Flying into LA and Flying home from Vegas- Help me plan!

curlyqs

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
We are looking to book this trip for the 3rd week in February. I have 2 daughters ages 10 and 7. We are looking into flying into LA staying for 4 nights than drive to Vegas and staying 3 nights.

In LA I don't even know where to start planning. Which area to stay in etc. I've never been to California. We want to go to Disneyland for 1 day. Which park do we choose? Can you do both in 1 day? We want to see Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and the Pacific Ocean. Do we stay closer to Disneyland for just 1 park day? Better ideas?

In Vegas, we haven't been in about 11 years. We are thinking of staying at the Bellagio or Mirage. We want to go to a Knights Hockey Game and a fun kids friendly show.

Thanks so much for your help!
 
Beverly Hills Hotel or Peninsular in LA
if you cannot afford that Sunset Tower Hotel

Las Vegas have you tried the MGM signature hotel

but the best high end luxury hotel is the Skylofts

ps have you seen Hamilton at rr theatre. I thought it was amazing
 
... We want to go to Disneyland for 1 day. Which park do we choose? Can you do both in 1 day?..

Read through this very helpful thread to see if one day will be enough for you: A DLR Guide for WDW Vets. The first post in the thread will answer some of your questions and help you to know what other questions to ask to help with your trip planning.
Whether you can do both DL and DCA in one day depends on what you mean by "do" -- just cruise the highlights and not see anything in depth? Then, yes, you probably could manage both parks in a day. Keep in mind that February will probably mean the non-peak schedule, i.e. shorter hours, more refurbs and construction, lower staffing, nighttime entertainment on weekends only (Fri., Sat., Sun.), etc. Also, non-peak does not necessarily equal low crowds. February 2017 was surprisingly crowded. There may be more to the two parks than you think, and you might want to consider allowing for more days to enjoy your time there.
Hollywood can easily be done in a day (or even half a day), if you just want to look at the touristy sights. There are very nice beaches near DLR which would allow you to see the Pacific within 30 minutes or so drive from the parks. Look into Huntington Beach, Newport Beach/Balboa Island, and Laguna Beach for starters.
 
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We did a 2 week trip this past summer with kids. First time for me too. Flew into Vegas and out of San Diego. It took me forever to put the trip together. The logistics of it all, so many hotels, tickets, car rental, etc...but it all finally worked out. After stalking the airline sites for months I ended up geting a great deal purchasing one way tickets instead of multi-city round trip. Make sure you check other airports besides LAX.

Vegas- 3 nts at The Cosmo. Trust me when I say that was enough. The hotel was very nice, but in all honesty doing it again with kids I’d probably pick Mirage or Mandalay Bay. We went mid week. I think a weekend would be a nightmare. We did the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. Family friendly with decent enough food.

LA- 2 nts at Embassy Suites Arcadia (Monrovia/Pasadena area). Found it was a good base for LA sight seeing since we had a car. Nice area avoiding the outrageous hotel prices, but close enough to do LA. We were able to see quite a lot in a day and a half of sight seeing. Santa Monica Pier, Rodeo Dr, The Grove & Farmer’s Market, La Brea Tar Pits, and a few other side things. We never made it over to Hollywood Blvd for all the tourist stuff, but we probably could have. We did a lot of driving around just checking things out.

Anaheim- 3 nts at the Candy Cane Inn (Disney Good Neighbor hotel) Loved it. 5-10 min walk to park. Clean and beautiful. You technically could do both parks in one day, but you'd be really rushed and need a park hopper. It’s hard to say which if only doing one although I suppose any diehard Disney fan should go to where it all began at least once, so that might answer your question...We had two day tickets with no hopping so we definitely missed some things. I wasn’t a huge fan of Dland, but it was a dream for me to go (we’re used to WDW). We found it small, very crowded and hard to navigate with crazy wait times. Thank goodness for MaxPass. Not as good as Fastpass+ @WDW, but helpful for Dland newbies. No running around trying to find the FP machines. DCA was much better crowd-wise and getting around. Really enjoyed it. Cars land is the best. Had we had more time, I think our opinion of Dland would be better.
Downtown Disney was a huge letdown with so many places closed up for construction of the new hotel, but one highlight was eating at Tortilla Jo’s. So good.

Other places we stayed were in the Grand Canyon and La Jolla.
 
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I would recommend doing 5 nights in LA, 2 in Vegas with everything you want to do. Take 2 days at DL so you can get one day at each park; trying to fit everything into one day is just too stressful. I don't enjoy Las Vegas with my kids but have done it a couple times, and would stay somewhere kid friendly. When we take the kids we stay in the upgraded rooms at the Luxor or Excalibur because they love it and it's cheap, but they also liked exploring the Mirage, MGM, Treasure Island and Bellagio so either of your preferred hotels would be good. I'd just stay away from the hotels where the focus is on adult shows/clubs/partying. For shows maybe one of the Cirque de Soleil or Blue Man Group-type shows. We did Tournament of Kings and were not impressed, especially for the price. (Medieval Times in LA area is way better). Do the exploring with the kids during the day because at night time all the drunks and card guys are out and it can get pretty seedy for young kids.

For LA, if you're flying into LAX and really want to do the tourist thing, stay in Hollywood. The Loew's is my favorite and a great base for exploring. Do 2-3 nights there, then head to Orange County (beaches are better) and do 1-2 nights in Anaheim or surrounding area to do the beach and DL.
 


We are doing the same thing in March... driving to Vegas on Thursday from Anaheim. We plan to drive up to Zion National Park and Zion National Park in Utah on the Friday and spend the Saturday in Vegas.
 

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