Southern California 2 weeks after christmas, Whats good to Do?

Angel177

We have palns to visit So-Cal after Christmas to escape this frozen hell that is Alberta in winter, leaving on the 26th, Now we want to do Disneyland and possibly Sea world, if anyone knows the best way to to this cheaply and can tell me (you're awesome).

Now I've seen LA, and its ok, but what else is worth seeing, we'e staying in Palm Springs so that's the base camp, also any good vineyard recommendations would be good, my lady enjoys a good wine.

Thanks to all in advance

kaliyama

Well, palm springs is a desert far removed from most of so cal. It's like using Red Deer as your base camp for visiting Calgary. Temecula is your best bet for wineries from Palm Springs - Santa barbara is nicer but you will have to stay out there given the distance. Unless you're willing to stay in hotels in LA and San Diego I wouldn't plan on too many day trips as you will rapidly become exhausted.

zilo

Palm Springs? That's like a hundred miles from LA. There is not much you can get to from there, may as well just plan on chilling out for the duration. It's a nice place in the winter (unreasonably hot in the summer though, place is like Baghdad in hell). Sea World is going to be like a 250 mile drive round trip.

Downtown Santa Barbara is neat but like kaliyama says, you'd have to stay there overnight and it's not exactly cheap. I've never been to the Temecula-area wine country (never even heard of it before right now, actually) so who knows how fun it is.

I guess you could rent dirt bikes or ATVs and go tear ass around the desert? That's a pretty fun time.

xThanatoSx

If you do vacate Palm Springs (because yeah... Google Maps says that's 95 miles to Anaheim) and end up doing Disneyland & Seaworld (which is in San Diego, so there's another 90ish miles), the cheapest way to do it is the Southern California City Pass. It includes a 3 day park hopper for Disneyland/CA Adventure, a 1 day Universal Studios admission, a 1 day Seaworld admission and a choice of either the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park for about $280/person.

I think I worked it out that it basically saved my wife and I about $200 each to do the city pass instead of getting everything seperately.

Muse Among Men

Palm Springs? I'm guessing you are boarding with family there. Unfortunately, Palm Springs lacks a wealth of distractions and is fairly far removed from many places of interest. Zilo's atv/dirt-bikes suggestion is worth looking into. There is plenty of room for it. You might also want to look into horseback riding? Yelp brings up Smoke Tree Stables but I am fairly sure that is not the only place.

Also the City Pass ThanatoS mentioned sounds fantastic. Like, I want that. If you do opt for it I put in my recommendation for the San Diego Zoo over the Safari Park.

For the most part though I agree with Kaliyama. Palm Springs is far enough away to make frequent day trips untenable and it doesn't seem like you are keen on booking overnight accommodations for when you venture out. I say you spring for the City Pass and otherwise relax in Palm Springs, maybe you can find some local attractions via Yelp to tide you over (it has been a while since I've been).

Angel177

Well thanks guys for the comments so far, We are after day trip type things but honestly We're from Canada, I've drove Edmonton to Jasper and snowboarded all day then drove back and thats longer than going to San Diego, We will be relaxing most of the time, but the ATV thing sounds pretty neat, as does the city pass especially if we stay in Anaheim for a couple of days.

BusterK

Go to the San Diego Zoo
They have Pandas! Pandas Goddamnit!

Also the Gas Lamp District in Sand Diego has a lot of great restaurants and bars and most especially
A Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate shop which contains the most delicious chocolate ice cream treats on Earth
http://www.ghirardelli.com/shops/GhirMenu_Oct2011.pdf

Also if you do go to the Gas Lamp district in San Diego, park at the mall nearby it's free whereas all other parking nearby is pay

zilo

Angel, are you familiar with the LA highway system? Specifically, the traffic? It's common to drive an hour to go 20 miles, and that's outside rush hour (which in LA runs 7am-11am and 3pm-7pm). Not saying it can't be done but after one trip to SD from Palm Springs you are probably going to be tapped out. It's taken me three hours to get from LAX to Santa Clarita (about 40 miles) on more than one occasion. When I used to commute down the 405 it wasn't far out of the ordinary for my 21 mile commute to take two hours, happened at least once a week.

Staying in Anaheim's not a bad plan. That's striking distance from SD, Disneyland is right there, and it's close enough to the rest of the Citypass stuff. You could easily fill two or three days there.

Gas Lamp is neat. The USS Midway is docked there if you're into history.

kaliyama

zilo wrote:

Angel, are you familiar with the LA highway system? Specifically, the traffic? It's common to drive an hour to go 20 miles, and that's outside rush hour (which in LA runs 7am-11am and 3pm-7pm). Not saying it can't be done but after one trip to SD from Palm Springs you are probably going to be tapped out. It's taken me three hours to get from LAX to Santa Clarita (about 40 miles) on more than one occasion. When I used to commute down the 405 it wasn't far out of the ordinary for my 21 mile commute to take two hours, happened at least once a week.

Staying in Anaheim's not a bad plan. That's striking distance from SD, Disneyland is right there, and it's close enough to the rest of the Citypass stuff. You could easily fill two or three days there.

Gas Lamp is neat. The USS Midway is docked there if you're into history.

Point well taken about the horrors of traffic, but it's not like he has to drive during rush hour. As long as he leaves palm spring at 9 and doesn't hop back on freeways until after 7 he should be fine with traffic, it's just that even without traffic it'll take forever to get anywhere.

