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!

We were warned against crossing the borders to Mexico. You can't take your car, and takes 10 mins to walk across, 3 hours to get back

All great advice so far! I'm quite content with spending 3 weeks in my villa so I won't be disappointed either way! Kids live pools so they will be fine 😂
Guess I will have to wait and see....still got 3 months so hopefully will see some improvement!

Personally I would not consider crossing into Mexico. There’s so much in California I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle! Not great scenery or fantastic culture at that point.

That's great @BubblesBuddy I guess I just wanted to know if it was worth going to!

Hi all! Just got back from California yesterday and thought it'd be helpful to update!
So my villa was in the beautiful area of palm desert, seems quite affluent and if you like shopping there is a good range of shops and restaurants for different budgets within 15 minutes.
Here's some of the things we did...
Landed in Vegas, totally unimpressed myself, generally not my scene! Lots of traffic on the main stretch it's easier to get a taxi and walk everything is extremely close to each other.
Living desert zoo and garden....loved this place....very local to us about 15 mins drive away (which reminds me you cannot go to California and not drive!!!). Quite cheap too about $20 an adult, $10 per child.
Universal. Do not bother. Orlando much much better. Cost a lot of money to go and not as much there. Harry Potter world is identical too.
LA. Well what can I say! You have to go to say you've been. Chinese theatre, hollywood sign, walk of fame that kinda thing. The issue is the blood traffic! Should have took 2 hours from where we were, most of the time it could take 2 hours just to get in and out of LA! There is no escaping the traffic jams for miles and miles and miles 🙈
Venice beach and boardwalk was fabulous! $10 to park for the day on the front. So much talent on that boardwalk, artists, singers, dancers etc....shops all along the boardwalk and a beautiful sandy beach.
Was mega unimpressed with San Diego though traffic much better generally!
Whale watching was amazing! Did this with Davey's locker on Newport Beach there's always offers on groupon... saw a real life blue whale, dolphins and Californian sea lions! Fantastic moment!
Dante's Peak was beautiful. Not quite as far as Death Valley but well worth looking at if you're passing!
Had a drive to Slab City passed the Salton Sea...brilliant place....salvation mountain was amazing! This is the last free place in America to those who've not heard of it. They are hippy like people living quite alternatively! The land itself doesn't belong to the government it was an abandoned marine base I believe. Anyway, was all free and some of the art made out of recycling was brilliant!
Palm Springs had a brilliant market that went on forever on a Thursday night which is well worth looking into!
It was very very hot in the valley, we loved it but literally a 5 mile drive and it could be overcast or raining. The coasts are much much cooler.
So generally, I loved it, was happy sitting by the pool! There was far too much driving though and not an awful lol for the kids to do. We clocked up 3400 miles in the 3 weeks we were there...that's a lot of time driving although there was so much to see on the way!