Kids first trip to CA next month! What to see?

[ceopamom3]

We are traveling to CA flying into San Diego 5/19 to 5/26. OUr kids are 12, 10 and 9.

So far we plan on staying one night in San Diego and going to the Zoo on Sunday, 5/20.

Then we move up to Marriott Newport Coast Villas for a week. I would like to do two or three days at DisneyLand, and the rest exploring So Ca. My kids have been to Disneyworld, Sea World Orlando and Universal Orlando many times. I would like to get the more unique things in the area in CA (besides theme parks)..

DH and I lived in LA briefly in the early 90s when he was in the military stationed at Long Beach - so we know the area to some extent and will have a rental car.

Ideas needed:

1) Can we do the La brea tar pits, Hollywood and the Griffith Observatory in one day? Is the parking safe for the observatory in Hollywood if we linger into the evening hours (it is so funny worrying about this now - we went everywhere living in LA in our early 20s w/o kids!). What day is best for this effort - has to be a weekday ...

2) Is Venice beach kid friendly nowadays? I have to say, we live in a very small country town - but the kids aren't raced narrow-minded - just don't see alot of different people where we live.

3) Beaches - I was thinking of Huntington Beach and Newport beach? Any other suggestions? Is there anything close enough to Anaheim to spend the a.m. and the park and evening at the beach?

4) Queen Mary and Getty villa - are either of these worth a trip? We enjoyed the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose in our single days.

5) Warner Brothers studio tour - the 2.5 tour - is this worth it? My kids are big Harry Potter fans, do they still have the large exhibit there?

5) Sea Lions - can we see these in the area in May? Near LaJolla perhaps? I would love to see them!

6) Traffic - how bad is it now traveling from Newport to Hollywood? I remember my DH trip to work varied from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours! and we had a motorcycle then too....

Thanks so much for the help! We loved living in CA and are excited to bring our kids too!

 

[aapechy]

- As far as the beaches - I would suggest newport. Much cleaner than huntington and you can visit balboa. They have an arcade and a boardwalk with rides and there is a ferry ride to balboa island. You can rent beach cruisers and head off to the island. This is not far from the marriot villas

- personally I dont care for the beaches in LA county (ie: Venice and Santa monica) Venice is dirty. I would not take my kids there

Newport to hollywood on a weekday is going to suck. You may get lucky on a weekend or if you drive mid day during the week.

My son (8) just went to the Queen Mary on a field trip wasnt very impressed or excited about it.

 

[rockstargeisha]

2) Like the above poster said it's dirty. The boardwalk is predominantly tattoo parlors and smoke shops. Not kid friendly really, pretty sketchy. If you want a fun, boardwalk "California" beach try Newport or Balboa piers. Clean and beautiful with lots to do. Venice and Santa Monica piers are exceptionally overrated.

3) Crystal Cove beach right below the Newport Villas. Just across PCH from your hotel. It's a lovely beach that isn't overly crowded.

4) Queen Mary has gone down hill, not really worth the trip imo. Kind of dirty and out dated. If you do want to take a trip to Long Beach, check out the Long Beach Aquarium (Aquarium of the Pacific). They also have boating tours that take off right from the aquarium. You can probably catch view of some sea lions or even whales (depending on season). I was there a month ago and there was a sea lion right in the harbor at the aquarium.

6) Traffic is awful. It will take you -at least- two hours from Newport to Hollywood if you're lucky.

 

[mmmears]

We tried the La Brea Tar Pits with our DD when she was 8. It was great. It's really not very big, so it doesn't have to take a long time to see lots of things. Since it's a museum, you can spend lots of time lingering over hands-on exhibits and reading everything, or less by moving along more quickly. I think we spent 2 hours there (combined it with a Tut exhibit at the Page museum next door). It was well worth the time spent, interesting, educational, and just really cool to see the tar bubbling up all around the building and the parking lot.