California itinerary - thoughts and suggestions welcome!

[ajandjjmum]

Arranging a trip to California for the four of us, including DS 20 and DD 19. Intending to travel for two weeks in mid September.

My initial thoughts are
Fly to San Fransisco for 4 nights (or is this too long?)
Fly to Las Vegas for 3 nights (kids want to visit!), using one of the complete days there to visit the Grand Canyon.
Drive from Las Vegas to Santa Monica - possibly staying overnight somewhere.
Stay in Santa Monica for 5 nights to get a beach/chill part of the holiday. We can also use this as a base to travel along the coast and into the centre of LA. Love the look of Shutters or Casa de Mar, but suspect they'll be out of our price range!

My last (and only) visit to California was when I was 21 (about a million years ago!), so I'd be really grateful of any ideas/experiences.

I'm getting bored of looking at Trip Advisor now, so I thought I'd pick the collective brains of MN!! Thanks.

My family are from Eureka,CA. Vagas is great,grand canyon ditto. My absolute favourite place is the Redwood National Park. It may be a bit too north for your time scale. Either way you have a great holiday!

SF is a nice place to visit in September (you may wish you have stayed longer than just 3 whole days though) and Las V will hopefully have cooled down a little from the high temps seen there in August.

Driving from Vegas to Santa Monica will take at least 5 hours.

We are planning an almost identical trip late October

Starting in SF then thinking of doing Yosemite for few nights, Grand Canyon few nights (lots of self catering rentals), Las Vegas, Antelope Canyon, Giant Redwoods.

Can't bloody wait!!!!

Sucks - just wish we'd got a few more weeks. Just have to visit again!!
Attila - I'm struggling to judge timing, as I suspect we'll want to stay everywhere for longer! Hoping the drive from LV to Santa Monica is pleasant - part is Route 66 isn't it? - and the idea is that we can chill in SM, but go out and do things when we feel like it.
Betty - I can't wait either! DH doesn't know yet - DC and I are getting everything together and then we'll persuade him that he can be spared from work for a couple of weeks!

I enjoy the planning as much as the holiday tbh.

Ajanddjjmum its a good excuse to keep going back! Our last holiday was in a RV and we had 3 weeks and still didn't see all we wanted too. Come back and let us know how you got on!

I would try and drive the Big Sur - it's fabulous.

I'd also try and fit in Yosemite if only for one day.

I'm not a huge fan of las Vegas, but would definitely go to the Grand Canyon again.

Monterey/carmel also lovely?

San Francisco utterly amazing not too long at all IMO.

San Diego also great fun, especially at night!

Oh for more time!!

Would love the Big Sur drive Gilbert, just aware that it probably wouldn't be particularly high on the 'to do' list for DS and DD.

Want some warm sunbathing type time, and had marked out Santa Monica for that - but was wondering about transferring a couple of those days to San Diego. Which 'beach' vibe is better for 19/20 year olds - who incidentally don't surf? Be interested in your thoughts pomme.

I went to both at about 25. I wasn't over keen on Santa Monica though the beach was lovely. It was a good base for shopping in la though.

San Diego was awesome at night in the gas quarter and lots of shopping but I didn't go to the beach there. La Jolla supposed to be amazing.

I had a really lovely time in laguna beach as well. Great beach, cute town, best food I had in Cali.

Second Big Sur, I think it is the most beautiful place I've ever been. I actually sat on the car bonnet and cried!

I cried again when we arrived in Las Vegas, I couldn't believe we'd left such rugged beauty behind for such a dump! Horses for courses I guess but we had 4 nights in Vegas and I hated every minute.

Second Big Sur, I think it is the most beautiful place I've ever been. I actually sat on the car bonnet and cried!

I cried again when we arrived in Las Vegas, I couldn't believe we'd left such rugged beauty behind for such a dump! Horses for courses I guess but we had 4 nights in Vegas and I hated every minute.

Only consideration is that it is hard to buy a drink under 21 in most places in Cali or even to get in some bars without id.

We drove San fran to Vegas through death valley and Yosemite and I would highly recommend that. Incredible experience.

I loved Vegas and the grand canyon and would go back in a millisecond. I thought San fran was very disappointing and felt quite unsafe there. Not sure what all the fuss is about really. We did do a segway tour which was fun though.

Santa Monica is lovely and a good base to travel along the coast, Santa Barbara and Malibu etc also great and the beaches were deserted when we were there (Santa Monica was busy) you are also close enough to Anaheim to do theme parks if you want.

Have an amazing time! My DH is from California and we went back to the house he was born when we were there

We are also planning a similar trip, but will be in SF from 26 July, and want to get to LA by 4 August. We were thinking of doing 101, which I've done before, but not with my family. But I want to visit Yosemite and also Vegas and the Grand Canyon - I've never been to any of these. Crazy to do the Death Valley drive at that time of year right? I'm thinking of doing Yosemite from SF, driving down 101 maybe with a stop in Carmel, then doing Vegas and Grand Canyon in a few days from SoCal - we will probably be staying 2 weeks in Ventura. We will definitely be doing the theme parks, and want plenty of beach time.

