California-second time round

ceewash

Had a great holiday in California in 2009 and want to go back. Our route was LA, San Francisco, Yosemite, Las Vegas and Palm Springs. We did lots of the main attractions e.g Hollywood, Universal, Santa Monica, Alcatraz, Golden Gate, casinos and want some advice on what to do on return trip. Worried about being disappointed and trying to avoid doing the same trip. Any suggestions?

_Andy_

San Diego?

And definetely San Francisco again - never gets boring!

ceewash

Can anyone suggest a circular route (about2-3 weeks) taking in some different place? I definitely think San Diego will be worth a visit.

neilbond007

I'd do Vegas, San Diego and Phoenix (Sedona).

Been to Vegas 7 times - never get tired
Been to San Diego once.
Just been to Phoenix. Sedona is a beautiful, relaxing place!

ceewash

Phoenix sounds good. Can you tell me more about this area? Is it a good location to visit Grand Canyon from as we missed this on our last visit. Would like to stay overnight near Canyon and do the sunrise/sunset experience.

Also forgot to say might have 2 sons with us age 17 and 22. They enjoyed the buzz of the cities, shopping etc.

missile

I would like to fly to Frisco and drive highway 1 to LA and home. The helicopter ride to GC would be awesome for your big kids. You might want to visit some of the smaller cowboy towns that time forgot. Vegas does not appeal to me.

ceewash

We drove the highway last time and it was wonderful. Trying to do different things this time. Grand Canyon i think is a must and Im loving the look of Sedona for some R&R.

torbrex

If you do go to Sedona, I can recommend an arial tour of the area, even the drive up to the airstrip is an experience and if go north from there to Oak Creek Canyon, it is a natural waterslide, your boys would like it I think.
It is on the way to Flagstaff which is a good jumping off point for the Grand canyon as well as a lot of other monuments and sights to see, you can get a rail excurtion to the canyon from nearby Williams and if you want to go that little bit further north go to Page and Lake Powell with the Glen Canyon Dam nearby and also

Antelope Canyon

ceewash

Sounds amazing. We did a bit of scrambling up waterfalls in Yosemite and although they were not appreciative of the awe and wonder they did enjoy the experience. Where to after this area? Need to return to LA at some point for flight home.

ceewash

Is Utah and Salt Lake City worth a visit and then back to San Francisco.

torbrex

You could just head west and go through Death Valley and on to Sequoia NP.
There are lots of places to go, Joshua Tree NP, Palm Springs, Palomar Observatory, San Juan Capistrano, Newport beach (boys will love the bikinis on show there ) Sea World and Zoo at San Diego and for a real chillout day you could take a trip out to Catalina Island.
All these places are do-able but it involves a lot of driving especially if you want to go to the GC, you can lose 2 days on that trip just getting there & back so planning for a round trip would be better.