Please can I have your opinions on this California itinerary?

[longdaysandpleasantnights]

I’m planning a 3 week trip to California next August with my DH and 3 DC (they’ll be 16,14 and 11 at the time of departure).

I have loosely put together the following itinerary, please could people in the know tell me if it seems good, stupid, whatever!

Fly to San Francisco, 3 nights here.
Drive to Monterey, 3 nights here.
Drive to LA, 3 nights here.
Drive to San Diego, 3 nights here.
Drive to Las Vegas, 3 nights here.
Drive to Bakersfield, 3 nights here.
Drive to Modesto (as a base for Yosemite), 3 nights here, then drive to San Francisco for (night) flight home.

I only chose Bakersfield because it seems like a good place to drive to, but I am happy to scrap this, it’s purely a stop for ease, not sightseeing.

I am also not bothered about the ‘3 nights everywhere’ rule, it just worked out handy that way.

We won’t be doing Disney, so don’t need to work this into the plan.

Honest opinions please, I don’t mind being told it’s a foolish plan!

Sounds great but if it were me I would extend the San Francisco part and try to fit in a wine tour by cutting down / out some of the others.
San Diego and Las Vegas i would shorten - unless Vegas included Grand Canyon.
Bakersfield and Monterey I would skip.

I was basing that on your original itinerary.

Your revised one needs more work. SF to Santa Barbara is a drive time of around 5 hours. I would get myself a decent scale sized road map of CA and work out exactly how far it is between each city you want to visit. You also need to work out whether you want primarily coast or mountains; it is hard to do both because of distance and lack of fast roads. Again I feel you are trying to cram in too much and you could likely end up seeing it from behind the wheel of a car.

Mariposa would make more sense if you were coming from the direction of SF; Oakhurst would be preferable if you were approaching from say LA.

You do not mooch around in LA: LA is a huge sprawl of around 100 cities that merge into one homogenous mass.

Vague recollection from a colleague who went thataway...

You need to book like now for tickets to do certain things (like tours of Grand Canyon, Yosemite). That may just be for staying over, but do check just in case it is the day tours too.

You can't have the aircon on in your car in Death Valley(?) as the engine can't take the strain. Gets a tad warm there...

2 nights is enough in Monterey, definitely do the whale watching, we did an evening one. Whatever google maps tells you is the time between San F and Monterey it's lying the traffic is horrendous, its one road and it took us about 4 - 5 hours. I wouldn't do Bakersfield, the drive from vegas to yosemite is 5 - 7 hours you could do it in one go and spend more time in Yosemite.

Would also put in a suggestion of Grand Canyon and Page we did a kayaking trip overnight on Lake Powell which was the highlight of our last trip.

The more I look into it the more I’m tempted to do a week in San Francisco, a week somewhere in between LA and San Diego and a week in Yosemite then just doing day trips from the 3 bases, leaving out Las Vegas & Grand Canyon completely.

Does this seem better?

I would research places and work out what you actually want to see

Bakersfield is an industrial town that you use for a stopover before hitting Death Valley, which will be unbearably hot in August. How do you all cope with the heat?

Vegas will also be very hot.

I live in this area and did a road trip covering Death Valley, Vegas, Grand Canyon, LA, Monterey, etc, so if you want ideas feel free to PM me

I think dropping Vegas is a good idea - My DH adores the place and I have been with him twice but I will never take the children, they can go when they are adults. There is porn everywhere - it didn't bother me but I was very aware of how open mouthed the kids would be. Magazines for sale on the sidewalk, signs with 'girls delivered to your room in ten minutes'... just very seedy and I don't feel a teenager needs to experience that. They are only allowed walk through the casino floors, the hotel pools aren't generally heated (don't need to be in August!). I understand you wanting to visit the Grand Canyon but I think there are some trips that the children can do on their own when they are older.

We included New Orleans on a trip last year and it really wasn't great for the children. They like the more active parts of the holiday, they don't get the same pleasure of sitting and watching the world go by.

if you PM me I ill send your our scott dunn itinerary from 2016 has loads of recommendations on it and lovely places to stay. I will just need to edit out our personal details and the money (ooooh the money we spent!!)

Thank you kingfisher, I’ve PM’d you.

Francis, Yosemite is the one thing that I definitely do want to do, I would scrap everything else before I scrapped that!

Although I am getting tempted to scrap the whole idea, it’s a lot more stressful booking this one than our previous road trip in the US!

