Advice for LA in August for UK Family

[kazziegar]

Hello we are on the mariner for 7 nights in August. Never been to California and not sure what to book. We will have 6 nights pre cruise and one night post cruise. We have two teenage daughters and they want to see "Hollywood", thought we should stay in Long Beach and commute in - probably would visit Disneyland as well. Any help would be most appreciated.

[Gardyloo]

Hello we are on the mariner for 7 nights in August. Never been to California and not sure what to book. We will have 6 nights pre cruise and one night post cruise. We have two teenage daughters and they want to see "Hollywood", thought we should stay in Long Beach and commute in - probably would visit Disneyland as well. Any help would be most appreciated.

I would not stay in Long Beach. You'll spend way too much time playing freeway tag. You might consider staying in LB the night before the cruise, but otherwise I'd stay closer into the city. Staying in Long Beach and wanting to visit Hollywood (and probably Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and other destinations) is like wanting to visit the West End in London and having your hotel in Slough. Except you wouldn't need a car in Slough as much as you would in Long Beach.

[yogi2929]

Search out posts by CJW (Curt Jerome Wild) and Bruin Steve. They both have excellent ideas on where to stay and what to do.

 

Long Beach is about an 45 minutes to an hour away from the 'tourist sights', barring traffic. We do not judge distance by length but by time.:)

 

Disneyland is not near Hollywood. You could spend the first few nights in or around Hollywood and the last night or two near Disneyland. There are all sorts of packages available for Disney.

 

The weather will be hot and dry. Usually we will get one day of rain in August, anything from a drizzle to a downpour. Use a dollar-store poncho for that one day. It will get more humid as you sail down the coast.

[kenish]

Also check the LA-related forums on Trip Advisor....a huge number of threads that will give you a lot of information and ideas.

[PatriciaF]

I was born, raised, and still live in Long Beach and agree if you want to avoid long driving times, you should consider something on the west side of Los Angeles County for a few days and then something near Disneyland (or at the resort if in your budget). Long Beach is about 30 minutes from Disneyland--so more doable than Hollywood, Beverly Hills, movie studio areas.

 

Public transportation is pretty limited and time consuming. To make the most of your time, you really need to rent a car. While there is a lot of traffic, that means that speeds are low. People generally let you over if you put on your turn signal and honking is limited.

 

I also agree to check out the Los Angeles forum on www.tripadvisor.com.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Hollywood alone can have plenty to do: walking down Hollywood blvd. to look at the walk of fame stars looking at the footprints at Mann's Grauman Chinese theater, Farmers Market... You can stay in the hotels recommended by Curt and Steve (there's one that's on the "Valley" side called Sportsman Lodge -- my family used to have our birthday and anniversary dinners there when I was growing up -- and it's pretty close to Universal Studios and just over the hill from Hollywood).

 

One day you can drive over to Santa Monica, check out the beach (it'll be beach weather at that time of year), the Third Street Promenade (my recommendation), the pier.

 

Some studios give tours (Warners Brothers in Burbank, NBC also in Burbank, Universal Studios in Universal City).

[Bruin Steve]

Hello we are on the mariner for 7 nights in August. Never been to California and not sure what to book. We will have 6 nights pre cruise and one night post cruise. We have two teenage daughters and they want to see "Hollywood", thought we should stay in Long Beach and commute in - probably would visit Disneyland as well. Any help would be most appreciated.

 

With those six nights pre-cruise, you have a lot of options...

For Disneyland, I would probably allot no more than one-two days...if that...though there are some other "attractions" in the area...Disney runs a second theme park called California Adventure and has a free area with shops and restaurants called "Downtown Disney"...A few miles away, in Buena Park, there is another theme park called "Knott's Berry Farm"...and, along Beach Boulevard in Buena Park there are some dinner/extravaganza operations like "Medeival Times"...a lot of this is pretty tacky, but a lot of people seem to love it...

 

This whole area is sort of the other side of a very large city from the more reserved sites usually associated with Los Angeles (I'll get to those in a moment)...

 

So, you may want to split the six nights up, say, 4 and 2 with those last two nights in Anaheim...at worst, you get to Anaheim late before that first night, do something for dinner, wake up early on Saturday and spend the entire day and night at Disney, wake up Sunday morning and head for the ship...

 

The first four days, I would spend up in the other side of the city...Where exactly depends on what you want to see and do...Also, a lot depends on your method of transportation...The best recommendation is to rent a car--giving you the most flexibility in LA...Our public transportation is not well designed, extremely inefficient and not well suited to tourism...and taxis are expensive and difficult to find. If you choose not to have a car, it is still do-able, but where you stay has to fit into the sightseeing/transportation equation.

