Residing on the East Coast, I all the time have romantic notions of California. I am usually fairly envious of their lovely climate, palm bushes, relaxed life-style, attractive Southern California seashores, and fabulous family-friendly actions.

Whereas I normally go to the Orlando theme parks, there are some implausible Southern California theme parks as nicely. Even in the event you dwell 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 can 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 for gratis for evaluate. All opinions are my very own. This publish incorporates affiliate hyperlinks. A purchase order via certainly one of these hyperlinks could lead to a fee paid to us at no further value to you.

Lower your expenses in your Disneyland tickets and your Southern California trip by reserving via Get Away At this time. You can even 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 At this time.

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, Massive 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 Journey, 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 strong 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 presents reveals and parades all through the day, character interactions, scrumptious eating places (and yummy snacks), and enjoyable outlets.

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 will solely have to undergo safety as soon as. Simply take into account that park reservations are at the moment required, and you are not capable of park hop till after 11 am.

Disney’s California Journey presents a lot of family-friendly sights as nicely, together with Toy Story Mania, CarsLand (undoubtedly you’ll want to 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 experience at Disneyland Resort that goes the other way up) and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout.

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California Journey can be house to the brand new Avengers Campus. This space of the park presents a one of many newer California Journey rides – WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Journey.

When visiting Disneyland, you may select a number of completely different ticket sorts. We suggest getting the park hopper in your tickets so you may go to each parks in sooner or later. You will additionally need to obtain the Disneyland cell app and contemplate buying Lightning Lane Multi-Move if you wish to save time throughout your day(s) at Disneyland.

With Lightning Lane Multi-Move, you pay a separate price however will be capable to guide a return time on the app. There’s additionally the chance to buy particular person lightning lane entry to the preferred 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 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 the event you select to guide via Get Away At this time, it’s also possible to embody certainly one of these resorts.

On the whole, 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 might 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 crammed 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 house 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 fun rides at Knott’s Berry Farm. There are such a lot of quick coasters that go the other way up. My favourite experience is the Supreme Scream. This experience climbs up 252 ft within the air. You will have a cut up second to benefit from the attractive view earlier than plummeting.

If you are 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 encompasses a scrumptious fried rooster entree with biscuits, mashed potatoes, and gravy.

You could possibly most likely 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 can keep within the larger Los Angeles space. In case your plan contains each theme park resorts, I would most likely plan to remain close to Disneyland and drive/Uber into Knott’s.

LEGOLAND California

After we visited San Diego with our youngsters a couple of years in the past, the children HAD to go to LEGOLAND California. It is situated in Carlsbad, CA, a few 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 12 months is Dino Valley.

There’s additionally an adjoining water park. In case you are simply visiting the theme park, you can go for simply sooner or later.

There are two LEGO-themed motels on the property – the LEGOLAND Resort and the LEGOLAND Fort Resort. These motels are excellent for a LEGO lover – they’re fully themed in full LEGO!

You will 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 may help if you’re 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 all the time liked our visits to SeaWorld, particularly as they’ve gotten older. The park is crammed 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 take pleasure in 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 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 most well-liked 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 – a couple of that supply trip packages with Common Studios Hollywood.

San Diego Zoo 

Though it is not a theme park, the San Diego Zoo is value 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 sort, buy your ticket, and enter the zoo, you may take a double-decker bus tour. Whereas this can be a nice method 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.

An alternative 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’ve, 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 Seaside Airport (LBG). It is a very small airport, however it is vitally simple 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 contemplate flying in via one airport and out via one other.