California: Where to Visit (in a 2.5 week trip)

ixoy

We're planning a trip to California later this year (mid-October to early November) and currently I've got the following itinerary in my head:

Fly into Las Vegas (okay, that's Nevada but anyway): 4 nights:
1st night - spent getting there
2 days -seeing the city
1 day - All-day trip to Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, etc

Fly to San Diego: 3-4 nights
See all the sites there, including trip to SeaWorld

San Diego->LA (by train): 3-4 nights
See Hollywood, Disneyland, etc.

LA->San Francisco (by bus/plane as train takes too long): 5 nights
See all the sights there plus 2-day trip to Yosemite Park

Now I know there's a lot of other places in California but we're limited by the fact neither of us drive so they need to be accessible by public transport. As a result, for those of you who've been, maybe you can answer the following:

LA - I've heard mixed things here. Is it worth seeing for Hollywood / Disney alone? Can I navigate around the city on public transport alone or is it a headache?

Other places: What other cities/towns should I try (especially if LA isn't worth it) - Santa Barbara? Others I'm not aware of? I'm restricting myself to no further north than San Francisco.

Thanks

Chilli Con Kearney

Would you consider driving along the Pacific coast highway from San Diego to La? Means you can stop where you want. Check out Laguna and Newport beaches etc. On the way.

Then drive to San Francisco. Again, you can stop where suits. It also means you have your car with you for a two day trip out to Yosemite, which is handy.
We did this as part of a bigger trip and got great value on a one-way drop off with the car. Worth looking into I think...

ProudDUB

The OP doesn't drive Chilli.

LA is very hard to get around if you don't have a car. It is very, very big and very spread out. If you really want to see the Hollywoody stuff, get a hotel in the downtown area. It will be expensive, but worth it if you are on foot. You don't want to be stuck in some cheapo motel out by the airport. You can do the touristy thingys like the Walk of Fame, Graumans Chinese Theatre fairly easy on foot. You can also do the bus tours of the stars home from there, if you are into that kind of thing. I wouldn't spend any more than a day or two in LA without a car. Once you've seen the main things downtown, you'll really need a car to see anything else. Downtown LA is not half as glamourous as the telly makes it out to be, so don't expect to be wowed by it.

Disneyland is not in LA, it is in Anaheim nearly 30 miles away. It will be a bit of a trek by bus/train/shuttle. This Tripadvisor link gives some info on transport options, however consider staying in one of the hotels at Disneyland itself, as opposed to treking there and back from LA.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g32655-c3183/Los-Angeles:California:Getting.To.Theme.Parks.html


How are you planning to get to Yosemite? Is there a private coach operator you are planning on using to get there? That is another thing that would be hard to do without your own transport.

ixoy

ProudDUB wrote: »

How are you planning to get to Yosemite? Is there a private coach operator you are planning on using to get there? That is another thing that would be hard to do without your own transport.

There's a private tour operator I found that does a fully planned overnight trip to Yosemite Park from San Fran.

Thanks for the advice on LA - I'm a little bit hesitant on it anyway due to hearing its sprawling, seeing how it looks fairly poor in certain TV shows filmed there, etc. Seems like it wouldn't be worth spending much time on if we go.

What other alternative cities/areas would people recommend?

BuffyBot

LA I wouldn't be keen on without a car tbh. Without one, I'd take the advice above about stying in the centre. City wise, you can do Sacramento from SF easily enough - it's not particularily touristy (which isn't all that bad a thing IMHO) but has some points of interest/good food/history.

InTheTrees

ixoy wrote: »

There's a private tour operator I found that does a fully planned overnight trip to Yosemite Park from San Fran.

Thanks for the advice on LA - I'm a little bit hesitant on it anyway due to hearing its sprawling, seeing how it looks fairly poor in certain TV shows filmed there, etc. Seems like it wouldn't be worth spending much time on if we go.

What other alternative cities/areas would people recommend?

The problem with LA is that it IS worth seeing. Its a fascinating place.

1 full day/2 nights in LA without a car would be okay. Stay in Santa Monica, close to the beach and do a guided tour (or two) of the other areas, and I bet there's some good guided tours.

Dont even think of Public transport though!

