California for honeymoon?

[RoyKent]

Thinking of going to California for our honeymoon- we are getting married in New York. Would like to see a couple of the major cities. I fancy LA but DP doesn't.
Any suggestions or tips? No idea where to start.

@RoyKent
Do you want good hotels? Plenty in LA! Or Santa Monica. We like great buildings and loved the Getty Centre as a place to visit. We stayed at the Mondrian in LA and Shutters on the Beach in SM. Fantastic views at the Mondrian. We had a car so travelled to different areas and Malibu is worth a look.

Going up the coast you will get to the Post Ranch Inn at Big Sur. Honeymooning would be good there! We also liked Carmel. Just a nice place.

The wine area has some fantastic restaurants. Look at the Michelin guide for the best. There are of course the national parks and San Francisco! So what do you like most? Glamour? Big road trips? The parks? Then build your trip around that.

Depending on what you enjoy:

Joshua Tree National Park is beautiful
Wine country
San Francisco

I haven't visited LA but most people I've spoken to have been disappointed. It's apparently quite gritty and not very nice. I'd recommend San Francisco over Los Angeles.

Napa Valley! One of the best trips I’ve ever done. We stayed at a lovely old school B&B guesthouse on the Main Street of Calistoga. It’s like something from a movie. They have geysers and fainting goats. Then hire bikes and cycle between the vineyards doing wine tasting (off-road cycle path links them all!). Each vineyard is so different and set in stunning grounds, beautiful views.

So many beautiful things to do you can SUP with the porpoises, you can hike through the mountains, you can ski, you can do cities.

I adore California ❤️

Love California. Start in San Fran, hire a car and drive Highway 1. There's Big Sur, Bixby Bridge, Hearst Castle. Definitely stop at Santa Cruz (we stayed at the Dream Inn), Carmel/Monterrey (Lamplighter Inn), Santa Barbara (The Canary), Palm Desert (can't remember). We then drove through the desert to Vegas. Absolutely amazing holiday! We didn't want to go to LA.

Crikey. Where to begin & how long have you got?
Death Valley.
Yosemite.
Mono Lake.
San Francisco.
Big Sur & the Pacific Coast Highway.
Carmel peninsula.
Redwood National Park.
San Francisco & the Bay Area.
Lake Tahoe.
Napa Valley.
Malibu.
Gold Country.
Joshua Tree National Park.
The list of cool stuff to see & do in California is almost endless. Don’t forget to get In‘n’out burgers.

I’d pick SF over LA. Driving highway one is a good option, we stayed at Bug Sur and Cambria but I reckon you’re better off pushing on to Santa Barbara. I’d really recommend visiting Hearst Castle if you can.

This is a really good list. Honestly there is everything. You don't need to go to movie studios.

You do absolutely have to go to In and Out though.

LA was rubbish, me and my husband really didn’t like it. Unless you’re celebrity obsessed and interested in ‘so and so was seen in this pool last week!’ I just think it’s crap.

We loved San Francisco, and Carmel by the sea and Monterey. We drove from SF to LA for our honeymoon and we loved it! (Except LA 😆) I’ve also heard good things about north of SF - napa valley and so on.

I loved LA but lots hate it - it's so beautiful and strange. If your dh doesn't like the idea maybe don't. Santa Monica is amazing, santa Barbara, Hearst Castle, the big sur, whale and seal watching in monterey. The only place I didn't love was carmel. My favourite day was a utterly surreal trip to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

I loved SF but i knew I would. The poverty is pretty intense in some areas, it feels fragile. But omg it's gorgeous. Beautiful art museums. Loved Alcatraz, Muir Woods. Book everything.

I feel I missed out not getting to San Diego, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, or any of the National Parks. But that's for another time.

I grew up in California and for me Lake Tahoe and Yosemite are the top of the list, ahead of all the cities. San Diego probably my favourite city (though not well located for a road trip). I'd do San Francisco and down the coast to carmel and big sur, then head out to yosemite, up to tahoe then back across to San Francisco. Sacramento is the state capital and about half way between tahoe and San Francisco, quite small but the old part is like a cowboy town and pretty cool.

LA can be great, but you need a plan as there are so many different parts to it it is like a trip in itself.

What do you like OP? Whatever your answer, you can almost certainly create a fantastic honeymoon in California.

I love SF and have spent a lot of time there. I like the Fairmont. I prefer to stay slightly out of downtown. Love exploring places like Pacific Heights.

Napa and Sonoma both with a visit.

Love Point Reyes and Tomales Bay. Absolutely stunning. Think we stayed in Olema.

