Looks like I need to look at San Diego, and see if we could fly back from there - sounds like a good place to be. We’d enjoy Sea World (there used to be one in Ohio, or thereabouts, which I went to when I was young) and the sights, I’m sure.
Thanks very much for all your help - I’m just sorry that this isn’t happening next week, and that it’s something I’ll have to save up for!
The sheer size of California sometimes confuses visitors from back East, too. I remember when I first moved to Santa Cruz, I went to San Diego with some friends. I was telling my folks how nice it was, and they said, “We’ll have to go there on a day trip when we come to visit you.” I had to explain that it was 450 miles away…
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We’d be interested in museums, great sights (I like photography), shopping, good food. We’re not big walkers, and would spend our time in the cities (mostly). Equally not too bothered about sports (American sports, anyway 
) but could catch a game.
[quoteWhat’s in San Diego for us?[/quote]
Yummy Mexican food in Old Town. And don’t forget the margaritas. Old Town is also a nice place to walk around (or at least it was five years ago, when I was there last).
LA is like that. Don’t expect to be able to walk anywhere in LA.
Don’t expect to be able to swim in the ocean, except maybe at San Diego in September. Unlike the east coast of the US, the water off California is very cold (60 Fahrenheit at Santa Cruz in August isn’t unusual).
It’s not going to snow in San Francisco or San Diego, no matter when you come. That said, it does tend to rain a lot in the winter (November-March or April). But San Francisco never gets really warm, either- 80 Fahrenheit in August is a record-setting heat wave there.
Air conditioning is much more common in low-priced hotels here than it is in Europe. So are ensuite bathrooms- the lack of these things are some of the big complaints of American tourists abroad. The low-price hotel chains here (Holiday Inn, Best Western, among others) are going to have pretty standard rooms, but they are likely to have air conditioning. Holiday Inn in San Francisco is going to be about $150-$200 per night (depending on where and when you stay). The exchange rates are in your favor these days- that’s 86-115 pounds, roughly. Best Western is cheaper- about $100 (57 pounds) per night.
Fly in and out of Oakland airport rather than San Francisco if you can (you probably won’t get a choice coming from England, but when you fly within California, you should definitely use Oakland). San Francisco airport gets many, many more flights delayed or cancelled due to weather than Oakland does. It’s pretty easy to find an airport shuttle from a hotel in San Francisco to or from Oakland airport. Winter (November-March) is the worst time to be flying in or out of San Francisco airport, though there can be weather problems (usually fog) any time of year.
But still actually in the LA city limits. Most of the area west of downtown is, so you’ll find that the streets running east and west have large address numbers. Johnny, the Getty Center does still charge $5 for parking but no longer requires reservations. Fromage, if you like museums you shouldn’t miss the Norton Simon in Pasadena, or the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, now commonly shortened to LACMA, and pronounced that way. Both are considered to be better than the Getty, except in the area of antiquities.
Also, by that time the old Getty Villa, housing the antiquities collection, should also be open, in Malibu. It’s fun to go there and then have a seafood meal at one of the restaurants along PCH. Moonshadows is rather expensive and a sort of ‘special occasions’ place, while Gladstones is more casual.
I also recommend the Huntington, which has great botanical gardens and some very good art. I haven’t been to the La Brea Tar Pits since I was a kid, but they were fun.
For people-watching, I echo the Venice Beach recommendation, and I’ll add Olvera Street and Rodeo Drive.
You could also take a day trip (or an overnight) out to Catalina Island.
But San Diego is also good. You could rent an apartment or condo for a week, so you’d have more space and perhaps a small kitchen, and make that your headquarters. Maybe in La Jolla, or Pacific Beach, so you could walk to the beach. Perhaps rent a car one day, and go out to the Wild Animal Park.
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Also the Zoo is considered one of the best in the world, if not the best. Even if you do decide to stay in L.A. you can do the S.D. Zoo as a day trip, easily. One option is to do it by train; it’s a very scenic ride once you get past the miasma of Greater L.A. The ride’s about 2 1/2 hours each way and the downtown train station is not far from Balboa Park, where the zoo is.
San Diego’s more a resort town, IMHO. The beaches are better and less crowded, and if you stay at a Mission Bay hotel you will likely be able to get a sailing lesson and rent a sailboat. But if you want museums you should probably stick with L.A.
