Family road trip from San Francisco- itinerary help please.

[BoogleMcGroogle]

We would like to spend about 12 nights on a California road trip next Easter (2022, but 2023 if not possible). DC will be 10 and 13. We love nature, walking and history ( and I’m desperate to visit SF). Happy to fly out from a different city. Any ideas for a fun, not too arduous itinerary welcomed

Ooh following. We’d like to do round there summer 22/23 with my dc who will be 5/15/17

Lake Tahoe. Beautiful and lots of great things to do.

We went from LA to Vegas to the Grand Canyon to Death Valley to SF to Sonoma. It was great over 2 weeks. I wouldn’t bother with LA though.

Definitely include Death Valley and Yosemite. Both so different from each other and you can drive from one the other in 5 hours ish. From 50degrees desert and the lowest point in the western hemisphere to lush green valleys and even a bit of snow on the top.

Wonderful glaciated features in Yosemite, it's so beautiful with the waterfalls and lots of great walks. Death Valley is beautiful in a different way with the different colours of rock, yet so desolate. We saw new cars in development being tested out there which was quite interesting chatting to their drivers in the bar in an evening.

San Francisco is good. Book Alcatraz if you want to go there as it books up way in advance. Hire bikes and cycle over Golden Gate Bridge. Go down zig zaggy Lombard Street. Ride on one of the cable car tram things. There was a cocktail bar called 'Top of the Mark' when we went and it had great views of the city. Don't know if it's still called that.

My sister lives in California and we did a similar trip a few years ago - SF to LA over 4 days (but wish I had longer in some stops). With 12 nights, I'd suggest roughly:

• fly into SF, spend a couple days there
• drive up to Muir Woods (4hr drive north of SF) for a walk in the Redwood forest & stay in a local b&b. This area is often missed by the "typical" California itinerary, but if you like nature/walking it's absolutely worth it
• Lake Tahoe

then drive south on the Pacific Coast Highway, stop in:

• Santa Cruz
• Monterey / Carmel
• Big Sur (a couple days here, if you can - lots of places to just pull off the side of the road and hike down to the beach, absolutely stunning)
• LA (personally not a huge fan of LA, but worth seeing the Hollywood sign, etc)
• San Diego
• fly out of LA

BTW it was our honeymoon so we started in Vegas, which would be quite limited with children.
We did Vegas 2nights - Grand Canyon one night - Vegas to get car - Death Valley 1 night - Yosemite 2 nights - San Francisco 3 nights - Monterey 1 night - Santa Barbara 1 night - LA 3 nights

Also - Hearst Castle which is between Santa Barbara and Monterey is amazing. Playground of the rich and famous. Again, book in advance.

We went when DC were about that age and it was an amazing trip.

In San Francisco I'd definitely recommend going to Alcatraz - you need to book a long time in advance though.

San Francisco has sea lions in the Bay and you can have clam chowder in a sourdough loaf. You can rent bikes and cycle over the Golden Gate bridge (we didn't - not DD's thing) and of course there is Chinatown.

Parking is expensive in SF so we picked our car up after our 3 days there at the recommendation of our travel agent.

Then went to Yosemite for 3 nights and stayed in a wooden cabin which was a highlight of the trip. Amazing scenery. We saw a bear crossing the road and lots of fat squirrels. DS and DH climbed up beside a waterfall and had a dip. It's about a 4 hour drive to Yosemite however, the roads are twisty and DD was car sick!

As an alternative, friends camped in Big Sur which is down the coast road. Again lots of wildlife to see and amazing views.

Monterrey has an amazing Aquarium which DD loved, particularly the sea otters.

On the way down highway 1 there are various beaches to stop at, some with fat sea lions.

We didn't stop at Hearst Castle which I regret as friends have raved about it.

We did stop at Solvang though, which is made to look like an old timber Swiss type village but is actually modern concrete!

We stayed a couple of nights at Pismo Beach which is a little seaside place with a boardwalk and then another couple of nights in Santa Barbara which is more upmarket. Both ok but not amazing.

We then went to LA and stayed in Santa Monica for 4 nights which was fabulous. There is a fair at the end of the pier and it is accessible for Hollywood. I'd strongly recommend the Warner Bros tour and Hollywood walking tour. Also highly recommend going to an LA Dodgers baseball game also accessible from Santa Monica. We didn't do Disney but went to Universal Studios. Not great but I think its better now.

We actually had a 3 week trip so went on to Grand Canyon via Las Vegas before flying back from Phoenix but originally planned to fly back from LAX.

There are loads of other things to do in LA so if I had my time again I'd have spent more time there and less in Pismo and Santa Barbara.

The distances between places in USA are vast so I'd strongly advise flying into one city and out of another so you're not doubling back on yourself.

