Help me plan our summer vacation to LA

Rent the car, L.A. is too big to go without.

With a VIP card, Universal is do-able in 1 day.

While I can't recommend hotels, I do recommend that you consider staying next to the attraction you are visiting. So for Universal/Beverly Hills you could stay at the nearby Sheraton. For Santa Monica/Getty Center you stay in a west side hotel. For Disneyland you stay in Anaheim.

How fun! Sounds like you have a great start on the planning!

We are in planning mode over here too! DH and DS are going to US in May to see the Harry Potter stuff. In June, all 4 of us will be heading to Disneyland.

Here are my thoughts:

Hotels - The hotels in and around Hollywood seem pretty pricy for "just a place to sleep". I booked my guys at a place close to the Burbank airport instead. For Disneyland, we love Howard Johnson's but you can use the disboards to get recommendations. Best Western PPI in super close to the gates but I would t stay there if you want a nice pool.

Transportation - We always rent a car. If you book thru Costco travel and check the prices every so often, you can get great rates! At Dianeyland, you won't need a car but it would probably be cheaper to keep it and use it for the return to the airport.

DLR - I agree with the disboards, 3 days would be our minimum. Can it be done in 2 days, probably, but 3 (or 4) would be so much better!

US - I haven't been to US since the early 80's but what I gather (from reading the disboards), US is a half a day park without the Harry Potter stuff. With only 2 HP rides it would seem like it is doable in just 1 day. Now I have also read that there could be 6 hour lines for the HP rides once it is officially open. Yikes! Also, if you buy your tickets online, US gives you early entry to the park.

I would also recommend visiting a beach - we llike Santa Monica and the pier or Huntington Beach.

I will come back and answer your Universal questions after we go in late March! (You may have to remind me!)

I think you can do Disney in 2 days, wth the understanding that you may not see/do everything (but prob close to it!). CA is very spread out compared to DL- it's a breath of fresh air over on that side. Even when DL is packed and lines are long, CA never seems to feel so packed. I can give lots of Disney advice (if Dumbo is on your list do it first! That line is ridiculous!) if you need any more! We usually do one sit down meal the whole time. I take drinks and snacks in a backpack and do counter service the rest of the time. I also take and put a blanket (and or jackets) in a locker near the gate of CA for the nighttime parade and/or World of Color show.

If you're flying Southwest, and are starting with Disney and ending in LA, book your flight into Santa Ana/Orange County and leave out of Burbank or LAX. That way, you can plan your route from OC up to LA and not have to double back and waste time on the commute back to an airport.

Bike ride along the beach in Santa Monica, if that's not your thing at least go see the pier
LACMA (the rain room will be gone by the time you go)
The Getty Center
Japanese American National Museum

Everyone has given you some great places to visit... Just thought I would add a few that my kids LOVED! We went to Cali 3 yrs ago. We traveled the entire state in 9 days. In LA, go and see the Endeavour Space Shuttle @ the California Science Center. Your son will love it. My kids were all teens ( youngest was 10, oldest was 16) and they were in awe. they could not believe the size of it. it is a truly amazing thing to see as a child and as an adult.

We also did some drive bys -- It is neat to see the Tar Pits and the lights all lit up outside of the LA Museum of Art. Both of these places are close to each other. But one you need to see during the day, the other is neat to see at night.

Griffith Observatory is neat too. We did not have time to go in, but the best viewing of the "Hollywood" sign is from up there.

We did not do disney when we went to cali. We went to Disney World in 2009 and that was enough for my kids. We did go to lego land, it was our 10yr olds dream to go there, so we did. Even the 16yr old had fun and did not complain. We stayed in Oceanside Cali right on the beach at Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort. My kids enjoyed being at the beach and that put us about 1/2 between Sandiego and LA and not too far from lego Land.

We just got back from our trip and wanted to fill you in on Universal.

Definitely, definitely do the VIP tour! It was actually our favorite day of all of vacation. It was amazing and so worth the extra money. The backstage tour is great. They provide cold water and ponchos for the water ride if we wanted. The breakfast and lunch especially are really great food. They are in VIP only locations so it's fast. You feel really well taken care of. You walk right onto rides and have reserved/preferred seating for all shows (so no wasted time there either). So this all makes it easy to do in one day. We would absolutely do it again this way.

