To ask about California?

[CaliforniaDream]

Shamelessly posting for traffic!

If you had 10 days to road trip in california (starting and finishing in San Francisco) what would be your must-sees?

I would ( and have!) drive north along the coast up to Portland in Oregon and then to Seattle in Washington State. Portland is beautiful, and a bit hipster/cool. Seattle is stunning, lots to do outdoors to along the way. If you like wine there are some fantastic vineyards along the way to see/stop off at.

But if you'd rather head the other way, make sure you go to San Diego - it far outstrips LA and SF as somewhere to visit, very chilled, beautiful surf and beaches...

Whales and orcas

Hey! I don’t know how to link to threads but I started something similar for a trip in doing in August.
We’re going for 3 weeks and doing San Francisco, Yosemite, Monterey/Carmel, Santa Barbara, LA and Newport Beach.

Oooh I’m interested in this too - we’re doing same thing next month

I used to live in San Francisco. I would spend a day/night in Napa wine tasting. Drive up to Elk and Mendocino. There’s also wineries there if that’s your thing and stop for a walk in the redwoods. Then back to San Francisco. Try to get out of the shitty fishermen’s wharf area (personally I would give it a miss entirely, it’s crap!). Go see the real San Francisco, the Castro, Dolores Park (great for kids), Haight Ashbury, Golden Gate Park and the Inner Sunset, a trip to Ocean Beach if it’s sunny. The drive down Route 1, go to Big Sur, Monterrey aquarium if you have kids, Carmel, Santa Barbara, etc. To LA. Spend a few days in LA, Hollywood, take a cheesy celebrity tour, go to the beach, stay somewhere with a nice pool and then fly back to SF (Virgin America do cheap flights).

Agree that Yosemite and Lake Tahoe would also be great if you have time and money, but they can be expensive and accommodation hard to find unless you book well in advance. Also if you are going in the winter months you often can’t get through some of the mountain passes without snow chains so might want to give it a miss if you’re going in December!

www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm
Crater Lake National Park

I did this. We landed in San Fran and drove through Yosemite National Park, stayed in Bishop overnight then carried on to Vegas. Stayed for 3 nights. Then drove to LA and stayed 4 nights with friends. (Went to Malibu, Ventura, Venice Beach, universal studios) then drove back up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco. Only regret is not spending enough time in SF.

Absolutely loved it and can’t wait to go again.

If you like horses, visit Flag is Up Farms, in Solvang.

I also used to live in SF. I’d definitely spend some time there, and go down highway 1. Is persoablly skip San Diego but try to do a national park instead. Hollywood is fun, the rest of LA is missable.
Carmel and Monteray, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara are all nice

Don’t miss San Diego.
Death Valley
Santa Monica beach - the pier then walk along the boardwalk to Venice

We did the drive from San Francisco to LA for honeymoon - it turned out to be the unplanned things that were the best - The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Bean Hollow Beach, San Luis Obispo. But it is a beautiful drive, you can't really go wrong. Muir Woods was also magical, whilst in SF.

we did L.A., Yosemite, grand canyon and Vegas. vegas quite a long way though.Definitely do yosemite

I wouldn't drive SF to SD and back on a 10 day trip. That's 17 hours of driving if you go straight down the freeway and straight back up - and you don't want to do that. Do a one-way rental then fly back up.

And everything everyone else said!

San Luis Obispo I'm secretly hoping my kids go to college there so I can visit - it's lovely isn't it?

Also, if you plan to drive around LA, be ready for 10-lane stationary highways, and remember that if there are 2/3 of you in the car there are often HOV lanes that are faster, but you have to get across 5 lanes of crazy traffic to reach them.

With only 10 days I would have a few days in San Francisco taking 1 day to drive north to visit Muir Woods and maybe up the coast to Bodega Bay. Then I would head south to Monterey Bay area for whales, wine and beach. We stayed in Pacific Grove, Carmel is there too. Drive south to Big Sur (check the road is open). I would finish with a few days in Yosemite.

We went to San Diego on our first time to LA a few years earlier and didn’t think much of it but it’s possible we didn’t research it enough. Went to Seaworld though which was amazing.

Oh and another thing we learnt from our recent trip. Book a fairly small car, then they'll usually upgrade you very cheaply. We went from a compact to an SUV for $7 a day extra. If we'd booked that in advance it would have cost way more. Petrol is about $3.90 a US gallon in California at the moment, which is about $1 more than most other states but still a lot less than the UK.

I don't think you have enough time to see much of LA or San Diego. We spent 5 days in San Francisco and it didn't seem too long.

Definitely check that the road is open if you are going to drive. If you do get to San Luis Obispo then have a night at the Madonna Inn. Hearst Castle is beautiful. The wineries in Sonoma/Napa Valley are stunning - fabulous art and architecture. Jolly nice wine too!! -can I come, I promise to be quiet-

ooops, strikethrough fail

I love SF. Fabulous place and so much to do. Agree with PP re Big Sur (especially if you are a Kerouac fan!)

Hollywood is good for a few days too. The original Disneyland park is really sweet, and you can visit the old Universal Studios and see the "real" Psycho house and stuff like that.

LA is a shithole.

LA has plenty of non-shithole areas, but tourists don't tend to go them. We just did a tour of various colleges and they are all in beautiful areas, near the mountains or in lovely parts of LA.

It was actually a really interesting way to see LA.