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!

I'd skip ANY desert stops in August.
As a California native, we don't touch Death Vallyin August. The desert is for Spring's wild flowers. I'd stick with San Fran,Carmel, Santa Barbara, L.A's beaches/beach towns (not the valley!), and I'd give San Diego a miss. The furthest I'd go is beautiful Laguna Niguel.

Ranch Paris Verdes is heaven on earth. Go have a drink at Terranea. You won't regret it.

Rancho Palos Verdes that should read.

What's weather like at Easter, March April and July? We can't cope with severe heat

I haven't read through everything just panic replying

do not go to Death Valley in august. It is one of the hottest places on the planet. Literally.

March, April great time to visit Death Valley. July will be too hot.

Please consider taking a few days to go to the Grand Canyon from the South Rim. The North doesn't hold a candle to the South. If you stay in one of the park service hotels on the rim, it will be an unforgettable experience. It's always full, but you need to keep checking in every few days for cancellations. You WILL get a room if you do this. Bright Angel is lovely, and much cheaper than the grand El Tovar right next door. If this doesn't work out, you can stay in Williams, which is basically a strip of hotels and restaurants outside the gates to the park. In August the drive in might take a while, but believe me, so worth it compared to the North Rim.

@thekingfisher would you mind sending that to me as well please. It's my bucket list trip.

@wannabestressfree if you pm me your email address I can happily send to you

Done :)

@wannabestressfree I didn't get anything

Have tried again @thekingfisher :)

@kingfisher please may I have itnery y as well thank you

Death valley sounds utterly terrifying

Here's what I did this summer in 2.5 weeks:

San Fran - alacatraz, cycling in golden gate park, museum of modern art
Yosemite * - was beaut but boiling - 105 degrees in early August - we moved on after 2 nights it was too darn hot. Check which entrance you're staying at...we were at El Portal
Monterey - aquarium was fun
Carmel **
Cambria - just beautiful and loved seeing Big Sur and the elephant seals
Santa Barbara
Las Vegas *
Grant Canyon
Barstow (to break the journey)
Los Angeles - Griffiths observatory, Tour of beverley hills house of rich and famous and universal studios, Venice beach *

Faves in stars.

Lots of driving but I love a road trip. I'd have added in a few more chillout days in Carmel or Cambria or other beachey places. Checkout TripAdvisor forums for stop offs and advice. Highway 1 down the coast from Monterey through Big sur has fallen into the sea but we detoured and still loved the coast towns.

We stayed in Lone Pine between visiting Yosemite and driving through Death Valley, nice enough place for a night. It's where some westerns were filmed and has pretty rocks. Death Valley was bloody hot in September but we set off early and didn't spend more than about 20 mins out of the car at a time.

If you have time to spare then visit Zion NP and Bryce NP, getting quite far East by that point though.

Thank you to everyone who has offered advice on this thread, it has given me loads to consider.

If I ever mention to her my head around it all and book the holiday I’ll come back and let you know where we’re off to.

get not her.

I loved No

I loved North Rim lodge, its less commercial than South Rim. We also did the flight/antelope canyons and Rafting from flagstaff.

Our itinery was Las Vegas 2nights
Flagstaff 2 nights
Gran Canyon north rim 1 night
Las vegas 1 night
Bishop 1 night
Yosemite 3 nights
San Francisco 4 nights
Monterey 1 night
Santa Barbara 1 night
LA 2 nights
San Diego 3 nights
Flew home from san diego

We were in Yosemite end of August and it was 80, and stayed in an airbnb

Las Vegas only really got a day there but saw Ceasers Palace, Bellagiobreakfast at the Harley Davison diner and evening went to see Blue man Group. Drove via Hoover Dam to Flagstaff
Flagstaff is a lovely little town,stayed at the Courtyard which was a nice hotel. We did the Grand Canyon trip which was plane,antelope canyon and rafting on the Colorado. It was an amazing day. Then drove to north rim where we stayed in wooden lodges for the night which are right on the rim. Absolutely amazing views. Went back to Vegas via Death Valley ( i think) . Then to Bishop were we visited a charming railway museum,stayed a lot longer than expeted then off to Yosemite

In Yosemite we had an airbnb in Wanona which was a bit of a drive to the centre but not too far and coul happily of stayed another night. It is stunningly beautiful but end of season in august/september so waterfalls had dried up. We did a morning photography walking tour which was really interesting. Booked that at last minute at the Ansrll Adams centre.
San Francisco we stayed at the Handlery,which is a nice hotel and very central. Bought hop on hop off tickets and also spent a day walking. Did a behind the scenes tour of Alcatraz which was brilliant,tickets sell out early for Alcatraz so you need to buy online before you go. Als went to the Walt Disney family Museum which is more of an adult museum but very interesting.
Drive to monterey wasnt bad and found an interesting lighthouse to stop off and look around.
Monterey was okay but didnt get to see much.
The next day drive to Santa Barbara was very long and if we did it again would stop off over night in the middle. The state parks were all closed because of the fires, although worth seeing the elephant seals on the beach.
Loved Santa Barbara, went to the couthouse and the pier. The sealions were pinching fish off the fishermans lines
LA we stayed in Majestic Garden which i think used to be the Sheraton. Very nice hotel next to Disney. Fantastic view of the fireworks each night.However it was wrong side of LA for Warner brothers and Universal. After Warner bros we did the tourist bits ie chinese thestre and then went up to the Observatory for sunset which was lovely. However it was over an hour to hour and half each way each day.
We drove from Universal to San Diego. San diego is very pleasant and we spent the last day at the zoo.
We did 2500 miles in total, brilliant holiday and we cant wait to go back and do parts of it again.

We did

SF - 3 nights
Yosemite - 3
Monterey - 2
Pismo Beach 1
Camarillo -1
LA - 2
San Diego - 4

If we did it again I would do more in Yosemite, less in LA, more in San Diego, skip Camarillo and stay in Santa Barbara instead.

We have 3 kids, they loved body boarding in San Diego and cycling the GG bridge in SF.

We did a California trip in August which was

4 nights San Diego
3 nights Las Vegas but from here we drove to Arizona for the Grand Canyon
Drove through Death Valley in August and it was fine. Stopped for lunch and loved it
2 nights Lone Pine which we enjoyed
2 nights Yosemite
2 nights Monterey
2 nights San Francisco where we did the tram, Alcatraz and the Bay
4 nights LA/Anaheim.

Our flights were in an out of LA and to be honest LA wasn't brilliant except for Venice Beach and Manhattan Beach. We should have stayed out of it more.

We did 3000 miles in 3 weeks and saw loads.

We stayed at the South Rim - which is fantastic, did a fun Pink Jeep tour and we did the helicopter flight. I'm bad with heights but it was the absolute highlight of our trip. That and seeing a huge elk in the road and a baby bear at Yosemite (which is very unusual).

Bear in mind - we went the last week of July and first two weeks of August - temperatures in Yosemite valley floor, Las Vegas, the desert and floor of the Canyon were 105degrees. That's why we didn't go to Death Valley or Joshua Tree.