Savvy travelers like you know how to stay out of line at Disneyland, "doing" Disneyland and California Adventure in two days. With a Ridemax touring plan, they dodge crowds as a custom schedule leads to each ride when lines are shortest. With time left over, you can explore the iconic Southern California sights.
Hollywood
Hollywood Boulevard's comeback from decades of decay centers on Hollywood at Highland, home of Kodak Theater and the Academy Awards ceremony.Along the boulevard, star-struck tourists scan the bronze-and-pink star plaques on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for favorite stars' names or pose for pics with Batman, Wonder Woman and other film character look-alikes hanging out in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.
In Grauman's courtyard, even indifferent kids end up sticking their feet in Tom Cruise's shoe prints or grabbing friends to point out a favorite film idol's signature. Take in a first-run feature film here, ogle the scarlet-lacquer-and-gold-leaf Asian decor, watch the crimson, velvet curtains swish open as the show begins, and you'll never look at the local multiplex quite the same way again.
Farmers Market and The Grove
Los Angeles Farmers Market and The Grove blend tradition with modern shopping-center-cum-nouveau-downtown at Third and Fairfax.
Trendy restaurants and shops face the central park area, where a water fountain dances to musical medleys. An old-fashioned, green trolley clatters three blocks to Farmers Market only a little faster than you could get there on foot, but kids love it nevertheless.
Farmers Market maintains a strong connection to its past, its red vinyl stools, green counters and green-painted folding chairs filled with tourists and Hollywood locals who still buy meats and produce here. The air fills with mouth-watering smells from Cajun-flavored Gumbo Pot and the market's international food stalls, and everyone stops for a bite to eat. Looking for celebrities? The Los Angeles Times dubs this unlikely locale the best place to spot them, although frankly, I've never recognized anyone famous when I've been there.
Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive draws more up-market clientele and is better for fashion-conscious pre-teens and teenagers than for little ones. It's pronounced roh-DAY-oh (there are no cowboys here), and the streets aren't paved with gold, but the shoppers who frequent this three-block haven of haute couture must have plenty of it, judging from the Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces and Bentleys parked curbside. Despite its high-falutin' reputation, tourists outnumber shoppers, so don't be embarrassed to join the window-shopping and jaw-dropping.Skip the boring, expensive and often-inaccurate movie stars' home tours over on Hollywood Boulevard and hop on the Beverly Hills Trolley instead. Discreet tour guides won't say who lives here now, but they do dish up tidbits about former residents.
La Brea Tar Pits
Hang around Los Angeles long enough and you may wonder if the place is cracking up. At La Brea Tar Pits, it is. Rock fissures have channeled sticky tar to the surface here for over 30,000 years, trapping uncounted giant sloths, woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats in its gummy grasp.The George Page Museum displays the most interesting finds. Kids like the What It's Like to be Trapped in Tar exhibit, and when a docent is on duty, they can hunt for fossils, too.
Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary has docked in Long Beach for longer than she sailed the seas. Self-guided tours recall an elegant era when the world's fastest ship scooted across the Atlantic in less than four days, but this one-time luxury liner may house more haunts than humans these days. Ghosts and Legends, a walk-through, special-effects tour centers on the blue-tiled, art-deco-style first-class swimming pool. Keep looking down and you might see the mysterious, wet footprints that sometimes appear.Santa Monica's Waterfront
If a driver's brakes failed approaching the end of legendary Route 66 on Los Angeles' western edge, they might have sailed right past the carousel and onto Santa Monica Pier. Today, locals and tourists crowd it on hot summer nights, so thick that their voices all but drown out the sound of the surf as they head for Pacific Park's rides.
