San Fran to LA recommendations and indicative costs please

[Bankholnightmare]

Looking at potentially flying to San Fran and driving to LA for a 2 week summer break. 2 adults and a teen. First look at flights circa £2k, car around 1.3k. Not planned timing’s or hotel but thinking is it reasonable to budget say £150 accommodation per night? Has anyone done the route and could you help with plans/costs? Ideally wanted to leave car at LA airport but is that a thing? Also if you have dome it did you do it independently or via an agent? Thanks for any help in advance

When we went we did the opposite route, (LA to SanFran) stopped in Santa Barbara for a night, not cheap but my favourite place, the architecture is amazing. Then Monterey was a good stop for a night too. The middle night we stayed in a place out in the middle of nowhere which I wouldn't recommend, but you could do it in 2 nights with a teen. DS was only 5 at the time so we broke it up a bit more.
You can definitely leave the car at LAX airport. They have all the different rental companies. You won't need one in San Fran though so I'd collect it as you leave.
In SanFran we stayed in an air bnb overlooking Alcatraz which was great. It was 14 years ago though so not sure of name or anything now.

Would you be doing the Pacific Coast Highway mainly?

We did the full Seattle - San Diego a few years ago now and it was amazing. But we did it in a camper van so that meant we weren’t using hotels for accomodation.

What sort of accomodation would you want? Have you thought about where you’d like to stop?

2 weeks seems like quite a long time for just the San Fran - LA section, would you be spending time in each city at each end?

You’re going from one city to another along a road that is often shrouded in fog. Have you looked at a different, more interesting option?
We did SF to Yosemite, across to Vegas, down to Grand Canyon then back over to the coast via Flagstaff and St Louis Obispo missing out LA completely, driving back up to SF.

We did LA to SF 4 years ago and it was absolutely fantastic.

I found getting stuff booked really early was the way to keep things inexpensive so you're doing the right thing. I decided not to book the stops between the cities which was ok until we landed in Monterey with no accommodation booked on the first night of California's Easter holiday! I have blanked out exactly how much we paid but it was about the same for one night in a crappy motel as for 3 nights in SF.

American hotels can be very different to European ones. We stayed in a really inexpensive SF hotel but with shared showers and a room with no external window which i wouldn't necessarily choose again. In LA we stayed at The Kinney which I absolutely loved - it's quite an old motel that has been zhuzhed up. We spent a lot on Ubers in LA.

We did San Diego to LA in Feb. Absolutely one way car hire is a totally normal thing to do. I would do SF without a car, pick it up when you leave and keep the car until you fly out of LA.

LA is expensive and massive. We stayed in Venice Beach, which on a map looked pretty close to Hollywood and it still took ages. There was no chance we were going to Disney from there!

Lot of good suggestions here, we flew into SF and stayed there for three days to get over jet lag. No need for car in SF.
Our plan was to go to Yosemite and head along the PCH but big sur was closed that year due to landslide. Ended going to Yosemite, GC and south west national parks( Bryce, Zion, Monument valley) and it was Amazing.
Try and do at least one national park if you can. So many options and it's good fun to plan a road trip in USA.

I forgot to add prices! This was about 10 years ago. Accommodation was about £100 a night - we only had 1 room for 2 adults and a teen as they almost always have 2 double beds in them.
We stayed here in Yosemite
https://www.nationalparkreservations.com/lodge/yosemite-bug-rustic-mountain-resort/gallery/#property-header-menu
then in MGM Grand in Vegas
then here at the Grand Canyon
https://www.usparklodging.com/grandcanyon/brightangel.php

the rest of the places were chain hotels / motels like Best Western.

In SF we stayed at an airport hotel the first night, then spent 3 days in the city at the end of the trip when we didnt need the hire car anymore.

The national park accommodation gets filled up, agree that you book your accommodation as soon as possible.

We did the reverse trip a couple of years ago. My DS was primary age, so into different stuff than a teen, but we had so much fun! We did it independently, I booked flights via skyscanner, accommodation from Booking.com and car hire from a price comparison site. It shouldn't be a problem to find a deal where you can drop the car off at the airport, but we dropped the car off as we arrived in LA then used Ubers and tickets on the open top bus tour to get around and see the sights, without having to worry about parking and driving.

We stayed at the San Francisco Zen Centre in SF- it is simple accommodation with shared bathrooms but very affordable and a very interesting place to spend time.

We spent a night in San Louis Obispo, but arrived late a night and left mid morning so saw very little of it. Monterrey was lovely, and we spend a few days there. For out third stop on the coast we spent the afternoon in Santa Barbera but stayed the night in Carpinteria- I can't remember why we chose it now, but it was a nice small town. We stopped at so many places on the drive down- to see wildlife, various towns and things. There was also a lot that I would have loved to see if we had a bit more time, but we spent a couple of days at Disney so our road trip time was shorter. I read up lots of blogs about the trip and made a note of the places that we would enjoy, and also looked for places with affordable accommodation that met our needs.

