sign we had resigned ourselves to not seeing. We then went straight back to the car as it was $6 followed by $1 every 20 minutes or something like that! We then drove down Sunset through Beverly Hills and ended up in Santa Monica. We parked near the pier and had a go on the ferris wheel, I think the feeling here again was surprise at how many homeless people there were. We nearly saw Venice Beach but turned around when realising it was another $10 to park and we only wanted a quick look
La Jolla
Fantastic place, upscale shops and properties, amazing views and caves to explore (well we went into Sunny Jim cave anyway), the day we went it was Mothers Day so a nightmare to park but we found one and had a paddle in the crystal clear sea, this is what I had imagined California to be like, also saw seals on the beach!
San Diego
WOW, what a clean city, everyone seemed well organised and new, Balboa Park is a treat, just wish we hadn't had to visit with a 3 year old who was obviously bored to tears, it's beautiful! Also went on a SEAL tour, it's a tour in an amphibious vehicle, you tour down Harbour Drive and then go into the sea to visit seals close up, well worth catching from the Seaport Village.
Also drove to Coronado and visited a few beaches, with the climate I want to live here!
I'll move onto the Theme Parks on my next post but feel free to ask any questions so far....
