Final Itinerary for Family So Cal trip
 

Finally I have a complete itinerary. All hotels are booked, so I'm locked in now.
Day 1 - fly in to LAX from east coast / overnight at LAX hotel
Day 2- drive to Hearst Castle for night tour/stop along the way to see elephant seal colony /overnight San Simeon
Day 3- drive to Santa Barbara/ visit a vineyard on the way/overnight SB
Day 4 - Santa Barbara - La Purisma Mission/overnight SB
Day 5- drive to San Diego - friends meeting up with us here/ overnight SD
Day 6- San Diego/ Midway/ overnight SD
Day 7- San Diego/ Balboa Park/overnight SD
Day 8 - drive to palm springs / Palm springs Ariel tram/ overnight PS
Day 9 - Joshua Tree National Park/overnight PS
Day 10- drive to LA/overnight Santa Monica
Day 11 LA area/ overnight SM
Day 12 LA area/ overnight SM
Day 13 LA area/ overnight SM
Day 14 depart

While in LA we'd like to...
Getty
Page
Chinese Theater
Peterson Car
Hike Runyon Canyon
Bike SM to Venice Beach
Griffith Observatory
Studio tour or Taping of a show

As I have mentioned in other posts. We are fam of 4. Boys are 12 and 9. I'd appreciate any and all feedback.
thanks!

Forgot to mention trip is this month.
Also want to check out Cal Tech with 12 yo.

Sounds good.

Our favorite of the studio tours was Warner Brothers, but going to any of the studio tours is better than going to none.

For something different, the Autry is a treat and too often overlooked: http://theautry.org/

We went to the Petersen Automotive Museum on our last visit to LA and I'm sorry to say we were disappointed. Unless you are a BIG auto enthusiast, your time may be better spent elsewhere.

HTTY

JPL would probably be more fun for a 12 year old than Cal-tech. There is information about tours on their website, I think.

See LA Purisma on your drive from San Simeon to Santa Barbara, don't backtrack up there the next day. Plenty to see and do in/around Santa Barbara (including SB Mission) and you haven't left any time to see SB.

Re: drive from SB to San Diego, unless it is Sat or Sun, don't leave SB until almost 9am. You don't want to be caught in L.A. freeway traffic between 7:30 and 10am.

HTTY - the boys in my family are car crazy. Why were you disappointed? The collection?

Tracy-JPL sounds amazing. Website shows that tour aren't available till January. I wonder if we can go on our on.

Any vineyard you recommend?

Kalyra Winery, made famous in the movie "Sideways", would be a good choice. If you get an early start from San Simeon, you could see La Purisma on the way down and then cut over to Kalyra. Or, if you google "Sideways Los Olivos Ride", you will see a bike-ride map that would work in the car, too.

Is your drive out of L.A. to San Simeon a weekday? If so, leave at 6:30am to avoid the traffic. (Your bodies will still be on east-coast time and everyone will probably be waking at 5am anyway.) Summerland Beach Cafe off the Summerland exit, about 90 mins up the 101 freeway, is a great stop for breakfast. Nice little oceanside/clifftop park just across the street for some photos and to wet your toes in the Pacific.

My husband and I are both car enthusiasts so we thoroughly enjoyed the Peterson Museum. It takes about an hour to see the whole thing. Look for my friend's white Triumph in the garage they've set up there.

With kids that age, you will probably not find any show tapings that will allow you to go in, assuming they have things going on at this time of year.

If there were any music enthusiasts, I'd recommend the Grammy Museum. They currently have a fabulous George Harrison exhibit going on.

I am fairly sure that there are Elephant Seals right down the road from Hearst Castle. Maybe I am wrong about this, they could have been sealions and I'm getting them confused.

Day 7 are you going to the zoo or just Balboa park?
I was surprised how much I enjoyed the zoo and we were there for about 5-6 hours.
If you go I recommend Alberts restaurant. I think it's the only full service restaurant and the food is much better than the fast food places for just a few extra dollars.
The beautiful setting is a bonus and it's a relaxing meal as opposed to the 'zoo' atmosphere at the self serve places. I went with my 14 yr old daughter and she usually prefers the fast food type places but really liked eating here.

The Midway has flight simulators which will be fun for your boys.

What is not to miss in Santa Barbara???

The Elephant Seals are a little bit up the coast from San Simeon (north). They are easy to get to from San Simeon and are very worth visiting.

So bummed I didn't know about JPL sooner! You have to book your tour 3 weeks in advance. The website won't even let me check dates in December. I called they said check the website. any other ideas on how to get in??

<i>HTTY - the boys in my family are car crazy. Why were you disappointed? The collection?</i>

As I said, if your family is mad for cars, they will probably enjoy the Petersen Automotive Museum. However, we have have seen other automobile collections we enjoyed much more, and with all there is to do in LA I do not rate it as one of the few things to do there during a short visit. It would be a good activity for children on a day when it is raining so hard you don't want them to go outside.

HTTY

If you go to the Aerospace Museum in Balboa Park in SD - you will see about as much interesting stuff as at the JPL, and there is an auto museum right next door.

Personally - I would add another day in SD in place of one in LA.

And yes, the Elephant Seals - with the males (if they are in) up to over 5,000 lbs and big snouts (hence the name Elephant) are just a couple miles north of Hearst Castle.

Also - the Wild Animal Park in Escondido - about 25 miles norh of San Diego is a real treat (you see the animals in the wild - and take trams around the huge grounds) - and if you decide to do that and the Zoo - you can get a discount on the tix.

see: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wap/wap_map.html
and for the San Diego Air and Space (not Aerospace) - see: http://www.sandiegoairandspace.org/

Also - I would suggest driving through Danish themed Solvang when you head back to Santa Barbara from Hearst Castle.

Actually - you could do the Zoo one morning while you are in SD (the animals are more active in the morning) and the Midway in the afternoon - and the SD Wild Animal Park the next am - ditto for the animals being more active there in the morning also. Then you could do the Air and Space that afternoon - and take a quick tour of the Auto collection next door.

And here is the Auto Museum in Balboa Park:

http://www.balboapark.org/in-the-par...FQh9hwodQTTWTw

Or you might also drop a day from Palm Springs, as I am not that huge a fan of the Joshua Tree Monument. Just saying.............

Also in Balboa Park - there is the Ruben E. Fleet science center and IMAX, the adjacent Natural History Museum (and IMAX) and the nearby Model Railroad Museum.

http://www.balboapark.org/in-the-par...science-center