Holiday in USA (mainly Northern California) with 10 year old. Any suggestions/advice?

[Chocolatestain]

DH has recently come into some money so we are thinking of spending a bit more on our family holiday this year and going to the USA for three weeks.

After discussing what we’d all like to see/do we’ve come up with a very provisional itinerary, which is:
Fly to Washington to break the journey and visit the Smithsonian (DH has always wanted to go and DS is very interested in space).
Fly to San Francisco and spend a couple of days seeing the sights there.
Hire a vehicle and head to Sequoia National Park, then Yosemite and on to Lake Tahoe.
From there head the coast, either north of San Francisco or Big Sur, and then back to San Francisco.
Fly to Las Vegas to visit the Grand Canyon and then home.

Does this sound too ambitious? We don’t want to spend too much of the holiday driving.

Any advice or suggestions about what is worth visiting or avoiding would be most welcome. For a bit of context, we are an outdoorsy family who enjoy hiking. DS is 10 and a pretty rufty-tufty sort of kid. We’re not particularly fussed about doing a lot of city visits and none of us are interested in visiting Los Angeles or Disney Land. We are thinking of staying in lodges/hostels/cheapish hotels, but would be open to considering hiring a camper van rather than a car.

I’d also love to hear your top tips on the practicalities and logistics of this type of trip. For example, where do you get your washing done (this is the sort of thing that never crosses DH’s mind when holiday planning🙄🤣), what are the best places to eat, etc?

Sounds like a fun trip...I dont really have any advice, its been a few years since my last California trip and I imagine a lot has changed since then.....however, I would recommend signing up to TripAdvisor and checking out either the USA forum and/or the road trip forums. I've been on both boards a lot in the past and always found people really helpfull.

Reasonable over 3 weeks. What will you actually do at Sequoia, etc.? Are you walkers? What time of year? Yosemite accommodation within 4 walls is already gone this summer, I bet.

Thank you both. Yes, we are big walkers (DS will happily do nine or ten miles). We would be looking at the summer holidays and I did wonder if we’d left it a bit late to book the popular destinations.

I’ll have a look at the TripAdvisor forums and see if there are any suggestions for alternative accommodation close to Yosemite.

When are you going? We did pretty much that trip this summer with slightly older DC, and the things I’d recommend are:

• stay in Yosemite West (we used AirBnB), its amazing being inside the actual park and you avoid the queues in and out
• there is less to do in Sequoia (and driving in and out takes longer, we couldn’t get self-catering in the park) than in Yosemite, but you can easily drive from one to the other in a day
• its worth getting a bigger car than you think you need, if you’re self-catering in Yosemite, as you end up needing to bring in all your food for however long you’re staying. I found planning four hours driving for changeover days was enough for us, and also planned in half way stops for food. Had an amazing brunch half way between Yosemite and Seqoia!
• the science and technology museum in SF was amazing, the DC loved it. The bridge and Alcatraz were not such big hits. They really liked the trams/trolleys though.
• we did an overnight stop in Monterey and went whale watching, which was a hit with the DC, though Monterey itself felt a bit tacky.

We only had two weeks, with three I think we’d have tried to leave Yosemite via the Tioga Pass and Death Valley, then loop around via Bakersville and come up to Sequoia / Kings Canyon that way.

Accommodation inside the national parks is probably all baggsed at this point.

Look at air Bnb as well as motels for your accommodation.

Laundry - coin laundromats.

Consider Bryce canyon for a visit..

You'll do a lot of driving. Distances are vast. However, you'll see a lot of varied and interesting scenery, and the road trip is a quintessential American experience. I'd get a small crossover SUV type vehicle and avoid an RV as gas costs can really add up.

Best places to eat are authentic Mexican restaurants and mom and pop burger joints. Any place you see a lot of cars in the parking lot or a drive thru line is a safe bet as long as it's not McDs, etc.

If you want some decent fast food, go to Popeyes and order red beans and rice. Steak 'n Shake locations have lovely milkshakes and decent menu offerings. In N Out also good for fast food in CA.

