day trips in southern california?

Question

i need some ideas for good family day trips in southern california. maybe around LA or in san bernadino county? anywhere 2 hours or less from chino would b good. cheaper is better lol.

Answer 1

There are a lot of choices for day trips to LA, depending on what you are looking for:

Catalina Island is a great day trip. You can take a ferry to the island, and once you get there, you can kayak, you can go snorkeling, you can spend the day on the beach, etc.

If you have young children, you also could do the LA Zoo.

If you want something educational, LA has a lot of wonderful museums. There is the Getty Center, which has amazing views of the city, as well as a lot of interesting exhibits. If you have kids, the Getty has "Art Detective" cards that the kids can use to go on a detective hunt of sorts, learning all about the different art exhibits, architecture and gardens in the process. There are lots of tables spread out over the grounds and you could enjoy a lunch picnic-style. Kids also always love the tram ride to the top of the hill. There are also lots of tours you can take. (and the best part is that the Getty does not charge admission)

There is also the Getty Villa in Malibu--equally as gorgeous.

If you want to go to more than one museum, you could do museum row in Miracle Mile, they have the La Brea Tar Pits, LACMA, a car museum and other great museums. You could choose one place to go for the day, or you could go from museum to museum.

If you want something relaxing, there are many different beaches in the LA area, each of which have a very different feel. There is third street on Santa Monica, which has stores and restaurants, and street performers for entertainment. From their, you can go to the Santa Monica pier where there are carnival games and mini-rides. It's not really a place to go swimming, but you can also enjoy hanging out on the beach. You could pack a picnic--and if you have kids you can bring toys for them to play in the sand and make castles.

Venice is more of a people watching place. If you have young kids it might not be the best place to go, but it is interesting. You can rent rollerblades, and skate through trails along the beach. There are all kinds of artists and psychics...its an interesting place to see.

If you want to enjoy the beach and the water, you could head to Malibu, Laguna, or Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara has a calm, relaxed feeling, and they have a lot of fancy resorts where you can enjoy lunch. There are all kinds of bike rentals and pedal car rentals that are a lot of fun. There are cute shops and restaurants all around the beach. You can also just enjoy the beach itself.

Laguna embodies what most people think of when they think of the "beach." You can relax on the beach and swim in the ocean. A lot of people play volleyball and other sports on the beach. Its a very beautiful beach, and like most beach towns also has a lot of fun shops and restaurants around the beach. They also sometimes have art fairs on the beach, where lots of booths are set up and you can walk around and see lots of interesting artwork.

Disneyland is also a great day trip for a family. You can split the day between Disneyland and California Adventure Land, or you could do each park as a separate trip (although there is a lot less to do in California Adventure Land). Disneyland is a great daytrip, but it can get expensive. If you know anyone who belongs to Club 33, you can actually get in the park for free, and you have dinner or brunch at a secret restaurant in the park (the cost is the price of the ticket). It is a fancy restaurant, but it is very kid friendly (they even have a special 3 course kids menu), and you don't have to dress up at all (you can go in your shorts and flip flops).

A lot of the other destinations like Palm Springs, Mammoth, Lake Arrowhead, etc., are a lot of fun, but they are places where you probably will want to stay more than just one day.

During ski season, Mountain High and Big Bear are pretty popular for day trips. A lot of people travel there just for the day to go skiing, and then they leave at night.

Answer 2

Napa Valley? I guess you could do it if you flew to SF. Otherwise, I'd say it's a bit too far. San Diego or Santa Barbara come to mind. Or even Carpinteria. The best part about those areas is that you can take the train there. Just hop on the train, and don't worry about traffic. Unlike LA, you can walk around and see quite a bit in any of those places. In fact, I'll be in Carpinteria this weekend. Stop by and say hi.

Answer 3

Try some of the Regional parks in and around San Bernardino, such as Prado and Ontario. A day trip to Mt Baldy would also be fun. Minor league baseball is relatively inexpensive. There's the Quakes in Rancho Cucamonga and the 66er's in San Bernardino. During the cherry season, go cherry picking in Cherry Valley. Tom's Farms is also a great place to go in Corona, its a antique/general contry store.
Contrary to popular belief there are great things to do in the Inland Empire....

Answer 4

go on down to Laguna Beach. Great restaurants and good music. The beach is wonderful.

Then, You can go up to Lake arrowhead or Big Bear Lake in the local mountains. You are real close to Arrowhead and its a good summer place to play.

That's one of the nice things about L.A. there are very many choices of what to do. Oh... You have Disneyland and all the other theme parks as well.

Answer 5

I don't know if you're treaveling w/children or not, if you're coming from Chino, you can go shopping at Cabazon outlet (next to Morongo Casino-go gambling too if you like) on the way to Palm Springs (it's really hot there right now though) or you can go wine tasting down in Temecula. Or drive down to OC to Laguna Beach, Chino is a bit far from LA, but if you'd like to you can go to Melrose, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade, The Grove, etc. Have fun.