HELP! California road trip advice needed

Kel_3

Hi, We are planning a California road trip for holiday next year and I wondered if anyone who has done one before has any thoughts on our itinerary, before I go ahead and book the flights.

The plan is to fly into San Francisco spend 17 nights doing a road trip and then fly out from Vegas at the end. It will be me and my husband and our 3 children (12, 9, 6).

Day 1: San Francisco
Day 2: San Francisco
Day 3: San Francisco
Day 4: Monterey (Pacific coast highway)

Day 5: Santa Barbara (Pacific coast highway)
Day 6: LA
Day 7: LA
Day 8: LA
Day 9: LA
Day 10: LA
Day 11: LA
Day 12: Laguna Beach
Day 13: San Diego
Day 14: San Diego
Day 15: Las Vegas
Day 16: Las Vegas
Day 17: Las Vegas


Things to do:

San Francisco – Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge
LA – 1 day at Disney, Bus tour, Warner Bros studio, Hollywood sign, Hollywood walk of fame, possibly day at six flags
San Diego – Zoo
Las Vegas – Hoover Dam, Shopping

Any advice would be great. I'm a little worried that we will be spending too much time driving, so am wondering if we should either start in LA and not do San Fran and the PCH or not bother with San Diego. Ideally I would like to see all, but don't want to be in a constant rush.

Thanks

Kel

ACG

I got back from LA and Vegas last week.
Hollywood is a bit of a dump, there are people handing out CDs and then asking for a tip - the CDs are blank and its a con... I didnt fall for it but I have seen it before.

We did a tour with a company called VIP tours and someone called Jack, he was pretty knowledgeable (or making it up but passing it off pretty well). He also sounded like Nicholas cage so it was like we were going round hollywood and beverley hills with nicholas cage.

In LA I would say visit venice beach and Santa Monica and also Universal studios, we went to universal on a tuesday and spent about 5 hours there, it wasnt really long enough as some rides had pretty big queues.

I personally think 3-4 days in LV was plenty but when I posted that on the LV thread, many people disagreed. A lot of the things i

novelty-socks

Couple of quick thoughts:

I would spend less time in LA and more time in San Francisco and San Diego.

Me and my girlfriend spent two nights in San Diego a couple of years back and wished we'd stayed longer. Conversely LA is a city of traffic jams that I wasn't keen on at all.

Also, the drive from San Diego to Vegas is boring as anything. If you happen to be doing it on a Friday then it can also get very congested with people driving to Vegas for the weekend. Consider flying instead.

John259

Except in the cities the driving in the USA is very easy, so don't worry about that.

Don't leave out the Pacific Coast Highway between Monterey and Morro Bay, it's a wonderful drive.

Personally I'd reduce the times in the cities and add Yosemite National Park, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The logical order then would be San Francisco > Yosemite > Monterey. That leaves out the coast road between San Francisco and Monterey which while good isn't the best part. Accommodation in Yosemite is expensive but you can stay outside the park to save costs. How far outside is up to you. I prefer Merced but some people think that's too far away and opt for Mariposa or Oakhurst. You can use Google Maps to search for motels in those towns and get an idea of comparative rates.

If you cut down the cities even more, you could do a loop back from Las Vegas to San Francisco via Death Valley, US395 and the Tioga Pass (CA120), visiting Yosemite then instead of earlier. However, the time of year is important because the Tioga Pass doesn't normally re-open after the winter until May or June.

I prefer the national parks, the open road and small towns. But if you prefer the cities, fair enough.

EssexExile

John259 wrote: »

I prefer the national parks, the open road and small towns. But if you prefer the cities, fair enough.

Same here. Big cities are the places that have airports, otherwise best avoided, especially Vegas. As mentioned earlier those on the Vegas thread would (& have!) disagreed with me, but they're a bit strange over there.;)

jackieblack

John259 wrote: »

Except in the cities the driving in the USA is very easy, so don't worry about that.

