East or West Coast USA?

[redpickle]

We're looking at holidays for next August and considering either NYC-Boston-White Mountains-Maine or California SF-Monterey-Theme Parks (couple of days only)- Santa Barbara.

I think the adults would prefer the East Coast but would the kids get as much out of it or would they prefer the West? It's a special holiday and we want to get it right so I'd value opinions. I've been to NYC and would love to share that with them but not been anywhere else. We'd like a mixture of hotels and self-catering but SC accommodation in the East looks a bit old fashioned and better in the West.
We will have 2-3 weeks. DCs will be 11 & 8

In the last 12 months we have done a san francisco - LA road trip and a 3 week east coast trip covering Boston, cape cod, rhode island. I loved both but there is a reason west coast is so totally iconic and I'd definitely choose that. The only tiny reservation is I'd find the trip to the west coast v hard in economy whereas east coast is more bearable.

I think holidays with children are better if you don’t move around too much. There’s plenty to do North of Boston and into the mountains. There are museums and interesting villages and you can have picnics, enjoy walks and visit historical sights.

California will be very hot. Again there is plenty to see and do but excessive travelling still wouldn’t appeal. Monterey isn’t as nice as Carmel. I have not done self catering in either of these areas but there are plenty of lovely hotels. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Santa Barbara and you could look at this type of accommodation.

We have done both and California is definitely our favourite. Loved San Francisco, Yosemite, Monterey and San Diego!

I would go west coast. But agree not move around too much so something like 4 days san francisco, 3 days carmel/monterey or Yosemite, 4 days los angeles, 4 days san diego (recommend bahia resort hotel, price came down a lot after watching for a while). It's easy to fly into one city and fly out of another and one way car hire if you stay within California has no financial penalty.

Those theme parks in August will be heaving, horrible imho. You'll spend hours in line to get on any rides.

I have family in CA so I would choose east coast just because it would be new for me. But relevant, since I have distant ancestors with names littered all over landscape there.

We went second half of August & schools had gone back in San Diego. So no queues at anything touristy and mainly no wait/no booking required at coastal restaurants.

I went to Disneyland in May (not school holidays at all) & it was horrible, 1 hour minimum Q for everything until 9:30pm (they closed at 10pm). Place was heaving with foreigners.

British expat in the USA here - I live on the west coast so I’d have to say west coast. But generally the west coast is more liberal than the east coast. That affects the mood of the people, the ambience, the way we do things, everything. So much more laid back. And don’t just stop at California - Oregon and Washington are beautiful too.