Dwelling on the East Coast, I all the time have romantic notions of California. I am usually fairly envious of their lovely climate, palm timber, relaxed life-style, attractive Southern California seashores, and fabulous family-friendly actions.
Whereas I often go to the Orlando theme parks, there are some improbable Southern California theme parks as nicely. Even in case you reside nearer to the East Coast, I like to recommend visiting the West Coast to discover the California theme parks. If you’re situated within the California space, you may embrace theme park visits in your weekend getaway in Southern California.
I’ve had the chance to go to a number of of those theme parks for free of charge for evaluate. All opinions are my very own. This put up comprises affiliate hyperlinks. A purchase order by way of one among these hyperlinks might end in a fee paid to us at no further value to you.
Get monetary savings in your Disneyland tickets and your Southern California trip by reserving by way of Get Away As we speak. It’s also possible to save $10 in your Southern California trip of two days or extra with the code FTM10. We booked our most up-to-date three journeys to Disneyland by way of Get Away As we speak.
Exploring the Theme Parks in Southern California.
Disneyland Resort
When visiting California theme parks, you will completely have to return to the place all of it started for Disney. Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, was the primary Disney theme park, and it is a lot enjoyable for households.
Points of interest on the Disneyland Resort embrace iconic rides like It is a Small World, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Area Mountain, Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. Youthful children will love seeing the Disney characters and the basic rides at Fantasyland, together with Mr. Toad’s Wild Experience, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland.
Though ToonTown in Orlando closed years in the past to make manner for a brand new Fantasyland, Disneyland California nonetheless has a strong ToonTown. Little children will love the colourful colours of the ToonTown buildings. It now boasts one of many latest Disney rides: Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
Disneyland additionally affords exhibits and parades all through the day, character interactions, scrumptious eating places (and yummy snacks), and enjoyable retailers.
Disney California Journey
The newer of the 2 Disneyland Resort parks is Disney’s California Journey. It is situated adjoining to Disneyland Park, and you’ll simply stroll from one park to the opposite all through the day.
You may solely have to undergo safety as soon as. Simply understand that park reservations are at the moment required, and you are not in a position to park hop till after 11 am.
Disney’s California Journey affords a lot of family-friendly sights as nicely, together with Toy Story Mania, CarsLand (positively be sure you go to Radiator Springs Racers), Soarin’ Across the World, and Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! Thrill seekers will need to go on the Incredicoaster (the one journey at Disneyland Resort that goes the other way up) and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout.
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California Journey can also be house to the brand new Avengers Campus. This space of the park affords a one of many newer California Journey rides – WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Journey.
When visiting Disneyland, you may select a number of totally different ticket varieties. We suggest getting the park hopper in your tickets so you may go to each parks in in the future. You may additionally need to obtain the Disneyland cellular app and take into account buying Lightning Lane Multi-Go if you wish to save time throughout your day(s) at Disneyland.
With Lightning Lane Multi-Go, you pay a separate payment however will have the ability to guide a return time on the app. There’s additionally the chance to buy particular person lightning lane entry to the most well-liked rides like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Radiator Springs Racers.
Three on-property Disney motels are adjoining to the parks. As well as, many “Good Neighbor” motels are situated proper throughout the road from the parks. A few of these are chain motels, and a number of other supply outside water parks for visitors.
Throughout our final two visits, we stayed on the Howard Johnson Anaheim Resort, the Westin Anaheim Resort, and the Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance and beloved all three. For those who select to guide by way of Get Away As we speak, you can too embrace one among these resorts.
Normally, you need to plan to spend about 2-3 days on the Disneyland Resort if you would like to expertise a lot of the sights on the property. You may be extra environment friendly in case you get the park hopper possibility in your ticket.
Knott’s Berry Farm
Knott’s Berry Farm, the oldest theme park in California, grew from humble beginnings to a park full of kiddie rides and world-class thrill rides. It is situated in Buena Park, California, about 20 minutes from Anaheim.
Along with Knott’s Berry Farm Park, there’s additionally Knott’s Soak Metropolis, a water park that’s open seasonally. It is a lot greater than an amusement park!
Knott’s Berry Farm is house to Camp Snoopy, part of the park themed after the lovable Peanuts gang. That is most acceptable for youthful children. Along with rides, you will additionally discover character meet and greets and exhibits that includes the characters.
Older children will love the joys rides at Knott’s Berry Farm. There are such a lot of quick coasters that go the other way up. My favourite journey is the Supreme Scream. This journey climbs up 252 toes within the air. You may have a cut up second to benefit from the attractive view earlier than plummeting.
