Will be visiting Southern Cal for 7 days late July with 2 teen sons and husband. Will fly in, rent car and do the following:

1. Flying in just before noon. Plan to go to Anaheim Angels game that night. We'd like to stay near the beach to relax after the flight. Where to stay? How easy to get to Anaheim?

2. Next day going to San Diego for 2 nights. Have this part of trip planned - Wild Animal Park, La Jolla, Dana Point, Old Town. We've been to Sea World and not interested in zoo. Might take side trip to Julian to get in the mountains.

3. Stopping near Huntington Beach to visit friend and family. Will stay there overnight.

4. Final 2 nights are booked at Hotel California in Santa Monica. Have been to Universal in Florida so interested in another studio tour. Is Paramount or Warner Bros. better? Will do the beaches, Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, drive up to Mulholland, La Brea Tar Pits, and Griffith Observatory. Any other ideas?

5. Final day (taking red eye out at midnight) will be visiting a relative in Grenada Hills for the day. How much time do we need to get out there on a Tuesday (traffic)? Is the traffic still pretty bad at night? We'll need to get to the airport by 10pm to return rental car.

In reading other posts, learned about subway from West Hollywood, which intrigues me. What can we do in the areas served by it?

Thanks.

If you are going to be based in Santa Monica for a couple of nights, don't miss the Getty Center. It's free!

Questions:

1. Which airport?! The closest beach town to Anaheim (uggh) where the beaches are pretty good and they have hotels available would probably be Seal Beach (then it's a straight shot on the 22 freeway over to Anaheim). Only a couple of hotels that I can recommend (the Ayres, right off the 405, and the Pacific Inn, two blocks from the beach-- used to be a Radisson).

2 and 3. You've got it planned, nothing to comment.

4. Er, interesting choice of hotels in SM (Tripadvisor comments are all over the map, slight edge to the vicious pans). Warner Brothers has a great tour-- don't know about Paramount. Griffith Observatory is closed for renovations, but the Park is still open. Getty Center would be fun. How about the Petersen Auto Museum on Wilshire (at Fairfax)?

5. Traffic up to GrAnada Hills will be busy in the morning, brutal in the evening until about 8 PM or so. Morning drive should be somewhere around an hour; evening, add a half-hour.

There is no subway to or from West Hollywood. The Red Line runs from Union Station downtown to Wilshire and Western in Hollywood (the LA neighborhood-- WH is a separate city). Another Red Line service runs up to North Hollywood. The Gold Line takes you into beautiful Pasadena. And you can catch the Blue Line at the 7th/Metro station and head into my gritty hometown of Long Beach (great place to live, just regaining its footing as a minor tourist destination).

Sounds a bit chock-full for me, but I tend to underplan my holidays. I'm lazy like that....

If I were you I'd just drive the 90 minutes down to San Diego after the game. It's so much easier to park yourself in one hotel for 3 days then to settle in for one night somewhere just to pack up and leave the next morning.

Clark: A good idea (hopefully the game doesn't let out too late)....

What have you heard about Hotel California? It looks ok from the website (not that you can always go by that). We figured the boys would want to be close to the beach and we still wouldn't be too far from Hollywood/West Hollywood.

I'm not sure we want to drive all the way to San Diego that night, especially since we might stop along the way (maybe, San Juan Capistrano). We were wanting to stay somewhere on the beach the day we arrived, and then make the drive to the game that night. Since we're not doing Disney or the other Anaheim attractions, we didn't want to stay there. Are the beach communities more than 30 minute drive to the ballpark? Wanted to pick something south of Anaheim so as to pick up the freeway south the next morning. How about Huntington Beach?

By the way, we're flying into LAX. Thanks.

Did you know that Julian and the surrounding area were badly damaged in the horrendous fires of last year?

1. Flying in just before noon. Plan to go to Anaheim Angels game that night. We'd like to stay near the beach to relax after the flight. Where to stay? How easy to get to Anaheim?
If you are flying into John Wayne -SNA there are several nice hotels in Newport Beach area which is very close to that airport and an easy drive to Anaheim Stadium. They are not "at" the beach if that is what you are looking for. You might check Marriott Suites, it overlooks the Back Bay and the suites are always nice with teens. There is also the Hyatt Newporter, which is a resort type hotel, very nice. I would allow about 40 minutes to get from Newport to Anaheim depending on traffic...you could make it in less time but you never know! Have fun!

RE: Hotel California:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...alifornia.html

People either love it or hate it-- very few middle-ground comments. I drive by it every workday-- looks like a small motel with surfboards nailed in strategic places for "mood". How much are you willing to spend? Beach access in Santa Monica will cost you, as you must have noticed.

I believe the Griffith Observatory is still closed for renovation.

With two teen boys, you might stop by the Petersen Automotive Museum which is across the street from the Tar Pits. Very cool cars.

Mary2Go's suggestion of Newport is a good one. Given your time constraints, I would still consider Seal Beach first (maybe 20 minutes hotel to stadium, without accidents on the 22 Freeway), especially since you're only going to be there one night.