Family Bliss On the Go to Southern California
- Beth Bliss
- May 11
- 9 min read
Our family went to Southern California during spring break 2026 (late March). At the time, it was my husband and me, our two sons (ages 10 and 7yo), and our foreign exchange student (female, age 18). Below is our itinerary and tips/things we would do differently/things we loved.
Day 1: We flew in late on a Friday evening and just checked into our AirBNB house in San Diego, so I'm counting day 1 as the first full day which was a Saturday. We went to La Jolla Cove to watch the sea lions and birds. The wading pools between the rocks were awesome and full of life, and my children loved scrambling around on the rocks. If you're looking for the sea lions, follow your nose! The smell is so strong, but you get used to it quickly!!
The tips I have from this day:
1.) I had researched in advance and had in mind side streets to look for on-street parking that was much cheaper and less crowded. Then we got near La Jolla and panicked and parked in a parking garage we saw. It was the most expensive parking of our whole trip. Don't do what we did!
2.) Wear layers any where in Southern California. It was super chilly in the morning and then hot in the sun and then chilly in the shady spots. I took on and off my hoodie like 100 times!
3.) We walked up for lunch at Parakeet Cafe. It was a bit longer of a walk than we realized it would be, so don't go at the last minute when you're starving, but we walked past lots of cute shops and stops on the way. This place was DELICIOUS! It has juices, coffees, treats, and lunches. And it feels very California because it's a lot of wellness food options too.
That evening, we went to Old Town San Diego for yummy Mexican food at Casa de Reyes. The whole place is outside and such a fun vibe. There was a decent wait, but we walked around the different shops in the square while we waited, and our kids were entertained enough.
Day 2: San Diego Zoo....plan to spend basically your entire day there. Plan for ice cream stops and anything to make walking around all day long enjoyable with kids! The zoo itself is amazing, and we loved seeing all the different animals. I highly recommend riding the Air Tram for awesome views over the zoo and San Diego as a whole. The kids loved it (and it was free with admission to zoo!). Again, same as I said before, dress in layers!! Sometimes I was cold, sometimes I was super hot and getting sunburned!
Day 3: We left our San Diego AirBNB this morning, and our hotel for the night was at Disneyland (Anaheim), but en route we learned was Legoland. Legoland is in Carlsbad, which really is basically directly en route from San Diego to Anaheim. There were a lot of positives about Legoland, and I'm glad we did it because my 7yo says this was his favorite part of the trip. The Miniland in the middle of the park is really fascinating to look at all the builds that look like various places in the country/world, and several of the rides were very fun. That being said, aside from the 7yo, the rest of us probably would've chosen to take this part of the trip out after the fact. One of the main issues was that SO many rides were down off and on throughout the day we were there and because of that, the few rides that were open had CRAZY LONG lines. I'm not sure if this is a normal occurrence or if we just had bad luck....maybe research this a bit and see if this is a normal occurence before you decide to go. I had planned on the whole day with what rides we would prioritize and go to first etc., and the whole schedule was changed up. Life sometimes makes you be flexible! Ultimately, by the end of our time there, we had done almost all of the rides we wanted to anyway so it worked out. Really, after the first 2 hours, things got a lot better. Literally the first 2 hours we were in the park, we had not ridden a single ride!!! So I'd say, yes it was fun, especially for my 7yo who loves Legos. If it's not normal that all the rides are breaking down and the other lines are crazy long then it would probably be a fun park to be able to do in a day out that way, but we would've probably skipped it had we known. Also, if you have more than one day there and littler kids, there are lots of great playgrounds and Lego build zones where you could have a more relaxed slower paced day too, but for the price of the tickets, that didn't make as much sense to us. I also saw online this flower place in Carlsbad that is literally right across from Legoland basically. It looked BEAUTIFUL, and I wish I would've made the time to go there to see it in person.
Day 4: We stayed at Pixar Place hotel in Anaheim the night prior to start out the morning early and fit in 2 parks in one day! Our boys were tired and took turns off and on being crabby in the morning, but is it even Disney if you don't have crabby kids sometimes?! All joking aside, sometimes it's important to remember that vacations are never going to be perfect. You're still humans who get hot or tired or hungry from time to time, and you still are parenting- just in a different location. If you let go of expectations of perfect trips with no bad moments at all, then any vacation will be much more enjoyable.
We started the day at Disney's California Adventure. The Cars ride (Radiator Springs Racers) was an absolute favorite for us all. Our boys also loved Spider-Man Web Slingers and the Monsters Inc ride. The 18yo and my husband rode the Incredicoaster and enjoyed it a lot, and my 10yo joined them for the Guardians of the Galaxy Ride which was basically the Tower of Terror re-themed. We then hopped over to Disneyland and enjoyed Smugglers Run. Although we love Rise of the Resistance, it was too long of a wait and you had to pay extra for the lightning lane for this one, so we didn't do it. We actually skipped several typical fan favs because we wanted to prioritize rides that are not in Florida since we've been to Florida many more times. We loved the Indiana Jones ride, Alice and Wonderland, Storybook Land Canal Boats, and It's a Small World (yes, it's in Florida too, but in California they have Disney characters incorporated in the lands where they come from, which was like a fun I Spy game for the kids). We really wanted to ride the Roger Rabbit ride, but it was closed for refurbishment. We ultimately returned back to California Adventure for a last couple rides in the evening and to watch the nighttime show. It's so easy to park hop in California because the parks are right across from each other. It was a very full day, we used multi-pass lightning lanes, and we didn't get to fit in quite everything, but doing these 2 parks in one day is definitely doable if that's your only option.