InTheTrees

BuffyBot wrote: »

LA I wouldn't be keen on without a car tbh. Without one, I'd take the advice above about stying in the centre. City wise, you can do Sacramento from SF easily enough - it's not particularily touristy (which isn't all that bad a thing IMHO) but has some points of interest/good food/history.

Avoid "Downtown" Los Angeles.

Its the Financial Centre. It would be like staying in the City Of London. Its Banks and Big busineses and its dead after about 6pm. There's a cool library building though, and dodger stadium.

The best place without a car would be Santa Monica. Or Venice Beach but thats cheaper and hipper.

murphym7

5 Days in San Fran is a long time, you should consider going on a day trip to Napa or Sonoma.

Here is an example of public tours (which there are many) you could look at.

http://www.californiawinetours.com/tours.html

matt-dublin

Lots to do!

Sea world takes at least half a day depending on what shows u want to do

The zoo in San Diego is also quite impressive

There's an aircraft carrier in sandiego as well which you can go on and it also has an aviation museum on it

The ship that was used to film master and commandeer us just there too along with a submarine that you can go in

There's a great town as well called la jolla and you can go and see seal beach there too

LA is crap but I would definitely recommend the farmers market, santa Monica, Venice boardwalk.

Newport/Huntington/Laguna are well worth a visit.

Never been up north in the 10 years I've been going but from what I hear San Fran is very very expensive.

In Vegas there's plenty to do... Shooting (the gun store). Shows, definitely do see the Beatles love by cirque!

Don't go to the pawn stars shop, the queues are mental and it's not worth it

The MGM and Mandalay bay have the best pools.

matt-dublin

Also make sure if you're going to any of the fairgrounds like seaworld, six flags Disney world etc to check Craiglist

You'll get entry vouchers on there for next to nothing instead of having to pay like $90 for each adult!

Anachrony

ixoy wrote: »

Santa Barbara?

The train will drop you off downtown, and everything is in walking distance from the train station: hotels, wineries, the beach, pier, marina, historical sites, theaters, bars, hundreds of restaurants and shops. Arts and crafts shows along the beach Sunday, farmers markets downtown Saturday and Tuesday, live music and buskers on weekends. There is a bike rental place a block from the train station, which is a viable alternative to walking around town or good for riding along the beach. There is a small shuttle that cycles around the main touristy areas downtown around every 15 minutes for 50 cents. There's also a bus station downtown if you choose to go that route, although it's a bit more of a walk to the beach.

There's not going to be as much to do as Vegas or San Francisco, but it's a lovely place to stop for a day.

Poiteen

ixoy wrote: »

We're planning a trip to California later this year (mid-October to early November) and currently I've got the following itinerary in my head:

Fly into Las Vegas (okay, that's Nevada but anyway): 4 nights:
1st night - spent getting there
2 days -seeing the city
1 day - All-day trip to Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, etc

I personally hate Vegas, but even still, I'm not sure what you'd need 2 days there for. You'll be jet lagged, so maybe that's why you've got the 2 days there, but you can really see all you need of Vegas in a day

ixoy wrote: »

Fly to San Diego: 3-4 nights
See all the sites there, including trip to SeaWorld

San Diego->LA (by train): 3-4 nights
See Hollywood, Disneyland, etc.

LA->San Francisco (by bus/plane as train takes too long): 5 nights
See all the sights there plus 2-day trip to Yosemite Park

Taking a bus between LA and SF would be a real shame - the bus will go on the freeway, way inland, and you will miss out on a lot of great coastline. The train at least hugs the coast between Ventura and almost to Santa Maria. You still won't see the amazing coastline along the Big Sur, but you'll get a flavour of it.

ixoy wrote: »

Now I know there's a lot of other places in California but we're limited by the fact neither of us drive so they need to be accessible by public transport. As a result, for those of you who've been, maybe you can answer the following:

LA - I've heard mixed things here. Is it worth seeing for Hollywood / Disney alone? Can I navigate around the city on public transport alone or is it a headache?

Most people, especially Irish people love to hate LA, I live here and I like it, so take my recommendations how ever you like, but here's what I would recommend to you without a car:

Since you're coming in by train, you would arrive in to Union Station which is in Downtown LA. There's going to be plenty you can see in that area using the metro, here would be my top things:

Directly across the street from Union Station is Olvera street, the oldest part of LA, you can eat Mexican food and see some of the old pueblo style buildings.

