Inject A Bit Of Variety to Your Summer Travel

I’d like to make a suggestion for a summer vacation travel destination where you can find a great deal of variety in the type of local attractions offered. Summer vacation travel means different things to different people, that’s for sure. It may include hitting a bunch of theme parks like Knott’s Berry Farm, or relaxing in the mountains. For others it is visiting the local museums or hiking or deep sea sport fishing.

One of the most well-known vacation attractions in Southern California is the resort area around Disneyland; this includes the Downtown Disney retail entertainment center with its wonderful Orange County restaurants, and California Adventure, on which Disney is spending around one billion dollars over the next few years.

Anyone who has not visited Anaheim in awhile will be surprised at its evolution over time. The addition of Disney’s California Adventure alone has changed the whole atmosphere of the Resort, and with the billion-dollar upgrade now underway this will only continue into the future. If you do any people watching, you will notice a very international mix of visitors at the Resort. In fact, people watching at Disneyland can be a fascinating activity, with a rich mix of cultures all in one place.

Speaking of a cultural melting pot, Southern California in general is a concoction of people and cultures from around the world. There is a particularly strong presence from Pacific Rim countries, but Europe, Asia and Africa are likewise well represented (not so many folks from Antarctica).

You’ll find quite a number of ethnic communities scattered throughout Southern California, and worth a visit in your summer travel activities. In Los Angeles County the obvious targest would be Koreatown, west of downtown, Little Tokyo to the west and Chinatown just north of the central business district. Orange County is home to Little Saigon and Fourth Street in downtown Santa Ana.

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West Los Angeles homes

If you are wondering where to find the most expensive real estate in Southern California, look no further,Beverly Hills Homes are some of the best of West Los Angeles homes does win the prize.The homes just sitting north of Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills hold that title, beating out the estates in nearby Bel-Air and sunny beach homes and ranches ofMalibu. You will notice that (with the exception of the “Golden Triangle”) most of the homes and businesses south of Santa Monica Blvd are rather modest, by comparison.

Beverly Hills is a place for the fortunate few, or we could say the elite live in total comfort, and to shop and dine at their leisure in a secure environment. It just so happens that many of these fortunate are celebrities. On these citie’s tree-lined streets, you will see more stretch limos, shining Mercedes-Benzes, and sleek Ferraris per square mile than at any other place on earth. Even the fireplugs in Beverly Hills are painted a gleaming silver.

In this city pawn shops are called “collateral lenders,” and make quick loans on luxury cars instead of toasters. This is a city where some of the clothing stores require customers to make advance reservations to shop, and where shoppers may routinely drop $100,000ore. A city where the post office offers valet parking. This town’s “Sister City” is none other than Cannes, France.

In between Wilshire and Sunset Boulevards, you will find what is sometimes called “The Golden Triangle,” bounded by Santa Monica Boulevard (on the northwest), Wilshire Boulevard (on the south), and Canon Drive (on the east). Within the “Golden Triangle” is a grid of seven smaller commercial streets filled with specialty shops and restaurants. At the center of this triangle is Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills’ fabled shopping avenue.

While the homes south of Sunset Boulevard are beautiful, most of the city’s spectacular mansions are located north of Sunset.

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.

Thoughts on Southern California Hotels and Travel

Southern California is a pretty well-known vacation destination and there are a great many hotels to be found. Some travelers are on business trips and are looking for mid-price hotels with easy access to the local freeways and airports.

We’re talking mostly about vacation travelers here, and for them you’re looking at a much wider range in quality and price. In either case, here is a good website intended to help you find good hotel deals. The site offers information about places to visit in Southern California and a lot of other useful material, but certainly will help both business and vacation travelers. You can use this website to find package airline and hotel deals also, which is convenient.

Another good site with helpful insight into hotels near major tourist attractions is the SoCal Vacation Guru. It does not specialize only in lodging options but also covers other aspects of a trip to Southern Calfornia, discussing Disneyland, Universal Studios, beaches, etc. The Guru offers wisdom about many areas of vacation planning.

If you are interested to hear what others are thinking about travel in general, you might visit Travel Talk. This has lots of input on a very diverse spectrum of travel-oriented topics. You can find subjects ranging from trips to India to driving trips by yourself to careers in the travel business. So it’s not going to help you much in finding a hotel in southern California, but you might find something useful. Hit the other two sites presented above for SoCal hotel information and insight.