We made our first trip to SoCal in June, and we fell in love with it. My sister-in-law lives and works in Hollywood, so we got to spend a little time with her, which was nice.
We flew into SNA (john wayne) and rented a car, drove to Newport Beach to see the ocean (LOVE Newport Beach!!), then drove to the HoJo across Harbor from Disneyland. This was a perfect location for our trip. We had 5 day hoppers for Disneyland/DCA, we did an LA day, a whale watching day, a beach day, and some evening exploring. HoJo has free parking in the lot and it is so easy to get on the freeway to go whichever direction you need.
Here's a rundown of what we did:
Arrival Day - picked up rental, went to beach, went to hotel, downtown disney
Day 1 - Disneyland
Day 2 - DCA
Day 3 - Beach and exploring. We started out by going to the Pacific Marine Mammal center to see the sea lions and seals that are rescued and rehabbed and sent back into the wild or to a zoo, depending on their age/situation. Then on to Laguna Beach, where I would move to in a red hot minute if I could. We were going to go to an aquarium, but couldn't ignore the call of the water, so we stopped off at a Trader Joe's for some food and went to Crystal Cove for the afternoon and played on the beach and in the ocean. Afterward, we went back to the hotel to clean up, found an In and Out burger and then drove to Long Beach to tour the Queen Mary.
Day 4 - Drove to LA, went to LaBrea Tar Pits, went to Hollywood and parked at Hollywood and Highland mall. Saw Hollywood High School on the way (where they filmed Grease, among other things). Saw a few stars on the walk of fame, and checked out the handprints in front of the Chinese Theater, which was surprisingly emotional. Then we met up with my SIL and went up to her office, and up onto the roof of the building and had an awesome rooftop view of Hollywood. We could see into Jimmy Kimmel's backlot, which was fun. SIL went back to work and we explored a little more, drove into Beverly Hills and down Rodeo Dr, a quick cruise by Santa Monica pier and then back over to the Los Feliz neighborhood (near Griffiths Park) where my SIL lives. It was 9 miles from Santa Monica to her apartment and took an hour, so be prepared for that. We walked around her neighborhood, had dinner and Jeni's ice cream (totally recommend!), and then we tried to go up to the Griffith Observatory but some kind of event was going on and we basically just drove in a solid traffic line in and out because there was nowhere to stop or park. It was a nightmare. But pretty to see the city all it up. Then we drove back to the hotel. It took about the same time to get all the way back to Anaheim as it did to go those 9 miles earlier in the day, LOL!!
Day 5 - Disneyland
Day 6 - (Father's Day) Whale Watching in Newport Beach, lunch and a little stop off at the beach before going back to the resort and then Disneyland for Paint the Night and Disneyland Forever.
Day 7 - Hopping between Disneyland/DCA
Day 8 - Drove to Newport Beach to see the ocean one last time, had lunch there, then back to the airport to fly home
We had a great time and would love to spend more time in Southern California in the future. It's beautiful!
Editing to add...driving in LA was not hard at all. Just make sure you have a good GPS and you'll be fine. I had visions of traffic on traffic on traffic, but it was always moving and the streets were just normal busy city streets. If you've ever driven through a city, you can handle LA.