We were in California this Aug. with DS age 13. We didn't do LA as done it before. Much preferred San Diego to LA. Visible homelessness was less of issue than in London.

Happy to recommend the Bahia resort in San Diego as just out of the city with a small private beach and pool. Booked via expedia, leapt on it when there was decent discount offer. Great customer service.

Highlight of the whole holiday was being in the water with the sealions at La Jolla cove (at a safe distance!). It is a public beach with lifeguard & sealions use it for a bit of sunbathing too. (I originally fancied staying in La Jolla but that was prohibitively expensive.)

Tickets to the baseball were reasonable and it's a family-friendly stadium right in the centre of town. We didn't get to the zoo but surprisingly rated the USS Midway.

We did a similar tour over about three weeks but it was in April so mild weather. This was part of a year out travelling around the world.

San Francisco and up to the wine region. We camped and stayed in hotels/hostels and visited:
Bryce Canyon
Yosemite
Death Valley camped
Camped at base of Grand Canyon
Las Vegas for two nights
LA

Had a hire car and got upgraded after first one broken into in SF.

Best thing was the Rangers st the Parks, lots of free tours and talks. Death Valley one esp good.

Just come back from California in August. I've been several times now - adore it there.

Agree with those who say "no" to 3 nights in Monterey. Perhaps split up the journey between there and L.A. a bit more? I'd also drop Las Vegas as a venue; it's very hot and crowded-perhaps a flight there separately?

Also Yosemite - crowded and (imho) underwhelming.

I think we stayed at Pismo Beach on one occasion-that was good. Santa Barbara is gorgeous of course and highly recommended.

Traffic in LA is unbelievable but you kind of get used to the grid pattern of roads after a while. You'll need to add on at least twice the recommended journey time.

It was very crowded up at the Observatory but great to get a decent pic of the sign.

I'd also try to build in some beach time. Malibu is particularly gorgeous but Venice is also fun and not too crowded, being vast.

We found a gorgeous, quiet little beach between L.A. and SD; Cardiff on Sea also has a beach which is picturesque with some local hotels.

I find San Diego a bit underwhelming tbh but it's soooo close to Mexico! Tijuana is just over the border if you fancy another passport stamp.

One of our trips included Phoenix as a stopover. Now THAT was hot. We've also done Fresno and Flagstaff as stopovers.

Palm Springs is Very Hot too. Generally L.A. is cooler close to the sea and gets much hotter inland quite suddenly.

It's dry heat though. It didn't bother Me, and I hate British heat!.

The sun goes down quite suddenly around 8 and it gets much cooler. Take a cardi!

You can do Joshua Tree National Park and Grand Cannon in one day. We did. Our transport broke down as it over heated. With luck we were just arriving at the Grand Cannon car park. You must carry water at all times when there.

I agree with those who say 3 nights in Monterey is too long, and you would be better off spending a night in Santa Barbara as you head South.

San luis Obispo rather than Bakerfield?
Stay at The Madonna Inn for the ultimate kitsch experience

Dropping Vegas would be a good idea unless you're dead set on seeing the Grand Canyon. We did Vegas & Palm Springs (as part of a bigger trip) this summer and the temperature hit 50C. Our 12yo didn't cope well with the heat!

But we did love Red Rock Canyon and Joshua Tree National Park so worth the trip.

My top tip is to make sure you are in San Francisco for a Friday night/Saturday morning then you can go to the Farmers' market around the Ferry building for breakfast which is an amazing experience.

And just don't bother with Fisherman's Wharf, it's really tacky.

We've done this a couple of times and I haven't much to add to what has already been advised but I did see a mention of the WB Studios tour when you're in LA and wanted to second that. We did it last year and it was a highlight of the whole holiday for me. We got to go into The Big Bang Theory soundstage and saw the sets like Sheldon's and Penny's apartments.

The issue I had with San Diego wasn't visible homelessness, I worked in central London for years and know it's part and parcel of big cities. Perhaps we were unlucky but we experienced two incidents, one where a homeless man physically attacked a shop assistant who was telling him he was banned from the shop, and another where while pulled up at a red light a man came over and started hammering on our car windows.

Sorry, I don't wish to merail the thread, just wanted to be clear why San Diego made me uncomfortable.

If you want to do the Alcatraz trip when in SF, then book ahead online by at least 3 weeks. Someone advised us to do this and it was just as well, because all the boat trips were fully-booked when we actually got there.

Oh, and take some sweaters! It's chuffing cold in SF when the fog rolls in.