While you’re there, you will have to go to Mrs. Knott’s Rooster Dinner Restaurant. It is situated exterior the park, so you will not want a park ticket. It contains a scrumptious fried rooster entree with biscuits, mashed potatoes, and gravy.
You possibly can in all probability go to Knott’s Berry Farm in a day. There’s an affiliated resort adjoining to the park that’s extraordinarily handy, or you may keep within the better Los Angeles space. In case your plan consists of each theme park resorts, I would in all probability plan to remain close to Disneyland and drive/Uber into Knott’s.
LEGOLAND California
Once we visited San Diego with our youngsters just a few years in the past, the children HAD to go to LEGOLAND California. It is situated in Carlsbad, CA, a couple of half hour from San Diego and an hour from Anaheim.
LEGOLAND California might be most acceptable for teenagers as much as about 12 years previous. The park options rides, LEGO displays, exhibits, and character greetings. New this 12 months is Dino Valley.
There’s additionally an adjoining water park. If you’re simply visiting the theme park, you may go for simply in the future.
There are two LEGO-themed motels on the property – the LEGOLAND Lodge and the LEGOLAND Fortress Lodge. These motels are excellent for a LEGO lover – they’re utterly themed in full LEGO!
You may additionally discover a SEA LIFE Aquarium on the property. You may improve your common LEGOLAND ticket to incorporate SEA LIFE. This put up will help in case you are making an attempt to determine on Disneyland vs LEGOLAND.
SeaWorld San Diego
Whereas I have not visited the San Diego model of SeaWorld, I’ve been to SeaWorld Orlando and SeaWorld San Antonio. My children have all the time beloved our visits to SeaWorld, particularly as they’ve gotten older. The park is full of enjoyable rides, together with a lot of thrill rides.
For youthful children, there’s the Sesame Road Bay of Play, which incorporates three rides which might be nice for youthful children. Thrill seekers will get pleasure from one of many latest rides – the Electrical Eel Curler Coaster. It is the tallest coaster in San Diego and consists of drops, twists, and turns. There are additionally just a few water rides, together with Journey to Atlantis and Shipwreck Rapids.
SeaWorld San Diego is situated alongside Mission Bay and might be a simple one-day journey. If you’re staying within the Anaheim space, you may journey right down to San Diego for the day, or there are many San Diego motels close to SeaWorld.
A few of them supply complimentary shuttles to the park. In season, SeaWorld additionally operates the Aquatica Water Park, which is situated in Chula Vista, CA.
Common Studios Hollywood
This leisure and movie-themed park is a must-visit for film lovers. The preferred sights are the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in addition to the World-Well-known Studio Tour. There’s additionally Springfield U.S.A. – house of the Simpsons, and Tremendous Nintendo World.
There are a number of close by motels – just a few that provide trip packages with Common Studios Hollywood.
San Diego ZooÂ
Though it is not a theme park, the San Diego Zoo is price a go to. It will get very busy, so arriving early is a good suggestion. We arrived when it opened throughout our go to and nonetheless confronted a protracted line to park and enter the zoo.
When you select your ticket kind, buy your ticket, and enter the zoo, you may take a double-decker bus tour. Whereas it is a nice approach to discover the zoo and plan your day, we opted out as a result of it did not begin till half-hour after the zoo opened.
Another choice for touring across the zoo is the Skyfari, which runs from one nook to a different. We used the Skyfari to stroll much less, however it was additionally a enjoyable little journey. Relying on the kind of ticket you could have, admission could also be additional.
In fact, as a zoo, there are a great deal of animal displays to see. My children particularly beloved the koala exhibit, as a result of we had by no means seen them earlier than. There are additionally dozens of different animals, in addition to exhibits, particular displays, and extra.
Attending to These Southern California Theme Parks
Fairly just a few airports are handy to those Southern California Theme Parks. Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) is the most important and hottest, however different smaller airports could also be extra handy and even inexpensive.
Throughout my latest journey to the LA space, I flew in by way of the Lengthy Seashore Airport (LBG). It is a very small airport, however it is rather simple to navigate. There’s additionally the John Wayne Airport (SNA), which can also be centrally situated.
Different choices embrace the Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), Ontario Worldwide Airport (ONT), and the San Diego Worldwide Airport (SAN). If you’re visiting LA and San Diego, it’s possible you’ll take into account flying in by way of one airport and out by way of one other.
