Help me plan our summer vacation to Los Angeles

[Anonymous]

Your boys would love California Adventure across from Disneyland. Cars Land is unbelievable, and there were lots of cool rides at that park. Disneyland is mainly the equivalent of Magic Kingdom.

[Anonymous]

If you are willing to move your vacay slightly south to Orange County, you'll have easy access to a ton of fun activities:

Best beach for hanging out all day:
Huntington Beach -great waves, parking, clean, and lots of food options

Best pristine beach:
Crystal Cove -real tide pools with starfish and other sea creatures, gorgeous cliffs, but too isolated for an all day trip with kids. Nearest food is a 10 min drive away

Disneyland and California Adventure - you could spend a day in each park and definitely worth going

Legoland amusement park

San Diego would be an easier drive from orange county too.

The only "must see" in LA (in my opinion as an LA native) is the Getty Museum

[Anonymous]

Science museum is also great and it's free.

[Anonymous]

I would stick to LA, not San Diego (total personal preference though).

What hotels are you looking at? I would definitely stay in Santa Monica. I'm not sure what your budget is, but there are some great hotels on Ocean Ave. And since you're coming all the way to LA, you might as well enjoy the beach.

Things to Do:
Santa Monica- Pacific Park on the SM Boardwalk (your kids will love this), there is a mini Aquarium underneath it that is run by Heal the Bay. Also, you can rent bikes on go the bath. People go really fast! Get boogie boards and catch waves. You can sign them up for surf lessons or surf camp. FYI - the water quality is poor near the Pier so don't swim in that spot.

There is a farmers markets in SM between Main St & Ocean (I forgot which day, either sat or sunday), that has pony rides and it's fun to walk around and get fresh berries, etc. You can have a yummy brunch and just hang out. Do they have skateboards. If they bring them, they can skate all over.

Mid City: LACMA and Tar Pits. They are right next to each other so do this in one day. At LACMA, there is a children's art room at the Boone Childrens Gallery. They can paint their own art. Also they have this cool car/freeway exhibit, plus other fun stuff and a cafe for a yummy croissant and iced coffee.

There are lots of great restaurants in Mid City, so I would stick around and have dinner here.

Maybe get tickets for a show at the Hollywood Bowl one night. That is a fun LA thing to do, and absolutely special. Bring warm sweater or jacket, and a picnic dinner with bottle of wine. You can take shuttle there from designated parking spots. Google it.

There are always events, shows, performances going on in LA so make sure to research that as well.

Downtown -- if you're up for it the Science Museum, as someone mentioned, is great. You can see an Imax movie and they have a cool body exhibit right now. The Natural History museum is next door. This is all near USC. When I go downtown, I really like Little Tokyo (not near USC). They have a Japanese American museum, lots of great ramen shops, and cute little little japanese boutiques and bakeries (if that's your thing). Downtown is about a 30 minute drive from Santa Monica, but it depends on traffic.

Disneyland - kids love Disneyland so they'll be happy. But it's a LONG DAY and it is hot (someone said it isn't hot - HA!). It's also sooo crowded. But again, everyone will be happy. It's about an hour to Anaheim but it depends on traffic.

Other day trips if you're inclined: Santa Barbara (great zoo, habor, restaurants, amazing playground, wineries etc)

Manhattan Beach (this is 15-20 min from SM) - best beach and super fun, great restaurants highly highly recommend.

I alway get inspiration from this list when I'm looking for things to do w/ my kids. Have a great trip!

https://mommypoppins.com/lakids/100-things-to-do-in-la-with-kids-before-they-grow-up

[Anonymous]

As someone who lives in the Bay Area, why in the world are you going to LA for a family vacation? Except for maybe Universal Studios and Disneyland, LA is a complete arm pit. Visiting San Diego or even Santa Barbara even would be a much nicer vacation.

Some of the LA ideas like the Getty Musum and Tar Pits are a joke for a family outing. Do a little more homework, LA isn't like you think it is on TV. It's predominantly Hispanic with tens of thousands of gang members. Besides the amusment parks, do you know how many Northern California people visit LA? Almost no one.

Sorry for telling the truth but you asked.

[Anonymous]

+1, I live in La Jolla in the San Diego area and have to agree. LA isn't the place you see in the movies, certainly not for a family vacation when so many great places are out there.

[Anonymous]

I love LA! Traffic is terrible but if you plan ahead and expect it you will be fine.

There is a walk you can do through Hollywood Hills where you find "hidden" stairs which my kids loved: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/guide/hidden-staircases-of-los-angeles/

La Brea is great

Science museum also cool and certainly spend time in Santa Monica and walking through Venice. Manhattan Beach also fun.

My kids loved the LAX Marriott Residence Inn for a layover we once had - there is a robot that delivers room service. Very cool.

Spend time in various neighborhoods like SilverLake, Larchmont. Not tourist attractions per se but fun to wander though with stores you can pop in and completely different architecture of the surrounding houses than D.C.

Don't let the naysayers sway you - LA is great!

[Anonymous]

Would it be redundant to go on the universal studio tour and the warner brothers studio tour? Has anyone done this?? Thx

[Anonymous]

We just went and stayed in an air bnb in a fairly central location. We were in LA for 4 days. One day we spent exploring my parents hometown out in the valley. One day we did la brea tar pits and museum of natural history. I wanted to do LACMA but something had to give lol. One day we did surf lessons in Santa Monica. We also went to the observatory & Griffith Park. Last day we went to the farmers market and a movie in Hollywood which was surprisingly fun. I love LA & this was maybe our best vacation ever. My kids are boys 8 & 10 & they had an amazing time! Lmk if you want a link to the air bnb we used.

[Anonymous]

What about dinner recommendations? Not too expensive.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We decided to do Disneyland instead of Universal. Still deciding on whether we should spend a few days in San Diego. DH seems to think the Getty Museum is inappropriate for kids.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know about getting tickets to sitcoms being taped? In the 80s, I attended a taping of Family Ties, and in the 90s, I attended a taping of Everybody Loves Raymond, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to make this happen in the Internet generation!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about dinner recommendations? Not too expensive.

What part of town?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about dinner recommendations? Not too expensive.

What part of town?

Any part.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We decided to do Disneyland instead of Universal. Still deciding on whether we should spend a few days in San Diego. DH seems to think the Getty Museum is inappropriate for kids.

+1 Disneyland
+2 San Diego