Best Hotel For Trip to Universal Studios Hollywood
Sponsored by The Garland, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
It has been such a weird week with the 4th of July falling on a Wednesday. I can’t believe the weekend is already here! Although lately it feels like I’m living in a constant state of weekend, I am also in desperate need of a vacation. In today’s blog post I’m throwing it back to our family weekend getaway to Universal Studios and The Garland hotel in North Hollywood.
It can be hard to find a hotel that caters to adults and kids alike. The ones that the kids like, I’m usually not a fan, and the hotels I like can be kind of boring for kids. The Garland is one of the few hotels I have stayed that appeals to both kids and adults. Like their bar is cool and happening, and it is a Hollywood hot spot for hotel guests and locals. The hotel vibe is funky, modern, and fun.
Okay, I’m including this grainy cell phone pic below because you have to see the cute bunk beds in the room! I can’t even tell you how freaking excited the kids were to sleep in bunk beds. And how excited Chad and I were to find that our room had a separate enclosure with bunk beds for the kids. Traveling can be expensive, and it gets even more expensive when you have kids. It becomes a question of- do we get a suite or separate room for privacy? I can’t say I sleep that great sharing a room with 3 other people, but this room had the benefit of one room with a separate space for the kids. They even had their own T.V. so they were stoked. 😉
After we booked this vacation, I decided it was time to buy that matching luggage set I had been eyeing. We had way too much fun shooting with our new luggage…
The blogger in me loved all the solid greenery backdrops for photos. And also did you notice the photo-bombing butterflies?
As for the kid friendly hotel features, let’s begin with the pool. Kids love pools. period. But The Garland offers sunset Dive-In Movies poolside. Lily and Max got a kick out of watching a movie outside while swimming the pool. The property has daily lawn games with foosball, life-sized Connect Four, and Jenga.
A little outdoor foosball…
that face
On the kid scale, their favorite features of The Garland were the bunk beds, the Dive In movie poolside, and did I mention the hotel has their very own private movie theater?
Obviously all the amenities are amazing, but the no-brainer reason to book The Garland if you are planning a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood is how easy it is to get to the park. The park is two miles from the hotel, and the hotel offers a free trolley shuttle service to the park and back.
Fueling up on a yummy breakfast at The Garland’s The Front Yard before heading to Universal
Okay so hi, I have to admit something. I am a total Potterhead. I got on the Hogwarts Express LATE. Yes, that was me making a dorky Harry Potter joke.
I tried reading the series around 10 years ago, but I couldn’t past the first chapter because it felt too kiddish at the time. Then last February when I had surgery, I literally had NOTHING To read. I was medicated and couldn’t read or watch anything too sophisticated because it made my head spin. I finally picked up the Harry Potter series and didn’t look back.
I had been dying to check out The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I could have spent the entire day in just that section of the park. It felt very clean and very new, and I loved both the rides. If you are a Harry Potter fan, you have to check it out! I highly recommend eating at Three Broomsticks and ordering a pumpkin juice (soooo good!). My fam of four got Harry Potter hats one for each of the houses. I was Gryffindor of course.
We were able to hit all the rides that we wanted to because of front of the line passes. If you can swing it and get those passes, then I highly recommend. The last hotel feature that I wanted to share with you guys is Beverly Park which is on The Garland hotel grounds. It is so dreamy there… gorgeous for events, weddings, and more!
{photos by Tyler Chase Photography}
Our trip to The Garland is one of our favorite family trips to date. We made so many good memories, and the kids keep asking when we can go back. You can get room and rate information here!
Thanks for stopping by, and have an amazing weekend!
