Los Angeles Attractions For The Family

 Are you planning a family vacation to LA? Maybe you’re already putting together a trip plan complete with a schedule, a map marked up with the course you want to take?

 No matter what stage you’re in of planning, you can’t visit the host city of Disneyland without hitting some other fantastic attractions that will leave you and your family with (hopefully) great memories for decades to come.

  • Disneyland
  • Disney’s California Adventure
  • California Science Center
  • Aquarium of the Pacific
  • Venice Beach Boardwalk
  • Universal Studios Hollywood

Disneyland

  • Location: 1313 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim CA 92802
  • Phone: 714.781.4565
  • Hours: Vary. See website for hours of operation.
  • Cost: Adults (10 & up) $63; Children (3-9) $53, (2 & under) free.
  • Web: http://www.disneyland.com


The Magic Kingdom reigns supreme when it comes to blending amusement park thrills with fantastical themes and glossy, candy-colored perfection everywhere you look.

Inside the park, you’ll walk along the idyllic Main Street, USA. Along the way, you’ll notice a couple of the many Disney characters signing autographs for their fans. This may even be your toddler’s highlight – nothing beats a hug from Mickey – in spite of everything else the adventure has in store.

The park is cleverly divided into sections ranging in theme from the historical to the imaginative. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the options, so you may wish to strategize a bit. Definitely use your park map, which you can pick up for free at the entrance.

Disney’s California Adventure

  • Location: 1313 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim CA 92802
  • Phone: 714.781.4565
  • Hours: Vary. Call or go to the website for hours of operation.
  • Cost: Adults (10 & up) $63; Children (3-9) $53, (2 & under) free.
  • Web: http://www.disneyland.com


California Adventure, the companion park to Disneyland, serves up the industry giant’s unique meld of fantasy and reality, plus a healthy dollop of thrills and chills. It’s smaller than Disneyland, but still offers a more-than-satisfactory selection of rides – and tends to be less crowded.

Like Disneyland’s Main Street, DCA’s Sunshine Plaza is the “hub,” reached by walking a pedestrian thoroughfare lined with colorful shops. A left turn at this hub takes you to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. A Bug’s Land and Golden Vine Winery veer off from the hub next, with Pacific Wharf and Paradise Pier further down that same offshoot. (DCA is not a perfect circle, and most attractions are actually off to the right as you enter.) Grizzly Peak, The Bay Area, and Condor Flats are on the right.

California Science Center

  • Location: 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90037
  • Phone: 213.744.7400
  • Hours: Daily, 10am-5pm. (Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year’s Day.
  • Cost: Adults $5 (suggested donation)
  • Web: http://www.californiasciencecenter.org


This state-of-the-art science museum easily merits a day-long visit to experience fully all three floors of stimulating – and fun – hands-on exhibitions and activities.

The experience starts before you even get inside the museum, with Science Plaza and the Lorsch Pavilion: magenta skylights cast moving shadows of color over the ground below – with sculptures accessible for exploring and paving stones that pose thought-provoking questions.

Younger kids will enjoy watching incubated eggs hatch into baby chicks or tadpoles turn into frogs. And there are plenty of exhibits to fascinate and educate older kids, too. Cries of gross or cool can be heard as they watch an actual heart surgery projected onto a patient in Surgery Theater.

Aquarium of the Pacific

  • Location: 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach CA 90802
  • Phone: 562.590.3100
  • Hours: Daily 9am-6pm (Closed Christmas Day, & during the Long Beach Grand Prix).
  • Cost: Adults $20.95; Seniors $17.95; Children (3-11) $11.95; (under 3) free
  • Web: http://www.aquariumofpacific.org


The Aquarium in Long Beach is a terrific facility celebrating the inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean. You’ll find tropical fish exhibits, coral reefs, sea otters, seals and sea lions, sea turtles, and sea birds.

The exhibits stretch from floor to ceiling; kids can lie right down on the carpets and stare up as schools of brightly colored tropical fish go swimming by, and feel that cold thrill as a shark suddenly darts into the picture. Scuba divers make periodic appearances to feed the fish and clean the coral, and are quite willing to wave and clown around for delighted children.

The centerpiece is the 10,000 square foot Shark Lagoon, which offers visitors the opportunity to touch and interact with bamboo, nurse, epaulette, and zebra sharks in shallow pools. One section, featuring above-and-below water views, allows guests to get nose-to-nose (but not, happily, hand-to-mouth) with large, toothy sharks. Sand tiger (endangered in Australia), zebra, nurse, and whitetip reef sharks, as well as rays, are featured. Special daily feeding presentations are a predictably huge draw – who doesn’t want to watch sharks eat?

Opportunities for observing and touching other live creatures also abound, both above and under water. There are 19 major habitats on two levels, and 32 focus exhibits. Squeamish kids may not want to feel the sea urchins and anemones, but aquarium staffers are on hand to help those who do.

Venice Beach Boardwalk



One of southern California’s most famous attractions is also one of of its most interesting. There’s a sandy three-mile beach here, but that’s not what attracts visitors, who come to Venice’s Boardwalk to shop and gawk.

For the entire length of colorful Ocean Front Walk, street performers, including instrumental musicians, singers, jugglers, acrobats, mimes, comics, magicians, and fortune tellers entertain tourist crowds. But in addition to the Boardwalk’s sidewalk circus atmosphere, there are plenty of activities for locals and families.

There are courts for basketball, handball, shuffleboard, and paddle tennis. Just behind famed Muscle Beach, where fanatic bodybuilders pump iron in a public show of strength, there is a lovely children’s playground sitting right on the edge of the beach. The view of the surfer-filled waves and Malibu Mountains in the distance is a sight to behold while the little ones slide on the slides.

Universal Studios Hollywood

  • Location: 1000 Universal City Plaza
  • Phone: 818.622.3801
  • Hours: Vary. Call or go to the website for hours of operation.
  • Cost: Adults $59; Kids (3-11) $49, (under 3) Free
  • Web: http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com


Universal Studios is the ultimate Hollywood experience, combining adventures in movie-making, thrill rides, and live-action shows in an incredibly well-packaged theme park.

Since shoes are required, we recommend that families carry a pair of flip-flops for each child – lots of water play areas offer great relaxing fun, and no one wants to walk around in soggy sneakers. A change of clothes and lightweight rain ponchos are also a good idea.

Start with the world-famous Backlot Studio Tour, a 45-minute tram ride that takes you to sets of hit movies and TV shows, and also brings you face-to-face with flash floods, the shark from Jams, and a nerve-rattling earthquake. Trams leave frequently, and it should be noted that, if at all possible, it’s best to avoid the first car, which houses the engine (that makes for a very loud ride). The best bet is the third car, starting at the third row from the front.

After the tour check out Shrek 4-D, a hilarious interactive film that includes “seat effects.” The initial holding area may seem scary to little ones as there’s lots of talk about torture, and it is rather dark. Reassure them that it’s only a movie, with seats that jiggle a little, and all will be well.

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