malvado

Skip Sea World. Do you really want to spend $200 on tickets for your family of four? No exaggeration. Save your theme park dollar for Disneyland, and go to the Monterey Bay aquarium instead. Anheuser Busch has owned Sea World for about the past 15 years and runs the park pretty much the way you'd expect a beer company to do.

LRK

Thanks...we were planning on skipping all the theme parks, but have heard from various sources that Universal Studios in CA is diff't than in FL (where we've been)...anyone have any opinions? I need some ammunition if I am going to withstand the onslaught of nagging by my boys....

rjw_lgb_ca

Universal Studios Hollywood is vastly different than the one in Orlando for primarily two reasons:

-- US CA is the original.
-- US CA is an attraction built on the Universal Studios movie lot. It is an actual working film and TV studio facility. They still shoot movies and TV shows there (if you're lucky, you might see some setup going on). The movie sets that have been preserved are, by and large, the ORIGINAL sets. This is, and always has been, primarily a movie studio tour; the rides and what-not kinda sprang up around the tour. US FL is a theme park that may have had some production facilities built as an afterthought.

History alone would get me there.

Silverman

Whatever you do, don't take 152. I totally agree with those who say that 1/17/280/680/580/99 is the best way to go. It really will not cause you to have to do any backtracking and it is a faster route due to the carpool lanes. As already alluded to, 152 is a dangerous road, especially if you are not used to it. There are lots of blind corners. Also, I would respectfully disagree with the poster who stated that 1/17/280, etc. is not scenic. Route 1(Pacific Coast Highway) takes you along the most beautiful coastline of California. Highway 17 is also a very scninc freeway as it courses through the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Highway 152 is basically endless miles of FLAT farmland. 152 also goes through the Central Valley as well, so either way you'll have to deal with the heat.

Michael

Let me suggest a radically different itinerary, which I did 30 years ago:

Do a round trip from San Diego. Go up the coast to San Francisco, and come back via Lake Tahoe, Bodie and Yosemite. Except for the LA-San Diego stretch (and even then) you will not be duplicating the sights.

Going to Lake Tahoe, get off 80 to go towards Sugar Bowl (essentially the last exit before Donner Summit) and take the local road over the pass. It gives a beautiful view of Donner Lake and an idea of the terrain the wagons had to cross. I still can't imagine how they did it. You'll also pass by the Donner Lake State Park which has an exhibit about the Donner Party and its time. Sugar Pine State Park, on the west side of the lake has an old mansion that can be visited, nice lawns down to the lake for a picnic, and swimming for those who like cold water. Emerald Bay has a Norwegian "castle" that is worth a visit.