Every option, every cost, broken all the way down: where you sleep, how you get around, what you eat, and what you do. Built to answer the real question, which combination is best value across the entire trip, not just the cheapest hotel.
Live prices pulled 23 June 2026. A green dot live verified price means I read it from the booking source today. An amber dot estimate means it is a realistic projection (Uber fares, food, things that move). Re-confirm the exact figure when you book.
The Marriott backup (Courtyard Central) was cancelled 30 May, so there is no second hotel in play. Everything below is the still-to-spend money, the part you are actually deciding.
Because the LA leg and the booked Comic-Con hotel sit in the middle, your San Diego base is naturally three short stays (3 + 2 + 2 nights), not one. And Comic-Con week sells out the walkable downtown hotels for the Jul 21-22 window (verified: the two downtown options are already sold out those nights), so a downtown hotel cannot cover the whole stay alone.
Change any choice and the total updates. This is the still-to-spend money for all three of you, on top of the $2,253 already paid.
| Scenario ▼ | Lodging | Transport | Attractions | Food | Total |
|---|
Totals are still-to-spend for all three, excluding the $2,253 already-paid Comic-Con hotel and the booked flights. "Smart food" assumes a free-breakfast base; with Kings Inn (no free breakfast) add roughly $200 to food.
| Where ▼ | Area | Covers | Room total | Rating | Reviews |
|---|
Room-only, 2 guests early / 3 guests later, live from Booking.com 23 Jun 2026 verified. Airbnb figures are from a live browser search 22 Jun (4.8+ rating, minimal/no cleaning fee, instant-book) 1 day old. The downtown hotels are sold out for Jul 21-22, which is why a single downtown base is impossible.
| Piece | Train plan | Car plan | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Diego to LA and back (2 people) | $144-220 | in car cost | Amtrak coach, $36/person each way verified floor. Reservations mandatory (World Cup), seats sell out, book now. |
| LA-leg rental, all-in | - | $486-674 | Base + insurance + tax + gas + Loews valet ($60/night) verified. You are the only driver. |
| LA local (3 days, 2 people) | $73-101 Loews / $152-214 citizenM | included in car | Loews sits on the train line to Universal ($1.75/person). citizenM is off it, so more Ubers. estimate |
| San Diego local (no-Con days) | $88-153 | $88-153 | Walkable downtown vs Uber-everywhere Mission Valley. Comic-Con days are $0 (shuttle). estimate |
| Net on the LA leg | $217-321 | $486-674 | Train saves $165-353 with Loews, and removes all solo-driving. Car only wins if you want maximum Disneyland flexibility. |
| Activity | Day | Per person | Party total | Tag |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Studios Hollywood | Jul 19 | $109-130 | $240 (2) | verified |
| Disneyland (1 day, 1 park) | Jul 20 or 18 | $149 | $298 (2) | verified tier |
| San Diego Zoo (Nighttime) | Jul 26 | $78 | $234 (3) | estimate |
| SeaWorld (optional) | Jul 27 | ~$95 | $285 (3) | estimate |
| Celebrity-homes bus tour | Jul 20 (if no Disney) | $39-50 | $90 (2) | estimate |
| Erewhon smoothies (Beverly Hills) | LA leg | $23 | $46 (2) | verified |
| Griffith Observatory, Walk of Fame, MJ star | LA leg | free | $0 | verified |
| Style | Per person / day | 13-day party total | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smart mix | ~$50 modest day | ~$1,640 | Free hotel breakfast (worth ~$15/person/day), some groceries, casual lunches, a few nice dinners. modelled |
| Eat out mostly | ~$85-100 mid day | ~$2,155 | Restaurants most meals, no breakfast saving. About $515 more. |
| Theme-park days | $60-80 in-park | included above | Captive pricing. The Zoo lets you bring a packed lunch (saves the most). |
Backbone: Numbeo San Diego and Los Angeles restaurant averages, June 2026 verified ($25 casual meal both cities; mid-range dinner for two $98-120). Named treats: Erewhon smoothie $23, a couple of nice Little Italy dinners ~$200 for two.