 

The "typical" tourist sights are spread out between the entertainment industry sites in the Burbank/Universal/Hollywood area and the beach-related sites in Santa Monica/Venice/Malibu...Usually best to stay in one end or the other depending on what it is you see yourself spending most of your time doing.

 

Personally, I prefer Santa Monica...the best weather (August can be VERY HOT...but Santa Monica, being right at the beach, maintains very moderate temperatures all the time)..also more upscale, cleaner, all around more pleasant than many areas...Staying in Santa Monica (Always stay in the area around the Santa Monica Pier/Third Street Promenade/Ocean Avenue/Palisades Park/Beach) puts you near a lot of attractions: the Santa Monica Pier has rides and nightlife...the Third Street Promenades, gives you shops, restaurants, nightlife...Palisades Park gives you a pleasant stroll with breathtaking ocean views and the Venice Boardwalk is not far away...and in August, it will be bustling with life--this is the LA you see in movies and on TV--girls roller skating in bikinis, weightlifters working out on the beach, street artists and nutcases of all sorts...

 

From Santa Monica, it is a short drive up the coast to Malibu and the Getty Villa...or to Westwood (The Getty Center Museum and the campus of UCLA) or to Beverly Hills (Rodeo Drive)...a little further East and you hit the Melrose shopping district (very funky boutiques--maybe your girls want to pick up some unique clothing) and the Grove/Farmers' Market/CBS Studios in the Fairfax District...and the Sunset Strip and, finally, into Hollywood...

 

In the Hollywood area, I seldom recommend staying in Hollywood proper...it sounds romantic, but it is a little older and tends to be a little seamy...You do want to visit Grauman's Chinese, Hollywood Sign and the Walk of Fame and so on...but it may only be worth a few hours of your time, rather than staying there...Going North out of Hollywood and across the Cahuenga Pass, you come to Universal City and then Burbank...This is where you'll find the Universal Studios theme park, CityWalk and all of the various studio tours...Not a bad place to stay if you're doing a lot in this area...but it is one of the hotter parts of town...There are two hotels inside the Universal complex-- a Hilton and a Sheraton...and, as was mentioned, a couple of miles away, the Sportsmens Lodge is a good and reasonable choice...

 

If one stays in Santa Monica without transportation or if one stays in Hollywood/Universal, there are some options--including various tour companies...and the Hop-on-Hop-off bus tours that will take you all over town...

 

If you rent a car, I recommend having patience and a GPS...(and I hope you are adept at driving on our side of the road--I, personally, am heading to England in a couple of months and will be driving around Cornwall, Devon and Dorset for 9 days in a rented car!)...

 

Hope that helps as a start...

[Jen1000]

As I have posted many times, Disney on a Saturday is a bad idea. I would reverse the order Steve advises and do not attempt DL on a Saturday in August. It will be packed. I think you need 2 days in summer to do most of it at DL. 1.5 days at DL and .5 days at California Adventure. If you want to see and do it all, you need three days to see both parks. They sell a park hopper. Lines will be long and it will be hot here. Park opening to lunch and after the fireworks are the least crowded times.

 

Jen in SoCal

 

With those six nights pre-cruise, you have a lot of options...

For Disneyland, I would probably allot no more than one-two days...if that...though there are some other "attractions" in the area...Disney runs a second theme park called California Adventure and has a free area with shops and restaurants called "Downtown Disney"...A few miles away, in Buena Park, there is another theme park called "Knott's Berry Farm"...and, along Beach Boulevard in Buena Park there are some dinner/extravaganza operations like "Medeival Times"...a lot of this is pretty tacky, but a lot of people seem to love it...

 

This whole area is sort of the other side of a very large city from the more reserved sites usually associated with Los Angeles (I'll get to those in a moment)...

 

So, you may want to split the six nights up, say, 4 and 2 with those last two nights in Anaheim...at worst, you get to Anaheim late before that first night, do something for dinner, wake up early on Saturday and spend the entire day and night at Disney, wake up Sunday morning and head for the ship...

 

The first four days, I would spend up in the other side of the city...Where exactly depends on what you want to see and do...Also, a lot depends on your method of transportation...The best recommendation is to rent a car--giving you the most flexibility in LA...Our public transportation is not well designed, extremely inefficient and not well suited to tourism...and taxis are expensive and difficult to find. If you choose not to have a car, it is still do-able, but where you stay has to fit into the sightseeing/transportation equation.

 

The "typical" tourist sights are spread out between the entertainment industry sites in the Burbank/Universal/Hollywood area and the beach-related sites in Santa Monica/Venice/Malibu...Usually best to stay in one end or the other depending on what it is you see yourself spending most of your time doing.