Day 5: We left our Anaheim/Disney hotel this morning and drove up to LA. This was an exciting day of the trip for the kids, especially the 18yo foreign exchange student. They all had grand plans of seeing their fav celebrities but alas, no sightings! That being said, it was still a very successful day.
First, we did a brief stop at the La Brea Tar Pits. We didn't pay to enter the museum and just walked around the outside area for free for a brief stop, but really that was still perfect to teach the kids a little bit, see the tar pits, and learn about the fossils found there. And did you see the part where I said it was FREE? A rarity in the LA area!
From there, we stopped at a place (Aurora) purely at the request of my 10yo. He, like most 10 year olds, loves his Youtube videos. He had watched many videos of people eating these fun unique desserts and insisted on us stopping at the location of them. I'd highly suggest as you are planning trips, to try to allow your kids to look up ideas or weigh in on at least one thing they'd really like to do on the trip. It is fun to involve them in the planning process. He was so proud when we all loved our desserts and took the videos of us biting into them like he had seen so many times online! And I will say, these were DELICIOUS.
From there, we went and saw the handprints at TCL (Mann's) Theater, and the kids loved running around looking for handprints of celebrities they know. We were just like all the super annoying tourists looking down at our feet and stopping for pictures at various stars on the Walk of Fame. If you have a specific person you want to see, I suggest looking in advance online to know exactly where to find their name because the Walk of Fame is not small- it goes on and on for blocks and blocks. We didn't do that and just chose to wander around a bit and see who we came across. We then took a private tour with Access Hollywood Tours (booked through Viator, surprise surprise; see link below if you want to book)- we saw many sights and our driver was great about trying to personalize it to some of the interests in the car because it was a private tour.
Our tour driver also gave us GREAT advice for later in the day when we were going to see the Hollywood Sign by ourselves. Specifically, keep driving past where everyone is stopped and pulled over for the pics and if you continue down the road, there's a small parking lot with a trail where it's legal to park (not actually legal where others were pulled over) and also where you can get much closer and it's much more secluded on the trail.
After leaving LA, we got into Santa Monica in time to have dinner on the pier and ride a couple rides at sunset. That being said it was COLD that night on the pier, even with those layers I discussed earlier!
Day 6: If you just read all of Day 3, 4, and 5, you know we needed a day of rest and relaxation!! Day 6 was that day. We had gotten an AirBNB in Malibu for our last few days. It had a beautiful outdoor area and beach access, so we spent the day primarily laying around the house and in the sun and relaxing. Whew! Sometimes these days are necessary!
Day 7: Our last big adventure was Channel Islands National Park. This is something that is usually overlooked by people in the LA area, but it was such a nice experience. We had to drive about an hour north from Malibu to Ventura (gorgeous drive though!) where we got on the hour-long ferry ride to Santa Cruz Island. You need to book these ferries in advance and be early on arrival. These are choppy waters, so if you get sea sick- definitely pack your wristbands and ginger chews and try to sit on the back of the boat outside. The ferry staff are very friendly and helpful with trying to help anyone who may be getting sick. Despite it being an hour-long ferry ride just to reach the destination, the journey was just as great as the destination itself....on the way there, we saw HUNDREDS of dolphins swimming right along side our boat and playing in our wake, and on the way back later in the day, we saw humpback whales breaching in the water a few times.
When we got to the island, we took a 2 mile hike around the Cavern Point Loop Trail with a stop midway to look out at the beautiful ocean views and take some pics (did I mention we were traveling with an 18yo girl and 10yo boy....lots of posing! lol).
We then had a picnic lunch. It's important to note that there are NO supplies, no stores, nothing on the island. It is pack in-pack out, so you have to bring ANYTHING you might need or want with you. During our picnic lunch, we got up close and personal with one of the foxes that the island is known for. These are extremely rare and only found on this island, no where else in the world! Basically, after about 7000 years with no natural predators because they're on an island, they have evolved to a much smaller version than their other fox ancestors.
After lunch, we went on a sea kayaking tour. I will say that several of us were nervous kayaking in the ocean, but it felt safe and actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. The coolest part of all is that we went into and out of a bunch of sea caves. During this time, we saw sea lions and seals. You can book the kayaking tour directly through the National Park...I believe actually when we did so, we were able to book our ferry tickets simultaneously.
Oh, and if you've read any of my other National Park entries, you know about our love of the Jr Ranger program already. So naturally, we had to do that on the island! To do so, you have to stop at the visitor center before catching the ferry in Ventura to get the books. These were REALLY easy ones, much smaller than some other parks. Then you work on them either on the ferry or on the island, and you can turn them in for your pins with a worker on the island while waiting to board the ferry home.
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