Enjoy planning your trip

Definitely do Hearst Castle in San Simeon, what an amazing place! But book ahead likewise with Alcatraz. What you could do is plan the route day by day and plot where you will stop.
Have you thought of RV hire?

We went with this company. They organised everything and found great hotels. Our trip was pre lockdown.

We booked our lodges in NPs at least 6 months before. Car hire costs have shot up after the lockdown. We looked at going again in 2022 and the prices quoted for car hire was insane. The prices may have come down. You may get better rates if you book early.

I always book everything independently. I like the freedom to do my own thing and it cuts down on costa too.

Your flight costs seem fine. Last time I hired a car(midsize SUV) back in 2019 it cost around £400 for a week. Picking up in SF Union Square and dropping off in LAX. But this was during September so I’m not sure how accurate your costing us for summer ‘24. You’re probably not far off.

I think you might find your budget for hotels a bit on the low side for SF & LA but you might get lucky with your dates. Also, when I booked Monterey practically everything was sold out, so I ended up staying in a residential area next to the butterfly sanctuary. So do make sure you book ahead!

Do you want to drive the coastal route? If so, you could do something like:
SF - 3 nights
Santa Cruz - 1 night
Monterey/Carmel - 2 nights
Big Sur - 1 night
San Luis Obispo/Pismo Beach - 1 night
Solvang - 1 night
Santa Barbara - 1 night
LA/Anaheim - 4 nights

We planned and booked everything ourselves and it is not that difficult. You could also look at BA /Virgin fly drive holidays and May be able to get a good deal for flights/ car rental.

Brilliant replies thank you! Yes coastal route and should of said stay in San Fran/LA prob 2-3 days to get over the lag. No disney. Happy to explore the coast and maybe get a national park in as everyone has said how great. Didn’t think about a camper van!

We loved the Chancellor hotel in SF. Right on Union Sq.. very reasonably priced if you can get a room with 2 double beds…. Great location and staff super helpful.

This seems like a great itinerary. Is there enough variance in stops? I’m not hooked on only this route but i think my som would like both cities and the beaches in-between so thought would be better then they keys side for his first trip.

We did a LA/SF/LV back to LA trip a few years ago.
I booked all hotels via booking.com as they were super flexible if we decided to stay longer in a certain place.

Only thing that got me was the hotel price quotes didn't include taxes so ended up paying more than anticipated! Not sure if that's still the case but worth checking!

We flew into San Fran, then drove to Lake Tahoe, then Yosemite, Monterey, Santa Barbara and LA. We did it in just over two weeks. We are always last minute (we booked Alcatraz two days before) but managed to book everything we wanted to do. Would probably have missed Monterey off list which surprised me as I was expecting to love it. Everyone told us we would hate LA but we stayed in an Air bnb on Venice beach and it was so buzzing and fun.
We were a bit naughty and got an itinerary from a company but once we realised their mark up (4k) we booked everything ourselves.
Have an amazing time.

Great website! Just seen the trip i looked at but it tags vegas. Anything for teens there does anyone know? We’re not married so maybe we should go and do it whilst there haha

Be careful on the hire company as they all have a fee for dropping off the car in a different city and some were really reasonable and some were insane.

We did route 66 a few years back and paid $500 for the drop off fee but that was significantly further.

Great points on taxes, forgot about that. Also booking.com and flexibility as being tied down 100% isn’t as appealing to me. I actually priced car hire stupidly for 2 weeks but won’t be on the move at the start. Son really wants to go to LA and happy to hang on the beach so thats a must and will look at airbnb’s.

Be aware that the Pacific Coast Highway is currently closed and has been for some time due to landslides. So at the moment you can't go beyond Big Sur going South and you can't get to Big Sur travelling North.

For that reason is worth a day trip to Big Sur from Carmel/Monterey (it's around an hour's drive) rather than staying in Big Sur and then you head South inland on Highway 101.

Suggested itinerary:
San Francisco
Yosemite
Carmel
Santa Barbara
LA

But I think you'll struggle with your budget. In San Francisco you're looking at a 2* hotel in an undesirable area and in Yosemite camping may be your only option. If you can increase the budget you'll find plenty of good value chain hotels on the route.

You can definitely pick the car up in San Francisco and drop it off in LA.

We've done a lot of US road trips. If you're not too fussy then there are a lot of inexpensive motel chains like Motel 6 and Super8 which if you just need a bed between 2 more interesting places help the budget go further.
SF has gone downhill recently - I didn't enjoy my last trip.

Yosemite is great but very busy. We stayed in the tent cabin things but it's worth budgeting elsewhere to be able to stay in the park.
Car hire isn't as cheap as it once was but has dropped back down a lot. Watch out for one way hire costs. We usually do circular routes. RVs have particularly high surcharges

We stayed in Oakland and took the BART in to SF each day. Really easy and only a few dollars. Saved a lot on accommodation costs and car hire was easy too.
Book Alcatraz 3 months in advance. Cycle over Golden Gate Bridge and have lunch in Sausalito, then get the ferry back.