Please help with California trip

Took family to SD 2 summers ago. Wonderful city and great beer options anywhere.

My recommendation...buy a 1 way ticket and never return to Texas! :-)

 

But seriously...stay south of LA if you can in one of the nice beach towns. Go to a Pizza Port at least once. Lots of great beer options. That's where I was able to get a Pliny the Elder on tap for first time in my life (at San Clemente location). Just passing through, that seemed to be a great little SoCAL beachtown and not far from LA/Disneyland.

 

Probably be better responses posting this in the Pacific forum. Hope you have a fun trip!

 

Get a house in OB SD. Take a trip to alpine beer co to get bottles and growlers. Hang in OB and drink alpine. Hit the noodle house, pizza port and hodads when hungry. Go to beach if you get bored. Amazing little place OB.

 

You can stay in Anaheim, visit Noble Ale Works in Anaheim and the Bruery in Placentia. If you head to San Diego, take the 15 south stop at Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, make your way out to Carlsbad to Pizza Port (pizza and beer, really great place), continue south take the 8 east to Alpine and visit Alpine Brewing Co. Head back west to San Diego visit Ballast Point, Green Flash, Modern Times, AleSmith, Saint Archer, there's plenty in San Diego to keep you busy for a week.
Hope that helps, if not just google some of these breweries that should help.

 

Beachwood has great beer and locations in long beach and South Bay.
Najas is a great beer selection in South Bay.

That puts you semi close to Orange County for Disneyland.

 

There are abunch of breweries close to Disney land. Bruery, Noble, Bottlelogic.

 

Long beach near the harbor is nice, you can't go wrong with the Huntington, Sunset, Laguna beach stretch.

You'll have a great time, everything is around 25% more expensive than you expect but still very fun. Think about Firestone's new taproom in Venice beach, not sure if its open yet though.

 

Assuming that your priority is Disneyland, you should stay as close to the park as possible. You will still be close to Bottle Logic, Noble, Bruery and Bootleggers as well as fairly close to Good Beer Co in Santa Ana. If you take a day off from Disney, you could go to the Aquarium in Long Beach and combine that with lunch/dinner at Beachwood BBQ. You could also consider 3 days near Disney and 2 days further South in Oceanside or Carlsbad and hit Pizza Port, Bagby, etc. which are near Legoland.

 

This is the best answer...

 

Its not...

 

If I'm not mistaken, often in Texas, distanced is all about how many miles away it is. @JRSD as you mentioned traffic, you will find that in the LA/OC/SD area's it's often all how long it takes to get there, i.e. traffic. You could be 20 miles from a place, and it will take 2 hours to get there, depending on where you are in that area, time of day, day of the week, etc.

Many have made solid suggestions. I agree with @JRSD suggestion of:

This suggestion gives you and the family in tow, all options, and some really good ones. In addition to the Aquarium in Long Beach is the Queen Mary too. San Diego is a beer mecca, well over 100-150+ breweries/brew pubs/craft beer bars. It's a trip unto itself, but if you do want to make that one of your 5 days, I would suggest a hotel in SD while your there for that day so you have a HQ of sorts, rather then dragging the family to and from Anaheim.

 

HB-Surf City would be one choice. If your staying at the beach area (Hilton or Hyatt) then your a good 45-60 minutes from Disneyland. North HB your about 20 minutes from Disneyland. Your about 20-25 minutes from Long Beach Aquarium which puts you right in the area of Beachwood BBQ & Brewing and Congregational Ale House. BW would be your better choice. Then you got Beachwood BBQ ion Seal Beach about 15 minutes out. In HB you also have BT's Southern BBQ which always has Societe on tap along with a good selection of draft and equally good BBQ (better than some of BW's BBQ). So no need to drive to San Diego if your looking for a few SD beers. You can find most SD's beers here in OC/LA. Unless your looking for Alpine, Rip Current or a few others that we don't get. Alpine bottles are rare, but we are getting their GF version ipa's on draft. From Disneyland, after a very long day with the crowds you will be close to Noble, the Bruery, Bottle Logic and yes even Bootleggers. So you should be able to hit up one of those for a quick pint or two. You will be spending at least 2 very long days inside Disneyland/California Park. Summertime will be very packed.

 

Need a little more input from the OP (tjmoore). How many days are you going to visit Disneyland (I'm guessing 2-3, as that is where the multiday passes kick in). Obviously, on those days, you probably aren't going to stray too far from the area to visit brewpubs/breweries.

Generally staying 5 nights means that your last day is kaput (especially since you're traveling back east), so we really are talking 4 full days of fun. If you are burning three of those in the Disney parks, you probably aren't going to have time to do San Diego. Now, I'm not sure how most people's marriages are, but having one's wife chauffeur them around breweries while the daughter (how old?) sits around bored all day is simply not going to work.

 

Good call. I'm not a big fan of smaller kids inside the brewery's/brewpubs. Unless it's kid friendly (open and things to do for the kids). All three of mine are grown up and so I get to drag the wife (when she's willing) around with me. I just hope these younger adults with kids these days are responsible. Hate to see a drunk couple with kids leaving to drive home. And I'm sure the kids are bored. Just my thoughts.

 

Here is your best answer...

Stay here...
http://www.ayreshotels.com/orange-county/hotel-anaheim.aspx

Why???

• You can walk to Noble Ale Works
• 50 yards is the newly opened bus/train station
  • This will get you to Disneyland in 7-10 mins, and you don't worry about parking
  • This will get you to San Diego via train, but I'm not sure the stops, so see what breweries are close by
• 100 yards to see the best player in MLB
• 100 yards to see Ducks hockey
• Giant AMC movie theater across the street
• Many eating options accross the street.
• Did I mention that, You can walk to Noble Ale Works

 

Close to train stops in SD County:

Bagby
PP Carlsbad
PP Solana Beach

and anything nearby...

 

Culture in Solana Beach is even closer than the PP there. I'm not a huge fan, but it is an option.

 

I disagree. If you are getting off the train, PP is closer, perhaps much closer. Splitting hairs, though.