Universal Studios Hollywood

I had always wanted to visit Harry Potter World after it was first announced. I recently went to Los Angeles on a family vacation. It was the perfect opportunity to make said-dream a reality.

I traveled to Universal Studios Hollywood during the middle of the week hoping that there would be less tourists. It also happened to be a somewhat rainy day. It also helped deter most of the visitors that day.

Upon arriving to park, you'll be directed to various parking garages. Be sure to remember where you parked so as not to lose time trying to find your way back when you're through with the day.

There's a lot to see in this particular park. I would honestly only recommend staying there for a day.

There are several different parks within the park itself - an area dedicated to the Simpsons, Harry Potter, etc.

Perhaps my favorite area, however, was not the Harry Potter land. You take at least five escalators to get there. It's directly down from most of the park and it contains the Mummy, Transformers and Jurassic Park rides. They were easily the best rides in the park (at least the Mummy and Jurassic Park rides were).

The key to riding these rides is to jump in the single-rider line. You'll easily be able to ride the rides as many times as you want - assuming you don't really care about sitting by your friends. Honestly, half of the time I ended up sitting by someone I knew anyway.

Also important of note, there are several "shows" that take place at certain times throughout the park. You can find the list online. We ended the day watching one of the Harry Potter shows while drinking butter beer.

If you end up traveling here, I hope you have similar pleasant memories.