Little Tokyo is one stop from Union Station, there is great Japanese food, and if you like art there's MOCA and the Geffen Contemporary.

Also in Downtown is the Grand Central Market, I love to go there to eat Pupusa's (a yummy El Salvadoran food), and looking at all the different kind of chili's available. If you like to cook, you'll like this place.

If you're looking for a classic LA thing to do, that is also relaxing, you could hang out for a few hours at the rooftop pool at The Standard Hotel.

A few stops on the metro is Staples Center, the basketball season will have started again, and you can usually get tickets in the cheapest seats for less than $30 each. I got tickets for my whole family to see ice hockey at Staples for $15 each.

I think that most tourist don't like LA because they are disappointed in Hollywood Blvd. But if you simply must check it off your list, get off the Metro at Hollywood/Highland. That's where the Chinese Theater is, and it's where the Oscar's are too.

I prefer the studio tour at Warner Bros, but it's harder to get to without a car. One more stop north of Hollywood/Highland is the metro stop for Universal Studios. My family enjoyed it there, but I haven't done the tour myself.

I also highly recommend getting to eat some Korean food while you're in LA.

I know that at least one of the open top bus routes goes all the way to Santa Monica. I personally love Santa Monica beach, but you're going to be seeing a lot of amazing beaches in San Diego and further up the coast.

Some of the best / most unusual things about LA, you're simply not going to have access to without a car, but I think you could certainly enjoy yourself for a few nights here.

I've never been to Disney and have no interest in it, but if you do go, you should know that it's about 30 miles south of LA, so if you do want to go, you should go there via the train (and a shuttle) on your way from San Diego rather than getting to LA, and going back south again.

ixoy wrote: »

Other places: What other cities/towns should I try (especially if LA isn't worth it) - Santa Barbara? Others I'm not aware of? I'm restricting myself to no further north than San Francisco.

Thanks

I don't know if you're in to it, but California has great wine regions. A lot of the well known ones are in Sonoma and Napa, north of San Francisco. If you do take the train, it stops in Paso Robles, which is also a wonderful wine region. I personally think that 5 days is a lot in SF, and it would be worth switching out one of those days for somewhere in the central coast or central valley.

Sorry it's so long winded, if you can't tell, I really love California!

MoyVilla9

I doubt you could make it to Grand Canyon and back in a day from Vegas. It's over a 4 hour drive one way from Vegas. That's 8+ hours of driving in a day.

You don't need two days to see Las Vegas either. One is more than enough. Once you leave the Strip there isn't much there. Hoover Dam is very close. Death Valley is about two hours away and fascinating.

Edit: Just seen that you don't drive. Death Valley is out so, pity.

Anachrony

Poiteen wrote: »

I think that most tourist don't like LA because they are disappointed in Hollywood Blvd.

I think the main problem with LA is the car culture. There are lots of wonderful things in LA, but the whole area is less than the sum of its parts. To do anything you first have to get from point A to point B, which normally means driving in heavy traffic on ugly highways through anonymous suburban sprawl and smog, starting in one parking lot and ending in another. Car dependency being at the root of all those problems.

The core of most other major cities in the US were already built prior to the automobile, so they are densely populated and walkable. LA sprung up overnight in the era of the automobile, and was designed accordingly. There are drawbacks to that type of urban planning, and I think that's the most common objection among people who do not like LA.

Poiteen

Anachrony wrote: »

I think the main problem with LA is the car culture. There are lots of wonderful things in LA, but the whole area is less than the sum of its parts. To do anything you first have to get from point A to point B, which normally means driving in heavy traffic on ugly highways through anonymous suburban sprawl and smog, starting in one parking lot and ending in another. Car dependency being at the root of all those problems.

The core of most other major cities in the US were already built prior to the automobile, so they are densely populated and walkable. LA sprung up overnight in the era of the automobile, and was designed accordingly. There are drawbacks to that type of urban planning, and I think that's the most common objection among people who do not like LA.

I can't totally disagree with what you've written but my point in that sentance was only that, I find the things that tourists know to do here are simply not the best things that the city has to offer. There's tons to see and do, and certainly a car would help, but I hope the OP finds some things their interested in the stuff that I've listed within easy reach of the metro.