Los Angeles and Santa Barbara with family/parents
4 days and 3 nights trip to do with parents/family — not too many things packed on each day and intentionally planned much lighter so that parents do not get tired. This trip starts from San Jose/San Francisco and ends at San Jose/San Francisco.
Pro tip: For only Santa Barbara/Solvang weekend trip, check out my other detailed itinerary: https://takethetrip.medium.com/santa-barbara-and-solvang-weekend-trip-b2873c972007
Day 1: Drive from San Jose/San Francisco to Oxnard (near Santa Barbara) — explore places on the route
- Drive to Avila beach — spend sometime at Avila Beach on the way to Santa Barbara/Oxnard.
- Drive to Solvang and explore the Danish town. Walk around the small town and try their bakeries (butter cookies are a must)
- Take highway 1 and not 154 for beautiful scenic pacific view from Solvang to Santa barbara and drive to Santa Barbara County Courthouse which is a Spanish colonial style building. Take elevator/stairs to get to the roof for a nice town view from top.
- Visit Steven’s wharf for sunset and paseo Nuevo in Santa Barbara — shopping mall for its unique architecture. Have dinner on state street.
- Stay the night in Oxnard or Ventura or Santa Barbara
Food recommendations in Santa Barbara: Los Agaves, Brophy bro’s, Bibi Ji, La Super Rica Taqueria, The black sheep , Boathouse at Hendry beach (brunch), The shop kitchen (brunch), SB Sunshine cafe (brunch), Jeannine’s Restaurant and Bakery (breakfast)
Day 2: Explore Malibu and around, explore Los Angeles city
- Drive from Oxnard to El matador beach — its a short walk to the beach but the beach is really beautiful. Parking is not free. It a steep walk so not recommded for parents to go down but can enjoy the view from parking.
- Drive to point dune
- Drive to Malibu pier/beach — visit adamson house here. Adamson house is a historic house and called ‘Taj Mahal of tiles”.
- Head to Getty villa museum at 17985 Pacific Coast Hwy, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 (Tuesday closed and reservation needed) — Its on highway 1 and has Roman, Greek antiquities housed. We really had good time in the museum and is ideal for parents. Note: Getty villa museum is different from Getty center, which is located in LA city. Do either Getty Villa musuem or Adamson house or else it would become tiring and would not leave much time in the evening.
- Head to Santa Monica pier and spend some time here.
- Drive to movie star homes at Beverly Hills sign and around. Check out Rodeo Drive — a luxurious shopping street, right next to Beverly Hills sign.
- Take sunset Blvd/Santa Monica blvd to get a feel of LA city to Hollywood walk of fame and spend some time here.
- Drive to Griffith observatory in the evening for sunset and beautiful city view of LA.
- Stay the night in LA. Prefered is Burbank, north of LA.
Day 3: Explore Universal studios Hollywood or Disney
- It will be a tiring day considering the wait times for the rides and the walk involved. For universal, I would highly recommend downloading their app for up to date wait times for each ride.
- Pro tip: If you opt for single rider line for few rides that offer it, it will save lot of time. For Harry Potter ride, the total wait time was 3 hours and the wait time for single rider was 5 minutes !!! No extra pass needed for single ride. The only downside is you do not get to sit together as a family on the ride.
Day 4: Drive back to San Jose/San Francisco