I would drive down the coast from San Francisco to Big Sur, then head up to Yosemite. Skip Lake Tahoe and drive to Vegas/Grand Canyon as this will allow you to go through Death Valley which is amazing!

OP will not want to visit D.Valley in summer. All the others might be very hot, too. GCanyon will be ok (still hot but tolerable) if you don't go further down than Indian Springs. Although the rangers might holler at you not to even go there if you can't get back before 10am. Except Frisco of course, famously can be chilly even in summer.

We stayed the night before going into Yosemite in Sonora, just to the West. It's an old town which still retains many of its 'wild west' features. We stayed in a little quirky guest house. Just up the road is Jamestown which was the location for some of Back to the Future III - theres an old steam train station and there a 'living museum'. It was genuinely one of our fav things we did when we went to California.

The bonus of it, is it's close to the entrance to Yosemite, which means you can be up early and be one of the first into the park before queues build up.

I strongly suggest, not trying to do too much and to look at distances/times. There is a massive temptation to try and do too much in a day and it can be difficult through death valley in particular due to the limited number of places to stay over night. Death Valley is HOT and even with air con it's bad. If you get out the car you only want to be out for a short period. It's not somewhere to hike in summer in reality.

Thank you everyone, this is really helpful. I suspect we’ve missed the boat on accommodation in Yosemite, but Sonora sounds like a good bet.

We’ve already decided not to do Death Valley due to the heat - maybe save it for a time when we Not tied to summer holidays.

I would start in SF and fly back to the UK from Washington DC. I would also suggest you not try and cram everything in and be mindful of driving distances. You do not want to spend hours on end behind the wheel.

The NASM is being refurbished and whilst part of it is now open the remaining galleries will open in 2025.

Tahoe was lovely, really enjoyed a day kayaking.

I wouldn't fly to Las Vegas. If you have the car anyway I would drive. You could take in the Grand Canyon. It's only an 8 hour drive from big sur to Vegas and if you stopped at a motel overnight. There are some fab retro cool motels on that highway with pools, it could be great fun. See the canyon & then into Vegas & drop the car there

Thank you everyone, this is all really helpful.

We’re going to look at what’s open at the NASM to decide if it’s worth the stopover and will certainly look into the logistics of driving to the Grand Canyon - that hadn’t even occurred to us.

DS will love the idea of kayaking - he did it on his Y4 residential last year and has been badgering us to take him ever since!

Don't skip Tahoe I lived in this area for years and it's my favourite.

Be aware you might have to change plans at last minute due to fires.

I recommend rush creek lodge just outside Yosemite for a really nice place to stay. You'd have to get up early to get into the park without queues most probably but that's where we usually stayed.

In Tahoe for something adventurous to do I recommend hiring mountain bikes from flume trail bikes, getting a van up to the start and riding the flume trail. It is suitable for adventurous cycling beginners though there is a tiring climb at the start. It is also spectacularly beautiful.

I agree driving round is all part of the experience. It's usually quite easy relaxing driving compared to UK in my opinion. Get a good audio book and crack on.

If you are going to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon consider doing the round trip via Monument Valley (Kayenta) and Zion Canyon.

Is a long time since I went to the National Parks but it was good value to buy an annual pass so you could visit several. The Grand Canyon and Zion Canyon (possibly Bryce too) both had free ranger programmes and a news paper with walks set out in the newspaper. There is also a Junior Ranger programme www.nps.gov/kids/index.htm

Washington DC, all the main sights, memorials and museums are located around The Mall.

Some years ago we did a similar trp. We flew to New York & spent 4 days there. Then flew to San Francisco & had 4 days there. After that we rented a car & drove north of San Francisco up as far as Calistoga, we spent a night in both Sonoma & Point Reyes Station en route.

Then we headed south again & went down the coastal highway stopping at Big Sur, Carmel, Monteray, Half Moon Bay, St Luis Obispo. We devoured to both Joshua Tree National Park & Palm Springs.

We spent the last night in LA & flew home from there . It was an epic trip

Detoured

My ds is in Berkeley this term. Loving all the ideas as he hasn’t got time to research anything.