 

Personally, I prefer Santa Monica...the best weather (August can be VERY HOT...but Santa Monica, being right at the beach, maintains very moderate temperatures all the time)..also more upscale, cleaner, all around more pleasant than many areas...Staying in Santa Monica (Always stay in the area around the Santa Monica Pier/Third Street Promenade/Ocean Avenue/Palisades Park/Beach) puts you near a lot of attractions: the Santa Monica Pier has rides and nightlife...the Third Street Promenades, gives you shops, restaurants, nightlife...Palisades Park gives you a pleasant stroll with breathtaking ocean views and the Venice Boardwalk is not far away...and in August, it will be bustling with life--this is the LA you see in movies and on TV--girls roller skating in bikinis, weightlifters working out on the beach, street artists and nutcases of all sorts...

 

From Santa Monica, it is a short drive up the coast to Malibu and the Getty Villa...or to Westwood (The Getty Center Museum and the campus of UCLA) or to Beverly Hills (Rodeo Drive)...a little further East and you hit the Melrose shopping district (very funky boutiques--maybe your girls want to pick up some unique clothing) and the Grove/Farmers' Market/CBS Studios in the Fairfax District...and the Sunset Strip and, finally, into Hollywood...

 

In the Hollywood area, I seldom recommend staying in Hollywood proper...it sounds romantic, but it is a little older and tends to be a little seamy...You do want to visit Grauman's Chinese, Hollywood Sign and the Walk of Fame and so on...but it may only be worth a few hours of your time, rather than staying there...Going North out of Hollywood and across the Cahuenga Pass, you come to Universal City and then Burbank...This is where you'll find the Universal Studios theme park, CityWalk and all of the various studio tours...Not a bad place to stay if you're doing a lot in this area...but it is one of the hotter parts of town...There are two hotels inside the Universal complex-- a Hilton and a Sheraton...and, as was mentioned, a couple of miles away, the Sportsmens Lodge is a good and reasonable choice...

 

If one stays in Santa Monica without transportation or if one stays in Hollywood/Universal, there are some options--including various tour companies...and the Hop-on-Hop-off bus tours that will take you all over town...

 

If you rent a car, I recommend having patience and a GPS...(and I hope you are adept at driving on our side of the road--I, personally, am heading to England in a couple of months and will be driving around Cornwall, Devon and Dorset for 9 days in a rented car!)...

 

Hope that helps as a start...

[Bruin Steve]

As I have posted many times, Disney on a Saturday is a bad idea. I would reverse the order Steve advises and do not attempt DL on a Saturday in August. It will be packed. I think you need 2 days in summer to do most of it at DL. 1.5 days at DL and .5 days at California Adventure. If you want to see and do it all, you need three days to see both parks. They sell a park hopper. Lines will be long and it will be hot here. Park opening to lunch and after the fireworks are the least crowded times.

 

Jen in SoCal

 

Jen...

Here's where our brains work differently...

I am assuming you love Disneyland...

I am probably burned out on it...I went often as a kid...and when my kids were growing up, we lived 15 minutes from DL...

 

I don't look at it as a place where I want to do and see everything...I figure a day is enough...maybe a day and a half...Enough to say you've been there...and to realize it's a royal pain waiting an hour for a two minute ride...Okay, the difference is MAYBE on a Tuesday, you only wait 50 minutes...but, in August, there are NO uncrowded days...

 

I figure that if someone has LITTLE kids, you do what you have to do...with adults and teenagers, it's "okay, we've seen it"...

 

So, yeah, you could reverse the order...Go to Disneyland at the start...So, I guess with 7 nights, they'd be getting in on Sunday, head straight to Anaheim, spend whatever's left of Sunday resting up from the travel, do Monday in Disneyland, then check out Tuesday morning and head for Santa Monica or Universal...

 

But I would not subject myself to three days in Anaheim in August...

 

But, yes, opinions do differ...

And it depends on what is important to the OP...

[Cruisin' Chick]

Since it's your first time in California, and with teens (not little ones), I would agree with Steve and not allot more than a day to DL (or switch it to California Adventure instead). Unless you all are Disney fanatics, you'll be spending a large percentage of your time there and missing out on other locales.

 

Since you have teens, you can involve them in the planning. Maybe have them spend time online researching tourism websites and seeing what they come up with.

[Jen1000]

I don't know if I love DL exactly but I do enjoy it. I get burned out on it too. Living here most of my life and having gone a huge number of times, both on our own and with out of town guests, I just know what sort of time it takes to see both parks. I know all the tricks and where everything is in the parks and I cannot get to everything in a day if it is crowded. Many people don't want to see and do it all, that is why I said 2 days will get you a lot of both parks but not all. One day you really will be limited to DL and forget California Adventure, there just will not be time. It is up to people to decide what they want to do, I just want to let people know how long it takes. Every day will be crowded but Saturday will be the worst day of the week in terms of crowds.

