Cali & LV

So I'm planning to take my folks to the US some time next year for their first trip ever out of the country, thought it's possible it will only be my mum due to dads insistence he will never fly and have pretty much settled on hitting Vegas for a week or so and then across to Cali for LA, Anaheim, San Diego so figured I'd ask here for advice. I'd also like to hit SF for a few days but given the directions and distance of SF and SD from LA I can't see it working out.

1. Best time to head over? I'm almost certain I want to go in october just because of the whole halloween fun vibe that I saw last time I went to Blizzcon. I think they'd enjoy that in all the cities as it's not really a big thing over here. Also given the temps we get over here in summer, heat isn't a major concern...at least not enough to really be a major factor in time of year.

2. Travel route? I'm figuring hit LV first for about a week or so to get to see everything and catch the majority of shows I know they want to see + Penn & Teller again. After that I was thinking of taking the LV express to anaheim for about a week or so and then down to SD for a few days before heading back home but does anyone think it's possible or even worth it to go LV -> SF -> Ana -> SD?

3. Things that can't be missed in each place? Again, I think I'm set for LV in terms of Freemont St, the Strip, a few shows, perhaps the Strip by Night tour bus. In Anaheim I'm looking at Disney 3-day pass, Universal Studios, Rodeo & BH tour, Ducks home-game opener if in Oct, perhaps Venice beach. San Diego is really just the Zoo and SeaWorld while only thing I can think of in SF is the Wharf and Alcatraz (hence it's not huge on my must-see list). Also wondering about doing the Tijuana day-trip tour though concerned about how truly safe that is even as a guided tour.

4. Are things like Medieval Times or the Pirate one worth doing?

5. Any restaurants or out of the way food places that can't be missed in any of those towns?

Any other advice or opinions on things welcome though I am aware of the tipping bullshit and such

Izuldan_sl said:

1) How old are you? How old are your parents?
2) Which country are you coming from?
3) What is your budget like? Sky's the limit, extremely frugal, or in between?
4) How many days total is the trip you are planning?
5) How nice of hotels do you plan to stay at?
6) How much are you willing to spend on food? You mentioned can't miss restaurants, but in Vegas, SF, and LA can't miss restaurants can easily run you $200-300 per person. Of course, there are plenty of great divey restaurants also, but I wanted to get a sense of how much of a foodie you and your family are first.

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1. 43, folks are in 60's
2. Coming from Australia
3. Around $10k, possibly higher depending on poker in Vegas/LA but not factoring that in as I'll be using my poker bankroll for those games
4. Looking at around 18 days due to losing 2 days on the flight back
5. Never really a big spender on hotels as long as they are functional. eg in Vegas will likely stay at the MGM or Imperial Palace/Quad and in Anaheim will be staying at the Best Western I usually stay at. My travel philosophy is that I won't be spending much time in the hotel room so would rather use that budget for more fun things
6. Most of the places I really want to visit are in Vegas and I know about, more after the little hidden-away places most people wouldn't try or know about, like the Lucha Libre place in SD or that 50's dinner near Universal. I spent a lot of my teens working in my parents restaurants and take-aways so I know food but have way too simple tastes to really call myself a foodie.

Elurin_sl said:

Not sure why you have that listed as LV -> SF -> Ana -> SD. Make San Francisco the start or end of your trip (or not at all, since it's far as shit). Vegas is a 4 hour drive from pretty much everywhere in SoCal. Also, the only reason to go to Anaheim would be as a base for LA/SD. Honestly, everything is fucking close. It's like a 2 hour drive from LA to San Diego. If you set up in Orange County, you could do both with pretty short drives (although, that would eventually probably suck).

As far as LA though, it blows. I guess if you just wanted to do a day there it wouldn't be too bad. But overall it's a shithole. That said, the beach communities are all interesting. Venice is a fun half day, and I really like Huntington Beach.

I love the shit out of San Diego though. It's fucking gorgeous. It's also one of the best places to eat I've ever been to (although I suppose Vegas would probably win that battle).

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Mainly figured if we were hitting SF then that route makes more sense as can fly in to Vegas and fly out of SD and hit the 4 cities without having to backtrack. You also hit the nail on the head about why to stay in Anaheim, we'll be staying in the hotel I usually stay in there as it's like 2 blocks from Disneyland and Greyline comes past it for pickups for their day tours so I don't have to worry about whether we rent a car, etc.

Adam12_sl said:

If it were me I'd cut the Las Vegas part of your trip down to 3 or 4 days and focus more on California.

Time: October is great. Vegas might still be a bit warm, but Halloween in Vegas is like porn. Maybe that's not the best time to take your parents, though. California is basically perfect up and down the coast in October.

