What to do in spring in central California?

[Verybadcat]

I’m going out to work near San Francisco for a few days in the spring. My husband and son are going to come out and join me afterwards for the 2 week Easter holiday. We are going to Lake Tahoe to ski and go into some of the surrounding parks. Will also visit Nevada (hoping for some cheesy Wild West/goldrush type touristy stuff), Monteray area and San Francisco itself.

None of us have ever been to this part of America before. Any suggestions for great things to do? We’ll have around 10 days in Lake Tahoe and 4 days by the coast. TIA

There's an abandoned gold mining ghost town called Bodie that we stopped off at between Vegas and Tahoe. Just be warned theres a few miles on an unpaved road to get there! We managed it in our convertible, but it was pretty rough!
If you want to do Alcatraz in San Francisco make sure you book well in advance, as it does sell out.

Yosemite is about four hours drive.

San Francisco is Northern California. I was expecting to see a thread asking for advise on what to do near Fresno!

Santa Cruz is nice for a day trip. There's also wine country in Napa/Sonoma which is lovely.

Santa Cruz is lovely, nice arty shops downtown and it has a boardwalk with fairground rides although not sure if it's fully open in spring.

We also did a Napa wine tour when we were in SF - excellent day from what I can remember of it 😉

Oh and we stayed in Palm Springs whilst at a festival and it's a lot of fun!

You need 4 days by the coast without rushing off anywhere else. Go down to Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur. San Francisco itself is worth 4 days! Add Sausalito. See the redwoods in Muir Woods.

SF has museums and galleries. Yerba Buena Gardens and the museum of modern art are good. Ride the cable cars and go to the cable car museum. Walk Pacific Heights and go to the Palace of the Fine Arts and the Exploratorium. The Presidio is worth visiting and there is a 49 mile drive around and in SF. It’s a marked route. The first curtain wall glass fronted building is in SF. There is also a historic Financial District and the Wells Fargo museum is worth a visit and the Jackson Square Historic District. The Powell street cable car turn around is nearby. . . .

... the.

Thanks for the responses. Santa Cruz sounds great. We’ve not only got a couple of days. Could we do Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel all in 2 days or would it be better to leave one out?

Bodie sounds brilliant but it’s a bit further than was planning. Is there anywhere similar but a bit closer to Tahoe?

Is Sacramento worth a stop off? It’s on the way.

San Francisco is Northern California
We want to go south of San Francisco towards Monterey and east through Sacramento to Nevada so not Northern California.

Cross post Bubblesbuddy
All of that sounds brilliant but sadly we don’t have time. Similarly I think we’ll have to skip Yosemite. We need a month for this trip at least! But we’ve only got 2 weeks.

Can you not go from Tahoe (I think you are spending too much time there) to SF and then go down to coast for 3/4 days. Going to SF and not seeing anything is a great shame. It’s wonderful!

Nevada and Las Vegas is really not as good as SF and the coast. I would not prioritise Nevada over highway 1. Ever!

It’s primarily a ski trip and we are trying to tag as much on to it as possible but we want to ski a few of the mountains so 6-7 days skiing, 2-3 days in the around the lake not skiing and 1-2 days in Nevada.
I don’t disagree with you about San Francisco. I’m trying to fit in as much as possible because I doubt we’ll come back to California but I’d love to have extra time there.

Why Nevada? It’s so so. California is much nicer. Why stay around Lake Tahoe beyond skiing? You will have seen the area. The coast in the spring is lovely. If you are not coming back, you are missing the best parts.

Lake T is just ski resorts. You could be anywhere really.

Daffodil Hill, the Gold Rush area.

Monterey Bay aquarium is worth a visit.

Skip Nevada and go to Yosemite! You don't need more than 2 days for Monterey, santa Cruz and Carmel though it would be nice - carmel is right by Monterey.
I bloody love lake Tahoe. I'd happily spend 10 days there!

Daffodil hill - perfect. Thank you! I’ve added it to our list. 😃

We want to go to Nevada for goldrush stuff not parks so swapping it for Yosemite wouldn’t be like for like. We are thinking Virginia City. Anyone been there?

You can enter the Yosemite National Park from Nevada (if snow permits, we did it in Summer) - drive through stunning scenery to the main valley where all the hotel accomm is then on out to California. We did this and drove across a very wide valley - lots of farming and ended up in Monterey. Monterey and Carmel are lovely.