California/SanFrancisco in February

[Peaseblossum22]

We are travelling to Vancouver and California in February, whilst its not an ideal time to travel the dates are fixed for other reasons and since we are there we thought we would take the opportunity to catch up with friends who live just outside SF and spend a week or so. Friends are super hospitable and we will be able to stay with them at least some of the time but we want to be a bit self sufficient as well and not depend on them, and also come with some ideas ourselves ,but am feeling a bit clueless, (although we are not novice travellers, so not sure why this is baffling me). We are also possibly going to tack a couple of days in NYC on the end.

Which areas would be good at that time of year , how long should be allow for SF itself (recent reports have not been super positive), should we concentrate on driving south of SF due to the weather at that time . We wondered about spending the weekend with them, we plan to arrive from Vancouver on the Friday,, and then maybe do a bit of driving, stay somewhere down the coast for a couple of nights and then back before we fly home. DH is quite keen to take in a whale watching trip, are the national parks best avoided at that time of year. We will definitely hire a car so will be mobile.

Any tips or ideas welcome .

Sounds like you’re flying into Vancouver but able to fly home ( or to NYC ) from SF or Los Angeles or even Las Vegas?

How many days in USA do you have in total?

I would consider going se where it's warmer even in winter eg Death Valley but stay out of the mountains unless you want to ski. If you go towards la it's warmer too but wetter

It's been a pretty wet winter so far and bits of Big Sur have already been closed already due to landslides. They've been clearing then fairly quickly, but a bigger one isn't out of the realm of possibilities this winter. If you want to do some driving, depending on the weather, you want might want to stick to the Carmel/Monterey area.

That said if it's been sunny and the road is still good Big Sur is great in the winter. Hardly any drivers and less fog in the cold weather.

I'd personally stick to more built up areas, but it's been rainy across the state so you may want to focus on more indoor activities/keep your plans flexible.

It’ll be cold in both places. The national parks - Yosemite for example - will not be open. I’d fly to Las Vegas tbh.

How long is your holiday in total?.

You ideally need to fly between Vancouver and San Francisco as it is just under 1000 miles between both cities. You would also have to cross two US states (Washington state and Oregon) in order to arrive in CA.

Hi yes we are flying into Vancouver, and staying probably 6 days , that time is already pretty scheduled and will include for me spending a bit of time exploring the city, eating, and possible a couple of days skiing but will hire equipment as don't want to take stuff with us.

Our friends live just outside SF about 20 miles West , so we will definitely be flying into SF as seeing them is the major reason for being there @AttilaTheMeerkat definitely flying down to SF we don't have time to drive, at another time of year I would have liked to go to Seattle but maybe next time.

We will then have about 10/11 days left, so thinking of 7 days in California and then a weekend in NYC ,we have been before so thats familiar but this time on our own to do the MOMA and maybe the Met (without bribing teenage boys !) and just having a couple of days to ourselves before flying back probably on the overnight flight. Or would that be too much, weirdly its cheaper to fly back via NYC than direct although that isn't a deciding factor .

Sorry , obviously they are 20 miles East !!

Yes , 20 miles East 😂

I'm not a big fan of SF. It'll be very cold and damp and gloomy in Feb. The fog is there every day, even in August. I would head to Southern California and spend most of your time there in the sunshine and it'll feel wonderful

Yosemite will be open. Just the high roads (glacier point etc) that won't be. All the visitor information and seasonal changes are posted to the website