This post was originally written in May of 2016, and has been updated with more recent visits.

Fun free things to do in Hollywood

Hollywood is a fun, weird place.  Would I want to spend hours there?  No.  But I do enjoy walking through and doing those kitschy Hollywood things.  The Chinese Theater… seeing all the stars on the sidewalk.  Tons of fun shops to see and we walked up to the Kodak Theater.  It was fun.  Great for the morning before you go to the show.

Hollywood Boulevard often has fun stuff to do on it as well.

Oe time when we were there, they were doing the opening for Alice and the Looking Glass.  Cool to see the red carpet and all the things they set up for that!

Griffith Observatory:  This is up on the hill, it has a great view (so day or night you could really enjoy it).  We went on a Sunday night and that was a BIG mistake.  It was SUPER crowded.  We didn’t end up seeing anything but the view (which was amazing).

The next time we went on a Wednesday night.  It was a lot less crowded, and views can’t be beat.  We also really enjoyed the planetarium show ( seemed to be done by an out of work actress, so it was extra dramatic) and the Tesla Coil.  The exhibits were not exactly aimed at kids, so keep that in mind, I think kids will still enjoy looking around though.

LaBrea Tar Pits:  The actual museum costs money, but you can walk around the grounds and see all the cool bubbling tar.  It’s pretty neat.

All of these are not far from Hollywood — although, it IS LA….traffic is the norm.

Jimmy Kimmel

While you have to be 18 to see a taping of Jimmy Kimmel, if you have a child old enough to babysit, it can be a fun afternoon for the parents.

Tickets to Jimmy Kimmel are totally free and can easily be reserved online here.

You line up on Hollywood Blvd and they let you in.  It’s a really great show.

They have a wonderful warm-up.  Since Jimmy is in the heart of Hollywood there is always a good show.  We got to see Johnny Depp…. and Pink.  I now have a huge girl crush on Pink.  I just thought her voice was amazing.  It was extra fun to go on a night that included, at least, people that I didn’t have to google to see who they were.

Family Hotels in Hollywood

First off, one thing is certainly NOT free in the Hollywood area.  And that’s your hotel.  I did an extensive search our first time. I ALWAYS recommend checking out TripAdvisor and their reviews.  I {heart} reviews/

FYI, if you have kids they can NOT come to a Jimmy Kimmel taping, you have to be at least 18.  We have kids that are able to babysit, so that wasn’t our issue.  BUT I wanted them somewhere safe and happy.  In looking at a lot of them we settled on the Magic Castle and boy oh BOY am I happy I did.  We stayed there last time, and then stayed there again this time.

Magic Castle Hotel Review

Yes, it’s pricey. Because it’s downtown Hollywood….. but they are ALL pricey.  Let me tell you of the “magical” perks of the Magic Castle Hotel.

• All you can eat snacks.  yes, you read that right. They have a list of minibar-type snacks that they provide free of charge.  Things like oreos, nuts, chips, soda.  All free.  And yes, my kids take full advantage of it.  In fact, this hotel is often spoken of in hushed tones as “the one with the all you can eat snacks?”
• All you can eat ice cream — they have their own machine.  During our stay it was Mango and vanilla. #bliss
• Popcicles served white glove by the pool

  

• Tons of movies you can check out and enjoy in your room.  All the new releases, they have them.
• TONS of space in the rooms.  This was a apartment complex turned into a hotel… so there are kitchens and tons of space.  Super awesome.
• Aer you drink custom soda machine.
• Tasty breakfast of pastries, yogurt, cereal and fruit.
• Turn down service including your own terry cloth slippers (including ones small enough for a 5 year old Paige when we went last time).

It’s seriously so fun.  This trip was actually a surprise 40th birthday trip and we had told the kids we’d be gone for 4 days and then we came back and surprised them and took them here.  They were thrilled.  It’s just a fun place to be a kid at.

Things I didn’t love about the Magic Castle:

• The rooms are run-down and dated, it took our tube 20 minutes to drain.
• You do have to pay for parking

However, my kids think it is pure paradise to stay there, so we would certainly stay there again!

BTW, looking to take your kids on a trip — don’t miss my family vacation ideas!

Things to do for kids near Hollywood

Universal Studios Hollywood

The #1 thing for families in Hollywood (although, totally not free) is Universal Studios

I have a full post about Universal and one specifically about Harry Potter World Hollywood!

Hollywood Museums

This last time we went we were given tickets to a few of the museums.  They were interesting, and I wanted to give you my honest thoughts about them:

Madame Tussauds

This seems to be THE wax museum.  They seem to take it all VERY seriously, and it does show.  The figures did look very realistic and there were a lot of them.

