Great vacation ideas for 15 year old son?

[ExGingi]

This

What exactly is there to do there? Last time I was there was as during my שנה ראשונה. It struck me as a retirement community. Though I had an interesting experience on the way back, with a 747 waiting for us to board at LAX, we were chauffeured from the PSP flight that was late straight to the 747, were seated in the front row, door closed behind us, and the plane started moving. Those were the jolly days of PanAm (or maybe the early days of DL taking over).

[Dan]

What exactly is there to do there? Last time I was there was as during my שנה ראשונה. It struck me as a retirement community. Though I had an interesting experience on the way back, with a 747 waiting for us to board at LAX, we were chauffeured from the PSP flight that was late straight to the 747, were seated in the front row, door closed behind us, and the plane started moving. Those were the jolly days of PanAm (or maybe the early days of DL taking over).

Great hiking and great winter weather, not much else.

[ExGingi]

Great hiking and great winter weather, not much else.

So OP needs to figure out if it's worth the long flight for the hiking. Not all 15yo (or 51+yo) are into it.

[Traveler718]

Great hiking and great winter weather, not much else.

Things that we enjoyed there: relaxing in empty pools and hot tubs, snowball fights at the top of Mt. San Jacinto after taking the tram up from the desert, the beautiful and unique scenery in Joshua Tree National Park, the short Andreas Canyon hike that was so popular we did it twice, the short Tahquitz Canyon hike to waterfall that we did early in the morning before it got hot and before anyone else was at the falls, driving around and seeing famous houses and unique architecture, the air museum (DS loves planes), Sunnylands historic house and gorgeous grounds, a small botanical garden downtown, walking the main strip especially during the Thursday night street festival, and the zoo.

There's also this hike that looks great, but we didn't have time to make it there: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/ladder-canyon-and-painted-canyon-trail--4

This should definitely keep you busy for a few days, and leave you wanting to come back for more.