Best LA Hollywood tour? New Member

[Disneydudepete]

Hi Everyone

I have just joined from sunny England I am leaving for my first ever trip to Disneyland and California in just under 6 weeks from now.

Can anyone recommend the best tour company for a tour of all the main sights in LA & Hollywood? I have searched the internet but cant quite find what I'm looking for. I want a full day tour thats in a small group of people, also many stops on the ground (not all from bus window) if anyone can recommend a really good see everything tour I would be really grateful.

Many thanks

Pete

 

[Ella1]

Hi Pete,
try looking at CoachUSA, Starline and Allanaheimtours websites as they do tours. Have you booked with Virgin? we did the Legendary LA tour with them and we drove round downtown LA before going to Olvera St which is where LA began, its just like being in Mexico there. Wew then went on to Hollywood where we had 30 minutes before driving round Beverly Hills and down Rodeo Drive then we stopped at the Beverly Centre and you could walk round there looking at the shops but we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.
After that we went to Santa Monica where we had a few hours to walk along the beach, on the pier and round the shops.
Virgin use CoachUSA and if you are with Virgin, then you can book your trips at the welcome meeting, but if you go on CoachUSA's website, its slightly cheaper (about 2 or 3 $$$'s).
The other companies do a similair trip as well. We sometimes ask the concierge at the hotel who he/she recommends, we also ask and look around before booking Universal, Knotts etc.
You will love it there, we go on 30th June for 18 nights and we can't wait, this will be our third visit.
Love Ella

 

[Disneydudepete]

Hi Pete,
try looking at CoachUSA, Starline and Allanaheimtours websites as they do tours. Have you booked with Virgin? we did the Legendary LA tour with them and we drove round downtown LA before going to Olvera St which is where LA began, its just like being in Mexico there. Wew then went on to Hollywood where we had 30 minutes before driving round Beverly Hills and down Rodeo Drive then we stopped at the Beverly Centre and you could walk round there looking at the shops but we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.
After that we went to Santa Monica where we had a few hours to walk along the beach, on the pier and round the shops.
Virgin use CoachUSA and if you are with Virgin, then you can book your trips at the welcome meeting, but if you go on CoachUSA's website, its slightly cheaper (about 2 or 3 $$$'s).
The other companies do a similair trip as well. We sometimes ask the concierge at the hotel who he/she recommends, we also ask and look around before booking Universal, Knotts etc.
You will love it there, we go on 30th June for 18 nights and we can't wait, this will be our third visit.
Love Ella

Hi Ella,
Many thanks for your reply. We are flying with Virgin but not going with Virgin holidays, we are doing everything ourselves. Allanaheimtours is the main company we have looked at. I take it that you liked your tour? I am just looking at the coachusa website now. Another tour I was looking at was the OC tour by Allanaheimtours which includes a boat trip. As we are not having any car hire we want to try and find the best full day tours and see as much as possible, but its not easy trying to decide which to pick lol

We are also going to Vegas for 4 days before flying back from there,and we also want to go on a Grand Canyon tour. Have you by any chance done the GC by plane or heli and if so do you know who you went with? There are so many trips on the net its a minefield.

One last thing, is it best to book from the UK in advance or is it easy to book everything when we arrive?

Thanks again

Pete

 

[Ella1]

Hi Pete,
when we visit the GC, I have a friend that lives near Palm Springs and she drives us down and we stay at Williams, Arizona in a Motel6. We then set off the next day for the GC and she just parks at the South Rim so we've not done a helicopter or plane trip over it. I was looking at a company called www.sundancehelicopters.com as I saw them advertised at a holiday show here.
I think the coach tours are pretty much the same and we book when we get there, we made the mistake of booking it all with Virgin the first time before we went and it was more expensive that way. The last time we bought our park tickets at the ticket booths at Disneyland as we had a Deluxe AP ( we were there for 4 weeks) and we picked up a leaflet for Knotts Berry Farm that gave us discount and Coca Cola were doing a special offer for Universal.
Which hotel are you staying at? In most of the hotels, the concierge or reception desk will give you information about trips etc.
Which hotel are you staying at in Vegas? we have booked the Luxor as it looked nice when we looked round it the last time.
Love Rio

 

[puggymom]

I did the all day tour with Starline and it was so-so. I was solo and really didn't want to drive around by myself. YOu only got to about half the stops listed and the stops (except for Farmer's Market) were VERY short.