Hollywood gets a bad rap but it’s a lot better than it used to be. If you’re into Old Hollywood you could spend a few nights at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, on Hollywood Blvd; there’s a good deal of nearby nightlife easily accessible by taxi. But you’ll need a car to reach most of the places mentioned in this thread. OTOH the Roosevelt is a good place to stay if you want to do the S.D. Zoo excursion, since you can easily reach L.A.'s train station by subway.
LA is a huge, grimy, blob. :o
Go to San Diego, which is clean and all you really need is between La Jolla and Downtown, unless you want to trek south a bit more and go to Tijuana.
La Jolla upscale shopping is nice, even if you’re just looking
Mt. Soledad gives a great view of the city
Hit Pacific Beach and have some coffee on the Boardwalk
Ride an old-fasioned roller coaster in Mission Beach
Visit Sea World
Visit the San Diego Mission in Mission Valley
Visit the old San Diego Presidio site where the city, and state, really began
Visit Old Town, the oldest European settlement in California, for a margarita and a walk through history
Visit a nice downtown business district
I don’t normally recommend malls, but take a peek at Horton plaza downtown
Go to the restaurant/observation area at the top of the downtown Hyatt for great views
See the beautiful Victorians in the historic downtown Galslamp District, a great place for night-life
Visit the world-famous San Diego Zoo & museums in Balboa Park
Head out to Point Loma to see the lighthouse and Cabrillo National Monument. Breathtaking scenery.
Drive over the Coronado Bridge to Coronado, kinda more upscale shops. Visit the historic Hotel del Coronado. It’s where the US President usually stays when in town. It’s supposedly the largest wooden structure in the US & built without blueprints.
If you are more adventuresome, take the trolley down to Tijuana. Watch your wallet. Dont’ eat the food. Don’t drink the water, including ice.
San Diego knocks the pants off LA, unless you specifically want Disneyland, scummy Venice Beach, dirty overrated Hollywood, and the boring Queen Mary. Yes, all of these things are in LA, but are about an hour apart thanks to the sprawl and congestion.
San Francisco is high density, but the place is so small, it’s ok, unlike LA.
All the things I mentioned in San Diego are all within about 15 minutes of each other, at most. You can find reasonable accommodations at Hotel Circle off of Interstate 8 in Mission Valley. It’s centrally located.
Actually, that was Santa Monica (L.A.)
I forgot to mention that my list of things to see in San Diego runs approximately north-south. If you take them in roughly the order I listed them, you should have a great trip and see a lot of stuff very efficiently and stress-free.
Sorry, I messed up the vB coding in my above post. Could a moderator just delete it? I’ll redo it when I get around to it, if the thread is still alive and so on.
Really? The opening credits took place at the zoo, and since the Zoo is one the the places most associated with San Diego I just assumed it was the SDZoo (Also, I’ve been there once a long time ago and thought it looked like the SDZoo.) Is there a Zoo in Santa Monica? Am I remembering the T’s C credits correctly? Will this hijack ever end?
They used SD Zoo clips at the intro, but the apartment was in Santa Monica.
Google: “Three’s Company” “Santa Monica”
That was the Los Angeles Zoo.
You can’t really do Los Angeles without driving, we don’t have anything that you might call public transportation. On the other hand, don’t listen to the Los Angeles nay sayers. LA can be a good time. See this earlier thread that has lots and lots of things to do in LA ideas.
That being said, I say go to San Diego and stay at the hotel Del. You won’t need anything else. San Diego is very cool as a vaccation spot.
I think you should spend most of the time in Northern California: hop up to Napa Valley/Wine Country for some wine tasting, drive down the coast a little to Santa Cruz and Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur for amazing beaches and coastal scenery (you can kayak with sea otters!), cross the Bay to try the fabulous Thai brunch** even sven** mentioned (what are you doing giving away these secrets?!?) and a meal at Chez Panisse… etc.
I don’t think you’ll need air conditioning, in SF at least. We turned it on in my office maybe a total of 2 days this summer, and I don’t have it in my house.
