California

[JumperandJacket]

Sorry, two threads in one day!

My brother lives in California and we're planning a holiday there next year to see him. We've been to CA/NV a number of times to visit him and so have done quite a few of the standard tourist things-

Yosemite
Sequoia
LA/Disney
San Francisco
Las Vegas
Death Valley

Would love some suggestions for other areas and things to do. We'll be travelling with DC aged 16 and 14.

Yes Hearst Castle is still there. When we went 25 years ago it was a lot less organiser, now a big car park & bus to the castle.

Which isn't really a castle, to the disappointment of DD.

Sedona, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon are hot but not unbearably so in the summer. We visited there in July and much cooler than Phoenix.

From San Francisco I would go north into Oregon but I’m biased. The Oregon coast is spectacular.

Joshua Tree National Park
Sedona to see the amazing red rocks. Dusk/Dawn time it’s hard to believe you aren’t on Mars.

What sort of stuff do your DC enjoy doing /seeing?

Lake Tahoe, wonderful place and lots to do for teens. Paddle boarding, water rafting, kayaking, cable cars. We stayed in a lovely lodge there for a week (flew to Reno and picked up a car)

Or another vote for Oregon - fabulous coastline, Bend, Portland, a very diverse state with high desert, mountains, woodland and coastal areas

@ZZTopGuitarSolo

Maybe fly into Las Vegas and do a road trip through the national parks? My teens loved our trip to Vegas, Hoover Dam, Zion, Bryce, Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, and Sedona.

We basically did this when I was a teen, absolutely epic!

Also Big Sur, monterey bay aquarium, petrified forest, sonoma/lake/napa counties are beautiful for chilling out.

The studio tours are fun, at their age the movie star bus tours might be good (although you mainly see hedges and gates) knots berry farm, also not Seaworld, you can get boat tours to see the dolphins and whales off the coast. Cheesecake Factory for lunch! There is a lovely one by Santa Monica pier.

We did a helicopter and boat ride at Grand Canon, great to see it from both of those views.