Re-checked the earlier "skip it" call. It does not hold: Disneyland is doable car-free for as little as ~$328 for two (the old estimate of $500+ overstated both the ticket floor and the logistics). The 70th-anniversary celebration runs through 9 August 2026. Here are the three ways to slot it in.
Check out of LA after 2 nights, ride the train to Anaheim, spend Jul 20 at Disneyland, sleep one night near the park, take the morning train to San Diego on Jul 21. This relocates your third LA night rather than adding one, so it is nearly cost-neutral on lodging, keeps Universal, and breaks nothing in the jet-lag or rest-day plan. The only thing it gives up is the Jul 20 Beverly Hills / Griffith pottering day.
Net cost for two: tickets $298 + Anaheim night ~$160 + train and bus ~$50, minus the LA night you no longer book (~$185-275). Roughly $230-320 extra, all-in. tickets verified hotel/transit estimate
Keep all three LA nights and spend Jul 18 at Disneyland (Friday, cheaper tier, $149/person). Reach it car-free by train and the OCTA bus, about 1.5 hours each way. The catch: it stacks two full theme-park days (Universal + Disneyland) into a 3-day leg, which is tiring, and Jul 18 is also your arrival-from-San-Diego day. ~$328-338 for two, no extra hotel night. tickets verified
San Diego to Anaheim is 95 miles each way (not 35, a figure I corrected during research), so this is a 16-hour day with 4-5 hours of transit on top of a full park day. It also displaces the Zoo or SeaWorld. Only makes sense if the LA leg is completely full. ~$418 by train, far more by rideshare.
Disneyland 1-day ticket is dynamic: Jul 18 and Jul 20 are the cheap tier ($149), Jul 19 Saturday is the dear one ($184, avoid). Skip-the-line (Lightning Lane) is about $32/person extra and optional. Parking is moot car-free; the resort shuttle closed in March 2026, so the route is now the train to Anaheim plus the $2 OCTA bus.
Train, Disneyland via the Anaheim stopover, hybrid San Diego base, Loews in LA, smart food. Jet-lag pacing and the protected rest day are built in.
Take the train, add Disneyland through the Anaheim stopover, and stop worrying about the cheapest hotel. Here is the reasoning end to end:
Train over car. It saves $165-353 on the LA leg, removes every mile of solo driving (Janika does not drive), and the Comic-Con shuttle already covers the convention days. A car only earns its keep if you want a flexible Disneyland day trip, and the Anaheim stopover solves that without a car. Book the train now: reservations are mandatory this summer and sell out.
Disneyland is worth it and cheap to add. The Anaheim stopover (Option C) folds the flagship park in for roughly $230-320 net, keeps Universal, and does not touch your jet-lag days or the rest day before Comic-Con. The earlier "too expensive, breaks the trip" verdict was wrong on the numbers.
San Diego base: the hybrid is the value pick, Hampton if you want it simple. The hybrid (Mission Valley for the early and middle nights, a walkable downtown suite for after Comic-Con) is the cheapest sensible shape at ~$1,673 and puts you walkable when it counts, with free breakfast the back half. If you would rather book one hotel and never think about it, Hampton (one base, free breakfast, ~$1,881) is the clean call. Kings Inn is the rock-bottom one-hotel option but has no free breakfast.
LA base: Loews, on the all-in maths. citizenM's room is ~$270 cheaper, but being off the train line eats most of that back in Ubers (Universal alone is a $50-70 ride versus $7 on the train from Loews). Loews also has the better location for your actual LA days (Walk of Fame at the door). The real gap is closer to $170, and it buys a materially better trip.
The honest whole-trip number. With food counted (which the old $3,400 did not), the recommended build lands at about $5,245 still to spend for all three of you, on top of the $2,253 already paid (so roughly $7,500 all-in before flights). Trim toward ~$4,960 by dropping Disneyland and going lean on bases; push toward ~$6,330 with SeaWorld, skip-the-line, and eating out every meal. Disneyland itself is only ~$300 of that swing.