disney/LA/hollywood

[leshunlenese]

Good afternoon everyone,
I am planning a trip to Disneyland with my son. He will be turning 9 and this will be our 1st visit out west and most likely our only. I am planning 8 days total with 4 at the Disney parks. Two extra days I was thinking we would go to the Santa Monica pier and do a studio tour followed by the next day in Hollywood at the Chinese theater, walk of fame, and Griffith observatory. I am curious if you all think it would be best to do our 4 days at Disney and then book some tours or if we should switch and find a hotel closer to la/Hollywood. Also if you have any other suggestions for a once in a lifetime trip to southern California I would be interested. Thank you

 

[SMD]

Which studio tour did you want to do? Have you checked minimum ages? Most people do WB, which isn't a full day, so you could add SM pier, but you'd have to be ok with a lot of driving. Universal Studios has a tour tram ride as part of their theme park, but I wouldn't combine that with another activity if you choose that. You could also likely do Hollywood/Griffith/SM in a day and there are hop on, hop off buses that will get you to those, though Griffith you would need to take additional transportation. If you move to an LA hotel, there is a 48 hour HOHO ticket and WB is on one of the routes. Other activities a 9 year old may enjoy are La Brea Tar Pits (also within walking distance of LACMA, Petersen Automotive Museum and Farmers Market/The Grove) and the Natural History Museum and Science Center (has the space shuttle) in Exposition Park.

 

[oakleycat]

As for the kinds of things your son may enjoy, my boys are 8 and 10 and they love the Natural History Museum ("dinosaur museum"), the Science Center, the La Brea Tar Pits, the Peterson Automotive Museum, and movies at the El Capitan. They're not really into the Griffith Observatory but enjoy hiking the Hollywood hills and love taking pictures with the Hollywood sign (even after seeing it many, many times). The zoo is far inferior to the San Diego Zoo and/or Safari Park so if he's into animals a side trip in that direction may be worth it for a once-in-a-lifetime Southern California trip. My oldest is obsessed with Harry Potter and loves Universal Studios and would love to do the WB tour; my youngest doesn't love US because he's not into motion simulator rides and finds it boring.

As for hotels, if you're going to focus on the LA area for several days I would move to a hotel there as driving to LA from Anaheim and back several days in a row will be brutal, especially if you're doing weekdays during rush hour.