Another California itinerary question please!

[olimpia]

Hi!
We're planning a fly drive to west USA for beginning of August as follows:
3 nights SFO
2 nights Yosemite
1 night Death Valley
2 nights Las Vegas
2 nights Grand Canyon

And then a big question mark! We want to visit LA and Hollywood and do the theme parks (traveling with DSs aged 8 and 10 years). So where to stay? We would like a beach location not too far from the parks and all of the above. I've been looking at Huntington beach. Any good?
Finally we'll also be traveling with DS3 who will only be 6 months at the time. Is it reckless of us to take him through the desert in August?
TIA!

Well the car we're hiring through Expedia and keeping the same car throughout. You can pick up and drop off in different locations which is what we're going to do.
Credit card...hmmm yes...haven't thought of that one yet!

If we invest in a cooler for the car, any ideas how easy it is to get hold of ice or whether motels etc.. will have freezers handy for icepacks? Or would it be worth getting a thermo-electric one?

Every supermarket will have ice. Also it is available in most (all?) of the convenience stores on petrol station forecourts.

Clam let me klnow what you find out regarding cool boxes and freezers in motels if you dont mind.

Im very excited because we may be able to afford it for next year instead of a few years!

Most motels have ice machines too

Possibly looking at a similar trip for family of four in Aug but the
Planning is getting me down a bit as we haven't been before. Interesting reading this thread. We'd love to do 3 weeks maybe flying into SF, Yosemite sounds goodm down Monterey and Carmel, spending some time at a nice beach town like say Santa Barbara and then doing LA for the theme parks. Heard San Diego is lively but worry we would be trying to overdo it all.

How much are your similar holidays costing? Don't have a clue yet how much ours would cost. Would also love to stop off in NY on the way back but again realistically I think we might be getting carrie away.

Btw we regularly road trip in August (when my ds has time off from one of his sports). We have been to hot places like az. In fact last summer we spent a day in Sedona and had a fantastic time. It is different from hot in England. The hotels have air con, the heat is dry. it is not like August in NYC. ICK.

As for beaches, one thing I rarely see mentioned is that although the beaches in northern California can be beautiful the water is ccccccooollllddd. Swim down here in San Diego, you can snorkel with sting rays, garibaldi and leopard sharks (harmless) if you are lucky the water can get up to the mid 70s in August. We have some gently shelving beaches that are perfect for families.

Yes you can get ice all over. A decent cooler won't need ice every day anyway. We usually travel with two. A small on between the kids on the backseat and a bigger one in the boot to restock and hold lunch. If you have a Costco card bring it on holiday. We bought dinner salads (big enough for two) and crusty bread and ate it for dinner while watching the sunset (and big impressive storm) over half dome in Yosemite.

hownoo Google is your friend! I was able to get an idea of reasonable journey times using google maps/directions. And streetview has been useful to get an idea of what neighbourhoods are like around hotels and so on.
I sympathise re: the planning. We thought about doing this trip last year but I just didn't have the time or energy to research it all. This year I have, and it's been great fun.

Unfortunately we can't white-water raft in Yosemite as we're not up to whole day/2 day level 5 trips, and the snow pack this year hasn't been that deep so the non-dam-regulated rivers will be too low by August. Think we're going to amble along in rafts on the quiet bits instead.

I have fond memories of Death Valley from 30 years ago, but when I thought about it again, we went to some sort of convention so there was lots going on. Normally however, it's just.... erm, desert. Nothing much to see. And off-the-thermometer hot. So for that and other (distance) reasons, it's off the itinerary.

There are a couple of other threads like this one with excellent tips and ideas on too. Have you seen them?

I've been looking through them, very helpful. Husband is a bit worried it might be wasted on our 6 and 9 yr old but they are used to long haul, just not so many stops and starts. Checked with a delta earlier and found flights for four LHR - SF- then LAX- NY and NY- LHR for around 3 and a half grand which wasn't too bad. Other alternative is to make it easier and just do LHR - LAX, do LA and San Diego and stop of at NY on the way back. Choices, choices!

itasoftware.com/solutions/Matrix.html. Try this software, you can't book your flight with it but it is completely brill at helping you find the flights you want. That's how I found a 70+hr layover in Paris without paying for multi city. Then I just rang delta (ugh) to book it. Saved me tons of dosh.

Oh also don't discount the other airports around lax or sfo.

Some of them are cheaper and are closer to things like Disney if you are so inclined.

I usually fly into OAK for instance rather than sfo