We will have our boys: 10, 7 and 6 with us.

What do you think? The whole trip is 3.5 weeks, and we are trying to rein in the cost of everything, of course!

Really jealous of the time you have Romann - you'll be able to cover a lot. LV was an 'experience' from my memory, although it's something that the DC are particularly keen to do, as is see the Grand Canyon.

Pomme - I'm just a bit concerned that Santa Monica is not going to be the 'chill' time I was hoping for - it all sounds rather hectic there. Although DS and DD both like to have a drink, they're not worried at all by the fact that they won't be able to drink whilst there.

Big Sur and the whole drive sounds fantastic - just wondering whether my DC will appreciate it, which was one of the reasons we'd excluded it.

Interesting what you say Tuesday about SF - people seem to love it or hate it, and I'm not sure which category we'll fall into. Have to wait and see I guess.

Lovely to read everyone's replies, and see that I'm not the only one getting excited for a trip!

Just love San F. Been a few times, it's great for walking around as actually centre/harbour area is quite compact and always felt safe. 4 nights not too long. Try to fit in trip across to Sausalito. Alcatraz obviously.

Would agree about your kids and age limits. This will impact on what they can get into in Vegas. (My 19 yr old nephew was seriously underwhelmed and was without parents!) Grand Canyon is awesome though. Yosemite is also fab but very much back to nature so your kids have got to be up for walks and waterfalls.

For alternate chill/beach stop consider Santa Barbara. Carmel is smaller and more artisan but if anyone is near there do the '17 mile drive'.

Much lower weirdo concentration in SD than in Venice Beach (says biased San Diegan ). Although I guess that means Venice/SM are better for people watching. I'd rather turn my 19-20yos loose in SD. Belmont Park will offer a few cheap thrills.

I think so much of it will be so different, that your DC will enjoy. Big Sur Redwood basin is quite nice. Look for sea otters on the drive south, too, if you do drive SF-SBarbara.

Another biased San Diegan.

This was my morning walk yesterday
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By mid september the beaches will be looking more like that again because everyone is back in school.

I much prefer San Diego for chilling out than Santa Monica but you do want to do LA so I can see why you want to do that - I like the surfy beaches to the south of LA as well - its actually quite hard to get onto the damn thing at Santa Monica and Malibu.

My ideal scenario is San Diego/Palm Springs/Joshua Tree National Park but then I have a weird love for palm Springs that I dont think many 19/20 year olds would share...

Not that its hard to get onto the beach at Santa Monica its right there - I mean if you go any further north then it all becomes a bit exclusive and private.

Snap! We're planning something very similar for this August. Been all day on this laptop!

SF fantastic but can do it in a couple of days. The trip and tour to Alcatraz is a must.

Las Vegas is worth seeing but I would only spend a night and a day there (unless you like bright lights and gambling). Both times I've been I've only stayed for that long and it was enough.

I would recommend a trip to the Hoover Dam if you're near LV. It's an amazing feat of engineering and a really interesting tour. You can also do a helicopter ride over it which is pretty cool.

Grand Canyon a must. Close by is the painted desert.

Wouldn't bother with Palm Springs as it is like a ghost town between the hours of about 11am and 6pm and just a bit weird. There is a cable car ride nearby which we didn't do but friends have done and said it is expensive and not worth it.

Haven't been to Yosemite but heard it is fantastic.

Joshua Tree is an interesting place if you have time.

I love San Diego as I've bee several times and lived just outside it fir 3 months whilst working for a local company. The beaches are fantastic and it is far more chilled then much of California. Plus the centre of SD feels very safe. There is also a Sea World there if interested.

Driving part of Route 66 would be a must too.

Last time I went to California for a holiday rather than work we ended up by chance in Lake Havasu City which is famous for having the old London Bridge that some American bought and shipped back. Not worth a detour as it's a bit of a strange place in the middle of a desert.

Whatever you do, have a great time.

Alcatraz tour: book it in advance! Very hard to get same day tix.

Thank guys for all your ideas!

I'm thinking that maybe instead of spending 5/6 nights in Santa Monica, it might be good to spend 3 nights there, and the other 3 in San Diego? You all seem to love SD - and as it's 30 years since I went - and all I can remember is going on the old Queen Mary - my memory is obviously pretty crap. We did actually drive down to the Mexican border and walk over into Tijuana (sp?) at the time, although I think that's a no-no now?

LV is largely 'kids' choice, although I would love to go back to the Grand Canyon with them. Didn't know about the Hoover Dam tour Bing - thanks for that.

On the drive down from LV to the coast, I'm thinking of maybe just one night in Palm Springs, so that we can see the San Andreas fault in a jeep type of tour - that sounded pretty cool - unless anyone knows better!

Also liking the idea of a night tour of Alcatraz - although I will book ahead - thanked ragged!

Hope you're having as much fun planning as I am clam!!!

Bing
I think the cable car in Palm Springs is closed for maintenance in September, so we wouldn't be able to do that. Shame.