Adding a beach holiday to a trip to San Francisco - where to go?

[SW1amp]

We will be going to San Francisco next summer for a family event for around 3 days, and I’m looking at options for what else we do

Realistically, we want to be away for 2 weeks to justify the flight time and jetlag so have 7-10 days to ourselves once we’ve seen family and seen a few things in the city that we want to do

We will have a 5 and nearly 2yo, and will need a few days of ‘sit and flop’ somewhere warm

Hawaii seemed like an option but all the hotels seem to be huge resorts, which aren’t really our bag so we’ve ruled that out

DH has suggested flying to Miami for a few days, then onto the Caribbean and then home from there, which is also an option

But are we missing another option?

Priorities would be somewhere with excellent food, small and food hotel (not a huge AI resort) and fairly easy travel connections

budget isn’t a huge consideration but we want somewhere child friendly rather than ‘children tolerated’

Am I asking too much?!

Depends on what you mean by 'beach holiday'

If you want to walk along the sand and look at the water - then going north to Oregon (and perhaps flying out of Seattle or Portland) is gorgeous. A lot of their beaches are national or state parks, have excellent facilities (we stayed in a yurt on Harris Beach - I HATE camping and this was a great compromise), and the scenery is unbeatable. But... thats not really in the fly and flop category.

If you go south from the Bay Area, then yes, Carmel has some great state and national beaches either directly in the village or just south with lots of hiking trails and things to see. We drove down the coast to Santa Barbara from Pebble Beach/Santa Cruz and stayed in an AirBnB in Cambria, on the coast, just south of San Simeon. CUTE artsy town with great food but.. you cant really go in that water. Benefit is that its very close to the wine area of Paso Robles - lots of tasting rooms around.

Santa Barbara is our preferred area - there is a little harbor area in town with a sandy beach and you can rent kayaks and SUPs, a giant 50m olympic pool on the water (more of a workout pool but they do offer open swim), and pretty good food and bars around. We got an AirBnB in Montecito Lower Village area that was walkable to Butterfly Beach which, if you are going in the summer, should be swimable. Be aware of Pacific currents, however, the Pacific can really do some damage if its a heavy surf day.

Then there is lots between Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, though I am not as informed about Carpinteria and some of those smaller Ventura County places.

Would also suggest even further south into Orange County below Anaheim to Laguna Beach - a little less chi-chi than Newport, but very cute all the same. Huntington isn't bad either, but can get very busy in the summer. Near LA I spent time on the beach at Marina del Rey one summer and that was ok, better than Santa Monica, though I don't know the current situation.

A driving vacation down the California coast is a great trip - pick a few different towns that look appealing/have different activities and get an AirBnB in each one for 3 or 4 days. Hotels with all the taxes will add up and you can get fresh food or easily cookable food just about anywhere which will be cheaper than eating out all the time. It will be a budget-buster for sure given the way the GBP is going against the dollar and the cost of petrol in California, but it will also be less hassle and probably the same price as flying 6 hours across the country to Miami and then on to the Caribbean which is longer than just flying to Hawaii.

One final words of warning - up and down the coast there is a thing called 'June Gloom' where there will be heavy clouds or overcast every morning, though they tend to burn off by noon or so. Also - you never know if a landslide or other event over the winter will take out parts of Highway 1, which will mean diverting inland for a bit and not seeing all of the highway. Thats not so bad, but something to be aware of - check the CalTrans website for up to date information.

Sorry, I just saw you have a 5 and 2 year old - Monterey has the large aquarium which is good for kids, and from there you can base yourself and see Santa Cruz and Carmel (and down to the start of Big Sur) though it pretty cool temperature wise. Alternatively get a flight down to San Diego and stay in that area (as noted by another poster) for a week - there will be more than enough to do with actual beaches and you can drive up to south Orange County if you wanted to for an night or two.

We lived in that area for a while, I would head off to Mexico, only a couple of hour flight and it's fabulous - look at Cabo

The sea on west coast US is generally too cold to swim in