USA West Coast - San Francisco to San Diego or the other way?

[StripyZebras]

We are just planning our West Coast road trip for next year. We’ll be driving along the coast, probably with a hop inland to Yosemite.

We are just looking at booking flights and we are trying to decide whether we should fly in to San Francisco, drive down to San Diego and fly home from there. Or if we should do it the other way and fly in to San Diego and drive North and home from SF.

I’d be very grateful if anyone has any advice on which is the best way to go.

I've done that drive. It's quite pleasant.

I'd go with whatever is the most affordable airfare.

All else being equal I'd end up in San Francisco and do a few extra days in the area.

Or skip San Diego (not much there, scruffy), start in LA and drive past S Fran; there are some nice areas north of the city such as Napa. Much more pleasant than San Diego.

We spent a night in Morro Bay; seaside town with a huge rock of the shore.
Montery/Santa Cruz nice.

Thanks for your reply @BettyBardMacDonald. I’m not keen on San Diego but DH wants to go. I think I need to talk him out of it! We’re definitely doing a few days in SF to visit Alcatraz and cycle over the GG Bridge.

The flights have just come out for when we want to go and I really want to book asap as we can upgrade to premium economy for a really reasonable amount.

Only BA fly direct to San Diego from London Heathrow. This city is ok to visit for a couple of days, they have the Midway aircraft carrier museum downtown. There are also nice beaches and the San Diego Zoo to visit.

I would suggest you book tickets for Alcatraz asap as these are in high demand.

Whatever you decide to do route rise do not make the mistake of spending the majority of your days just driving from place to place. California is also huge, it’s about the size of the U.K. from top to bottom.

Make a stop along Big Sur. It's so pretty.

We have just returned from this exact trip. Thoroughly enjoyed it, the kids loved it. We came home exhausted. Lots of driving, with hindsight, made one too many stops. Would have loved an extra day or two in some places to explore further. We had 16 days in total and could have stayed another week to do it properly.

I really enjoyed San Diego. Disliked LA. Loved San Francisco, Yosemite and Monterey/Carmel.

Hired a car from San Francisco and leaving it at San Diego airports

Cheaper to fly in and out of same airport. We flew from San Diego to San Francisco to fly back home.

It's also incredibly expensive so be prepared. We spend a small fortune 😬

We did this trip in 2019. Flew into San Fransisco and home from San Diego. San Diego was our favourite part of the trip. Would love to go back. Plenty to see and do.

Is there a reason why you want to go to San Diego? I’ve done SF / Yosemite / Las Vegas / Grand Canyon then straight back to the coast and up to SF. It’s an amazing trip! We spent 2 nights in SF at the start and end of the holiday so only needed car hire for 10 days instead of 14.

San Diego is lovely

I'm not a fan of SF I'm afraid ( it's too cold and foggy, even in August), so I wouldn't spend much time there.
Lake Tahoe has been one of my favourite West Coast stops if you can fit it in - we stayed in a log cabin there, loved it

SD's suffered a bit over the last while, and isn't really the "paradise" it was portrayed as years back. That was all a veneer anyway, but it has burgeoning issues it genuinely never had back in the 90's and early 2000's. It's a bit more like a smaller LA now. Still worth visiting, and there is always the trip to Tijuana if you really want to experience something different, but in all honesty I wouldn't be spending a lot of my holiday there.

I did LA to SF in April 2019. Loved it and wouldn't change a thing but it got colder as we went north (obviously) which seemed a shame! Loved LA, which surprised me, especially Santa Monica. Then loved Santa Barbara, San Luis de Obispo, San Simeon, didn't like Carmel so went on to Monterey which was fab, loved Big Sur and wish we'd spent more time, ADORED San Fran but I expected that.

Just watch California school and college dates. One of the only stops I didn't book was Monterey, and we arrived there on the first night of Spring Break. Had to pay eye watering amounts for a basic motel room.

We're going back in 2026 and will spend longer, doing more national parks, Las Vegas, San Diego and Seattle. Can't wait.

Hi @PermanentTemporary
In your planning: We also did a drive from Seattle southward to Tillamook, Oregon. The roads through the Olympic forest and along the coast were indescribable; the scenery is so beautiful. We drove down to a place called Cannon Beach, Oregon and stayed in a hotel right on the beach. It was definitely a huge splurge but so worth it; I would love to go back. We went in early spring when everything was fresh and lovely.

North of Seattle in the Bellingham area was fantastic, too. I love the Pacific Northwest overall. Oh, and if you stay in Seattle, do be sure to go to Smith Tower. It was an early "skyscraper" built by the Smith typerwriter family; there's a nice historical exhibit and a bar at the top overlooking Puget Sound and the city. The space needle thing was fun too; we had champagne at the top. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

When I was planning my trip I wondered the exact same and decided to drive from north to south. This way the ocean is on your right hand side with the best uninterrupted views the whole way.

I agree with the previous poster about booking hotels in Monterey/Carmel as soon as you know your dates.

Thank you @BettyBardMacDonald - and given your user name, did you visit Vashon Island? I'd kind of like to but not sure if it's worth the trip. I wouldn't expect there's anything to see exactly but I'd like to be able to visualise it!

We drove from SF to SD stopping off at loads of lovely places on the way. I liked SF hated LA and loved SD. We then went inland via Phoenix to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. I wasn't as keen on that portion of the trip.

We plan to do SF to Seattle (via wine region and national parks) then Canada on another trip.

Yes, we stayed at Betty's farm! It was a BnB, may still be. Vashon is ruralish but we drove around, lovely scenery, quaint little village. I stopped in the tiny local library where some of her papers are kept; the librarian was most obliging.

The guest rooms are in the barn; her actual house is privately owned but was vacant back then so I sneaked down the road and had a nosy around.

Recommend the California dreamers Facebook group for lots of ideas and advice

I would go North to South. Just feels right somehow. Also you don't need a car in SF so quite good nice not to have to drive immediately after long flights.

We drove north to south and we were on the right side of the road to easily stop along the coastline.

San Fran down would be my recommendation, you can pull off along the road easily that way to look at beaches, animals and pretty things. Also the weather gets better that way, otherwise you will be driving towards grey wet weather 😂

What month are you going? It was a lifetime wishlist to drive PCH 1 and we did it in May 2023 after postponing twice due to forest fires in September. You do have better ocean views driving from north to south and also DH seems to prefer the location of the sun even tho not driving e/w. So there we are at the Hotel del Coronado in “ gray may” followed by “June gloom” with the ocean cold grey and i bought a winter hat in Big Sur and wore it. I wouldn’t return to San Diego but I very much still love San Fran despite the homelessness. Carmel Big Sur Monterey Paso Robles and Petaluma all fantastic.

Agreed. It will also give you the better view of Big Sur (when the entire route is open). But check the road closures first, currently you can't go all the way through and have to backtrack to get out. I'd personally recommend going from the south end up as IMHO it's the prettier route and you can stop by the elephant seals and San Simeon if you are so inclined.

If you do get to Yosemite OP and you are stopping overnight, I highly recommend going stargazing there.
It's an experience I have never forgotten.

Thanks everyone for your responses. We have booked our flights today. Flying into San Francisco and out of LA 10 days later. Would have liked a few more days but we can only manage 10 on this trip.

The plan is 2 nights in SF, 2 nights in Yosemite, 4 nights between SF and LA and then 2 nights in LA to finish.

I’m very excited to start planning the route and all the stops. We’ve booked a hotel in SF, but that’s it so far, so any more tips would be very welcome.

What season are you going? Are you staying in Yosemite valley?

Driving into LA is really, really horrible and takes twice as long as you think!