For Vegas: The Medieval Times-ish show at Excalibur is ok, but I'd skip it. The pirate show at Treasure Island is free, runs several times a day and is worth a look. You could take a walk down to Bellagio before/after that to watch the fountains, I guess. I don't know, I'm just not that big on Vegas anymore. Get a center-strip room and see everything you want to see in a few days and gtfo.

Cant Miss in Vegas: You seem to know what you want to see there already.

California: I'm from San Diego, but for sites/vacationing I prefer the Bay Area over SoCal. San Francisco is just a better city for tourism, and it's much easier to get around and see everything since it is so condensed. LA is a sprawling mass of cars. SD is spread out too, but most of the shit you'll want to see are pretty close together.

Cant Miss in Cali: Alcatraz, Muir Woods for SF, spend the rest of your time exploring imo. The San Diego Zoo, La Jolla and Del Mar for SD. Not sure about LA, you can find whatever it is you're looking for there, but you just have to plan on sitting in traffic for a good portion of your day. Studio tours might be something that your parents would be interested in. For just hanging out, I like the Santa Monica pier area.

If I were building an itinerary for 2 weeks it'd look like this: SF for a week (maybe 6 days and have that 7th be the big travel day), drive to Vegas (~10 hours) and spend 3 days there, drive to San Diego (~4 hours) and finish up that 2nd week there. You could even hop up to Anaheim and kill a day at Disneyland if you really wanted to.

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Sadly I know that there is a boatload more things in Vegas that interest my folks than there will be in LA/SD/SF, mostly shows that will conflict so have to stay there enough nights to get them all in, so it will likely take up the most days of the trip as a location. Thanks for this rundown though, it does give me a bit to think about in terms of whether to include SF or not. Only things I had really thought about in SD were Sea World, the Zoo and the Adventure Park thing so nice to know there is more to it than that.

Charles_sl said:

For the California part of your trip, why are you staying or focusing on Anaheim? Most of the places that you are talking about are in or around Los Angeles, the only thing in Anaheim that you mentioned is Disneyland.

I guess you will probably do it as part of your Rodeo Dr. and BH day but people love seeing and taking pictures of the Hollywood sign. Another nice place in LA is Griffith Observatory, it's way up in the mountains so you get great views if it's clear, it's a really nice place to just hang out and spend the day. Venice beach is pretty fun if you are looking for something "interesting" rather than just natural beauty. I like Manhattan beach myself. Also I like Santa Monica, it's a fun little place, you can walk around and shop on the third street promenade then you can walk to the beach and look over it and the pier.

Also there are nice things to see in the valleys. In the San Gabriel valley you can find all sorts of tasty Taiwanese and Chinese places to eat. You can see Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights which is a huge Buddhist temple, it's worth a visit in my opinion. Oh also at the California Science Center near USC that now have the Space Shuttle Endeavour which is great to see if you or your parents are into space at all.


Are you driving down to San Diego after your stay in LA? If so I would stop in La Jolla. La Jolla cove is a very pretty place, they also have some pretty nice restaurants that overlook the ocean. It's just a nice area in general.

Also in SD you can go to the USS Midway Museum, I like it because I am into military things, boats and planes, it may not be your cup of tea. If you are going to the zoo I would also consider the Wild Animal Park. It's a part of the zoo but the animals are in a really open environment and you can take a little safari sort of thing through it. That's a bit north from San Diego though.


Oh and if you like restaurants with views (like I mentioned for La Jolla), in Las Vegas there is a pretty nice restaurant near the top of the Palms. It has a ton of windows and you can see out on the strip and entire parts of the city.


I'm jumping around a lot, hopefully it isn't too confusing. That's most of what I could think of offhand that you didn't already have listed. Hope it helps a little bit at least.

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As above, I like using Anaheim as a base as there are enough places around the hotel we'll be using for food and convenience items while Grey Line comes past to pick up for most of the tours I'm thinking of taking them on.

I notice a few of you talk about driving around places and such....do you think it would be worthwhile to rent a car for the cali portion to see more things? I was considering it and then looking at what I roughly planned out it was like bus pickups for tours almost every day so a car seemed kind of unnecessary but I guess for things like going to the Block at Orange, or the saturday farmers market thing, or even avoiding having to take the shuttle to the hotel and such, it might be worthwhile.

Overall, some good info here and things I hadn't thought about so thanks for the help so far.

Elurin_sl said:

I don't know how you get around in California without a car.

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Well most of the things I'm looking at planning are like day-trips to a specific location that involve getting picked up at the hotel and dropped back at the hotel at end of day, so outside of walking down Katella to get to a Denny's, Tony Roma, 7-11 etc there's not a lot of travel needed and even getting to The Block is a reasonable cab ride. I'm just not sure there is a need to rent a car under those circumstances but I'm still open to the idea in case i want to go to the Commerce or get to Huntington or somewhere that I don't plan on at the moment