Aussie family road trip LA to ???

[Kerrie0112]

Hi,

My family (2 adults and 2 kids 12 and 16) are taking our first trip to the USA arriving in LA Sept 16 and meeting up with the extended family in LA again on Oct 2nd to do Disneyland and Universal Studios, heading back to Australia on around the 6th to start the new school term. Kids have a few requests:

• An RV
• Mt Rushmore
• Real food experiences
• Lego Land
• A baseball / Grid Iron game
• Landscape and more landscape

I'd love some advice on the best places to go and stay, eat at and generally be able to provide them with the experiences they have asked for.

Thanks

Kerrie

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Getting to most of the things on your list will be easy, as they are all over the place. The hard part really will be narrowing down on which places you want to focus on. The American west is filled with incredible landscapes and an RV can be a great way to explore them.

I'd say the first question has to be is Mount Rushmore a must? You could certainly make it there and back in 2 weeks, and see a lot of things. However, it is a long long way away from LA - 2-3 days of hard driving each way - and there is so much that you can see and do that is closer that would more than fill up 2 weeks.

The most popular trip idea on this forum is a loop that includes LA, Vegas, and San Francisco with places like the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, and the Pacific Coast along the way. You can also easily add the other great parks in the 4 corners area like Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, Arches, Zion, and Bryce Canyon. Of course that's just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to possibilities. Here are some of the most popular threads on those topics.

The other stuff will be easy too. Baseball season will be wrapping up, but there will still be plenty of games going on. If you find a team that is out of the playoff race, you'll probably find tickets pretty cheap/available. American Football season will also be underway, although labor issues have the upcoming NFL season in doubt, but College Football would be a great option for a Saturday. And good local food is also everywhere, you just have to look beyond the mass-produced chains. However, that also means the options are just too many to offer much help for individual suggestions.

[glc]

Welcome!

For a professional baseball game, here are the September schedules for the Los Angeles Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers. That is the end of the regular season - anything after that would be playoffs, for which tickets are very difficult and expensive to obtain - and we don't know what teams will be involved yet! There are plenty of other teams, if you want to check other cities, here is a link to the master schedule.

American football? That may be difficult to see a professional game due to the current labor issue. However, you will find college games - generally on Saturdays - and high school games - generally on Friday nights - just about anywhere.

Sure - you could rent a RV and go to Mount Rushmore. However, this is a 3 day drive from LA - each way. With all the places to see in between, this could wind up taking 2 weeks just by itself! This part of your trip is what needs to be planned carefully.

Lego Land is an easy day trip from LA, it's about an hour or so south of Disneyland. I would not recommend you use a RV for your sightseeing in the LA area, it would be very cumbersome in the LA traffic and parking can be difficult. I'd consider renting a car for your "local" use and only use the RV for your trip away from the city.

[Kerrie0112]

Hey there,

My family and I are taking our first trip from Newcastle NSW to LA in Sept this yr. I'd love to hear about your experiences. We have 2 kids , a boy 12 and girl 16 (she's coming with us under sufferance) any advice would really be appreciated as we are arriving in LA and have about 2 weeks to travel before returning to LA to met up with more family and do Disneyland and Universal Studios

Thanks

Kerrie

Hi. Love this site! We are very excited about our trip and this forum has brought it to life for us in a way that no brochure ever could. My wife, myself and two daughters aged 6 and 8 are flying from Sydney to LA Feb 13th and back home on the 4th of March. The basic outline of our trip goes like this so far......

13th - Land LAX 4pm - pick up rental (large suv?) Stay first night Sheraton Gateway airport hotel (booked).
14th - head north up the coast, stay somewhere near Cambria? (Is Hearst a bit much for the kids? Isn't Lego land around here somewhere?)
15th, 16th & 17th - Stay San Fran (possibly the Argonaut or the Union Square Hotel) Explore the area - any suggestions beyond the obvious?
18th, 19th & 20th - Yosemite, hopefully Evergreen Lodge unless there is somewhere better? assume there will be snow and cold?
21st - Death Valley, not sure yet where to stay
22nd & 23rd - Las Vegas. People tell me there's not much for Kids, is this true?
24th & 25th - the Grand Canyon. Would love to stay on the South rim but having trouble finding accommodation that will sleep the four of us comfortably. Anyone heard of the Grand Canyon Ranch? (it appears to be in the Musical Mountains rather than the Grand Canyon)
26th - Not sure at this stage if we should stop a night in Vegas again on the way to back to LA or whether we should stay somewhere else or push straight through so that we have more time in LA.
27th, 28th & 1st - Anaheim - Doubletree Suites Hotel? Disneyland! Either Two or Three Day Park Hopper tickets. I've heard there might be a way to pay extra and jump the queue?
2nd & 3rd - LA. Venice Beach.
4th - 8pm Fly home to Sydney

This is a once in a lifetime trip and we really want to make the most of it.
Any helpful hints or advice on where to stay, what not to miss, best route, anything at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Lifemagician]

Hi Kerrie,

You have obviously been checking out the forums for ideas for your trip. I am however, curious as to why you have included the complete post from moltz, which was posted almost two years ago. Are you indicating that you would like to do a similar trip?

Their's was a three week trip, so which parts of the trip are you attracted to, and which would you like to leave out? You do not give any indication as to what your family's interests are and what you and your family hope to see and achieve on this trip.

As for your 16 year old, coming under sufferance. I can relate to that. However, have you though to give her a specific task in the planning process. Perhaps she could be put in charge of a day, or (with your guidance) choose where you'll stay, what type of accommodation you will have, or something like that. You could find that her whole attitude will change, once she feels that this is her trip as much as yours.

Lifey in Melbourne

[DanaCleg]

Kerrie - If you do stop or visit in Vegas, take the kids to a Blue Man show. It's great for all ages. We've seen every show except the one in New York & the kids love it.

[Midwest Michael]

Since the Thread you responded to is 2 years old, and it is extremely unlikely that you're going to get any response from "Moltz," (especially since they never even came back to respond/read their own thread) I've moved your questions back here to keep everything together and easy to follow.