Week in California with stop in disney

Kingdome8

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 4, 2012
question. We are on east coast have gone to wdw many times.
Looking to go to California and see the coast, San Diego and Disneyland for 2 days.
Anyone have any good tips for a fun week or certain beaches we should see in southern cal that would be fun.
Would be me and wife and 3 girls
15,12 , 7. And we would have a rental car.
Want To see some sites and touristy things but also time on beach. Lol

Thanks.
 
A more unique beach is Crystal Cove State Beach in Laguna Beach. It's very large and has several parking lots. There are tide pools, regular beach, hiking trails and a historic village. The historic part has cottages for rent (they are always fully booked, but it's fun to see them since most were built in the 30's), museum type stuff and a couple places to eat. The Beachcomber restaurant is right on the beach. There's also a Shake Shack (hamburger place) on the top of the cliff with excellent views.

In the San Diego area, La Jolla has a lot to offer. La Jolla shores is the more traditional beach, but just a little south is the Cove and the Children's Pool which has tons of seals an sea lions. I wouldn't do too much beach time with seals and sea lions, but I do see people swimming like they aren't even there. The Cove is considered an underwater nature park, so it is good for snorkeling. There's a shop on top of the cliff called the Shell Shop and they have an entrance that let's you walk down into one of the sea caves.

Coronado Island has one of the countries best beaches (awarded to them, not my personal opinion). It's also next to the Hotel del Coronado which is a nice place to visit for something to eat and for shopping, etc.

In San Diego, you can visit Mission Beach. All tourists love to go there, but I don't care for it myself. I grew up near there and still think of the place as a drug infested crime place, but I don't think it is like that anymore. There's a historic roller coaster that is operational and some other rides. Lots of beach shops and places to eat.
 
Thanks for all the info. Real nice. We want to do stuff like that while out there.
Should be a great trip
 


In n Out burger is a good stop. Crystal Cove and Laguna are our favourite beaches. There's a dolphin safari in Dana Point that is great (we saw hundreds). And if you have the car and want to go to Burbank - the Warner Bros, studio tour was really fun.
 
I love Huntington Beach...aka Surf City USA. I always visit HB a day or two each DL trip. It is a huge beach and a really long pier. Downtown with lots of shops and restaurants is just steps from the beach. Lots of snack shop and rental places along the beach…you can rent anything from a bike or surf/boogie board to sand toys!
 


WHere are you staying? It’s a good idea to stay near Disneyland for your Disney days. 3 days is usually the minimum recommended for the park.

Not sure yet. Just starting to get ideas of where to go, beaches and places to see. But centerpiece of vaca will be Disneyland.
Then looking at where to start and how to end
 
When? And where are you from? I can tell you that we went for our first trip in early June. As deep South residents we found the water to be WAY too cold for swimming.

San Diego is worth a few days, not just a day trip, if you can spare the time. We enjoyed USS Midway, Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, and La Jolla (less than 1/2 day with my young kids). My kids (5 & 8 then) remember USS Midway the best of all of those. The drive from La Jolla to Camp Pendleton is really pretty. Then we took interstate to Anaheim, stopping for the obligatory In N Out Burger.

This time we are looking to do San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Beach, with some time in LA as well, but the kids are staying home.
 
I agree with the above suggestions. Our favorites down here are Laguna, Dana Point (for tidepools) and Huntington Beach. In San Diego my boys love Coronado (I think mostly for the gold in the sand), La Jolla Cove and Moonlight Beach.
 

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