What else to see in LA/Hollywood/Anaheim area?

mhingher

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 15, 2004
We will be in Anaheim 8/27-9/3. My girls are 6 and 9. We have most of the trip planned, including 3 days in Disneyland, a day at Knottsberry Farm and a day in Long Beach/Aquarium of the Pacific. The day we arrive we plan to take it easy and have an early dinner at Goofy's Kitchen. We have one full day and our departure day (flight leaves LAX at 4pm) open. Any suggestions? I'm thinking of spending the full day in LA and would like to visit "touristy" places. Any suggestions?

I'm also not sure what to do on the day we leave. I made reservations for the PCH Grill at 8:30am for now, but that could be changed. We have to be at LAX a little before 2pm to give us time to return the rental car.
 
Exposition Park. Primarily the California Science Center, which houses the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It would require a timed ticket to see the Shuttle, but the rest of the museum is free. It's about 10 miles to LAX. How they got Shuttle there from LAX is a story unto itself.
 
Your LA day could look like this:
  • Griffith Observatoy for great views of the city
  • Highland Centre in Hollywood to check out the sign (in the distance a bit) and look at the walk of fame
  • Farmers Market and The Grove. There is an American Girl Doll store there...
  • Santa Monica for beach, shops and the Pier
 
The Griffith Observatory and the LA Zoo (both in Griffith Park) could be fun for your girls! Does your family like baseball? You could always see if the Angels or Dodgers are in town and see a game.
 


I just visited Universal Studios/Harry Potter Land yesterday. I am a local and was beyond impressed with the experience, the employees, the cleanliness and the value of admission. Hadn't been for a few years. Amazing day.
 
Your LA day could look like this:
  • Griffith Observatoy for great views of the city
  • Highland Centre in Hollywood to check out the sign (in the distance a bit) and look at the walk of fame
  • Farmers Market and The Grove. There is an American Girl Doll store there...
  • Santa Monica for beach, shops and the Pier

This is an excellent plan hitting all the highlights, but that would be a very long and exhausting day.
 
This is an excellent plan hitting all the highlights, but that would be a very long and exhausting day.
Yes it was! We didn't leave Anaheim until around 9am (missing the worst of the morning traffic), and left Santa Monica around 9pm. Subsequent trips we have stayed both in Central LA and Santa Monica as there is so much to do in those areas.
 


California Science Centre is a must see in my opinion. My kids loved it (they were 9 and 4). The Shuttle is awe inspiring, there's heaps of hands on activities, and the IMAX is great for a sit down break. And my kids loved watching the squirrels in the nearby Rose garden.
 
I recommend La Brea Tar pits and the Natural History Museum. If you have a membership to your local science center you might be able to get in for free! We did the tar pits in April and it took about an hour to get back to Anaheim from there.

As previously mentioned regular admission to the California Science Center is free.

http://www.astc.org/passport/
 
Your LA day could look like this:
  • Griffith Observatoy for great views of the city
  • Highland Centre in Hollywood to check out the sign (in the distance a bit) and look at the walk of fame
FWIW, the Hollywood sign can be seen clearly from the observatory :-).
I also recommend the Warner Bros. tour in Burbank. It think it runs around $40 and three hours. But a great time and so worth it.
 
Your LA day could look like this:
  • Griffith Observatoy for great views of the city
  • Highland Centre in Hollywood to check out the sign (in the distance a bit) and look at the walk of fame
  • Farmers Market and The Grove. There is an American Girl Doll store there...
  • Santa Monica for beach, shops and the Pier

This sounds like our plan for Sunday, May 28. We may skip Farmers Market and The Grove for Graumann's Chinese Theater, although we need to grab some lunch somewhere....Do you have any suggestions for what routes to take? Being surrounded by vehicles going 80 on an interstate makes me nervous; would you recommend any other routes to get to these places? May also sub in a different beach, still debating.....
 
