Going to be in California, Suggestions?

[98Deathmage]

So, my family and I are taking a trip to Laguna Beach, CA in 2-3 days. Anyone wanna suggest some ideas for activities that doesnt cost an arm and a leg? I wont have my Fz since we are flying by plane so as much as i want to carve Cali roads, I have to leave her home

Plus maybe i will see someone from the forum while im there

 

[Sammo115]

Im sure there are bike rental shops out there. And if you do. Ride the coast. Its beautiful but its gonna be hot lol.

 

[orourkei]

rent a bike

you could take a surfing lesion , check out one of the state parks around there or check out on of the surrounding mountains.

 

[MattEnTheHat]

The obvious answer is rent a bike and go riding with those of us that live here.
But aside from that...
One of my favorite things is to park near the Santa Monica Pier (parking on the beach is $12, but if you hunt around you can find it for a bit less a block or 2 inland). From there you can head south down the beach to Venice Beach, which is one of the most interesting and unique places in LA in my opinion. If you are into that type of thing, there are many places along the way to rent bicycles or roller blades which you can ride down the pathway along the beach. There is also a giant, sort of jungle gym for adults area with huge swings, various forms of rings and other gymnastics equipment, right on the beach just south of the Santa Monica pier. It is actually a lot of fun, just google muscle beach if you are interested.
Then of course there is just visiting Hollywood, if you like that sort of thing.
There is an observatory called Griffith Observatory (in Griffith park), which has free parking and admission and has some really interesting exhibits if you are a bit of a nerd like me. It also has one of the best views of LA in my opinion.
I realize, though, that these are all in LA rather than Laguna, which is a significant drive away, so maybe these are all irrelevant. Can't say I really know of anything specific to do in Laguna itself aside from enjoying the beautiful beach. Although there are some FANTASTIC restaurants down there, but they tend to be on the pricey side.

 

[latony007]

well im going to jump in with the others and tell you that we have several places you can rent bikes from and there are some super fantastic rides out here. there is a rent ducati here as well as eagle rider and Nismos rented a bike out here he can give you more info.

As for what to do if you dont want to pay an arm and a leg disneyland is out. But i recomend knotts berry farm a lot. Venice beach certainly is "interesting" and worth a look if for no other reason than to freak watch. The walk of fame with everyones star in hollywood is free and lots of sights to see down there too along with the hollywood sign. I love grifith observatory Matt mentioned, does have the best views of the city and great exhibits, if you can make it at night, its only open till 10 and dark at about 9 they have scopes set up to view planets or whatever is visible. Angel stadium is about 40 minutes if your a baseball fan and you can get tickets cheap.

The nice thing about laguna is its pretty central, nothing you want to see if more than about an hour. You could even make San Diego in an hour and half from there. Magic Mountain is about an hour and half if your into the fastest roller coasters around. Medevil times is fun where they put on a jousting show check the website.

of course we have tons of great beaches, you wont have a problem finding any in Laguna. If you have any other questions hit me up.

 

[98Deathmage]

I thought i had to be 25 to rent one. And the cost of it would be insane for a 19 year old. And i am going to be staying in a timeshare right across pacific ave from the ocean. I was wondering what there is to do more inland from the ocean? Any like "nature-y" places we could go?

Yea, my mother planned whale watching, Hollywood and other things. Been to disneyworld... Zzzzz. lol Lemme see how much bike rentals cost and age permits.

Edit: Yea, for 600-1K a week for a motorcycle, i might as well use the car we are renting to do the twisties XD I will be making another trip on my own or with friends trailering them to the west coast.

 

[latony007]

Is there any nature around? um yeah, about a couple thousand square miles worth. Since you on the ocean though you have to go through the city to get to any of the nature, id say the most popular inland around that area would be big bear but thats a pretty good drive up the mountain. Angeles Crest forest is another one and then malibu canyons. You can look all those up online. Grifith where the observatory is has a huge park with hiking trails and even horse rentals. Its kind of like l.a.s central park.

Im not sure about the age on the motorcycle. i dont recall them asking my age when i tried to rent one up north but i didnt got through with it so im not sure.

your close to the harbors, hit them up and in the long beach harbor you can see the queen mary or even take a tour and the aquarium of the pacific is right there. those are all close, within 20 minutes. you have to understand too that an hour driver around here is nothing for us where as you guys would pass through 2 states.

