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Our California adventure felt a bit cursed to start out with. We originally booked our trip to fly into San Diego, spend some time there, make our way up the coast into Los Angeles, spend a couple days at Disneyland and then fly home. Our first dates were in January 2025 when the series of destructive wildfires took place that affected the Los Angeles area and San Diego County in California. The wildfires caused unimaginative death and destruction to the area, and I understand that the loss of tourism income in the aftermath of tragedy can be a continual devastation to the areas. However, this trip was scheduled not for the aftermath, but rather the middle of the devastation and I felt that visiting and taking a hotel room in the area while so many people were displaced would have been insensitive at best, so we rescheduled. We first rescheduled to May and then high school softball got in the way, then we rescheduled to September and college academics got in the way, then we rescheduled to January 2026, and I held my breath all the way until our plane took off. Not really, but kind of. So, without further ado, here are 5 (or more) things I learned and/or loved about California!
Learned/Loved: United Airlines was the absolute BEST for all the rescheduling. Sure, I booked the correct option when I initially booked the flights (Economy, NOT Basic Economy, but also not Economy (fully refundable)), but there is a time limit to when you can use the credits from the original cancellation and I exceeded it. I contacted Customer Care and they were great to work with. ✈️
LOVED: Venice Beach! I heard so much about Venice Beach being unique, eclectic, gritty, and intense so I didn’t think I’d really like its vibe, but I absolutely loved it. People were doing their own thing and weren’t trying to hustle you in some way for money. There was so much to look at, and it was so much less flashy and over the top than Santa Monica Boulevard. 🏄
Learned: I really thought I would love the Santa Monica pier area, but there were so many people trying to get money from us in some way or another whether that was through singing, dancing, interacting, or selling good and they were aggressive. It was uncomfortable and annoying. 🤷
LOVED: Griffith Park and the Hollywood Sign area. I had originally planned to skip this altogether, but it was part of an LA tour we took, so we went. I wish I could have spent the entire day there just walking the trails. It was a little chilly, so I recommend bringing a sweatshirt if you go! 🌴
LOVED: Los Angeles Farmers Market! We ate so many things, everything was so good. I think my favorite was Trejo’s tacos Fried Chicken Burrito. I don’t like fried chicken usually, but this was so so good. I wish I had a photo to share with you, but we ate it too quickly! 🌮
LOVED/Learned: we didn’t rent a car on this trip. We considered getting one through Turo, but I decided I wanted to be able to see everything and not worry about LA traffic and parking, so we did a tour instead and it was well worth it to me. Here’s the exact one we booked. Our driver George was also originally from Wisconsin so that was a fun coincidence. 🚦
LOVED: we stayed at the Fairfield by Marriott Anaheim and the distance from the hotel to the Disneyland parks was so short, we absolutely loved the location! The hotel itself was a lot less fancy than other Marriott branded hotels we stayed at, but it was clean and had everything we needed for our family of 5 including a pull-out bed from the chair which was perfect for our 8-year old. If I paid cash, I would say it’s way overpriced for how basic it is, but since we mostly paid with points, it was just fine. 😊
Learned: OK, this is a longer one, but I tell you all this to protect your peace should you choose to take this trip, so settle in. Disneyland tickets are non-refundable. I read that when I purchased them and didn’t expect to get refunded when our plans changed. However, since my dates changed, I had to pay an additional amount since the promo I originally booked them under wouldn’t apply during my new dates, ok, that sucks, but not totally unexpected. But they also don’t give you any refund or credit back if a new promo comes up in your new dates later on, so basically they’re willing to take more money but not willing to concede the other way. I think these are unfair policies and they should seriously reconsider their approach. For this reason, if you can help it, I would not recommend you purchase your tickets too far in advance. Park reservations do sell out though, so this is a tricky line to walk. After many other issues that I had with their customer service (my tickets dropping off the app and having to call multiple times for it to be fixed), I’ll just avoid going to Disneyland from here forward. My experiences with DisneyWorld and Disneyland Paris customer care have been much better, and their policies have been much more balanced. I don’t understand why the company is not adopting consistent policies across their parks. I get where international lines may create differences but that doesn’t explain the Disneyland/DisneyWorld differences. 💰
Despite all the challenges we faced getting to this trip, we did have a great time and are grateful we made it work. We enjoyed Disneyland and we enjoyed Anaheim in general. I would rate our California adventure a 6/10. While it wasn’t our favorite vacation, I definitely suggest taking this trip. I’d love to chat with you and get to know your interests, so I can advise you on where to invest your time (and money), so you have the best trip possible for you and your crew! Use the links at the bottom of my page and I can help you with all your travel plans!