This sounds like our plan for Sunday, May 28. We may skip Farmers Market and The Grove for Graumann's Chinese Theater, although we need to grab some lunch somewhere....Do you have any suggestions for what routes to take? Being surrounded by vehicles going 80 on an interstate makes me nervous; would you recommend any other routes to get to these places? May also sub in a different beach, still debating.....
The speed limit is 65. If you're approaching the speed limit on Sunday of a major holiday weekend it will be a small miracle. I wouldn't commit to any routes, just use Waze.
 
If you are a Nerd ... as I am ... you might enjoy Meltdown Comics on Sunset. It's an awesome comic book store, but also has a stage where they have standup comedy showcases and podcast tapings. Just an off the wall suggestion.
 
Exposition Park. Primarily the California Science Center, which houses the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It would require a timed ticket to see the Shuttle, but the rest of the museum is free. It's about 10 miles to LAX. How they got Shuttle there from LAX is a story unto itself.

It depends on when you go, if the Science Center is not busy then viewings of Endeavor are not timed, people can visit and stick around for as long as they wish.
 
It depends on when you go, if the Science Center is not busy then viewings of Endeavor are not timed, people can visit and stick around for as long as they wish.

Even if it's not busy the ticket will have a time on it. When we walked up it wasn't busy and our tickets were timed for immediate entry. That's all I meant by "timed ticket".
 
FWIW, the Hollywood sign can be seen clearly from the observatory :-).
I also recommend the Warner Bros. tour in Burbank. It think it runs around $40 and three hours. But a great time and so worth it.

We really enjoyed the Warner Bros. Tour, I would also highly recommend it!
 
California Science Centre is a must see in my opinion. My kids loved it (they were 9 and 4). The Shuttle is awe inspiring, there's heaps of hands on activities, and the IMAX is great for a sit down break. And my kids loved watching the squirrels in the nearby Rose garden.

Hi,

Checked out the Science Centre link and it looks wonderful. Would anyone be able to answer the following?

1) Parking is $12 cash only. How close is the parking to the building? Does it fill up quickly? If the main parking lot is full are you directed to overflow parking & how far away would be the overflow parking?

2) Are we allowed to bring in our own food & drinks?

3) Backpacks & strollers allowed?

4) If going in July guessing we should arrive ASAP upon opening because summer will be really busy?

Thanks for your help! :-)
 
My two older boys were 9 and 7 when we visited LA this past November. Here is what we thought:

Hollywood Walk of Fame: We actually stayed at the Magic Castle which is a 5 min walk to there. We went to check it out and was crazy busy. We didnt even enjoy it. On our last day we walked down around 7 am to grab coffee at Starbucks. There was hardly anybody around, it was awesome! My boys were able to see all the stars and get pics infront of the Chinese theater and Jimmy Kimmel studios with nobody else in the pic! My boys liked the Walk of Fame more than I thought they would.

La Brea Tar Pits: Hands down my 9 year olds favorite place. He loved the tour and seeing the tar, as well as the museum. He was very excited last month when his class read about it and he got to bring in his pictures. If you go here make sure to ask if you need a ticket for the tour. Even though it is free, they want to limit the size of tour on busy days.

Natural History Museum: Very cool place. It was my 7 year olds pick because of the dinosaurs. We all had a good time here. They even had a little kids area at the top where my little one could play for a bit.

Science Center: Literally right next to the Natural History Museum. After visiting NHM, we went over here to check out the space shuttle. It was very cool! You need a timed ticket, which cost $2 per ticket. We went over around 1:00 on the day after Thanksgiving and got tickets for 15 mins later. They have a lot of other cool exhibits, but we ran out of time.

LA Zoo: It was one of the only things open on Thanksgiving, so we went there. It was nice, but nothing special. We are members at our local zoo, so we got 50% off admission prices. With so many other unique places to go, I would put the zoo at the bottom of my list.

I thought about the Griffith Observatory, but figured my then 2 year old was too young and my 7 year old wasn't interested. I also heard a lot of great things about the Farmers Market, but we did not have enough time on the day we did the Tar Pits.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts


Top