San Diego - Laguna Beach Itinerary
 

We are a family with 2 older teenagers who plan to visit Southern California next August for 7 nights.

We planned the following schedule:
1 day in LA (Beverly Hills, Rodeo Dr, Getty Center, Sunset Strip)
2 days in San Diego (explore the city and the San Diego Zoo)
the balance of the time soaking in the Southern California culture either at the beach or strolling about the local area. I don't think we plan on visiting Disneyland, but if we did, it would be only a day visit.

Does it make swnse to spend 3 nights in San Diego and the other 4 nights at Laguna Beach based on our itinerary? Thank you.

Laguna Beach is very nice, but it can be a time-consuming drive to the spots in L.A. you mention-- Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, etc. Maybe two nights in Laguna and two nights closer to Malibu or Santa Monica?

I am with MaureenB on this. You could rather sightsee San Diego from Laguna than L.A. IMHO.

Most attractions for tourists in L.A. are located on the Westside (Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica). Others (and less notorious) might be in the Pasadena and Studio City areas. In order to reach all of these, you would have to cross town. Especially the 405 taking you to the Westside is notoriously congested. Driving during rush hour (mornings and early afternoons until early evenings) can be a nightmare if you stick to the Freeways. Thus, I would not encourage you to choose Laguna for a base in order to venture out to L.A.

Even though driving into San Diego for a day might be more feasible, I still would not encourage you to do that, either (too much to see and too many nice restaurant options for the night). Maureen's suggestion of basically splitting your trip in thirds is perfectly sensible.

Visitors to southern California tend to be unaware of the vastness of this area. For example, Laguna Beach is <b>64 miles</b> from Beverly Hills. Except for a few miles of freeway through currently uninhabited land (part of the old Irvine Ranch, now being graded for new homes), it's all urban driving, with the attendant traffic. The distance between Beverly Hills and San Diego? Almost 140 miles. You can get a reprieve from the heavy traffic on 17 miles of toll road; otherwise, it's I-5 all the way.

So the suggestions of splitting your &quot;greater LA&quot; time (and remember, technically Laguna isn't Los Angeles at all, it's south Orange County) is wise. Your teens will enjoy Santa Monica (well, you probably will too)-- summertime means lots of kids on the Third Street Promenade.

Laguna is fun, but more of an adult getaway kind of town (it's historically an artists' colony-- and a haven for a few stars like Bette Davis who didn't feel like living up on LA's Westside).

By the way, your one-day schedule for your LA activities is way overcrowded. The Getty Center should be enjoyed at a leisurely pace. I don't know what you'll be looking for on the Sunset Strip (nightclubs?), but the Guitar Center might be fun for the kids.

Two days LA/Santa Monica, two days Laguna, three days San Diego sounds right to me. However, will you be flying open-jaw-- into LAX and then out of SAN? Otherwise, you'll have to think about travel between the LA-area airports and San Diego:

SAN-BUR: 134 miles
SAN-LAX: 126 miles
SAN-ONT: 115 miles
SAN-LGB: 107 miles
SAN-SNA: 87 miles

Thank you for the information. I did not realize the proximity of the locations.