Before you Travel to SoCal…
Do what you can before you get here.
Some sites (such as ours) allow guests to purchase admission tickets prior to their arrival in SoCal. How nice would it be to know that your theme park tickets are already purchased? In addition to avoiding lines in many cases, you may be able to $ave $ome $erious money by purchasing your tickets in advance. Some of our groups save hundreds of dollars by pre-purchasing all their attraction tickets and printing them before they arrive. For example, a group of 10 that plans on visiting four theme parks (40 tickets) and saves $5 per ticket has just saved $200 as a group! That’s almost enough for dinner for 10 at Disneyland!!
Put together a game plan before you book your place to stay.
Find the nearest major cross streets to where you are staying and use a program like Mapquest or Google maps to determine how close you will be to freeways and your points of interest. The LA area is one big traffic jam twice a day, so be sure to ask places you are calling for ways to minimize your drive time. Many vacation homes (hotels, coffee shops, deli's, etc) offer free WiFi, and many mobile devices are now equipped with traffic monitors. Nothing is worse than sitting in traffic for hours during your “time away.”
Should I bring my laptop? I swore I would leave it during this trip.
Having a laptop or accessing the internet is a huge bonus when in SoCal to keep up with attraction hours, traffic, weather, travel itineraries or last minute changes to a daily schedule. Plus, many attractions offer options to purchase tickets online or have online coupons that will save you money and allow you to walk up to will call at the entrance gate to grab your tickets. If you are a good planner you can do it all ahead of time, but some of us aren't that organized so the laptop is a good solution.
If you do bring your laptop, we suggest you designate one time per day you'll use it to get what you need, then PUT IT AWAY. You're in Southern California, get off the computer!
Don't spend your money staying in SoCal, spend your money playing in it!
Vacation homes are often less expensive than decent hotels in the area, and frequently offer amenities that surpass premium hotel offerings such as heated private pools, fully equipped kitchens, games and plenty of room for large groups. When you "stay" at a hotel you have limited options of things to do and places to gather with your group at the end of your day. If you choose to "play" in a vacation home, you can relax and converse with family/friends, play games, watch a movie, swim in your private pool...and you can do all of this even after the kids are in bed!
Selecting a Vacation Home
The amount of effort the person put into what you see on a home's listing will likely be proportionate to the amount of effort they put into their home…. and your stay.
Your vacation home can absolutely make your trip (don't take our word for it, read what some of our vacation home guests say about it), but a vacation home can also spoil a trip if you get a bad one. The guest book comments are very insightful, be sure to read them and be leery of choosing a home that doesn't have any.
Don't assume that anything you'll need will be at the home, make a list and ask.
Most vacation homes provide all the basics such as bed linens, bathing towels, board games, pool toys, etc. However, if there is something specific you hope the home has for your stay, be sure to ask about it.
Account for any additional fees up front.
Many vacation homes charge separate fees for cleaning, winter gas usage and summer electricity usage, be sure to ask if the home owner doesn't bring it up so there are no surprises.
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