Dwelling on the East Coast, I at all times have romantic notions of California. I am usually fairly envious of their stunning climate, palm bushes, relaxed life-style, attractive Southern California seashores, and fabulous family-friendly actions.
Whereas I often go to the Orlando theme parks, there are some incredible Southern California theme parks as nicely. Even in the event you reside nearer to the East Coast, I like to recommend visiting the West Coast to discover the California theme parks. In case you are situated within the California space, you could possibly embody 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 without charge for evaluation. All opinions are my very own. This publish accommodates affiliate hyperlinks. A purchase order via one in every of these hyperlinks might lead to a fee paid to us at no extra price to you.
Lower your expenses in your Disneyland tickets and your Southern California trip by reserving via Get Away Immediately. You can too 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 via Get Away Immediately.
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.
Sights on the Disneyland Resort embody iconic rides like It is a Small World, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Area Mountain, Large Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. Youthful youngsters will love seeing the Disney characters and the basic rides at Fantasyland, together with Mr. Toad’s Wild Trip, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland.
Though ToonTown in Orlando closed years in the past to make means for a brand new Fantasyland, Disneyland California nonetheless has a sturdy ToonTown. Little youngsters 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 provides reveals 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 needless to say park reservations are at present required, and you are not in a position to park hop till after 11 am.
Disney’s California Journey provides a lot of family-friendly sights as nicely, together with Toy Story Mania, CarsLand (positively make sure to go to Radiator Springs Racers), Soarin’ Across the World, and Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! Thrill seekers will wish to go on the Incredicoaster (the one experience at Disneyland Resort that goes the wrong way up) and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout.
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California Journey can be residence to the brand new Avengers Campus. This space of the park provides 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 wish to obtain the Disneyland cellular app and think about 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 price however will be capable of e-book 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 inns are adjoining to the parks. As well as, many “Good Neighbor” inns are situated proper throughout the road from the parks. A few of these are chain inns, and a number of other provide out of doors 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 liked all three. In case you select to e-book via Get Away Immediately, it’s also possible to embody one in every of these resorts.
Generally, 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 will be extra environment friendly in the event 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 stuffed with 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 residence to Camp Snoopy, part of the park themed after the lovable Peanuts gang. That is most applicable for youthful youngsters. Along with rides, you will additionally discover character meet and greets and reveals that includes the characters.
Older youngsters will love the joys rides at Knott’s Berry Farm. There are such a lot of quick coasters that go the wrong way up. My favourite experience is the Supreme Scream. This experience 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 outdoors the park, so you will not want a park ticket. It incorporates a scrumptious fried rooster entree with biscuits, mashed potatoes, and gravy.
You can in all probability go to Knott’s Berry Farm in a day. There may be an affiliated resort adjoining to the park that’s extraordinarily handy, or you could possibly keep within the better Los Angeles space. In case your plan contains each theme park resorts, I might in all probability plan to remain close to Disneyland and drive/Uber into Knott’s.
LEGOLAND California
After we visited San Diego with our children a couple of 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 applicable for youths as much as about 12 years outdated. The park options rides, LEGO reveals, reveals, and character greetings. New this yr is Dino Valley.
There’s additionally an adjoining water park. In case you are simply visiting the theme park, you could possibly go for simply in the future.
There are two LEGO-themed inns on the property – the LEGOLAND Resort and the LEGOLAND Citadel Resort. These inns are good for a LEGO lover – they’re fully themed in full LEGO!
You may additionally discover a SEA LIFE Aquarium on the property. You’ll be able to improve your common LEGOLAND ticket to incorporate SEA LIFE. This publish will help in case you are making an attempt to resolve on Disneyland vs LEGOLAND.
SeaWorld San Diego
Whereas I have never visited the San Diego model of SeaWorld, I’ve been to SeaWorld Orlando and SeaWorld San Antonio. My youngsters have at all times liked our visits to SeaWorld, particularly as they’ve gotten older. The park is stuffed with enjoyable rides, together with a lot of thrill rides.
For youthful youngsters, there’s the Sesame Avenue Bay of Play, which incorporates three rides which might be nice for youthful youngsters. 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 contains drops, twists, and turns. There are additionally a couple of water rides, together with Journey to Atlantis and Shipwreck Rapids.
SeaWorld San Diego is situated alongside Mission Bay and might be a straightforward one-day journey. In case you are staying within the Anaheim space, you may journey all the way down to San Diego for the day, or there are many San Diego inns close to SeaWorld.
A few of them provide 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. – residence of the Simpsons, and Tremendous Nintendo World.
There are a number of close by inns – a couple of that provide trip packages with Common Studios Hollywood.
San Diego Zoo
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 this can be a nice strategy 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, but it surely was additionally a enjoyable little experience. Relying on the kind of ticket you may have, admission could also be additional.
After all, as a zoo, there are a great deal of animal reveals to see. My youngsters particularly liked 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 reveals, particular reveals, and extra.
Attending to These Southern California Theme Parks
Fairly a couple of airports are handy to those Southern California Theme Parks. Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) is the biggest and hottest, however different smaller airports could also be extra handy and even inexpensive.
Throughout my current journey to the LA space, I flew in via the Lengthy Seashore Airport (LBG). It is a very small airport, however it is rather straightforward to navigate. There’s additionally the John Wayne Airport (SNA), which can be centrally situated.
Different choices embody the Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), Ontario Worldwide Airport (ONT), and the San Diego Worldwide Airport (SAN). In case you are visiting LA and San Diego, it’s possible you’ll think about flying in via one airport and out via one other.
