Why California, again?

The answer to 'Why California' is pretty simple:

1) California is child-friendly.

2) California is not cold in the winter.

3) California is suited to any budget.

Those are pretty broad statements about a pretty big state, but you can see for yourself that it is an extremely diverse region, with something for every type of tourist.

Why did I pick California for my latest Mom & son get-away?

Sample flight times to Phoenix

1) Flying Westjet airlines out of YBR (Brandon's teeny tiny, one-flight-a-day, airport) means that you can get to west coast destinations fairly easily. My travel buddy was under 10 years old and therefore we needed to get to our destination with as little delay and fuss as possible. That gave us 4 options outside of Canada that we could reach in 1 day of travel with no layover on the way there. You simply can't avoid a layover on the return flight. Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Palm Springs are your options. Yes, you can get to other destinations such as San Diego, Anaheim and Texas BUT only with a 1 night layover in Calgary or Vancouver. You CAN (technically) get to Hawaii in one day of travel BUT I tried and that didn't work. NOT worth the gamble to exhaust a child and fly through that many time zones.

Since the Superbowl was taking place in Phoenix, that was out. I'm not dragging a child through LAX   so that instantly eliminated Los Angeles. Las Vegas isn't for children, so that was definitely a 'NO'. So that left Palm Springs as our only viable option.

2) California has family-friendly activities in every city.  (Tune in to future blog posts for some of the amazing things we did in Palm Springs, including riding a camel!)

3) Southern California temperatures in January bounce around that 20C mark. Since Manitoba bounces around -20C in January, this seemed hot enough for our winter escape. Since Palm Springs is centred in a desert area which boasts 350 days of sunshine a year, we thought the odds were good for warm weather.

4) I could travel confidently to California as I had done it a few times in the past already.

5) California has budget friendly hotel options. It is a big enough tourist region that you can also use Hotwire or Air Miles/Aeroplan to grab an even better deal.