I’ve Got A Few Summer Travel Ideas

I’ve been thinking about where I could go with a lot of vacation attractions, but will be sensitive to my tight budget. Here’s an idea, how about a SoCal vacation? There you will find theme parks, beaches, great weather and a lot more.

Another possibility would be Hawaii. You can almost feel that warm ocean water right now, but remember that there are offsetting advantages to the Golden State. The Southern California Vacation Guru has written about the differences between vacations in Southern California and Hawaii. The beaches in SoCal do not have as many rock outcroppings and the sun is less intense (as is the humidity). The water temperature is higher in the Aloha state, but in the middle of summer, the cooler water can be more refreshing.

Hawaii does have an advantage with such beautiful natural countryside and vegetation, enhanced by the local Polynesian culture. On the other hand, there are many different cultures to be experienced in the Southern California melting pot.

The beaches are just one of many attractions to be enjoyed in Southern California. There are a half-dozen major theme parks to be visited. In particular, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm top the list for thrill rides, with the Six Flags roller coasters being in especially great abundance and variety. You’ll discover many intimidating coasters and thrill rides at Knott’s and Six Flags. Disneyland has a few attractions that would be considered thrill rides, but not nearly as many as those other two parks.

There aren’t many roller coasters to be found in Hawaii, unless you consider wintertime surfing to qualify in that category. It may be that California offers more ways to trim the budget, but sometimes there are great Hawaii vacation packages to be found on the internet or in the newspaper Travel section.

It’s Possible To Go See Your Favorite Beloved Animated Characters In Southern California

I have been to several of the world-class theme parks in Southern California lately. If you would like to see some of the beloved animated movie and TV characters “live” these  parks are the place for you.

The first place we think of is Disneyland, the hangout for Mickey, Donald and all their buddies. If you’d like some good information about planning a trip to the Disneyland Resort, check out the SoCal Vacation Guru. Who doesn’t love the wonderful job Disney has done in creating a fictional universe of lovable characters?

Nearby Knott’s  Berry Farm has its own crew of lovable characters with Lucy, Snoopy and the Peanuts team at Camp Snoopy. The Peanuts guys have been at Knott’s Berry Farm for quite awhile now and seem to feel at home there.

Universal Studios up in Hollywood would be a good next stop in your vacation, where you can chill with the likes of Homer Simpson, the Flintstones and Rubbles, Betty Boop and Spiderman. Pick up some useful information and tips about Universal Studios from the SoCal Vacation Guru.

The final stop in the character caravan would be up I-5 an hour or so, to Six Flags Magic Mountain. The Six Flags roller coasters seem to be the biggest draw to the park for most visitors. It does not take long to figure out that the Looney Tunes people are in charge of public relations.

Porky is there, along with Daffy, Yosemite Sam, Tweety and the others. The childrens’ area has attractions centered around these whacky celebrities, which is a nice break from the thrill rides that dominate the place. You won’t have to go too far to find a couple of the Looney Tunes folks here and there in the park.

I picked up some good vacation ideas recently!

Even though the economy is bad, we still need a little vacation now and then. I’ve been doing some research into saving money while still having a nice trip. I’ve been checking out some of the online travel websites. It seems that they all find very similar travel deals when searching for plane fares and hotels.

I can recommend a good website that will lead you to good deals on hotel reservations. Basically you want to use a travel website that has a reputation for providing a trouble-free vacation. Then I was thinking about where to go where it’s easy to find good prices on air travel or where I can drive my car. One obvious choice is Southern California. There are several airports and lots of activities for all seasons of the year.

A lot of vacation ideas are provided at the SoCal Vacation Guru site. It focuses mainly on Orange County and Los Angeles County, but will eventually expand to provide more information on San Diego County and the Inland Empire desert and mountain areas as well. But there’s great information about Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, the beaches, shopping, dining and other activities. There are discussions about saving money and how to arrange for the best trip if you only have a limited amount of time.

If you are a roller coaster fan, the SoCal Vacation Guru compares the major southern california theme parks on their thrill rides (Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm win in that category). In fact there are few places in the country where you can visit a half-dozen theme parks within a couple of hours drive from each other.

The SoCal theme parks include Disneyland (with Disney’s California Adventure), Knott’s, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Universal Studios Hollywood, SeaWorld and Legoland. Of course visiting all of those would not be particularly cheap, but you could fit a lot of vacation fun into a short period of time, so you might save on airfare and hotel reservations.

Winter and Spring are probably good times to schedule a vacation, as the crowds are often lighter then at many Southern California vacation destinations. Compared to other parts of the US, the winter and spring weather in California is very reasonable.

Also, it looks like the economy has a lot of hotels really wanting our business. We might get better deals now if fewer people are taking rooms and buying tickets to theme parks. Anyway, just some things to consider as we live with the recession.