The music is a bit loud, but they had interesting facts about each person and they had a wide range of stars from long ago to current stars of today. We actually had a pretty good time.  I think if you found a coupon or a groupon for this museum it would be a fun stop.

Hollywood Wax Museum

We already had tickets to Madame Tussauds, but I thought it would be fun to compare the two.  Sadly, this one just isn’t as good.  However, it is cheaper and much less crowded.

They have a lot of fun props that your kids can use when you take pictures.  BUT, I have to give the quality to Madame Tussauds.

Here’s me and the Queen B from both places:

We also went to the Guinness Museum.  Everyone seemed to enjoy this one the most.  People are crazy — they’ll do anything for a world record.

Our kids thought that was REALLY fun.  You can get a combo pass that also lets you into Ripley’s, but we haven’t been there so I can’t speak to that.  However, if you hadn’t seen Madame Tussauds, I think your kids would be just as happy with seeing those three and you’d have a fun morning.

And, don’t miss my #1 tip for family travel:

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My second son read the entire Harry Potter series in 2^nd grade in a week.  The ENTIRE series – all seven.  I’m not sure he listened to his teacher, did a single job, saw anything else on the bus…. But he read the entire Harry Potter series.  Harry Potter World Hollywood had been on his “to do list” since the day it was announced.

So, when I announced a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood, you can only imagine that I had be catapulted into motherhood stardom.  We were all super jazzed, but that child literally found his golden ticket.  He was SO excited. {in full disclosure I was given a portion of our tickets for free — and you can read about the rest of my Universal Studios Tips & Tricks for Families and also my best tips for Super Nintendo World also!}

My little Charlie Bucket was touring the factory. #livingthedream

But, I wanted a bit of info about the land before we headed out and I had some serious issues finding out information about families, what rides were good for my smallest child or how I should navigate the day.

So, in this post I plan to share with you the ins and outs of Harry Potter in Hollywood.  Be prepared for lots of nitty gritty tips.  I hope lots of moms find this post helpful!

If you’re looking for Universal Tickets, be sure to check out the awesome Discounts at Get Away Today — and save $10 off your purchase using coupon code CURLS10  They also sell tickets separately at a great price!  You can also get combo tickets with Disneyland for a great price!

Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood

First of all, I have to say it does NOT disappoint.  You really feel like you’re in Hogsmead and Hogwarts looks completely amazing.

Harry Potter Wands at Universal Studios Hollywood

You can buy an interactive Harry Potter wand. There is a “wanding” ceremony where they take a child and his/her wand is chosen.  It’s fun and magical.  The interactive wands are 50 bucks (maybe 47.99 plus tax).  If you want a wand I would recommend going here early.  There is a wait because of the interactive “wanding” ceremony.  If you don’t care about that, there is a wand cart at the end of Hogsmeade near the rides.

Waits for the wand shop are MUCH shorter in the afternoon — so if you just want to see what it’s like, you can wait till’ the afternoon to visit the shop.

The wand is pretty nice.  But wow, 50 bucks for one day of waiving fun.  They have about 10 areas in Hogsmeade that you can perform the spells.  They do come in a nice box (I was somewhat worried the kids would have to stick them in their backpack and they’d break).  The wands themselves are well made.  They don’t look like some cheap plastic wand, so that’s nice too.

The spells are somewhat difficult to perform and there are wizards wandering around to help kids out with spells when they can’t get it.   I find the key to be finding the camera that records your movements (you’ll know it when you see it – in the picture below it’s the gold thing right above his hand), making the movements smaller than you envision.  Also, the words don’t matter, but I chose to yell at my kids and tell them it wasn’t working because they weren’t saying the spell. #funmom

In the end I had 2 kids who bought wands. Yes, they are excessive and insane, but I actually increased everyone’s allowance the week beforehand so they’d have some money for our trip.  The Harry Potter fanatic knew 100% that he wanted one.  I would agree with him, that if your child loves Harry Potter this would completely be worth it.  If they aren’t I would just try to slide on by the wand shop and just enjoy the Hogsmeade atmosphere and the rides….

Harry Potter Rides at Universal Studios Hollywood

There are are two rides in this area:

Flight of The Hippogriff

This is a “kiddie coaster” that is still pretty fun and enjoyable.  You get to bow to Buckbeak on your way and also see Hagrid’s hut while you are in line.  Great for all ages, not a big drop.  Everyone in my family enjoyed this place.  The line for this one isn’t usually too long.  Maybe 20 minutes midday.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

This ride is amazing. It’s new and different, but I ended up with some mom guilt for hauling my 7-year-old on it. Wait time for this one can head to an hour mid-day. Let’s talk more about it….

