Has anyone stayed in San Clemente or Capistrano Beach?

[mad hatter fan]

My inlaws are giving us a week in a timeshare for Christmas. (As long as they can find one to trade into.) We would love to be real close to Disneyland for our whole trip, but MIL heard that the two choices nearby are almost impossble to trade into, especially since we are not very flexible in our dates.
Has anyone every stayed at the San Clemente Inn or San Clemente Cove? RCI (who they trade through) does not have much for photos or reviews. Another option would be the Capistrano Surfside Inn in Capsitrano Beach.

We would stay at a hotel across from Disneyland for 5 - 7 days after our week in the timeshare, but we would like to go to Disneyland 1 or 2 days while in the timeshare. How bad would the drive be? Getting up early would not be a problem since we are coming from MN and the kids will probably take a while to adjust to the time change and not get up at dawn. LOL We might go to Legoland while at the timeshare. How long would the drive be from San Clemente to Legoland?

I know the location is not ideal for a Disneyland trip, but $ isn't available to pay for the whole time ourselves. If we have the right attitude we can make this work, can't we? I don't want to be disappointed, but it is either this or not go. We will be getting 7 or 8 day tickets. (yes we want to go this many days ) I had been planning to spread out our Disney days a bit more than this arrangement will allow. But I do have family we will be spending 2-3 days with and will now arrange that and the Legoland day for our timeshare week.

Any advice for when staying far from Disneyland? Any reviews on these timeshares? Thanks much!

 

[eduk8r26]

Don't know anything about places to stay in San Clemente or Capistrano Beach. Check tripadvisor.com for some reviews. I do know it's about 30 minutes or less to Legoland from San Clemente. Check their website for hours and days open. They are closed 2 days of the week during the off-season.

 

[Mom2micayla]

My in-laws do RCI too and we've stayed a few times at Capistrano Surfside Inn. It's not a bad timeshare at all. Not top of the line, but decent. I think the 1/2 of the rooms have an ocean view. The others have a view of the cliff behind the resort. All you have to do is take a short walkway over the top of the PCH to be right on the beach. As far as driving to DLR from there.. not bad at all. It's approx. a 30-40 min. drive, depending on traffic.

We'll be staying in Capistrano this Nov. for a week at a different time share (Riviera Beach & Spa Resort) which is just up the street from Surfside Inn. We plan on doing Disney most of the days were there, even with the drive.

 

[MadfordaMouse]

We lived in San Clemente for 3 years, in fact my oldest daughter was born there! We now live in AZ but still visit San Clemente whenever we do our Disney vacations. We love the area! Its a favorite of ours to sit on the pier at the Fisherman's bar and restaurant and have clam chowder and watch the sunset. The outdoor patio area is built directly over the surf and each table has its own heater nearby so its very nice even on chilly evenings. Now that we have 2 kids age 8 and 12, we get them a tropical virgin drink like a colada or daquiri and appetizers and they love the tradition too. Dana Point by the harbor has some great shops and restaurants, we try to hit up the 'ol El Torito for dinner one night, now that we live in the Prescott area in AZ and don't have one in our town (I can remember having serious cravings for that corn cake stuff they put on the plate with each entree when I was expecting! I usually order a whole bowl of it when we go for sentimental reasons). There are of course some wonderful non-chain restaurants there as well and the area is great for taking walks around the marina after a late lunch!

This October we will be staying at San Clemente State Beach in our 5th wheel and commuting to Disney and Knotts from there, just as we did 2 years ago, and find the drive to be not bad. There will be morning traffic, so make use of the carpool lanes, it usually takes us around a half hour or so to reach the Disney parking garage as long as there aren't any accidents on the freeway (knock on wood). We usually keep blankets in the truck so the kids can cozy up for the drive home from Disney since we always try to go in the off season. Hope this helps. Have a great trip!