 

[Disneydudepete]

Hi Pete,
when we visit the GC, I have a friend that lives near Palm Springs and she drives us down and we stay at Williams, Arizona in a Motel6. We then set off the next day for the GC and she just parks at the South Rim so we've not done a helicopter or plane trip over it. I was looking at a company called as I saw them advertised at a holiday show here.
I think the coach tours are pretty much the same and we book when we get there, we made the mistake of booking it all with Virgin the first time before we went and it was more expensive that way. The last time we bought our park tickets at the ticket booths at Disneyland as we had a Deluxe AP ( we were there for 4 weeks) and we picked up a leaflet for Knotts Berry Farm that gave us discount and Coca Cola were doing a special offer for Universal.
Which hotel are you staying at? In most of the hotels, the concierge or reception desk will give you information about trips etc.
Which hotel are you staying at in Vegas? we have booked the Luxor as it looked nice when we looked round it the last time.
Love Rio

Hi Rio,
We are staying at the Candy Cane Inn in Anaheim and we got a good deal for the Flamingo in Vegas.
I have to say I really love Orlando and this holiday will be my first outside of Florida. I cant wait to go to California but I'm not sure what to expect in relation to staying in WDW for 2 weeks? my main question is how safe/secure will it feel compared to Orlando?

Pete

 

[Ella1]

Hi Pete,
the first time we went, we booked it and then I started to panic about taking my 14 year old daughter to LA(I'm a single Mum) as you hear quite a lot about the trouble out there and of course they had the riots there. We needn't have worried though, Anaheim is about a 45 minutes drive from LA and is very family friendly, we have walked up and down Harbor Boulevard at night and as long as you don't venture away from the toursity parts you will be fine. I have a friend that lives in Anaheim and she said that there are certain areas that are not very safe, but you would have to walk quite a way from the parks to end up in one of these areas.
If we go into LA we always go on a bus tour as there are quite a few dodgy areas there, but the bus drivers would never take you to anywhere bad.If it was in any way unsafe then theres no way i would be going out there for my 3rd visit.
It is totally different from Orlando as the parks are in the middle of the town and right next door to each toher with Downtwon Disney in the middle of them and they are within walking distance of most of the hotels. They do have shuttles which run all day and night till about an hour after the parks close, some of them are a little tram (like the I-Ride trolley)and the others are a big coach and they run about every half hour.
We went to WDW last year and didn't really like it as the shuttles were at 8am. 9am and 10am and they took ages getting to the parks. If we wanted to go at other times it took us a couple of hours having to get a taxi to DD then a Disney bus to a Disney hotel and then a Disney bus from the hotel to the parks, it takes 10 minutes in Anaheim to reach the parks!!! At WDW you really needed a car but we have never struggled in Anaheim as theres the shuttles to the parks and then the coach companies to take you further afield.
You will have a fantastic time and if you go to San Diego, the ride down there is great as you are on a coastal road all the time and the scenery is wonderful, you will also pass where they filmed MASH !!!
You can also go to Mexico on a day trip, but that was scary as they just kept hassling us to go into their shops and when we (politely) said no, they grabbed our arms and took us in the shop, but then that was probably because we were 2 females on our own, so we just bought a couple of watches and left and then stood for 2 hours where the bus was picking us up as we were a bit scared to walk round the shops!!!!
Love Rio

 

[Disneydudepete]

Hi Rio,
We are taking a tour to San Diego zoo so it sounds like the journey down there will be nice. Our hotel the Candy Cane Inn is about a 5 to 10 minute walk from Disneyland so we are pretty close by, plus they have there own shuttle if we dont fancy the walk.
We did wonder if not having a car was going to be a problem getting around but it sounds as if its fairly easy. I am sure I will have more questions before we leave, 5 weeks this saturday Many thanks for all your help and information I am really gratefull.

Pete

 

[Ella1]

Hi pete,
glad I could help.
A lot of people will tell you that you need a car for Anaheim, yes one would be handy, but as I don't drive, I don't have much choice, but we use coach companies for the tours or for transport and if we want to go shopping, they have buses that will pick you up from your hotel and take you and also a bus that takes you to the beach.
If you have any more questions, just ask and if I can't help you, I will ask my friend that lives in Anaheim!!
Love Rio/Ella (just noticed I signed Rio which is my name for another site...lol. none of them are my name, I use my pets names..lol)