They have an area for your bags, the lockers are free for 90 minutes (plenty of time to be on the ride).  I had a pretty large backpack and it still fit pretty well with a little shoving.  The boys also got lockers of their own for their wands.  The lockers use your fingerprint to enter and exit them.  It’s a pretty cool system (although, remember which finger you used).

The line (which can be quite lengthy) winds through Hogwarts.  There’s talking photos (including the Vicar of Dibley), Dumbledore’s office, and fun magical scenes from the movies.  The line moves pretty quickly and the queue is one of the best I’ve ever seen.

You used to wear 3D glasses, but now there are no glasses.  You ride in seats that move you in motion with the movie that you see on the screen.  The seat straps you in with an over-the-head harness and your feet are free.  It shakes you around quite a bit, and while I do NOT get motion-sickness, I did feel a bit sick to my stomach when I rode this ride.

Ok, so I guess I do get motion sick – on this ride.

BTW, I have tips for motion sickness in my original Universal Tips posts.

There is a “test seat” outside the ride if you’re concerned you won’t fit the harness (btw I have tons of tips for being Overweight at a theme park)

The ride does not flip you upside down (although at one point your head is a bit lower than your bum), but it does shake you side to side and you do go on your back.  BUT, I think my motion sickness was probably due to the movement plus the movies.  It’s all VERY real.

But, the mom guilt – well, the ride was fine until the Dementors come after you.  And that, I think, is where she started to cry.  Sure, there are lots of 7-year-olds who wouldn’t be bugged by this, but my unicorn and rainbow lover just got scared by it all.  Update:  We took her when she was 7 and had watched most of the movies and read a few of the books and she really enjoyed it.

Universal does have an amazing ride swap for parents who have children too young/scared for rides.  You get to wait in a themed room while your group rides and then you can switch off.

However, everyone was so excited to go on the ride I’m not sure I would have stopped her.  She was excited to go on it, so it is what it is.  She isn’t scarred, she just didn’t want to go on it again.  Here we are a week later and she says she’s sort of glad she went on it.

Butterbeer at Universal Studios Hollywood

Just another bit that we couldn’t pass up.  Butterbeer is in every book, and it always sounded so delicious.  All of us wanted the frozen variety.  It was delicious.  Somewhat of a combination of cream soda and butterscotch.  It’s topped by a loose whipped cream.  It is delicious.  They don’t have the price posted, but I’m pretty sure it’s around six bucks/person for the frozen kind (not sure if the liquid kind is cheaper).  BTW, it’s cheaper in the carts than at the 3 broomsticks (which I talked about in my original Universal Hacks post)

Update:  On our last trip, some got the non-frozen variety, and that cup is filled pretty full and is EASILY spilled if you want to stir the cream in, so watch that.  We also took our butterbeer on the tram movie ride and it was a great treat while we enjoyed that ride.

Yes, it’s pricey. Don’t come here if you don’t want to spend any money.  But if you’re looking to make some kid’s dreams come true, this was money well spent.

There’s also tons of other shopping in Hogsmeade (you find that as a theme through much of Universal, the amount of shopping is crazy!).  The kids really liked Zonko’s joke shop and Honeydukes sweet shop (although thankfully, no kid fell in love with anything at either of these stores – they are both quite small).

They do also have a lovely robes shop where you can buy robes and scarves and other House paraphernalia – ties, sweater, pins, headbands, school supplies, etc.

However, if your kid wants a robe they are SO much cheaper outside the park.  My son brought his robe (which we found at Goodwill for 5 bucks) with him and really enjoyed wearing it in the park.

They do have some performances during the day.  We caught a bit of the Frog Chorus as well as the Tri-Wizard Tournament.  They were fun for a few minutes, but even the vigilant Harry Potter fan wanted to move on after a while.

All in all, we loved Harry Potter land (the full name is Wizarding World of Harry Potter), it was fun and lived up to lots of expectations from a kid who had raised this particular land on par with heaven.

I do believe this land has saved Universal Studios.  It made the day.  It was fun, exciting and well done.

As for how to run your day I’d recommend going to get your wand first thing (if that is SUPER important to you).  That line gets long, almost as long as anywhere else in Harry Potter.  Then, I’d head out to the Forbidden Journey.  I would certainly head to Harry Potter first if you make it to the park early.  But, we also went back later in the day (with about an hour left) and we could have ridden Harry Potter all night.

If you’re looking for Universal Tickets, be sure to check out the awesome Discounts at Get Away Today — and save $10 off your purchase using coupon code CURLS10

If you liked this post, be sure to check out all my Universal Studios Hollywood Tips and Tricks for Families, sign-up for my #1 tip for family travel, and check out all my other travel posts below that!

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This post was originally written in 2016 but has been updated.

The post The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood appeared first on Pulling Curls.