Go to the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay for Sunday brunch. Stay the Sunday night. You won’t need dinner.

I really like San Diego. Crystal Pier out at the beach has great cabins right on the pier that are cute.

Post Ranch Inn on Big Sur is truly special.

What I really love about California is the variety of accommodation. No where else have I stayed in so many unique cabins. Really wish I had kept a diary of all my travels there. Some were super cheap too, basic but in stunning locations.

I think people do not bother to do their homework on LA. It really has some great areas and iconic buildings. We drove all along Mulholland Drive. We stayed at amazing hotels. We saw a great little museum with Hollywood costumes - The Max Factor Factory. We liked Santa Monica. You just pick the best and ignore the trashy areas sold by guide books. Like any city it has great things to see and do. Most people don’t seek anything out beyond the chewing gum laden streets, which is a shame.

Nothing wrong with ending up there in a great hotel before flying home!

Santa Monica is great. We didn’t love LA….

loved San Diego…cycled round the Coronado island…great beaches.

id stay at the awahnee in Yosemite if I was on honeymoon…in fact we might go there for our 25 th anniversary.

What do you like? I personally wouldn't bother with the cities for more than a night or two, because the national parks and other rural places are much more interesting to me. Staying overlooking the Grand Canyon for a night would be my recommendation, along with a night in Death Valley, a day in Zion National Park, Vegas for a night or two, Joshua tree National Park, if in La see whose on at the Hollywood Bowl, napa valley, Yosemite ... amazing place

If you don't do anywhere else Yosemite is a must, it is spectacular!

One memory I will always cherish is stargazing in Yosemite, no light pollution and the stars seemed close enough to touch them.

Half the places mentioned here are not California at all!

I would love to know what posters actually saw in LA to dislike it? It has fascinating areas like most cities. Some areas are grossly overhyped but you cut them out. So be discerning. Don’t follow the crowds like a Lemming! Explore California. Go to Zion and Grand Canyon separately. They are full of people too! Stars can be seen anywhere with no light pollution!

I think reason many people tend to not like LA it is very big and spread out so you can’t do LA like you would NY where you can stay in Manhattan and get to the main tourist spots easily or San Francisco.

Downtown LA is very small for the size of the city and the areas like Hollywood are meh but LA has lots of nice areas to visit like Manhattan beach etc.

Having said that I also like SF so OP would have a good time there as well.

San Francisco is a must. We did 5 nights here and 5 nights in Las Vegas.

I have also been it L.A. It's a very large city and your'll probably need to hire a car as the transport isn't that great, although this was 20 years ago almost.

It's quite faceless city, doesn't really seem to have a heart, as it's so vast, there seems to be a lot of nothing.

I'd say there are a lot nicer places in the U.S to visit before L.A but that's just my personal opinion.

• 10 years ago not 20.

My sister and I did a lovely road trip around SF to Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur. so many lovely things to see, do and eat.

California is big, some of the driving distances between places are long and driving in cities (particularly LA) takes ages as traffic is crazy.

So things to consider are how much time have you got? And are you happy to fly into one city and out of another? How much driving are you happy to do?

A longer trip (two weeks minimum) means you could fly into San Francisco and out of LA/San Diego and drive down the coast. Though I'd recommend making a trip inland for Yosemite (amazing place) before driving down.

For a shorter trip (one to two weeks) you'd probably want to fly in and out of one place. When we only had a week we went to LA (briefly for universal studios, had the kids with us), Joshua Tree and the San Diego as a little triangle which was great. I'd love to do a similar San Francisco triangle of SF, Yosemite and Lake Tahoe one day.

I'd definitely try to add in one National Park, Yosemite and Joshua Tree are both amazing and so very different.

Depends what you like. I like city then beach. For beach bit I'd head to Santa Barbara or even Carmel ( both v beautiful and upmarket) not LA/Santa Monica. LA is a pain if you're not driving and even more if you are.

We went to LA in late Feb one year. Driving was easy. High summer - probably not. Beach at Carmel was lovely in autumn. Santa Monica great for people watching!

California is class. It would be fantastic for a honeymoon in my opinion. Would love to spend 2 or 3 weeks there. Anytime I’ve been it has just been for a short few days as part of a broader US trip.
Have stayed in San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Monica and Yountville (small
town in the Napa Valley)and would recommend them all.
Have not made it to Yosemite or Tahoe yet. Also would like to visit Santa Barbara, Carmel, Laguna Beach and a few other spots. There are just so many places to go and things to see it has the makings of a brilliant holiday.