Just booked California! Any advice?!

[yetanothernewusername1]

Hi! Just booked 3 weeks in California, we're flying to Las Vegas direct spending 2 nights in a hotel before driving to our villa in la Quinta, CA.
Definitely want to do San Diego zoo and universal. Is there any where you can recommend? Did Disney in Florida last year so not bothering this time. Which of the national parks are worth going to?
What should we do in the 2 days we have in Vegas?
Thanks!

Ha going in august looking forward to replies!

Are you going to La Quinta in August when it’s over 40 degrees? It’s not even by the sea is it? (From what I can see) There is a web site on things to do in the area. Hopefully your villa has a pool.

San Diego wasn’t great in my view. A zoo is a zoo the world over. Balboa park was run down and greatly over hyped as was the old town. That’s more of a theme park. The beach area might be your best bet but it’s quite a drive.

Yes villa has a pool and we are going mid may when it's low 30s. Love driving around and LA and beaches all within 2 hours from us. Thinking Sam Francisco may be a bit far as 8 hrs away but if worth a trip do could do an overnight stay?

That's a great time to go to Yosemite as the winter snows melt and waterfalls are powerful. Also Grand Canyon is stunning and about 4 hours from Vegas.

Not sure where LaQuinta is but if near San Diego my DM would recommend Joshua Tree national Park.

We went to Universal in 2014 and it was disappointing. Rides quite old and uninspiring.

I’d definitely incorporate a trip to San Fran and Alcatraz.

YY to Yosemite.

Thanks! Exactly the kind of advice I was after....can save 340 and go to San Francisco for a night or two instead of univeraal....would love to go to Alcatraz. I'd read good reviews about San Diego zoo so would like to hear more about that?
We seem to be near San bernardino national forest and San jaconto state park so might be worth a visit? Also the living desert zoo and gardens is close by if anyone has been?!

Make sure you book Alcatraz before you go. As fills up very quickly

Didn’t think a lot to universal for the money. Much preferred Cedar Point in Ohio.

If you do do universal get two day tickets and get their early.

Loved San Francisco.

Universal is a bit better now it’s got the Harry Potter attraction but it’s still not a patch on the Florida park. We all loved the Warner Studio Tour though.

San Diego Zoo is wonderful, and huge.

I’ll second what a previous posted said about prebooking Alcatraz.

In Vegas there’s a zip line which flies over Fremont St which is excellent. The Hoover Dam is close by and worth a visit, as is Red Rock Canyon.

The Madonna Inn - San Luis Obispo. Bonkers
Hearst Castle. Breathtaking.
Loved San Diego.
Enjoy.

Second Hearst Castle. San Diego lovely in general, but zoo less impressive than I'd expected. USS Midway was a great visit. Yosemite was amazing. Just driving between places is fascinating - the huge distances and sheer scale of the farming. V jealous - best holiday ever.

Place marking as I'm doing this too.

Also, what airline are you going with, OP? I've just started a thread on that as I'm having trouble deciding.

If you have a hire car then the Pacific highway is a great drive! We stopped lots along the way and a hidden treasure is the waterfall at the Julia Pfeiffer state park.

San Fran and Alcatraz were good too.

Very few of the places mentioned on this thread are day trippable from your villa.
San Diego is a 5 hour round trip, LA is a 5 hour round trip (assuming you time it to avoid rush hour, if not it will be much longer), OC beaches are a 5 hour round trip, Universal is a 6 hour round trip.

National Forest isn’t really a recreational designation in itself, it’s not the same as National Parks. There may be hiking trails but often they are just forests managed federally rather than locally.

State parks are normally nice for day trips if you like hiking etc. Joshua tree is amazing and you can easily spend a couple of days exploring there.

5 hour round trips are fine we really really do not mind the driving....if we need a motel for a night it's also an option. I love exploring America and Orlando was crammed with activities so it'll be nice to just take in the scenery and chill!
Thanks for all the advice

LaQuinta is not all that far away from Palm Desert near the city of Palm Springs (a city which itself is worth some of your time). You state that you do not mind the driving but you could be spending an inordinate amount of time behind the wheel here. Its 130 miles from there to San Diego for instance. Do you drive such distances regularly at home?