 

[JT]

The obvious answer is rent a bike and go riding with those of us that live here.
But aside from that...
One of my favorite things is to park near the Santa Monica Pier (parking on the beach is $12, but if you hunt around you can find it for a bit less a block or 2 inland). From there you can head south down the beach to Venice Beach, which is one of the most interesting and unique places in LA in my opinion. If you are into that type of thing, there are many places along the way to rent bicycles or roller blades which you can ride down the pathway along the beach. There is also a giant, sort of jungle gym for adults area with huge swings, various forms of rings and other gymnastics equipment, right on the beach just south of the Santa Monica pier. It is actually a lot of fun, just google muscle beach if you are interested.
Then of course there is just visiting Hollywood, if you like that sort of thing.
There is an observatory called Griffith Observatory (in Griffith park), which has free parking and admission and has some really interesting exhibits if you are a bit of a nerd like me. It also has one of the best views of LA in my opinion.
I realize, though, that these are all in LA rather than Laguna, which is a significant drive away, so maybe these are all irrelevant. Can't say I really know of anything specific to do in Laguna itself aside from enjoying the beautiful beach. Although there are some FANTASTIC restaurants down there, but they tend to be on the pricey side.

Santimonica / muscle beach/ venice beach was going to be my first suggestion although its a bit of a drive its still feasible IMO. bike trails along the beach volleyball on the beach tons of little shops near there too a little fair on the santa monica pier.


tons of stuff to do in Santa Catalina Island off of long beach but that can get pricy pretty fast

 

[MattEnTheHat]

It would take an entire day, and a whole lot of driving, but a fun trip is to drive out to Lone Pine. You can see Mt. Whitney from there, and you can get up to a pretty high elevation pretty quickly if you drive into the mountains. The base of the Mt. Whitney trail is at about 8,000 feet. Plus you get to see the desert along the drive.

 

[MattEnTheHat]

This is also probably a bit ambitious, but you could look into going to the other islands than Catalina too. They're absolutely beautiful, but the only way out to them that I know of is with Island Packers (Channel Islands National Park Activities and Tours) out of the Channel Islands harbor, which is probably around a 2 hour drive from Laguna, and its a bit pricey as well.

 

[Sammo115]

you have to understand too that an hour driver around here is nothing for us where as you guys would pass through 2 states.

Hahaha. I could not stress this enough to people.

Ive hosted and organized quite a few gathering/meets and traveled well over 4hrs to attend a gathering but yet even some locals refuse to even drive 30mins to 1hr from where they live.

 

[JT]

I was just curious and goggle map'ed it. it would take 14 hours to drive from i5 near the TJ border all the way across California to the north border.


holy smokes!

 

[MattEnTheHat]

I was just curious and goggle map'ed it. it would take 14 hours to drive from i5 near the TJ border all the way across California to the north border.


holy smokes!

Looks like the PCH is the second longest state highway at 655.84 miles (seriously, they measured the PCH to hundredths of miles, tens of feet..?), second only to Montana's highway 200, which is 706.624 miles (seriously, three decimal places? Is that really necessary, Wikipedia?).
List of longest state highways in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PCH has got to be one of the prettiest roads in the country too...

 

[latony007]

Catalina is great, especially if your a diver, most of it is protected so there is nature out there too, but that boat ride was such a rip off last time i went i can't even imagine what it is now.

 

[JT]

Looks like the PCH is the second longest state highway at 655.84 miles (seriously, they measured the PCH to hundredths of miles, tens of feet..?), second only to Montana's highway 200, which is 706.624 miles (seriously, three decimal places? Is that really necessary, Wikipedia?).
List of longest state highways in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PCH has got to be one of the prettiest roads in the country too...

Riding PCH is definitely amazing!!!! im still waiting for new models to come out although I don't like this no faring's trend lol

 

[chrisnlb]

heres a list of things to do in laguna beach-
Laguna Beach Attractions | Museums, Pacific Marine Mammal Center

unfortunately the usual attractions (ie disneyland, knotts berry farm, universal studios) are very crowded this time of year

 

[latony007]

I was just curious and goggle map'ed it. it would take 14 hours to drive from i5 near the TJ border all the way across California to the north border.


holy smokes!

yeah people dont realize that, if you drive 14 hours on the east coast you will pass through about 10 states. Hell its 4 hours to get out of the state driving east too.

Looks like the PCH is the second longest state highway at 655.84 miles (seriously, they measured the PCH to hundredths of miles, tens of feet..?), second only to Montana's highway 200, which is 706.624 miles (seriously, three decimal places? Is that really necessary, Wikipedia?).
List of longest state highways in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PCH has got to be one of the prettiest roads in the country too...

PCH is a great ride but anything south of Malibu is so fricken packed. It kinda joins the freeway in ventura and splits off again later so i wonder if that counts as continuous highway. Says the longest freeway is the 1-90 from Boston to Seattle at 3101.13 miles

State Route 1 (SR 1) is a major north-south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. Highway 1 has several portions designated as either Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway, or Coast Highway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 (I-5) near Dana Point in Orange County and its northern terminus is at U.S. Highway 101 (US 101) near Leggett in Mendocino County. Highway 1 also at times runs concurrently with US 101, most notably through a 54-mile (87 km) stretch in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and across the Golden Gate Bridge.