There are some great, quirky shops in the city–the Mission district has some wonderful books, music, and clothing stores along the Valencia corridor; you have to stop into Paxton Gate to see their crazy taxidermied creations, and check out the barrel o’ lard in the Pirate Store next door. The Haight has great little clothing boutiques and crazy head shops and the amazing Amoeba Music with approximately 5 bazillion cheap, great CDs. I think SF Chinatown is the biggest Chinatown in the US. You can stop there for some dim sum, silk dresses and Mogwais, and then cross the invisible border into North Beach to have some espresso and a pastry (avoid Steps of Rome; try XOX truffles) and buy some books of Beat poetry at City Lights. For fancy upscale shopping, you could start in Japantown for some elegant dishes on the cheap, stroll on through the Fillmore area, where I work, stop for some lavender-chocolate pots de creme at the chocolate cafe (Bittersweet), and head north to the Marina. If you’re a foodie, you should go to the Ferry Building downtown, and (if you have time) head into Berkeley to make stops at Berkeley Bowl (more exotic produce in one place than I’ve ever seen in my life–a life-changing supermarket experience) and the Cheese Board (100+ different kinds of cheese, and quite possibly the best pizza in Berkeley). Go to chowhound or the craigslist food forums for specific restaurant recommendations–there will be many. If you’re really, really a foodie, go to French Laundry for a $200+ meal at what is supposedly the best restaurant in the country. On the opposite end of the spectrum, have some $2 banh mi Vietnamese sandwiches or stuff yourself silly in the Mission–try one of their classic burro-sized burritos or some other Latin American food (the carne asada quesadilla suiza at El Farolito or the loroco pupusas at El Balompie come to mind), and top it all off with a saffron-rose-pistachio-cardamom ice cream cone at Bombay Ice Creamery.
Troy McClure gave a good listing of museums. You could also go see some more modern stuff at SFMOMA and the Yerba Buena Gardens downtown.
Even the touristy stuff can be fun. Fisherman’s Wharf should mostly be avoided but you should definitely go there to check out the docks full of honking, self-absorbed sea lions, and the Musee Mecanique full of penny arcade games from the turn of the century. Ghiradelli Square has nice ice cream sundaes and there’s a fun restaurant nearby called Frjtz that specializes in Belgian-style french fries. Coit Tower is gorgeous. The view from the Cliff House and Ocean Beach is evocative and lovely, and you should definitely wander around the ruins of the Sutro Baths and take a little hike up to Land’s End to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Golden Gate Park is gorgeous too–see the buffalo enclosure, the DeYoung, the Japanese Tea Garden, the botanical garden and the huge glass Arboretum full of tropical flowers…
Bottom line, SF is awesome. Stay in SF. 
if you like photography then I would suggest that you drive from SF to LA. the views along highway 1 are world famous. There are a few stops along the way that are worth it. Monterey and Carmel are fun places. Going south on highway one, you can stop at Hearst Castle which has to be seen to be believed.
Further south highway 1 joins US 101 near the towns of Solvang and Buellton . If you saw the movie Sideways, these towns were featured in that movie. There are many wineries near this area that offer tours, and tastings.
In addition you can eat some great food there. The Hitching Post (again featured in Sideways) has some of the best steaks you may ever eat. One suggestion don’t drink any fucking Merlot. (Sideways joke, see movie) Also nearby is Mattei’s Tavern a stagecoach inn that dates back to 1868.
Continuing south is Santa Barbera. SB has some great dining, and places to stay. If I had to recomond one place to stay in Santa Barbara it would be Fess Parker’s Double Tree Resort Yes that Fess Parker, the one that played Davy Crocket on TV. His hotel is across the street from a fantastic beach. The view at sunset is unreal it is so nice.
LA has more stuff to do than you would ever get done in a week.
If you like cars LA has the Peterson Automotive Museum or there is Nethercutt Collection
or on the lighter side besides Disney and Knotts the is Magic Mountain or Universal Studio
Don’t believe Johnny LA there are lots more great places to eat besides the Kings head.
one final suggestion, before you come to LA rent the movie LA stories with Steve Martin. When watching it, keep telling yourself that it is a fictional movie, there are not real occurences. 
Aw, c’mon Rick! (Why did I just sound like Fred Mertz?) I didn’t say there weren’t other places than YOKH. It’s just my favourite place. Versailles has great Cuban food (try the roast pork!). Tito’s Tacos (Washington & Sepluveda) is good for a quick snack. The 94th Aero Squadron at Van Nuys Airport is fun for its WWI bombed-out French farmhouse motif, view of the runway (including headphones in the booths so you can listen to the tower and planes) and has very good prime rib, French onion soup, bread, and escargots (when they have them – they didn’t the last time I went). It really would be impossible to come up with a list of every good eatery in the city, at least for the purposes of posting in this thread. Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican… Something for everyone.
Someone mentioned Gladstones 4 Fish. I haven’t been to the one beach-side, but only the one at Universal Studios. Didn’t really like it. It was okay, but I’m not a big fan of fried seafood. Fish’n’chips, yes; but Gladstones’s menu was way too full of brown food.