We flew into LA and out of San Diego which is not the area you're visiting but meant we didn't have to drive back to LA to catch our flight.

Alcatraz and Hearst Castle both worth a visit. If any of you are Snoopy fans there's a great Charles Schultz museum in Santa Clara, just north of SF. I laughed all the way round and there's a great gift shop.

We went when my children were 10 & 12. It was amazing.

We started LA (did Universal, Hollywood, Warner Bros Studio Tour (recommend), B Hills, Santa Monica... then Vegas (which we all loved & included a trip to Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon via old Route 66) , Death Valley which was a highlight- swimming in warm waters looking at the stars, we had to skip Yosemite because it was on fire and closed so stayed at Lee Vining for a night and went to a great ghost town. Onto San Francisco (my fav place - book night tour of Alcatraz WAY in advance), then Carmel By The Sea where we did whale watching from Monterey finally ending in Santa Barbara (loved!) and heading home from LA.

Alcatraz tour, biking over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Yosemite staying overnight at Curry Village under canvas. (Swimming pool is very welcome as it gets so sticky on the valley floor) hire bikes and cycle around the valley floor.

Come out of Yosemite via the Tioga pass and go through Lee Vining to Death Valley down to Vegas for a couple of days.

Down to LA and do the tourist stuff and visit universal.

This thread makes me want to do it all over again and take the children we now have! Such a brilliant roadtrip and so varied.

We were considering doing something like this. Did anyone do it with a camper van or did you stay in hotels/motels/b&b’s? Did you book accommodation before you left or just do it when you got to each place?

@ElGuardiandenoche

We were considering doing something like this. Did anyone do it with a camper van or did you stay in hotels/motels/b&b’s? Did you book accommodation before you left or just do it when you got to each place?

We booked b&b accommodation in a couple key places before we went, but if I could do it again I'd do it in a camper van so you could change your mind about where/how long to stay somewhere

We had hotels booked before we went.

We booked before we went but had a real mix of accommodation. 4* hotel in San Francisco, little B&B in Fish camp, camping in Yosemite, cabin in an RV park in Lee Vining. Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas and I think Fairmont Santa Monica in LA, although if O did it again with DC I would stay at Universal or Disney for a night or maybe one of each.

Hearst Castle is definitely worth a visit.

If you fancy an overnight stop with a bit of a difference then I highly recommend the Madonna Inn (not that Madonna) in Saint Luis Obispo. Can't wait for the chance to go back there.

www.madonnainn.com/

San Luis Obispo

Oh yes @RestingPandaFace Cycling across the bridge was a fav for us. Sausilito is a lovely little place to stop for lunch.

It’s a really great part of the world, and one that I will take my children to once they are bigger. DH and I did it a decade ago!

I would recommend into SF and out of LA or San Diego depending on time. Lots of good advice upthread, but second Hearst Castle. And I loved Santa Barbara, so would want to stay a night there. 1-2 nights in LA, mostly sight seeing, Santa Monica and Venice Beach, the observatory, etc.

DH favourite place is La Jolla, but I’ve never been. I would definitely stick to the coast though and not get sidetracked in-land. People try to do Cali plus Vegas/the Grand Canyon but I think it’s too much unless you were doing 3-4 weeks.

We did this trip a couple of years ago and so many people asked about it (it was EPIC) that I pulled it together in to a blog post with a ton of info. Hope it helps

affordacool.blogspot.com/2019/12/our-epic-family-friendly-california.html?m=1

(I should add I'm a research obsessive and have been to California a few times so it's got quite a lot of detail)

Our itinery was Las Vegas 2nights- went to see the Blueman group, great fun for teenagers

Flagstaff 2 nights - flight over grand canyon and a raft down the Colorado oxbow bend and the antelope canyons
Gran Canyon north rim 1 night saw sunset and sunrise
Las vegas 1 night
Cant remember what order but drove through Death Valley and went to a proper ghost town called Rhyolite

Bishop 1 night - great little railway museum here

Yosemite 3 nights - stayed in Wanona and went riding and a photography walk

San Francisco 4 nights - stayed in Union Square , went to the Walt Disney museum and paid extra for Behind the Scenes tour of Alcatraz worth every penny.
Monterey 1 night
Santa Barbara 1 night - the town hall is lovely and watched the sealions off the pier
LA 2 nights - warner bros and universal, hollywood and the observatory
San Diego 3 nights - the zoo and just relaxing
Flew home from san diego

That was 3 weeks fly drive. We had a wonderful time, obviously you could fit all that in 12 days but only regret we had was our hotel was the wrong side of LA for Warner bros etc

Also just outside Santa Barbara the elephant seals are on the beach at sunset which is a lovely sight

@bruffin Rhyolite was amazing and so creepy