Car rental needed for DL/CA Attractions?

[Magalex]

We are very curious about a trip to DL. My DH and I are brain storming with a trip to DL in May. Our chosen hotel would be CCI. We would go to different CA Attractions in the area(Legoland, San Diego Zoo). We are flying from Pittsburgh PA to LAX(in theory). Would we need a car rental? Would we be comfortable with dining options, airport transportation and tour transportation to other attractions. We are first timers to DL and the state of CA. VETS of WDW.
Also what is the weather like the last week of May?

Thanks
Magalex

 

[AFMom]

You will not need a car while you are staying at CCI and going to DL and DCA. Everything there is walking distance (about 10 minutes) and CCI has its own shuttle service to and front gate of the parks. As far as the San Diego portion of your trip - it's about a 3 hour drive from the DL area to San Diego - and could be longer or shorter depending on traffic. If you are going to spend more than 1 day in San Diego - you may want to consider getting a hotel there to save driving on your trip. You will need someway to get there from DL - I'm not sure what or if shuttles operate to take people that far. That portion might be wortha rental car.
You won't have any problems with food options by DL, DCA, and CCI. Lot's to eat. DTD is situated between the park down a bit, and has many options there - and all the way up and down the road CCI is on there are restaurants.
May weather will be nice - but possibly rainy. It may be warm enough to swim - but can have cooler days as well. Spring is a beautiful time in LA!
Have fun!

 

[ter-moo]

First off, I'd recommend going to three different hotels. Spend a few days in the LA area (which is a good 45-60 minutes from Disneyland) either in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Westwood or some parts of Hollywood. Check with tripadvisor.com to find reviews on hotels in those areas to make sure you've got a safe area and an okay hotel.

Then, I agree with your choice of Candy Cane Inn while at DL and CA. Those should take you 2-3 days at most.

Then, for the San Diego destinations, I'd find a hotel in SD. It's a good 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive from Disneyland, depending on traffic, so I don't think you'll want to keep driving back and forth.

You definitely want to rent a car if you're planning on doing more than Disneyland. In LA public transportation is terrible, and distances are widespread. Candy Cane Inn offers free parking, so you won't have a problem. You won't need to drive to the parks from there, though--it's an easy walk and they also have a free shuttle.

Depending on which order you're planning to do things in, you may also want to look into flying into Orange County Airport. It's smaller, easier to navigate and closer to Disneyland, if you're going there first.

 

[Rivergallery]

As for a car rental you could get by without it but you might find it cheaper to rent a car since you are doing more traveling.
The shuttle to and from the parks is excellent I stayed at Embassy Suites Anaheim South and it was wonderful, very efficiant and ran every 20min. We found we actually got to the main gate using it than using the parking structure and tram. I assume the CCI is the Candy Cane. You can walk but when I drove past I didn't relish the trek with a sleeping toddler in my arms . Since it is just you and DH you might find it a nice walk they have a beautiful pathway to the main area. They do have their own shuttle service so I suspect I would rely on that myself .
As for universal etc, your hotel will have shuttles daily, so I would call on that and make sure you allow time to do what you want to be catching the last shuttle. When I went I wish I had spent more time in their Hollywood walk area (outside the main park). And we barely made the shuttle. But we also didn't have to worry about driving in CA traffic which is a definate plus.
If driving from LAX beware of rush hour, and that you won't be able to utilize the carpool lane if it is just the two of you (I think you have to have 3 people.. someone native can correct me ). Depending on the time of your flight it may be easier for a shuttle to bring you back, rather than worrying about driving in traffic, and finding the rental car areas again. When renting a car at LAX you still take a shuttle .. but from LAX to the car rental agency. And then in reverse when you return the car. We rented from Alamo and they were very helpful and even had a play structure in their waiting area.

For dining if you want in hotel food, (like snacks etc) you can order from a grocerystore and have them deliver to your hotel room .

For things in San Diego definately get a room for a night or two, if doing Sea world and the Zoo...etc. The traffic is horrible at rush hour, so if you are ready to go back at rush hour DON"T lol, I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for 2miles/hour for over 2 hours before we found an exit to a backroad to make it back up to Anaheim area.


One thing to think about is to rent a car when you get to Anahiem for your trip south to San diego then return it.. to anaheim instead of driving to and from the LAX rental places....

 

[Magalex]

Just to clarify..we do have a 5 yr old DS. We actually are not visiting the LA area. When we looked up air fare LAX was cheaper then Orange Co. for us. Can we get a bus shuttle from LAX to Anaheim? When we look up the websites for the good neighbor hotels at DL some of them list other tours. That is where I thought maybe we didn't need a car rental.

 

[CamColt]

If you just want to stay in the Disneyland area and travel on day trips, you can book a package that includes round trip transfers to/from the airport/hotel. Then you can also add on 1 day admission to Legoland and 1 day admission to San Diego Zoo, plus transportation to these places. By doing this there will be no need to rent a car.

For your first visit to Disneyland I would suggest at least 3 day hopper passes. We did this last summer, went at a commando pace and got to do most of our must do attractions, missing a handful of attractions from our "maybe" list. We could have easily used another park day if we wanted to take it slow and do it all.

 

[disney-super-mom]

You don't HAVE to rent a car, but it would be less expensive to do so rather than pay for the shuttles.

As others have said, you won't need to rent a car if staying at the CCI and visiting DL and DCA.

If you want to go to Sea World or other areas, you can walk from the CCI to the front entrance/driveway of Disneyland, walk across Harbor blvd at the crosswalk, and go right into the Best Western Park Place Inn, which has a car rental office right there. It's only about a 7 minute walk from the CCI. It'll probably be around $30 per day to rent a car. Also, you'll have the luxury of being able to come and go as you please instead of having to stick to the schedule of a shuttle bus.

It's about 1.5 hours drive from Anaheim to San Diego. I would recommend going to San Diego on a weekend so you avoid the heavy weekday traffic and the traffic jams that sometimes happen during rush hour.

Have fun!

 

[LucyKate]

We spent 5 days in Anaheim without a car - we stayed at the Howard Johnson which is a similar distance from Disneyland as thre CCI, and just walked every day.

We did a one day car hire to see the LA sights - but in retrospect believe we'd have been better doing a tour.

But we did hire a car at the end of our Anaheim stay to travel to San Diego. It's about a 2 hour drive each way, so I'd recommend you stay in SD for a few days to see the sights there.

 

[pxlbarrel]

We're actually going to do the opposite. We're flying into LAX, renting a car, then heading to San Diego for a weekend...then heading back to Anaheim where we're going to ditch the car. We're going to be at a convention the rest of the week and don't need the car. We'll just take something like the Supershuttle back to LAX.

By driving to and from San Diego, we can stop anywhere in between...including a stop at San Juan de Capistrano and other landmark places along the way.

By the way, the little panda cub may be in public view in San Diego when you visit.