We can share the driving anyway and do a fair bit of driving here and abroad. Only plan to visit LA a couple of times, maybe San Francisco staying a night or two and San Diego once or twice....we literally have nothing set in stone and to be honest would be quite happy sat by my pool for 3 weeks in the kind of weather we love 😂.
I'm just trying to get an idea of where is actually worth the drive to and also what there was more locally to us, like Living Desert Zoo and gardens which is 15 minutes away. We are really quite easily pleased and happy to just be together exploring a new country!

@hudyerwheesht sorry I missed your post! Flying with Thomas cook...I know I know 😂 I was happy enough with them going to Orlando and once you added hold baggage etc I think Thomas cook worked out slightly cheaper than virgin.

If you do go to San Fran, would highly recommend seeing the sites in a GoCar. It takes you to everything worth seeing and has a GPS fitted to tell you where to go and inbuilt tour guide voice. You can stop wherever you want for beers / photos. Really good fun.

Best thing is that in the car, you can drive down Lombard Street which is the steepest street, the famous wobbly one

www.gocartours.com/locations/san-francisco/

I actually think you can hire them in San Diego too

Vegas in August is very hot - it was hitting 50c when we were there. We did the same - flew to and from Vegas, spending 2 nights there initially and one night on the return. It saved us hundreds to do so! We used jet lag to benefit us - up the crack of dawn to use the pool and be outside. The rest of the day we were indoors mostly. You simply couldn't spend time outside - we walked outside for just Ofer a km one day and really really struggled - I've never been so glad to go inside an air conditioned Macdonalds just to get inside and cool down!!

The coastal areas were lovely temperatures though.

We stayed at Santa Monica and Disney (we have a Disney/theme park obsessed teenager so it wasn't an option to bypass!) . We also went to universal Studios. We didn't go as far down as San Diego though.

We used car hire to get about.

Be aware that the highway 1 is a very slow road; can take an age to get anywhere. Factor this in when making plans.

We really enjoyed the Warner Bros studio tour. Hollywood was a bit of a disappointment and very dirty - I threw away a pair of white pumps after a day there as they were filthy! But it's good to see the stars and to see the sign.

We didn't do up to San Francisco on that trip - only two weeks to begin with and didn't fancy so long in the car. We split our trips to two holidays - so a couple of years later went to San Francisco, Napa, Santa Cruz and Monterey.

We had planned to go to Yosemite but it was cancelled whilst we were over there due to fires. Everyone tells me it's lovely though!

Remortgage the house . California is costly at the moment..

I can’t get my head around all the driving either but...we loved San Diego but only did USS Medway and beach stuff. Laguna Beach is gorgeous. Palm Beach nice for a visit. Death Valley is awesome (Badwater Basin in particular). We did LA to SAN Francisco via 101 on another trip and loved Carmel and San Luis Obispo and Big Sur is awesome (stay at
I’d skip LA altogether.
In Vegas we did a hotel all you can eat buffet (we did Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan but there are lots) which the kids totally loved. Bellagio lobby gardens and fountains at night. Dropped into the Venetian for a gawp at the tackiness of it all.

Oops lost a bit - stay at Deetjen’s in Big Sur!

Yosemite is amazing (inadequate adjective) but again, sooo much driving will be involved. Iirc it’s about 5hrs through Death Valley from Vegas to North East entrance to Yosemite - then at least two hours to drive from the top of the park itself to the bottom and you’ll want to stop and walk and marvel at views along the way. Then get back out again...

And I meant Palm Springs not Palm Beach

Sorry to repeat myself (I'm not on commission - honest!) but as you have said that you are up for a motel stay, definitely check out the rooms at the Madonna Inn. Their dining room is a bit....um.....pink....but my (adult) kids still say that that was one of the" best meals evvah"