Even as adults, we loved playing with LEGO as children. So it’s not surprising that we have lots of boxes of the small, colorful building blocks at home and that our older daughter loves playing with them. So it was only natural that we should make a stop at LEGOLAND California on our road trip to the USA this year.
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Things to know about LEGOLAND California
LEGOLAND California Resort is an amusement and theme park resort in Carlsbad (California), which is only about 30 minutes north of San Diego and one hour south of Anaheim (location in Google Maps). The theme park is aimed at families with children aged 2 to 12 and offers a variety of experiences in different areas, all built from Lego bricks. The resort was opened in 1999 as the first LEGOLAND park outside Europe. In 2024, the park will be celebrating its 25th anniversary, for which a large LEGO cake was set up at the entrance. It looked really cool!
LEGOLAND includes the LEGOLAND theme park with over 60 child-friendly rides, shows and attractions, the world’s first LEGOLAND water park with 7 water slides and sandy beaches, two unique themed hotels (LEGOLAND Hotel & LEGOLAND Castle Hotel) and a SEA LIFE Aquarium. The LEGOLAND Hotels have a total of 500 rooms with different themes: Pirates, Kingdom, Adventure and LEGO Friends. The LEGOLAND Castle Hotel offers rooms with the themes of knights and dragons, wizards and princesses. There is also evening children’s entertainment, interactive LEGO elements throughout the hotel and early access to LEGOLAND Park for hotel guests.
There are nine other LEGOLAND parks in the world: LEGOLAND Billund in Denmark, LEGOLAND Windsor outside London, LEGOLAND Florida and LEGOLAND New York in the USA, LEGOLAND Günzburg in Germany, LEGOLAND Malaysia, LEGOLAND Dubai, LEGOLAND Japan and LEGOLAND Korea. Last fall we were already at LEGOLAND Florida and the associated hotel, where we really enjoyed it 🙂
Tickets via San Diego CityPASS®
On the LEGOLAND California Resort website you can buy a 1-day ticket from 114 USD (for adults and children aged 2 and over) – for LEGOLAND only. As a family with two children, you already pay USD 456 for the day admission alone and haven’t even eaten or drunk anything. If you would also like to visit the LEGOLAND water park and SEA LIFE Aquarium, you will have to pay USD 149 per person for this 1-Day RESORT Hopper Ticket. It is often the case in the USA that you pay extra for parking at such parks. Unfortunately, this is also the case at LEGOLAND California and at 34 USD a parking space here is really outrageously expensive – unless you stay directly at the LEGOLAND Hotel, in which case parking is included. From the parking lot it is only a few minutes to the entrance.
If you are planning to visit other sights in San Diego anyway, then the San Diego CityPASS® is definitely worthwhile. With this sightseeing pass, you can visit all the sights included for a low fixed price, saving you time and money.
The pass can be easily purchased via the CityPASS website or from GetYourGuide. The price includes admission to 3 attractions (San Diego Zoo or Safari Park, USS Midway Museum, City Cruises, Birch Aquarium, Old Town Trolley Tours, Maritime Museum of San Diego) as well as tickets to SeaWorld San Diego, LEGOLAND California or both. We had the largest ticket package, i.e. LEGOLAND California + SeaWorld + 3 attractions, for EUR 240 per adult and EUR 220 for children aged 3 and over. Depending on which attractions you visit, you can save up to 42% (compared to buying them individually).
Map of LEGOLAND California
On the following map you can see the size and the different attractions of LEGOLAND California. This map can also be downloaded here as a .pdf version free of charge.
A map of LEGOLAND California
Themed areas at LEGOLAND California
Directly at the entrance to LEGOLAND California, or behind the ticket controls, is The Beginning area, which offers a variety of stores, restaurants and entertainment options. The huge LEGO birthday cake to mark the park’s 25th anniversary was also located here. From here, the various paths lead to the more than 60 rides and attractions.
Miniland USA
As in LEGOLAND Florida, Miniland USA was one of the park’s main attractions for us. Here we were able to admire miniature models of famous US cities and landmarks built entirely from LEGO bricks. From the Statue of Liberty in New York to the casinos in Las Vegas to the White House and State Capitol in Washington, everything has been lovingly recreated in great detail. As a visitor, you can therefore travel across the USA without having to leave the park 😉
Many of the miniature landscapes are also equipped with moving elements and interactive functions. You can make the volcano at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas erupt at the touch of a button or set a chapel playing in front of the Capitol in Washington. Our daughter thought it was totally cool and kept scurrying back and forth to see where the next interactive element was.
San Diego has been given a special place in Miniland USA: It is home to the world’s first LEGO city with the most famous landmarks, most beautiful buildings and historic buildings such as the Gaslamp Quarter, Old Town San Diego and the San Diego Fair. More than two million LEGO bricks were used to create the New York backdrop at LEGOLAND California. Many famous skyscrapers can be found here, as well as the Ground Zero memorial and Central Park. Other recreated sights include the Las Vegas Strip, including ten different hotel complexes, the Griffith Park Observatory, the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
We found Miniland USA absolutely fascinating and spent a lot of time here taking a closer look at even the small details.
