California - too far for a fortnight??

[somewhereinsummertime]

My friend has just moved out and we want to go and visit and bring the children but only have 15 days - is it just too far?

California is absolutely fine for a fortnight as adults. (no clue about children and jetlag though)

I wouldn't think so but it depends how old your DC are and the number of legs. California is ace!

Hope not, as we're planning to go this summer for that length of time. But dcs are teens.

Nope we've done that kind of time two or three times, and actually done a lot of touring.
Just be ready for jet lag, which will mean waking up very early for the first few days, it's usually good to be able to do something at silly o'clock. We loved a hotel in Las Vegas where the pool opened at 6 am.

Not too far. Especially if you don't try and cram in several destinations when you get there. DS went age 15 months for a friend's wedding. Unless you live near the airport I would overnight close by to break travelling time. For us it's shorter overall travelling time to fly to Amsterdam and then on to SF than head for Heathrow. I've known others go via Paris.

I have been many times as F lives there. Last time I went for a week. It is a bit tiring, but nothing that you can't get overin a day or so.

I took my DS on my own. He was 2.5 yo at the time. He was fiine.

I am from SoCal & would not consider it with children under 8. It takes me a week to get over jetlag each way, and I was like that even before I had DC. All awake at 3am & back in bed around 4-5pm for first few days is our standard going west, and even worse hours upon return.

Maybe with kids at age 8+, we may even have to do this in future if the threatened super high penalties for hols in term time come in. :(

Friends parents flew from CA to London for one week stay (ONE WEEK) and didn't live to regret it. But that was 2xadults.

One tip if you have under2s: go to the west coast from Europe & not from the East Coast; a flight from East to West coast won't include anything like Skycots, so you'll end up with screaming over-tired baby/toddler trying but failing to sleep on your lap. HELL.

Oh that's great news. Any advice who to fly with? We are in South. We'll probably fly to SFrancisco.

Ragged I've done it with 2 under 8, it was a great holiday. You just go with the flow, and try to eat healthy food. (But then I've gone to Florida for a weekend, and DH regularly spends 5 days on the East Coast, California is just one more meal jump.)
It will be trickier staying with friends, so it does depend on them. Can they cope with guests who get up madly early, and need regular naps?

CA is certainly not too far to fly to for a 14 day stay. Have done this journey a few times ourselves with DS when younger and we got over the jetlag after a day or so. Usually the flight back eastwards to the UK is worse jetlag wise as you "lose" time rather than gain it.

BA and Virgin both fly to SF. Would use a British based carrier as opposed to a US based one.

Flights to SF depart from Heathrow.

Don't know what age are your DC's but if they are old enough I would advise staying up as late as poss when you arrive and not tolerating getting up at 5am or whatever (eg say stay in bed till 7/8 am) This way you will avoid too much jet lag induced aggro when you get there. Coming home will be an overnight flight but again if you ty to get a few hours kip on the planr and can stay up as long as possible on the day you arrive (no daytime napping!) then you should be ok. We have done a few 2 week trips to W. Coast and it's great. I would even do it for one week!

I've done it with
no children (about 5x, merely "bad" for jetlag)
1 under 2
2 under 4 (twice)
3 under 8
4 under 11

All journeys with DC were Hellish for jetlag. I'm not doing it again until youngest is at least 6.

We're off to So Cal for two weeks at the end of next month and DS2 will celebrate his fifth birthday while we are there. It'll be fine.

We've visited my sister in KS (not quite as far but no direct flights so a pain with a change in each direction) when DS2 was six months and again when he was 18 months. We just go with the flow.

I find the excitement of arriving and starting your hols is greater than any ill-effects from jet lag! Coming home is another matter, of course. Awful!

We will go the other way for ten days or more, however, if someone was offering for free I'd do it for less and suck it up.

I'm in north california at the moment with a 2 yo and 5 yo and having a ball. No real problems on the way out - we arrived about 2pm and the 2 yo was a bit car sick on the way to the hotel, both up at 5.30am on the first day or two, but then fine. The only slept for an hour or two on the plane. But, there was a family in the hotel who were not having much fun as their young kids were up at 3am for a good while and they looked pretty miserable.

God knows what will happen on the way back but hopefully being in a familiar setting will help.

It's fantastic here, well worth the journey so far.

Do it, we've just moved to California and I'm so desperate for my friends to come out I will do anything to make their lives and jetlag easier

We arrived two months ago, DS is 4 and DD was almost 3months, he started getting up around 5:30am but with three days was back to being up at 7am. She just moved her whole routine from 9-9 to 7-7

We travel longhaul twice a year minimum with our children (7 and 3) and have done so since they were babies. Dive in, dont be scared! Life is for living.

The kids have never suffered with jetlag, neither does DH. I am the only poor sod who find sit hard for a couple of days at each end.

Where in Cali are you going? We've been to L.A and San Diego in the south, San Fran and the Bay Area / Napa / Sonoma / Palo Alto in the north. Its a great state for a holiday.

We took our kids last Easter for two weeks and it was fab. We could actually have done a week and it would have been fine, we think. We weighed up BA vs Virgin and went for Virgin in the end as their inflight entertainment is superior (imo) and the kids (and we) had a great flight and fabulous time in SoCal. Enjoy!!

Thanks all. Am so jealous of those living in California. We are thinking of visiting friends for a few days who live 1 hr south of San Fran but then want to do a bit of holidaying. Any suggestions?

Also, excuse my totally crap geography, but how far is LA from San Fran (i.e Disneyworld if we could bear it)?

The distance between Anaheim (where Disneyland is located) and SF is just over 400 miles. CA is a vast state.

If you relate UK cities into such a distance, that is basically the distance between London and Edinburgh.

With Virgin & I guess BA you can fly into SF have your holiday incl Disney and then fly out of LA. One way car hire is a little more expensive but not much as they're both busy destinations - lots of people do Highway 1.

you could even fly from SF to Long Beach (near Anaheim) on a short domestic flight with Jet Blue - cheap as well if you book in advance and dont fancy a very long car journey