California travel with a 4 years old boy

Hi,

We (my wife, our 4 years old boy and I :-) are planning a trip to
California between 23rd Dec and 5th Jan. We'll fly to Los Angeles and
rent a car. Our plan is to stay in LA for 4 nights. Kids attractions
are our favorites as you can predict. Rest of our rough schedule is ; 3
nights in San Diego, 1 night in Santa Barbara, 3 nights in San
Fransisco and 2 nights in LA at the end. We'll drive between those
cities. Your hotel recommendations (together with other valuable info)
are highly appreciated. We don't want to exceed 100 USD per night, if
possible :-)

thanks in advance

wrote:
Hi,

We (my wife, our 4 years old boy and I :-) are planning a trip to
California between 23rd Dec and 5th Jan. We'll fly to Los Angeles and
rent a car. Our plan is to stay in LA for 4 nights. Kids attractions
are our favorites as you can predict. Rest of our rough schedule is ; 3
nights in San Diego, 1 night in Santa Barbara, 3 nights in San
Fransisco and 2 nights in LA at the end. We'll drive between those
cities. Your hotel recommendations (together with other valuable info)
are highly appreciated. We don't want to exceed 100 USD per night, if
possible :-)

thanks in advance


My advice is to search out hotels on a site like sidestep.com and check
out the detailed user reviews on tripadvisor.com before booking.


Are you sure you want 5 of your 13 nights in LA? I would recommend a
lot fewer. And how many attractions are there that a 4 year old will
really appreciate in 13 days of travel? (I have 2 kids - now grown, so
I've been there - done all that)

Good luck.

On 26 Oct 2006 04:47:15 -0700, wrote:

Hi,

We (my wife, our 4 years old boy and I :-) are planning a trip to
California between 23rd Dec and 5th Jan. We'll fly to Los Angeles and
rent a car. Our plan is to stay in LA for 4 nights. Kids attractions
are our favorites as you can predict. Rest of our rough schedule is ; 3
nights in San Diego, 1 night in Santa Barbara, 3 nights in San
Fransisco and 2 nights in LA at the end. We'll drive between those
cities. Your hotel recommendations (together with other valuable info)
are highly appreciated. We don't want to exceed 100 USD per night, if
possible :-)

thanks in advance

What country are you from? If the USA, www.priceline.com
works well once you learn how to bid. If not, learn how to
use www.hotwire.com or www.expedia.com

I made nearly all my US bookings using a combination of
those three. Mainly 3* and 4*, mostly under $60.

Just as an example, a quick check on hotwire for four nights
commencing 23 Dec gives a range from 1* to 3.5* from
$60-$80.

Presumably the child will be sleeping in your room.

Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
latest: Museum Musings

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

We (my wife, our 4 years old boy and I :-) are planning a trip to
California between 23rd Dec and 5th Jan. We'll fly to Los Angeles and
rent a car. Our plan is to stay in LA for 4 nights. Kids attractions
are our favorites as you can predict. Rest of our rough schedule is ; 3
nights in San Diego, 1 night in Santa Barbara, 3 nights in San
Fransisco and 2 nights in LA at the end. We'll drive between those
cities. Your hotel recommendations (together with other valuable info)
are highly appreciated. We don't want to exceed 100 USD per night, if
possible :-)


San Francisco to LA is a longish one day drive with a child. I suggest
stopping en route in both directions, especially since the California coast
is very beautiful. Nice stops are Hearst Castle, Big Sur and Carmel/Monterey
(and its aquarium).

In fact, to avoid that drive twice, could you instead buy open jaws tickets,
into LA and out of SFO? Or vice versa?