Don't leave out the Pacific Coast Highway between Monterey and Morro Bay, it's a wonderful drive.

Personally I'd reduce the times in the cities and add Yosemite National Park, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The logical order then would be San Francisco > Yosemite > Monterey. That leaves out the coast road between San Francisco and Monterey which while good isn't the best part. Accommodation in Yosemite is expensive but you can stay outside the park to save costs.







I prefer the national parks, the open road and small towns. But if you prefer the cities, fair enough.

I agree with this and with EssexExiles comment about cities and airports.

Personally, I'd reduce the time in LA and skip Las Vegas (especially with children, there's far more to interest them in the other places on your list) to fit in a few days at Yosemite, an extra day at least in Monterey (the aquarium needs a day on it's own and, depending on what time of year you're going, great whale watching opportunites) and an extra day in SD, and fly home from SD


When we did a similar trip down PCH we stayed 2 nights in Ventura and drove in to Six Flags from there, much easier (and cheaper) than the drive from LA (depending on where in LA you're planning to stay)


Attractions in LA can be a long way apart from each other (eg Disneyland and Warner Bros. Studios are 35-40 miles apart) and the traffic can be horrific. I'd be tempted to split the LA stay and base myself somewhere convenient for Warner Bros/Hollywood (these can all be done in a day) and then move to somewhere closer to Anaheim area for Disney, then on to San Diego


Is there a special reason for having Laguna Beach in your list?

John259

Opinions differ on the drive across the Mojave Desert (from Los Angeles or San Diego to Las Vegas). Some people do find it boring, but others find it awe inspiring especially if they've never done it before.

Once you've added together all the time elements, flying won't be much quicker than flying.

John259

Two video links of what I'd consider to be the best two places in California:

Pacific Coast Highway in the Big Sur area:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypfy7XHjRl4

Yosemite (Mariposa Grove to Yosemite Valley):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXiB4wre6xk

(I didn't make either video)

blindman

Kel wrote: »

Hi, We are planning a California road trip for holiday next year and I wondered if anyone who has done one before has any thoughts on our itinerary, before I go ahead and book the flights.

The plan is to fly into San Francisco spend 17 nights doing a road trip and then fly out from Vegas at the end. It will be me and my husband and our 3 children (12, 9, 6).

Day 1: San Francisco
Day 2: San Francisco
Day 3: San Francisco
Day 4: Monterey (Pacific coast highway)

Day 5: Santa Barbara (Pacific coast highway)
Day 6: LA
Day 7: LA
Day 8: LA
Day 9: LA
Day 10: LA
Day 11: LA
Day 12: Laguna Beach
Day 13: San Diego
Day 14: San Diego
Day 15: Las Vegas
Day 16: Las Vegas
Day 17: Las Vegas


Things to do:

San Francisco – Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge
LA – 1 day at Disney, Bus tour, Warner Bros studio, Hollywood sign, Hollywood walk of fame, possibly day at six flags
San Diego – Zoo
Las Vegas – Hoover Dam, Shopping

Any advice would be great. I'm a little worried that we will be spending too much time driving, so am wondering if we should either start in LA and not do San Fran and the PCH or not bother with San Diego. Ideally I would like to see all, but don't want to be in a constant rush.

Thanks

Kel

Look at the Southwest Thread for loads of info and answer to many of your questions.

Not sure why you are going to Las Vegas with the kids. Long drive from LA to go shopping and see Hoover dam.


There is a Las Vegas thread

gracie10

we have done similar trips in the past few years.
I would cut down the time in LA and add it on to San Diego or Vegas.
The first time we went our children were 5 and 8. We went again this year and they were 10 and 7. Lots for them to do.
Any questions then just ask

iltisman

I would cut LA down to a max of 2 days or miss it all together. San Diego is nice especially the little Cabrillo National park at Point Loma. The trip from San Diego to Vegas can be a bit dull so perhaps a stop at Palm Springs to go up the aerial tramway then old route 66 back towards Vegas.