Trip of a lifetime USA- CA or NYC?

You aren't getting to Yosemite in four and a half hours from LA - try six+ hours and that's without traffic.

Your CA iteniary is not realistic - the amount of driving you need to do is insane. Also the Pacific in California is not warm - the beach cities nearish to Yosemite/Sequoia are beautiful, but cold. Do not underestimate how cold the ocean can be. Or how pervasive the fog/marine layer is lol. If you want the classic beach holiday you should stick to Florida.

Stick to one state/area would be my advice.

Because then it would be a twice in a lifetime trip.

My DC enjoyed NY at age 8 and 6. However we took taxis and were very clear about seeing places they would enjoy. That did include MoMA though. We are not theme park people though. From there we went to Boston and then Cape Cod for the beach. We all liked Boston. Salem was never going to be on our agenda.

Id wait until dc are older before you look at California. I’d leave everything for de years because they won’t remember much. It’s a holiday for you really, not them. The USA is safe! Just very expensive!

Don’t go to America right now. I have a lot of family and friends living there and it just isn’t safe at the moment, even the big tourist areas are becoming sketchy to visit.

Wait until they’re 10 and 8, it’s far too much for a 6 year old.

Given DS is likely to experience overwhelm, I would probably avoid NYC.

I love NY and California (not LA) but if the DC would prefer a more relaxed holiday it has to be California rather than NY I think. Or you stick to east coast and spend time in Boston after Salem?

I’d forget about Salem, they’re too young and it would be a scary experience at Halloween. Mickeys Halloween Party at Disney is good for all ages and Florida is a nice place to be climate wise in October. Warm in the day for swimming/water parks with just a light cardi or jacket in the evenings .Less crowds at the parks too. I’d also pick a Florida beach bit - Annamaria island is good. You can see manatees and giant rays. Fly into Miami and do a round car trip to Orlando. I liked Miami better than NY or San Francisco. California is great but is a lot of driving with some very winding roads - best for when they’re older.

I'd stay in florida for the beaches (don't forget to do universal, the rides are so much better than disney and far less queues (if you've never been to disney... prepare yourself 😬😬)

Then up to NYC as it gives you less flight time overall. Do the NYC jellycat experience and then take the toys on tour to landmarks. Eat loads of food. Take the free ferry and use the park for hotdogs, pretzels and picnics and just general R&R. Maybe get a hotel with a pool.

I liked my second NYC visit more than the first as I didn't feel the need to race around and do as much as possible. I revisited my favourites (top of the rock, ventral Park, nhm) and skipped the expensive stuff I didn't think was all that (going to the top of the empire state building). Still have loads left to do!

But the second visit I made time to find non-landmark things, like good bakeries!, or just strolling and detouring intonMadam Tussauds.

Stick with the east coast. Don't underestimate how long it takes to get to California. We went to NY and Boston a decade ago, we came from NZ so had to connect in San Fran. It was a bloody long flight over the US. DD was a teenager and still struggled with the jet lag.

I also echo others and go to Boston, there is a lot of culture there but not as mad as NYC. Plus you can bung in Arcadia, so you visit a national park without having to fly cross country.

That's a 16 hour plus drive to NYC. Not sure I would want to do that with kids. Salem isn’t Halloweeny as mentioned but does have some historical sites (probs boring for kids that age) and it’s at least a four hour drive from NYC so would be a lot of holiday spent in the car.

Savannah is a cool stop and has the street car tour. Charleston is also a nice stop.

We did Florida and NYC at similar ages and it was fantastic. We did the relaxing beach part on the Gulf coast - warmer and gentler for swimming than the Pacific Ocean!

We watched lots of children's films set in NYC before we went so the kids were super excited to go to the Museum from Night At The Museum, to Central Park like Enchanted and Stuart Little, all that sort of stuff.

NYC is a great place to walk and go on public transport. It's very very tiring for youngish kids.

I'd wait until they are stronger.

OP as others have said your itinerary is much too ambitious and too old for your kids.

The US is the size of Europe plus. Each state (California and Florida are twice the size approx of the UK).

It’s easy to drive in the US but no way would i be taking a family visit there now.

The same theme parks are in California to Florida so consider this. Also a lot of beaches around LA are awful - dirty with lots (!) of homeless people.

Yosemite to LA for example is 4.5 hours away. The traffic is AWFUL.

You need to rethink this completely.

Alternatively do CA Disneyland instead, I much prefer it and I love CA, Florida was far too busy and tacky

What time of year are you planning?

Ive been to all those places apart from Salem, but I believe Salem is not Halloween-y year round, so you may not get what you are looking for.

I think I’d stick to the east coast. There are wonderful beaches in Florida so I wouldn’t go all the way to California for those. Disney in California is nowhere near as good as Orlando.

Just to give you something else to consider…
Have you thought about a road trip from Orlando to NYC? You could do 7 nights for your Orlando itinerary (1 days at each Disney park, 1 day nasa, 1 day airboat, 1 day at beach (maybe Clearwater?)) and then drive to Savannah for 1 night, up through Shenandoah NP 1 night, Washington DC 2 nights & NYC 3 nights.

I would stay in Florida and hit the beach or do a short cruise, the extra flights, long distances driving in California or crazy busy New York is too much after Orlando unless you shorten Orlando /fl. why not just enjoy Florida in the full. Your dc are pretty young for trip of a lifetime stuff btw, mine really didn’t appreciate trips until 10+

I think I would find NYC tiresome with kids. It seems a bit crazy to do Orlando and then California beaches. Do parks + beaches in the same state, surely?

We did Boston for 3.5 days followed by NYC for 3.5 days taking Amtrak between cities and flew to/from different airports. Loved Boston but kids may be bored after a run round the common and trip to Salem. NYC was a huge disappointment. I am not naive, consider myself streetwise-regularly travel to big cities, worked in many 'rough' towns and locations and have never felt as unsafe as in NYC. Felt it was a big let down, except 911 museum and Hudson River cruise both of which would not take children your age to.

Definitely not America, I couldn't put a penny in that man's trotters. It's also about to be at war with Iran, or civil war. Wait a few years for a new president and things to settle down

As others have said, 5 days is probably not enough time in CA, it is massive! Yosemite is amazing, but a flight away from LA. And it is also a long flight from Orlando to the West Coast. My kids really struggled with the time difference too.

Disney in CA is great, but not really comparable to Florida.

So, like others have suggested, my vote would be Orlando while they are young, with NY or a beach in FL afterwards. Then CA when they are older.

Enjoy, whatever you choose!

I love California, especially the San Francisco Bay Area, but NYC would be an absolute must-see destination for me.

NYC! We have done that exact trip twice, Orlando for a week and they flew up to new York for a few nights. My family and my sisters, so we had kids ranging from 2-12, and it was amazing. We are NYC obsessed, so really hoped our kids would love it too. What was essential was having New York planned out really well. It can be busy and overwhelming if you don’t have a plan, we even had our restaurants picked out. And by and large we stuck to the plan. And the kids had a ball!!! Do it

I would agree that if this was a trip of a lifetime I would want the dc to remember it and they are still quite young.

Personally I’m not going to the USA right now as a protest vote

You cannot really mix NY and Salem - that’s 4 hours NY to Boston and then a connecting train. If I remember rightly they also weren’t the same station either

I don’t think you really need 2 days in Salem - it’s only 30 minutes from Boston and we did it in a day.

my DD really liked Boston - very different feel to NY.

You are forgetting the impact of the time difference (3 hours) and flight time to CA.

As pp said stay in Florida or fly to Boston and do Cape Cod and Salem.