Marianne

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

We (my wife, our 4 years old boy and I :-) are planning a trip to
California between 23rd Dec and 5th Jan. We'll fly to Los Angeles and
rent a car. Our plan is to stay in LA for 4 nights. Kids attractions
are our favorites as you can predict. Rest of our rough schedule is ; 3
nights in San Diego, 1 night in Santa Barbara, 3 nights in San
Fransisco and 2 nights in LA at the end. We'll drive between those
cities. Your hotel recommendations (together with other valuable info)
are highly appreciated. We don't want to exceed 100 USD per night, if
possible :-)

thanks in advance

Lodging aside, there are some nice places to take a four year old in the San
Francisco area. First, given that you are driving from Santa Barabara to
San Francisco, odds are that you will be taking highway 101. Consider
taking from San Luis Obispo highway 1 to Castroville, where you can take
highway 156 back to highway 101 north. The reason for this routing is that
it takes you through the Big Sur area, where among other things you can make
a quick walk to view McWay Falls - avowedly the second most photographed
waterfalls in California (Yosemite Falls being the most photographed). But
the key attraction is just to the north of Hearst Castle (itself worth
visiting, but you can easily kill 1/2 day doing one tour) - elephant seals
at the beaches north of the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, itself to the north
of Hearst Castle. The beaches are just below the parking lot so not much
walking is involved.

And should you decide on driving up highway 1, you will drive past Monterey.
The Aquaruim there is well worth the stop. However be advised that you can
easily spend 1/2 day there walking among the exhibits.

In the San Francisco area are several train rides. There is a full size one
in Felton (closer to Santa Cruz, though) - Roaring Camp. And there is a
scaled down one at Tilden Park above Berkeley that is very popular.

Berkely also has the Lawrence Hall of Science, from which you also get a
stupendous view of the San Francisco Bay.

The Academy of Science is still located on Howard St between Fourth and
Fifth Streets in San Francisco and has a display of fish, snakes, etc. My
four year grandson especially enjoyed playing with the hermit crabs.

The Exploratorium at the Palace of Fine Arts has many hands on exhibits for
children.
Ft Point may be of interest. It is of Civil War vintage and is tucked under
the south end of the Golden Gate bridge. Nice views from the top...but be
careful. It can get rather windy there. There is a mock firing of a canon
with young children as participants under the tutelage of a park ranger.

The airplane museum in San Carlos down the peninsula has the front section
of a real 747 with former 747 pilots as docents to answer questions. While
not as comprehensive and large as the airplane museum at Castle air field in
Merced, it has a number of historic airplanes including the cockpit of a
Blue Angels F-18.

In Alameda is the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier. The tour of the 'island'
is an interesting one, as are the various aircraft - including a F-14 Tomcat
(think the movie Top Gun).

The grandson much enjoyed the trip to SFO airport. While the highlight was
riding on the upper level of the CalTrain cars, the BARTand the SkyTrain
rides were also much enjoyed. The icing was the small airplane museum and
the gift shop next to it on the ticket counter level of the international
terminal.

Run a web seach on any item of interst for more information. And others may
have additional suggestions.

wrote:
Hi,

We (my wife, our 4 years old boy and I :-) are planning a trip to
California between 23rd Dec and 5th Jan. We'll fly to Los Angeles and
rent a car. Our plan is to stay in LA for 4 nights. Kids attractions
are our favorites as you can predict. Rest of our rough schedule is ; 3
nights in San Diego, 1 night in Santa Barbara, 3 nights in San
Fransisco and 2 nights in LA at the end. We'll drive between those
cities. Your hotel recommendations (together with other valuable info)
are highly appreciated. We don't want to exceed 100 USD per night, if
possible :-)

thanks in advance

You are going to run into high prices for New Year's eve. Try to time
your travel so that around that night you are not near any big cities.
Otherwise we have had very good luck with the Best Western chain of
hotels.

San Francisco to LA is a longish one day
drive with a child. I suggest stopping en ro
ute in both directions, especially since the
California coast is very beautiful. Nice stops
are Hearst Castle, Big Sur and Carmel/Monterey
(and its aquarium).

Yes, I'd also suggest that. Personally I'd cut a day or two from LA and
spend it taking your time along the coast, perhaps spending the night
in the Carmel/Monterey area.

