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Condé Nast Traveler picks
 Anaheim for Families
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If ever a town successfully built its economy on the whims of kids, Anaheim can stake a claim. For more than 50 years, the city’s centerpiece, Disneyland, has catered to the junior set, and while clones slowly spread around the globe—Florida, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong—it’s a kick to visit the original of those ersatz worlds. Newcomers to Anaheim might be surprised to discover a plethora of other “kids’ stuff” outside the famous amusement grounds, and with the recent boom in hotel construction, the options for a family visit are ever greater.
Attractions & Activities Not only can you avoid traffic coming from San Diego or Los Angeles, but you can give the kids their first "ride" by booking a trip on Amtrak's bi-level Pacific Surfliner train, which stops in Fullerton's and Santa Ana's historic downtowns as well as Anaheim's. The big news out of Disneyland, is that the Pirates of the Caribbean just got a face-lift. That most classic of all flume rides has just reopened to include Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow character, among others from the hit movie franchise (disneyland.com). Just outside Disneyland, the Downtown Disney District is not a true urban downtown, which may explain the success of this squeaky-clean 385,000-square-foot shopping/entertainment complex with fountains, palm tree islands, and dozens of stores, from Club Libby Lu for budding fashionistas to Sephora for Mom (disneyland.disney.go.com). With Mickey’s legacy looming so large, it’s easy to miss the fine small museums around Anaheim, but they can serve as an antidote to the hyperspeed vacation. The Anaheim Museum occupies a 1908 Carnegie-funded library in the historic district. Displays document local Native American, Hispanic, and Asian cultural histories, along with the city’s late-nineteenth-century German winemaking origins—orange groves and the Anaheim chili pepper were cultivated only after a virus called the Anaheim disease wiped out the vineyards in the 1880s (714-778-3301; anaheimmuseum.com). Less than ten minutes down the Santa Ana Freeway, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana has interactive exhibits that are as much fun as a mini–theme park, and their elucidations of the physics behind earthquakes and other natural phenomena are worth an entire afternoon (714-542-2823; discoverycube.org). A few more freeway minutes south, Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum has one of the state’s finest collections of artifacts from California’s colonial period as well as pre-Columbian artifacts. Scheduled storytelling and cultural performances take place in its Kidseum, across the street (714-567-3600; bowers.org). A few miles back north, the Fullerton Museum Center mounts extensive revolving exhibits, but for a lesson in Southern California pop culture—is there any other kind?—visit the small permanent gallery devoted to local tinkerer Leo Fender, who single-handedly changed modern music by popularizing the solid-body electric guitar (714-738-6545; cityoffullerton.com). In downtown Anaheim, young hockey fans can drop into Anaheim ICE, the Mighty Ducks’ training rink, for a skating session of their own (300 W. Lincoln Ave.; 714-535-7465; anaheimice.com). A few years removed from their first World Series championship, the Los Angeles Angels baseball club also caters to kids with plenty of promotional days at Anaheim Stadium (888-796-4256; mlb.com). Lodging The Grand Californian Hotel, abutting the new roller coaster–rich Adventure Park in Downtown Disney, replicates a national park lodge on a massive scale and has Arts and Crafts touches throughout. With its plush leather sofas, stone fireplace, and player piano at your disposal, you may want to just pitch a tent in the soaring lobby. Within the last five years, a cluster of properties have been added up and down Harbor Boulevard as part of a long-term development project; most are kid-friendly and provide frequent shuttle service to the park. Hampton Inn and Suites calls its family dwellings Kidsland Rooms. Marriott’s Residence Inn has a playroom where movies are screened and Kids’ Suites that sleep up to eight. The bright-yellow, quasi-Mediterranean Portofino Inn and Suites Hotel also has Kids' Suites, which sleep six and have bunk beds. While the parents are checking in, staff at the Embassy Suites send enthusiastic youngsters in search of the elusive house turtle that lives in the lobby pond and waterfall. Just outside the park entrance, the Candy Cane Inn has regrettably lost its kitschy sixties-era candy cane decor but remains family-friendly. Among other upgraded motels that surround the park, the mission-style Anabella Hotel is the most pleasant, and its two outdoor pools will be a family hit. Dining Downtown Disney is chockablock with restaurants. After consuming burgers, pizza, or "Jurassic chicken tidbits," kids and teens can get lost while racking up charges on your credit card in the jungly retail section of the Rainforest Cafe, just inside the mall (entrées, $7-$14). Across the pathway, Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen may not have a children's menu, but thanks to its faux New Orleans motifs and nightly live music, kids will enjoy scarfing copious amounts of creole shrimp as much as adults do (714-776-5200; entrées, $16-$30). Napa Rose, in the Grand Californian Hotel, is the area's most sophisticated dining room, with a wine list longer than Pinocchio's nose and unexpectedly, perhaps—a kids' menu to complement adult choices such as chervil-crusted Alaskan halibut (714-781-3463; entrées, $28-$37). Very near the park, Gandhi Palace is worth strolling to for the lunchtime buffet of tikka masala and vindaloo dishes that you won't find on Walt's Main Street (515 W. Katella Ave.; 714-808-6777; lunch buffet, $7). Angelo & Vinci's Italian restaurant is a landmark in downtown Fullerton. Housed in an old marketplace, it has terra-cotta tiles and cherub statues that make for a theatrical ambience (550 N. Harbor Blvd.; 714-879-4022; entrées, $6-$16). Sure it's a national chain serving "immigrant Southern Italian Dining," but Buca di Beppo has over-the-top Italian-American decor that is a lark for youngsters. The carb-heavy menu is a great way to recharge after a day spent riding the Matterhorn (11757 Harbor Blvd.; 714-740-2822; entrées, $14-$27). Authentic SoCal Mexican doesn't get any better than at La Casa García, where the García family has cooked for more than 30 years in a quaint no-frills kitchen in a strip mall (531 W. Chapman Ave.; 714-740-1108; entrées, $10-$14). Truth in Travel is the guiding principle for all content published in Condé Nast Traveler. Other travel publications often accept free travel and accommodations. Condé Nast Traveler does not. It is independent of the travel industry. The magazine always pays its way, and, as far as possible, its correspondents travel anonymously. By doing so, they experience the world—both the good and the bad—as other travelers do, and their reports and recommendations are fair, impartial, and authoritative.
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