Please critique my California Road Trip plan and save me from myself...

[Greeper]

We have two weeks and 3 kids 7,9,11. Plan is to fly to San Fran, 3 nights Alcatraz and hopefully recover a bit, then pick up a car and drive to edge of Yosemtite for 2 nights, not sure what to do here but a bit of gentle hiking, maybe kayaking. Then drive back across to Monterey and one night here, down the pacific highway stopping at two motels somewhere, TBC, and arriving into Holywood for 3 nights. We want to do universal possibly, not sure. Then death valley for a night and on to Vegas with two nights here. Possibly helicopter trip, if I can make myself do it (slightly terrified). Is this just too much? Or can we do it and still have fun? What would you ditch and what would you add? TIA mners

Too much, for definite. The drive from San Francisco to Yosemite is dull, but I think I’d still do it because Yosemite is amazing. When are you going? Death Valley will be best viewed from an air conditioned car from May/ June. I would ditch Las Vegas and Death Valley from your trip. Or, Ditch the Pacific Highway and drive down the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, through Death Valley to Las Vegas. That was very much some of my favourite bits. It depends whether mountain or coast is your bag, and when you’re going.

I don't think it is too much. We did San Fran to LA in 2 weeks. 3 nights San Fran, 3 nights Yosemite, 2 nights Monterey so we could go whale watching. Then down the Pacific highway in one day to a place called Cayucos which is a lovely, sweet little costal town. Then one night each in Paso Robles and Ojai, 2 nights Santa Barbara and one in LA.

So we didn't go as far down as you but worth bearing in mind that driving is easier out there. We didn't have any kids in tow.

Yosemite was amazing. We stayed at a place called Yosemite Bug which is quite rustic and about a 40 mins drive from the park but much cheaper than staying in the park and has a great onsite restaurant.

What dates?

Thanks all, really helpful. We are going mid April.. I think the tioga pass will potentially still be shut so that limits some of the routes?

Way too much.
Do Northern California OR Southern and don't try to do Nevada as well.

Far too much with your children and they will too become fed up of being in the car. You will spend many hours behind the wheel which is no real holiday for you either. Again its too many places without actually seeing anything, its all way too rushed. Visit Northern CA or Southern CA indeed but not both and certainly not Nevada as well in two weeks.

Monterey is easily visited as a day trip from SF.

You also need some decent scale maps and properly work out distances; CA as a state from top to bottom is about the size of the UK.

Would base yourself in SF and use that to see the city properly and visit Yosemite. Have you looked at websites associated with activities at Yosemite?. I would with the kids do a two centre holiday with a week in SF and a week in LA (with flying between these cities). Hollywood as an area is a complete dive so would recommend you look at Santa Monica.

I think too much too. Drop the Nevada bit and fly home from LA and I think it works better.

The drive from SF to Yosemite will be about 3-4 hours, more with a stop and then a bit longer if you go from SF to Monterey. If you only have two nights at Yosemite you only effectively have one day. You could easily add another night there and just reduce the rush a little bit.

Yes April too early for tioga pass so forget the eastern Sierra option. I would leave off Death Valley and Nevada in that case. Agree that you can do Monterey as day trip. It’s well worth it! The aquarium is amazing. If you’re doing Alcatraz then get a city pass, you slightly have to jump through hoops but it gives you Alcatraz discount plus Monterey plus free travel in San Francisco on buses and cable cars. Book Alcatraz in advance. I think I’d do San Francisco, Yosemite, then down to south California/ la. Possibly heading to the coast a little north of la. We stayed in Santa Barbara which is pricy but pleasant.

Santa Cruz had a gloriously tacky seafront with rollercoaster etc. I’d stop there on the way to Monterey if I had kids with me I think.

The tripadvisor boards for areas and destinations are great sources of info. I also liked this blog for some slightly more offside trips californiathroughmylens.com

I also wouldn’t do the whole of highway 1, maybe just from Santa Barbara to la. It’s beautiful but feeels more familiar, is susceptible to landslides and not sure how much the kids would get from sections of it?

Slightly involved instructions for doing Alcatraz with city pass, but I’d say we’ll worth it if you also do Monterey www.citypass.com/san-francisco/alcatraz

I wouldn't do three nights in LA - unless you really want to do Universal (check out prices first, it was looking around £1k for 5 of us in August which we decided was insane!). There's not loads to do in LA and it takes ages to get anywhere, its like the biggest car park you can imagine! Venice Beach/Santa Monica and the Observatory are nice to visit but I think the other bits of your trip are all much better.