We did end up getting to see the Harry Potter part, and that was so fun! My youngest daughter got picked out for the wand choosing ceremony thing -very memorable and neat for her because she is quiet and would never raise her hand to be chosen. We ended up buying wands, butterbeer, and a bunch of goodies at Honeydukes lol. The interactive wands can be used at several areas in the park to do magic and they loved it! The big ride - The Forbidden Journey - has had reports of large numbers of motion sickness and vomiting on the rise. I felt a little bit off but nothing bad and none of the 8 of my party did either. We loved it. My only complaint is the que line is very very dark and the moving floor to get onto and off the ride moves very fast (and since I was a little off balance getting off the ride, I about fell both times getting off- it was annoying!). I think if the brightened the que up and slowed that down, it would be perfect. Flight of the Hippogriff was super smooth and fun, just very short.

Hope that helps!

If you like sushi, look into Sugarfish in Studio City. It is a spin-off of Sushi Nozawa, slightly famous for being home of the "Sushi Nazi". I took my daughter when she was 2. The restaurant was absurdly rude, but quickly changed their tune when she ate everything.  

Oh, I'm glad I linked it. I love their corn chowder and a side of grilled corn . 

We just got back from Disney / LA last week and had a fun time! We heart the Park Vue and have stayed there many times. The location can't be beat. I really think 3 days in Disney is enough. We've always done 3 days, especially when the kids were little / slower. This time we did 2 days and it really was enough time so your 3 will be plenty.

Disney tip - the big rides are good with the fast passes, which I'm sure you know. We always do 1 ride with the fast pass and then we switch to single riders. The single riders line moves so quickly for certain rides - do a search on which single rider lines are worth it. With our fast pass we waited 10 min in line at radiator springs but with the single riders line we waited 2 minutes. And that was with me waiting to get in the same car as little dd. We sat next to people who had waited 2 hrs (omg!). We rode again and again with the single riders line. My older dd wanted splash mountain but we didn't - took her less than 15 min w/ the SR line when the regular line was an hour. The ride to go to first thing in the morning is toy story at California adventure. Longest line ever, no fast pass, great ride.

We prefer the food in California adventure - we find it a bit healthier.

My dd likes the pineapple dole whip at the tiki house (fun show don't miss it) but the line up was too long this time for him to get one - I didn't want to wait.

We just did Universal CA and for sure you can see everything in one day. We didn't spend the whole day - left a couple of hours early because we'd done everything (except Jurassic park - no one wanted to do it). The ride line ups were not very long. At the height of the day they got to 30 minutes but those were generous estimates because no line got that long. We got in 1 hr early and did the Harry Potter ride a couple of times before it got busy. There was no wait. All of the rides (except Jurassic park which has an 80 ft drop and the mummy - which I wouldn't do because it goes backwards super fast and I was scared I'd get a migraine) are all 3D simulators so they can be nauseating if you do them too many times. We all felt a bit yucky after HP. We recouped though - transformers was great and so was the Simpsons ride.

One thing I'll say - we ate in Springfield (it was extra hard to find healthy food and the food lines were long - give yourself time). We are by the donut shop. There are the most massive donuts possible. Two families sat next to us and both families asked if we'd share their donuts because they just couldn't eat them all. We met nice people and shares tasty treats. We decided they were the best seats ever . Ha ha. We stayed at the Hilton across the street. Good location. Not much around there. We didn't go to city walk. We've been before and wanted different food.

We stayed at the Lowes in Santa Monica so right by the pier. The pier is nice. We were there for a family function so we had 20 family members and 20 friends staying there - my sister also lives in Santa Monica so we've been there a lot - so we stayed at the pool a lot. The pier was fun but after Disney.... My girls got their names done where they paint the letters in animal pictures and they're up in their rooms already. Cool souvenir. Relax by walking on the promenade, visit the grove. We had some good kosher Persian food and ate at a very authentic and delicious Israeli place called Taeen which was highly rated. Loved it.

Have a great time!

Yes, use Waze app to get around. It will help with traffic.
A Shake Shack is now open in West Hollywood. The lines are still insane, though.