 

I personally do not go to DL or DCA sun up to sun down unless I am with out of town guests. Last summer (July I think) we had guests in and they got the CityPass and that worked well for them. 3 days at DL/DCA, 1 day Universal, 1 day Seaworld and 1 day Wild Animal Park (other option is San Diego Zoo). They were tired but saw it all. We joined them 1 day at DL, 1 day at Universal, 1 day we did the Hollywood thing, 1 day we did the beach. This was their big trip to CA and they wanted to do and see everything they could.

 

Some people come to CA and have no interest in DL and I can understand, it is not for everyone.

 

Jen in SoCal

 

Jen...

Here's where our brains work differently...

I am assuming you love Disneyland...

I am probably burned out on it...I went often as a kid...and when my kids were growing up, we lived 15 minutes from DL...

 

I don't look at it as a place where I want to do and see everything...I figure a day is enough...maybe a day and a half...Enough to say you've been there...and to realize it's a royal pain waiting an hour for a two minute ride...Okay, the difference is MAYBE on a Tuesday, you only wait 50 minutes...but, in August, there are NO uncrowded days...

 

I figure that if someone has LITTLE kids, you do what you have to do...with adults and teenagers, it's "okay, we've seen it"...

 

So, yeah, you could reverse the order...Go to Disneyland at the start...So, I guess with 7 nights, they'd be getting in on Sunday, head straight to Anaheim, spend whatever's left of Sunday resting up from the travel, do Monday in Disneyland, then check out Tuesday morning and head for Santa Monica or Universal...

 

But I would not subject myself to three days in Anaheim in August...

 

But, yes, opinions do differ...

And it depends on what is important to the OP...

[kazziegar]

Thank you all so much for your advice. I have spent a lot of time on line and it is so confusing when you havent been somewhere. Is it best to do organised tours around "Hollywood" or is it easy to do it yourself. We will have a car. We have visited Disney World in Florida several times and the teens love it so thought we could give them a Disney "Fix". However we would want to see much more than just DL so splitting our time seems the best option. Which hotels could you recommend. Mid price would be ideal, we usually like large hotels.

 

Really looking forward to our trip, we are all very excited. My sister left Uk on Thursday for a 2 week trip including mariner cruise to Mexico - they were so lucky the last plane to leave London before UK air space shut down due to Volcano.

 

Thank you for al your help so far

[prncsscruiser]

I go to Disneyland very often, and I would have to say that you need 2 days in the park to really feel satisfied. Having two days in the park allows for you to not feel so rushed to get it all done in one day. And if you are not too familiar with the park, it may take longer to find your way around and to decide what to do. I have a very systematic approach and can get most of it done in a day, but for those who are less experienced it can take quite a while. DO take advantage of the Fast Passes (included in your ticket, they do not cost extra). Those will save you a lot of time. Two days are also good because one night you can see Fantasmic and the other night you can watch the fire works. IMHO those are both not to be missed! If you can afford it, stay at the resort, it will save you a lot of time because you can simply walk to the park as opposed to driving of taking a shuttle bus. The more days you go to the park, the cheaper it gets...a one day park hopper costs about 97, the two day i want to guess is about 150. And I would NOT do only CA adventure, that is a bad representation of Disneyland and if you only go into that park you will get bored faster, a park hopper is a must. I am a disney fanatic, but I feel that people who do not live in the area, or people who do not go often really need at least a 2 day park hopper.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I go to Disneyland very often, and I would have to say that you need 2 days in the park to really feel satisfied. Having two days in the park allows for you to not feel so rushed to get it all done in one day. And if you are not too familiar with the park, it may take longer to find your way around and to decide what to do. I have a very systematic approach and can get most of it done in a day, but for those who are less experienced it can take quite a while. DO take advantage of the Fast Passes (included in your ticket, they do not cost extra). Those will save you a lot of time. Two days are also good because one night you can see Fantasmic and the other night you can watch the fire works. IMHO those are both not to be missed! If you can afford it, stay at the resort, it will save you a lot of time because you can simply walk to the park as opposed to driving of taking a shuttle bus. The more days you go to the park, the cheaper it gets...a one day park hopper costs about 97, the two day i want to guess is about 150. And I would NOT do only CA adventure, that is a bad representation of Disneyland and if you only go into that park you will get bored faster, a park hopper is a must. I am a disney fanatic, but I feel that people who do not live in the area, or people who do not go often really need at least a 2 day park hopper.

 

 

For those who aren't complete Disney fanatics, a day might satisfy them, especially if this is their first time here. There are so many other sights to see, even for teenagers. I know the OP says they are staying six nights pre-cruise and one post cruise, but they might find discover other things to do once they get here.