On the ‘Coast Cruise’ boat trip, we were able to admire other miniature landscapes such as the Taj Mahal, London’s Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Mount Rushmore. From the boat we also had a great view of the Manhattan skyline, including the Statue of Liberty. It was a great experience for the kids!
Dino Valley
Since March 2024, LEGOLAND California has been home to Dino Valley, where everything revolves around dinosaurs. It features impressive LEGO dinosaurs built from more than 1.8 million LEGO bricks, new rides, meet & greet with characters and build and play areas. We went for a ride in the safari car on the ‘DUPLO Little Dino Trail’ and tried out the ‘Explorer River Quest’ boat trip. Both are perfect for toddlers! There is also a dinosaur roller coaster, the ‘Coastersaurus’.
LEGO Movie World
The LEGO Movie World theme area is based on the popular LEGO film series of the same name. Here you will find attractions such as Queen Watevra’s Carousel, Unikitty’s Disco Drop, Emmet’s Flying Adventure Ride and Benny’s Play Ship, a large climbing frame. We have never actually seen the LEGO movies, but we thought the sets in the themed area and the attractions were very nicely designed.
Fun Town
The Fun Town area offers a variety of rides and attractions for visitors of all ages. We found the ‘LEGO Factory Tour’ super interesting, where we were able to take a look behind the scenes and see how LEGO bricks are made. For those who would like to build their own LEGO creations, there is also the ‘Build & Test’ area in Fun Town. Here, children and adults can give free rein to their creativity and design and test their own vehicles, buildings and much more from LEGO bricks. In the ‘Fun Town Police & Fire Academy’, children are asked to extinguish a fire by steering the vehicle across a road to a burning building and then aiming the water hose at the fire.
The ‘DUPLO Playtown’ was great for our two children because they could move around freely, there were climbing and sliding facilities and even a small train. It was really hard to get them both out of here again 😉
LEGOLAND California offers two different driving schools: At the Ford Driving School, children aged 6 to 12 can gain their first driving experience while driving through a traffic course in LEGO cars. But there is also a special practice course for the younger drivers, where the children receive their own LEGOLAND driving license at the end. Our daughter was totally proud of it in the end 🙂
Pirate Shores & Deep Sea Adventure
We really liked the ‘LEGO City Deep Sea Adventure’ attraction because we were able to ride it as a whole family. Here you get into a submarine and can discover many sea creatures and LEGO models during the underwater journey. Incidentally, the ride is interactive, i.e. you can collect points during the ride by finding certain objects. Really cool work!
Castle Hill & Land of Adventure
In the Castle Hill area you will find the LEGO castle, which is well worth seeing and sits majestically on a small hill above the park. In addition to the castle, there are several other exciting attractions, such as the dragon rollercoaster ‘The Dragon’, where you fly through the LEGO world on the back of a dragon.
Right next to Castle Hill is the Land of Adventure area, where you can immerse yourself in the world of pharaohs, mummies and ancient treasures. Here we took a ride in the ‘Lost Kingdom Adventure’, where you drive through a temple in an interactive vehicle and go on a treasure hunt. We were able to shoot at targets with a laser and collect points.
The LEGO Technik rollercoaster ‘Project X’ was not yet for our two small children, but it was for us adults 😉 We had a lot of fun here!
Although we were in the park shortly after opening time in the morning, we still didn’t manage to visit all the areas of the park, such as LEGO Ninjago World, LEGO Ferrari Build & Race or Surfers Cove. But that’s also completely ok for us. We had a super nice, very full day at LEGOLAND California and were able to try out some of the rides and attractions with both children.
LEGOLAND water park
As already mentioned, there is also a LEGOLAND water park at LEGOLAND California, for which you have to pay a separate entrance fee (including infants between 12 and 23 months). There are various slides, pools, paddling areas and even a special area for toddlers, the Duplo Splash Safari. The main attractions in the water park include surfing on artificial waves in Surfers’ Cove and the interactive water playground Joker Soaker. Visitors can also build their own LEGO-shaped rafts in the Build-A-Raft River and let them float down the river.
Please note that the LEGOLAND water park is not open every day and is even completely closed during the winter months. The exact opening times are best checked directly on the LEGOLAND California Water Park website.
Entrance to LEGOLAND Water Park
Is a visit to LEGOLAND California worthwhile?
LEGOLAND California naturally has a hard time competing with the big theme parks in Los Angeles such as Disneyland or Universal Studios. Especially as the park is at least a 60-minute drive from Los Angeles. But LEGOLAND California is a perfect destination for families with younger children in particular, as – unlike the big parks – the children can ride lots of rides here and the parks are designed to be child-friendly.
Due to the size of LEGOLAND California, you should definitely plan a whole day to explore the theme park. This way you can experience as many attractions as possible and have time for a (meal) break in between. We had a great time and we don’t think this was our last time at LEGOLAND 🙂