I would not waste a day driving like that with kids this age. They will be bored and protest

Anonymous wrote:FYI, the Pacific Coast Highway is still shut down south of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. You can't take it from Santa Barbara to Monterrey. For the reason, I would stay in the LA-San Diego area.

OP, you can get away with just one day at Disneyland. I do agree about staying off-site. Easier and cheaper, and you can just walk up to the front gate. A wildly different experience than Disney World!

With the caveat that who knows what national parks will look like in April, Channel Islands and Joshua Tree are the closest ones to the LA-SD area.

You can take it to Pismo and then cut up 101 to Monterrey. It's not bad at all. Just whatever you do even if it's technically faster take do not take 5. Unless you want to be frantically searching for the one stop for a bathroom break.

[quote=Anonymous]With a 7 and 2 year old I was thinking of just doing classic Disneyland, not California Adventure.[/quote]

I would definitely do California Adventure, possibly over Disneyland if you're picking one. There's the Pixar boardwalk and Carsland and a really great redwood themed climbing area for older kids. Disneyland is definitely classic Disney but my kids, both boys two and five, loved California Adventure.

With a 7 and 2 year old I was thinking of just doing classic Disneyland, not California Adventure.

Anonymous wrote:FYI, the Pacific Coast Highway is still shut down south of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. You can't take it from Santa Barbara to Monterrey. For the reason, I would stay in the LA-San Diego area.

OP, you can get away with just one day at Disneyland. I do agree about staying off-site. Easier and cheaper, and you can just walk up to the front gate. A wildly different experience than Disney World!

With the caveat that who knows what national parks will look like in April, Channel Islands and Joshua Tree are the closest ones to the LA-SD area.

Don’t try to do both parks at Disneyland in one day…

FYI, the Pacific Coast Highway is still shut down south of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. You can't take it from Santa Barbara to Monterrey. For the reason, I would stay in the LA-San Diego area.

OP, you can get away with just one day at Disneyland. I do agree about staying off-site. Easier and cheaper, and you can just walk up to the front gate. A wildly different experience than Disney World!

With the caveat that who knows what national parks will look like in April, Channel Islands and Joshua Tree are the closest ones to the LA-SD area.

Drive up the PCH as much as you can. Start in Disneyland and unless budget is no issue stay just across the street. You can get a room with bunk beds at the Courtyard and it's as easy a walk as the budget on site property. Honestly two days is plenty at Disneyland unless you're huge ride people and the two year old won't be able to do much.

Stop in Santa Barbara. There's a great kids museum there and Third Window brewing is excellent beer and kid friendly. There's beach plus town so could work for a couple days.

Stop at Avila Barn on the way up. It's a small farm and food stand and an excellent place to get a low key snack and keep kids entertained.

Stay in Monterey for a night. There's the aquarium which at least my similarly aged kids love.

I'd then spend the last five nights in the Bay Area. The Bay Area Discovery Museum is perfect. Plenty of climbing and crafts for the seven year old and sand and little kid areas for the two year old. Plus you get an incredible view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Eat in Sausalito or bring in your own food.

Muir Woods is a simple enough National Park that during that season it should be manageable with the cuts. Hook Fish Lab is another good brewery that's very kid friendly.

If your kids are into science I highly recommend the California Academy of Sciences. My personal highlight was breakfast burritos at Breakfast Little eaten at the playground at Dolores Park which on a nice day has an incredible view of the Bay. The slide at the top is one of the best playground views I've seen.

If you want to adventure further you could hit Napa and Sonoma, the later has the Charles Shultz museum.

Since you have to drive a lot anyways I would stay outside SF proper just for convenience.

California is huge. You want to do Disneyland, a “national park or two” and a resort all in the span of 10 days.

Sequoia is probably the closest and that’s over 4 hours one way from Anaheim.

I’ve done some crazy road trips in California but I don’t have children much less young children. Pick an area of California and stick to it.

I would go to Encinitas or other beach towns around San Diego, and spend some time in SD itself. Going north toward SF is a lot of driving and the scenery is beautiful but it’s hard with little kids (twisty roads, slow, not a ton of places to stop). Pacific will be cold but lots of good spots to watch surfing. It will probably be in the 60s.

Anonymous wrote:With those ages I’d stick to Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Visit the tourist sites around San Diego due to LA fires. La Jolla Shores, Balboa Park, etc. The desert flowers might be blooming around then. There also the Hotel Del for a beachside resort.

This. Also could fit in Legoland

With those ages I’d stick to Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Visit the tourist sites around San Diego due to LA fires. La Jolla Shores, Balboa Park, etc. The desert flowers might be blooming around then. There also the Hotel Del for a beachside resort.

We did a few days in LA (tar pits, walk of fame, CA Science Center, Griffith Observatory), 3 days at Disneyland, 3 days in Joshua Tree, and Palm Springs.

I’ve also done a LA to Sequoia to Yosemite trip-but I’d be nervous about the parks. April might be ok because it’s not summer peak.

Or maybe focus on state parks-could do SF down to Big Sur.

I too would avoid national parks.

Maybe San Diego for the zoo?

Don’t mean to get political but national parks are going to be…. Interesting. They lost staff in the mass firing’s yesterday. You might want a back up plan for the days you plan to do that.

Anyway, kids that age enjoy the La Brea tar pits and warner brothers lot tour in LA. dodgers or other CA baseball games also very fun.

We’ve got two seven year olds and a two year old. Thinking of Spring Break plans which is in mid April, 10-11 days long. We’d like to do Disneyland for a couple of days but then also explore more of California as my kids have never been. Open to driving a lot. Husband wants to hit up a National Park or two. I’d love to stay in a nice resort somewhere near the beach at some point. Any great road trip ideas in mind?