Jim

wrote:
3 nights in San Fransisco

The "Don't-miss sights in San Francisco" page
http://geocities.com/iconoc/Articles/Sights.html has enough to keep
you busy for nine twelve-hour days. It includes links to your best
source of advice on where to eat here, the UseNet Group ba.food, and
the quite-good sfSurvey. It also has a weather chart with a link to
current conditions.

The best on-line map of San Francisco is an inter-active PDF created
for the San Francisco Municipal Railway:
http://geocities.com/iconoc/Grafix/CityWide.pdf. I recommend 150% or
greater magnification. There's also a link that will tell you how to
get There from Here via public transportation. Other links on the
page, http://geocities.com/iconoc/Grafix/FlagMaps.html are a map of
our cable car routes and a superb map of Golden Gate Park.

The frequently-updated SPECIAL EVENTS page has irregularly-scheduled
music and dances as well as links to seven calendars of
regularly-scheduled dances, a composite of five of them, and one of
dance cruises and events around the world:
http://geocities.com/dancefest/Specials.html


Lawrence Akutagawa wrote:
Consider taking from San Luis Obispo highway 1 to Castroville,

That's the Cabrillo Highway.

it takes you through the Big Sur

In the San Francisco area are several train rides. There is a
full size one in Felton (closer to Santa Cruz, though) - Roaring
Camp.

Santa Cruz is in the Monterey Bay Area. The distance 'tween those two
towns is half that between Santa Cruz and San Francisco.

-- __________________________________________________ ______________
Un San Francisqueño en San Francisco.
http://geocities.com/dancefest/ --- http://geocities.com/iconoc/
ICQ: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/19098103 ------- IClast at Gmail com


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Hi again,

Thanks a lot for your valuable replies. In the light of the info you've
given and some research we made, we made a rough schedule. Would you
please take a look and let us know your what you think ;

23 Dec

Arrive to L.A. at around 7:00 pm and check in to hotel which is near to
Disneyland

24 Dec

Discover L.A. Chinese Theatre, Kodak, Rodeo Drive, Santa Monica, Sunset
Blv, Hollywood Blv.

25 Dec

Disneyland

26 Dec

Disneyland

27 Dec

Check out in the morning and drive to San Diego. Check in and discover
San Diego ; Seal Tour, Old Town Trolley Tour, Horton Plaza, Gaslamp
Quarter

28 Dec

Zoo

29 Dec

Sea World

30 Dec

Check out in the morning, drive to Santa Barbara (around 3 hours),
visit Venice Beach, Camarillo Premium Outlets and stay there

31 Dec

check out in the morning, drive to Monterey taking Highway 101 and
Highway 1, visit Big Sur, Monterey, Carmel, 17 miles. Stay in Monterey

1 Jan

Check out in the morning and drive to San Fransisco, discover city,
chek in.

2 Jan

Sausalito, Muir woods, etc.

3 Jan

Berkeley, Habitot, Vallejoy, Napa Valley, Napa Outlet

4 Jan

Check out and drive to L.A. I guess we need to take Highway 101 for
this long way and check in to hotel near to airport.

5 Jan

at 3.00 pm, A Dios L.A.


Dou you think this plan is reasonable? Does it need to be amended some
way?
By the way, I plan to book the hotels in www.expedia.com, what do you
think?


Thanks again & regards ;-)

Very ambitious. For example, I for one would be hard pressed to drive from
San Diego to Santa Barabara in three hours without any stops. Heck - I
think it took me more than two hours to drive from Culver City to San Diego
nonstop on a Saturday.

Why not fly out of San Francisco? Leave your rental there. Yes, it would
cost a bit more than to drive back to Los Angeles, but you're not doing any
sightseeing on that last day driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Flying out of San Francisco, you can either cut your stay by one day (and
probably more than make up the added expense) or spend another day in
northern California.

Now if you really want to fly out of Los Angeles, then add a couple of stops
on that last day and then perhaps things are more reasonable. Possible
additions - airplane museum at Castle air field outside of Merced.
Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno. But then you'll be taking 99 and
I5 rather than 101. I5 is faster than 101 from San Francisco to Los
Angeles, by the way....something like 6 or so hours vs 8 or so hours.