Re North of LA, San Diego and Laguna Beach are also nice for a bit of chilling out. Yosemite is just incredible.

Just to pick up on two parts of your post - we did a heli flight over the Grand Canyon and it was incredible. Pick up from hotel in Vegas.
If you want a fab thing to do in LA, take the Warner Bros Studio tour! Extensive and great fun

Laguna Beach and San Diego are south of LA...

It's 2 1/2 hours from LA to SD so it's not really a day trip unless you want to spend the whole day travelling.

Santa Cruz is definitely fun, I wouldn't do both that and Monterey in one day though. Either/or (or stay over and do both).

I would recommend a guided tour in Yosemite. It’s an amazing place and it will help you get the most from it.

Highway 1 is worth it! I would visit Monterey (are the whales around in April?) but have chill out time in Carmel. Much nicer. The route from SF to LA has lots to see and do.

Do you children even know what Alcatraz was? I’m never sure why this is such an attraction for uk visitors over all the other interesting things. We did lots of other things in SF. The trolley car museum for example.

I would spend longer in Yosemite. Don’t go into Nevada. Do SF, Yosemite, then Highway 1, then LA. I agree Santa Barbara is also great and there is Hurst Castle to visit on Highway 1 too. Stay in Santa Monica and look at Lonely Planet for all the things to see in the LA area. A day trip to Pasadena and the Huntington Library and gardens is a fantastic day out. LA has plenty to see. The Getty Centre is fantastic as is the Getty Villa at Malibu. All the beach areas such as Venice Beach are worth going to.

If you base yourself in SF, Yosemite, Carmel, Hurst Castle area and then Santa Monica you will see the best of California in the time you have available and you can relax a bit too! Who wants to be in a car all the time?

Your trip is similar to ours but after LA, which we didn't think much of, we did SAN Diego and wished we'd had longer there. Could have also spent longer than 3 nights in Yosemite ( make sure you drive up to glacier point). Mine were mid teens, there was lots of driving, and my two fell asleep for part of highway one!

Alcatraz: hopefully govt shutdown over by then.
Usually advised to book well in advance.

Alcatraz was a highlight and I didn’t expect it to be. I think it functions on a few levels: the trip out there feels like an event. The audio tour is really well done and is interesting social history. Lots of points of interest. Loads of different ways to enjoy it.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t love San Francisco. The level of homelessness and people with obvious mental health issues jarred with the intense affluence. I suppose it’s a bit like London that way, but easier to see when it’s not your culture! The counter culture history felt very removed. Plus we came there off the back of having gone up the eastern Sierra and then Yosemite, so I was in quite a different rhythm to the city itself.

Yosemite & D-Valley too, of course.

If the shutdown lasts until mid April there will be much bigger problems than national park access!

I would miss out the Nevada stage. We are notorious for spending too long in the car on US holidays (usually because we are going to Yellowstone when we should know how far it is from everything) and it does somewhat spoil a holiday.

Alcatraz is great, book on the first ferry of the day, you will be up at the crack of dawn for the first few days due to jet lag and getting on the first tour will mean it is quiet. SF will not be warm at that time of year, bring a good jacket.

Monterey Aquarium is also fab. Make sure you stop at the Elephant seal beach on the pacific highway, they are amazing animals. Also look out for sea otters in the sea. Pismo Beach is a busy resort but fun - go on a dune buggy ride, like a roller coaster in a four by four.

How will the shutdown affect things for travellers over the next few weeks @ragged ? We have a trip booked mid-Feb and had no idea about this.

With this and the current crappy weather I'm now worried we should have gone somewhere else!

At the moment there are delays in airports due to TSA (security) workers phoning in sick when they can no longer afford to work for no pay. National Parks are either closed or have reduced services (rubbish not collected, toilets not working) concessions not operated by Park service employees may be operating in the parks. It might be difficult to get information because Park service web pages are not being updated during the shutdown. Normal life for those who do not work for the government seems unaffected, largely, (I live in Boston) but there are things behind the scenes like food inspection which could start to have an effect. I'm nor sure what things would look like if the shutdown goes on into February, this is already the longest closure in history. The clean up in National Parks is going to take a while and tragically some lasting damage has been done, eg in Joshua Tree NP.

Nice hotel in San Luis Opisop which we enjoyed - having had it recommended on MN a few year ago www.applefarm.com/

Looks lovely bestbefore I’ll definitely put that one on my list!

@RagingWhoreBag it was one of my kids favs. We had a family suite which was ace - it's a nice non corporate hotel!

I'm with you OP I think Mr Ezra needs 25 mins on the naughty step to contemplate what he's done.