US Family Holiday - December
 

My wife and our 16, 14 and 11 year old children are looking to travel to the US in December. We would like to treat the kids to a white Christmas, in conjunction with seeing a little of the US. At this stage we are working on a 2-3 week trip and are thinking of visiting LAX, SFO, NYC.

We would welcome comments and ideas on getting the best out of our trip, particularly with regards to places we should visit, route we should take, family friendly accommodation, best place to spend Christmas & New Year and things to be aware of for family travel.

This is our first time to the US and the kids are keen to do the theme parks in LAX and experience NYC. Our 14yo also wants to see an NFL game.

Thank you in advance for your comments and ideas.

With those 3 cities, you most likely will NOT see a White Christmas. Are you willing to travel elsewhere? Or are you willing to give up the snow?

Here's a map to show you where the snow usually is at Christmas.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/what-a...hite-christmas

Agree about the snow, but NY is magical (and cold) at Christmas. You could fly to SF, spend time in and around the city and maybe Monterey. fly to LA and do a load of sightseeing and theme parks, drive to San Diego. Take about 12 days for that part. Then fly to NY and spend the rest of your trip on Manhattan - sightseeing, shopping, ice skating, eating.

Ordinarily I'd recommend the drive down the coast, which is spectacular, but December weather can be iffy.

NYC is about 100 miles south of the snow belt. You easily can have a white Christmas - we have I beleive in 2 or 3 of the last 10 years (once abour 10" and once about 25"). But it's agreater chance there will be none unless you sepnd a long day or two heading north.

Or you could add a day or two in the Rockies at a ski resort to your trip and be sure of getting snow and some fun activities.

For NYC this is a great - but expensive time of year. With 5 people you will either have to get 2 rooms or a suite (fire laws) and I would start to look as soon as your dates are final - since there are often online discounts if you are willing to prepay.

for budget look at Radio City apartments (suite hotel) for moderate have alook at the Beacon (you may have to call) or the Affinia group. Ot you can pick two rooms anyplace that had a good deal and a triple room available.

Just to let you know that Disneyland is not in LA (LAX is the airport code) but in Anaheim, which is another county altogether. I'd stay in Anaheim for the day(s) you do Disney and there is another nearby themepark, called Knott's Berry Farm which has everything from Camp Snoopy for small kids to coasters, old western town, etc. Good value for the money.
December (especially early to mid month) may be a bit early for the heavy rains which can wash out Highway 1, the drive down that road is beautiful but takes several days and nights.
If you are going to rent a car for California look into:
traveljigsaw.com.au

Well we do have ski resorts near Los Angeles. Big Bear will have snow (they'll make it if they need to) and it's only a 2 hour drive from L.A. Mammoth Lakes is another ski resort ... think that's about a 5-hour drive from L.A.

Lake Tahoe will have snow as will Yosemite.

Lake Tahoe might have snow. I have skied on mud in Lake Tahoe in December. I wouldn't count on snow at any of the California ski resorts.

Hello All,

Thank you for your prompt and informative comments. From what I can see, a white Xmas may not occur based on the destinations we have mentioned. With that in mind, I would like to seek your comments on the following thoughts we have for our trip.

We are thinking of starting in NYC, possibly around the 20th Dec, and staying for approx a week. Looking at things to do, we can see that we can easily fill that time with various sites and attractions and possibly the chance of snow? Would you recommend any day trips from NYC? Can DC be done as a day trip?

Our next thought is to head back west towards Los Angeles. If you had to stop at a state on the way through for a day or two, what recommendations would you have. My son is a saints fan, would New Orleans be worthwhile, or would going somewhere in the centre to experience another side of America be better?

We then plan to be in Los Angeles and surrounds for about a week. What recommendations would you have for NYE in Los Angeles, particularly for families.

Looking forward to your comments, which have been helpful in helping us plan our trip.

I would start in LA with a stay in Anaheim for Disney and then move to Universal Studios for a quick visit. Drive on to Yosemite for a white Christmas. Swing over to SF for a quick visit, then on to NYC and Times Square for the ball drop on New Years Eve. Spend some time in NY, train down to DC for a look then fly home.

DC is too far from NYC for a day trip. I would choose to add DC and delete New Orleans due to travel time involved as well as the fact that this is a family trip.

Have fun!

If you want snow in Dec you need to hit Denver and the Rocky Mountains. Denver, itself, does not always have a lot of snow on the ground at that time of year but all of the ski/mountain areas west will have. Unfortunately the weeks of Christmas and New Years are our busiest times in the mountains so advance planning is critical. Even if not skiing there are a lot of other activities and would provide a nice contrast to the big city hustle of New York and LA. And compared to the hotel rates of New York, we are down right cheap.

Catching an NFL games at that time could be difficult. They play offs would be underway so knowing the schedule very far in advance would be difficult. Second, playoff ticket are hard to come by.

I am looking forward to cheap holidays packages so if anyone have any suggestion then send PM yo me.

Define cheap as it has a whole different meaning when it comes to Christmas and New Years in the mountains. Instead of hijacking someone else question, how about starting your own?

I don't believe there is a PM feature here and it isn't necessary for your request, AdnoartinaSmith. Please start your own thread (with an informative title) as suggested above.

AdnoartinaSmith: Welcome to Fodors. If you have questions about your holiday, as the others say, you should start a new thread instead of tacking on to this old thread about a different trip.

When you re-post give a bit more detail like when/where/how many of you and your budget.

My husband and I had a week in NYC last year. It is a fabulous place to visit and there is so much to see so we only scraped the surface.

Uncertainty with job cuts meant we had to shorten our trip and not have a few days in Washington DC. Rather than miss out altogether we did a day trip from NY by train. We caught the subway to Penn Station at around 4am to catch the Amtrak to DC leaving at 5.30am. That got us to Union Station at 8.50am. We got to see Arlington and all the war memorials (they were our must sees) Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial looking down to the Washington Memorial and walking around the war memorials nearby was a really enjoyable day for us. It is such a lovely area.

We would love to return to NY and if we ever do we will go back to Washington for a few days so we can visit the museums we didn't have time to see. Yes it wasn't the best way to see Washington but we saw the things we did want to see and I am so glad we did the day trip and didn't miss them. We caught the train at 7pm and arrived back in NY at around 11pm. It was a long day but we had a snooze on the train so it wasn't that bad. We are used to driving long distances at home in Oz, so being on a train for that length of time for a day trip was nothing to us.

Hope the plans all fall into place and you have a wonderful holiday.