Daemonion

Walk around Laguna Beach, and hike to the Top of the World.
Order a french dip sandwhich from Houston's (might also be called Hillstone now).
Have breakfast at The Galley in Corona Del Mar, then go check out the tide pools at Little Corona beach.
If you like Mexican food, check out El Farlito in Placentia.
Hike up Saddleback mountain.
Fire some guns at OnTarget indoor shooting range in San Juan Capistrano.
Go for an early morning horse ride in Coto de Caza at the stables, and grab some donuts at KD's Donuts in Rancho Santa Margarita or a smoothie at Baluka Juice.
Six Flags Magic Mountain is one of the best rollercoaster parks in the country.
Grab a burger at The Trabuco Oaks Steakhouse. Wear a tie if you don't care about loosing it.
If you like shopping, check out the Mission Viejo Mall, South Coast Plaza, Irvine Spectrum or Fashion Island (yes, there is a place called Fashion Island).
If you go to The Spectrum, catch an IMAX movie if you want.
Drive for a bit up or down Pacific Coast Highway.

I grew up there, so ask here or PM if you have any other specific questions. Not too familair with LA county as I dislike it.

Witch_Hunter_84

Disneyland is a pretty good place to spend a vacation. A bit expensive, but I worked for the resort for a few years and it is a great place to go for the day.

Angel177

The City pass sounds awesome, and could be cheaper than buying seperately so thats awesome, All the suggestions sound good so far, I'm aware of LA countys traffic there are a ton of backroad way's to get to the major metro area's so I'm not too worried but thanks for the advice.

And Daemonion that is a list, six flags may have to be done:)

Daemonion

Six Flags Magic Mountain and Cedar Point are probably the best in the country, and I've been to both. Magic Mountain has some pretty incredible rides.

eponagirl

Disneyland is an excellent idea. If you can stay there overnight, it will be easier for you (especially if you're driving from Palm Springs); you'll be exhausted after one day, including evening, at the park. I suggest going on a weekday; it's less crowded then. And if you go on a Friday, you can catch the fireworks show at night (a wknd thing). If you have a AAA card, you might be eligible for discounted tickets - that is the case for purchasing their passports, so that might apply to tickets too (even at Sea World). You should call the Disney hotline or AAA to confirm.

Regarding wine: you should visit La Jolla village one afternoon. There is also the Italian end in San Diego that has some nice restaurants. I'm not familiar with that area, but I've heard there's a place to check out called the Gaslamp district.

Enjoy CA!

Daemonion

Oh, shit, I totally forgot to mention Valhalla Burger and The Vineyard at The Camp in Costa Mesa. Two brothers own The Vineyard, and if you can snag the thinner one he will pick out amazing wines for you (I don't drink, but he has impressed my friends that do).

TDawg

This post is going to mostly be about Disneyland because it is what I am most familiar with in Southern California. I don't have any money saving tips, but I figure general park enjoyment tips are appreciated as well? Anyways, my recommendation for getting the most out of Disneyland is to abuse the Fast Pass system. Additionally, check the show times. They tend to get crowded, but some of the shows are really cool. I always like watching the Parade, and they have fun water shows at night.

Fast Pass Abuse Guide, for the Uninitiated:

Fastpasses are basically small tickets that you can get at the entrance of most larger rides, that allow you to skip a portion of the ride if you come back at a later time. Make sure you hold onto your park entrance ticket, as the machine reads these to make sure you don't collect too many!
At the start of the day, grab a fastpass for a popular ride, take note of when you can get another fastpass (it is on Pass #1), get in line for another ride. Use your fast pass when you can, and grab another pass as soon as you can. Rinse and repeat. It seems a little ridiculous but you will get the chance to spend more time on rides or having fun rather than in lines.

Currently, my recommendation is grab a pass for Star Tours, first thing in the morning. The ride is ridiculously popular right now, and when I went last month the fastpasses for the entire day were gone in the early afternoon, and the line didn't slow down until very close to closing time. Other rides I particularly enjoy fastpasses for are ones with more boring lines: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, perhaps even Indiana Jones. For more "childish" rides, it is often prudent to wait until a little later in the day to go on them. Rides like the Submarine, which can have hour-long wait times during the day, will often have a 15 minute wait after ten o'clock when kids are all in bed.

Alternatively, if you are ferociously ride hungry, you can enter as a single rider for Splash Mountain or Indiana Jones.

I also have many fond memories as a child of the arboretum in Arcadia. I haven't been there in years, but yelp seems to confirm that it is still a Pretty Cool Place To Go, if you are looking for a slower, more peaceful day that is contingent on the weather.

ManofSteel

On the delicious wine note, Los Olivos is a town that is maybe four or five blocks long and is made up entirely of wine tasting rooms (thirty-five of them) and the businesses that are essential to running a wine tasting room. Its three hours north of Anaheim through countryside that you would swear is taken directly from the pages of The Lord of the Rings. The google maps directions will get you there easily but the turn off is easy to miss so when you get close keep your eyes peeled. In general I love the town, you can get stumbling drunk off of tastings without ever having the same wine twice. Also, beware of the garlic dude, he has a garlic stand on the eastern side of town and sells nothing but garlic, talks at great length about nothing but garlic and as I'm sure you can imagine reeks of the stuff, I find him to be very creepy. Within maybe twenty minutes are a couple towns with nice hotels and restaurants, like Buellton, the town the wine movie Sideways is about. Seriously though, Los Olivos is probably the easiest way to taste as many good wines as possibly on the shortest trip possible.

P.S. rent Sideways, watch it with your girl and then go eat lunch at the Los Olivos Cafe and dinner at the Hitching Post, its a rad date idea to spend a day drinking wine and hanging out in the movie you just watched.