If you have a hard time deciding between L.A. & San Diego, you can stay somewhere in between. Say, in the San Juan Capistrano/Dana Point/San Clemente area. Close to the beach. Close to Disneyland/Knott’s Berry Farm.
From San Juan Capistrano, you can take the train (and trolley) to the SD Zoo, various SD beaches, Old Town San Diego etc. You can also reach some of the L.A. sights to see taking the train/subway: Olvera Street, Museum of Contemperary Arts (both branches) etc. We do have some public transportation here in So. Cal.
And a lot of other stuff isn’t an outrageous drive: Tijuana, Venice, various L.A. museums. You’d have to be smart about avoiding traffic though.
Here’s another vote for San Diego. I live here, and there’s no place in the world better. Be sure to visit Coronado, and take a stroll down Garnet Ave. in Pacific Beach and check out all the quirky little shops, especially Mr. Frosty’s, an excellent local ice cream shop (right across from the High Road, which is, well, pretty much what it sounds like). Spend some time in La Jolla, and check out Black’s Beach. If you want some snow, you can drive a little ways east and hit Big Bear, Mammoth Mountain, Mt. High or some of the other ski resorts out in east nowhereville–we do get snow, just not less than an hour or two east of the city.
Stop in Santa Barbara on the way south, BTW. Beautiful little college town.
BTW, there’s also a 94th Aero Squadron on Balboa Ave just east of the 15. Excellent breakfast buffet. For a really, really good breakfast, though, hit the Original Pancake House on Convoy just off Aero Drive. Also check out Tommy’s Tex-Mex on Voltaire in OB for lunch.
Dude, your the one telling everyone about the Bombay Ice Creamery!
Love LA and SF…but agree with Johnny LA about Las Vegas, where I currently live.
You can fly here directly, stay a day or longer, and midweek there are some great deals, unless you hit a week with a convention in town and all bets are off on cheap(er) rooms. If you like sun, Las Vegas in the summer ought to do it for ya. Then rent a car and hit the Grand Canyon if you like - but if you want, it is only about a 5 hour drive from Las Vegas to LA or 6 hours or so to San Diego.
I just had friends from New Zealand fly in from Germany and they did their tour this way and loved it. They got used to driving here (with less traffic) so by the time they got to California, they were comfortable with the 12 lane freeways and the traffic jams.
But whatever you decide, have a great trip!
That would be the 94th at MYF, right? I’ve been to that one. And I’ve been to The Original Pancake House. When I was a kid we used to go to a place called Rickey’s. I think it was on Balboa near Genessee (but I wasn’t old enough to drive at the time, so I don’t remember). I loved the German apple pancakes before heading out to the Amphib. base to go sailing. Is Rickey’s still there?
What about Picnic’n’Chicken (or however it’s spelled)? I used to like that place when I was a kid, but I went back several years ago (like in the '90s) and it was only okay.
My sister used to take me to PB when I was little. There was a place called The Crépe Shop, and I loved the crab crépes. In jr. high I liked to go to another place in PB. I don’t remember the name exactly. Something like Blue Pearl. They had the ‘Breast and Beef Combination’, which was teriyaki chicken and teriyaki beef with teriyaki sauce, over a bed of white rice in a bowl of raw spinach leaves, and garnished with wedges of Mandarin oranges.
And I used to love Organ Power Pizza, which had an actual pipe organ at the end of the dining room. I’d always request the organist play Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. The grown-ups preferred Filippi’s, which also had good pizza – but no pipe organ! But mostly pizza was at Shakey’s next to Grant’s (later, Mervin’s) on Balboa.
Say, do they have fish tacos in England? (I’m so old, I remember when ‘fish taco’ was a naughty joke!) I went to a party about three years ago at a friend’s sister’s place in PB, and there was a taco stand in front of her flat (which was steps from the sea wall and the beach – I saw Naked Man rollerskating there). Really good fish tacos. But the Rubio’s chain is good. I wish we had them up here, as people in Northern Washington seem unable to make a proper fish taco.
You can’t trust Johnny when it comes to food. He disses In 'n Out fries, fer Og’s sake! Just get them well, and Animal-style. Oh, and if you do decide to eat at the King’s Head, let us know in advance so we can plan a Dopefest around it! For true California cuisine, stop at Tommy’s on Topanga or Pink’s on La Brea.
Rubio’s makes adequate fish tacos. But only adequate, unless you hit the original stand next to CalState San Diego.