California road trip with kids - where would you stop?

[Careerchanger88]

Following on from my other holiday dreaming thread :)

Where would you stop on a California road trip with kids? Mine are happy in a pool or a beach all day long, so trying to factor that in.

LA up to Portland maybe? Or is that too far? The stops I can think of include Carmel/ Big Sur…

Anyone done it? Recommendations?

Definitely Monterey for the fabulous aquarium. We spent the best part of a day there.

Also Elkhorn Slough where you can kayak and see sea otters and sea lions. That was amazing and we still talk about it now 6 years on.

California is huuuge!

i don't know southern California very well but have spent a lot of time near the Bay Area since being a child and visiting family.

There are some gorgeous beaches to run wild on up nearer to SF. However even in summer the weather is not guaranteed (still feels okay to us from UK though). Half Moon Bay and that area is nice for a day or two. Feels very unspoilt. I wouldn't swim in the ocean though ;)

Would you go inland to Tahoe? There is the very touristy bit where all the casinos are based but on the Tahoe Keys and that area is lovely. There are campgrounds where you can rent a cabin and really chill out - hire bikes, kayak on the lake etc. So nice for children (and adults).

How long is your holiday in the US?.

You need a firm start and end point and with teens I would consider a two centre holiday.

Why Portland?. LA to Portland (some car companies may not actually let you leave their hire car in another state) is nearly 1000 miles in the car; that's more like driving the length of the UK. Get a decent scale map and look at driving distances carefully. CA is a vast state and itself is about as long as the UK. Your time is limited and you do not want to spend a vast amount of your holiday just behind the steering wheel because you will not see anything either. Also I do not feel your DC would at all put up with hours spent in a hire car.

www.camprichardson.com/chevy-cabin/

And this is my favourite lake beach.. roundhill pines Get there early - pay for your parking and stay all day. Safe to swim in ( very, very cold of course) and great bar and restaurant service to your spot on the beach.

We did a road trip in Califirnia many years ago. I will come back later with a list.

San Francisco is on your list I hope? You can spend days there - but can see a lot in a couple of days. I think things might be back to normal now after Covid. I hope so.

In that area also you can go up to see some giant redwoods at Muir Woods - teens might be bored but it is awe inspiring to see them. Also not as far to travel as the other redwood forests.

A great thing to do whilst on the drive is the 17 mile drive. You can pick it up in Monterey (def a goodplace to spend a day or two) and (pay) to drive down the coast. You get a guide leaflet with places to stop and information about the area. Some gorgeous views and photo opportunities, def worth the money.

Disneyland!
Santa Monica
Monterey
San Diego zoo
San Francisco (and Berkeley)
walk over the Golden Gate bridge
Yosemite

I’d skip California and do Oregon instead - much more interesting

Yosemite is amazing! I went as a child and loved it so much. (I suspect it's changed a lot since the '70s)

I did one a few years ago with the kids but we ventured out of Cali a bit. We did -

LA - stayed in Burbank area, wasn't interested in Disney but did Warner Bros which we loved and also Universal, visited Beverley Hills, Santa Monica etc

Las Vegas - stayed at the Bellagio, kids loved Vegas, so much to do. We're not gamblers so didn't bother with that. Neon Museum was great, but go at night. From here we also went to Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon South Rim. A lot further drive, but doable as a day trip and we took in old Route 66 which was great.

Death Valley - so hot and the warm spring pool at night was fantastic, could see the Milky Way.

Stopped at Lee Vining and went to Bodie ghost town. Was meant to be at Yosemite but the whole place was basically burning down so had to avoid it, the roads were closed. Gutted about that!

San Francisco - Loved it, can't remember the name of the hotel but it was in Fisherman's Wharf - Alcatraz night tour was great but book well in advance.

Carmel - used this as a base and went to Monterary for whale watching trip etc.

Santa Barbara - Just loved it here, beautiful chilled but lively place to end the trip!

We took our kids for 2.5 weeks in April 2011. They were 7 and 8. I did my PhD in North California so already knew that part well, but not Los Angeles etc., but I'm not sure if that affected what we did really, except that I already knew where I wanted to go. It also made the holiday more relaxed as we were on largely familiar territory at least to start. I might have spent a bit longer on arrival in San Francisco if it was all new? Here is our itinerary of places we stayed. Note we prefer shorter distances to most people! Most stops were 2 nights I think

San Francisco 3 nights
Gold Country
Yosemite
Monterey
Cambria (Hearst Castle)
Santa Barbara just 1 night
Hollywood just 1 night
Disneyland
Laguna Beach

It was a wonderful trip!

We did LA (Santa Monica), Santa Barbara, Monterey, Yosemite, San Francisco. Yosemite was amazing, I’d like to go back. It was all great, but of all our stops the one that didn’t add much was Santa Barbara but probably because we didn’t do too much other than relax after a busy few days in LA. Fantastic holiday overall. So many other places you could go in California. It’s hard to narrow it down, but I was happy with our ratio of stops versus travelling time in between (over around 17 days).

I'm back and now have my laptop.

Our road trip in California started in Los Angeles, we then drove up and had a night in Barstow so that we could visit Calico Ghost Town, then drove up through Death Valley, and spent a night in Bishop (where we had an earthquake) before driving through Yosemite. We then drove along route 49 and across to Lake Tahoe. We made the mistake of staying in South Lake Tahoe City which is really tacky and full of casinos and "adult" motels.

We next drove to San Francisco via San Luis Obispo - you must visit the Madonna Inn. We didn't stay there, just had a meal there, and stayed in SF for several days, taking in a trip to Alcatraz, then drove down back to Los Angeles to visit Universal Studios and the original Disneyland. The next stop was Palm Springs for a couple of days then down to San Diego for a few days. We visited Sea World and San Diego zoo (this was many years ago, I wouldn't go to Sea World now). Then back up to LA for our flight home.

We took three weeks over this trip and had an absolutely fabulous time. Los Angeles is awful to drive around so we stayed in a hotel with a free shuttle bus to Disneyland, and took a coach tour to take in Hollywood and Universal Studios. We saw the original film sets of many famous films, including the original King Kong before it burned down in a fire a few years later.

San Francisco is also somewhere to park up and walk around or book a coach trip as parking is difficult to find and it is too busy to be enjoyable to drive around.

I hope this gives you some ideas.

Oh wow these tips are absolutely amazing!! I am doing some looking at all areas now. I’m feeling incredibly inspired!

Fantastic list - thank you so much!