Critique my California Road Trip itinerary please.

[SanFranAndCali]

We are looking to book a three week trip to California in May or June.
Having made a list of ALL the potential places we'd like to go, it's a lot. Chat GPT tells me it's doable and some travel websites do show all of these places in this order as a 21 day itinerary, but I am wary of coming home exhausted, feeling like we've just rushed through everwhere and ticked it off a list, rather than really enjoyed it.

That said, it's a road trip and the scenery en-route is the main purpose of the holiday so perhaps there's little point in spending too many days in one place if the journey is more exciting than the stop off places, if that makes sense?

At the moment the itinerary is looking like this:

Day 1: San Francisco. Arrive in the middle of the day, spend that afternoon and evening, plus the whole of the following day, then collect a car and leave around lunchtime on day 3, for Carmel.

Carmel by the Sea and Monterey, do whale watching. Would probably stay in Carmel rather than Monterey.

Drive to Big Sur - is this a place to hang around or is it just the drive through that's lovely?

Drive to Santa Barbara with an overnight stop in either San Luis Obispo or Cambria

Santa Barbara - how many nights?

Malibu

Santa Monica (just outside LA)

Palm Springs and Joshua Tree NP - how many nights?

Grand Canyon (into Arizona)

Bryce Canyon (into Utah)

Las Vegas (into Nevada) as a convenient overnight stop only, I'm not that fussed about spending time in Vegas, but DH thinks if we are passing though it we may as well stay for a day or two and see it properly. I'm not so sure.

Death Valley

Drive up the Eastern Sierra via Mammoth Lakes to arrive at the eastern side of Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite (2 nights or 3? We aren't intrepid hikers so would probably just do a guided tour of the main highlights and some light walks, rather than going it alone like proper serious types. If we are in a nice lodge or hotel with a spa it might be a good place to get some down time and be out of the car for a bit.)

Napa Valley / Sonoma.

We think this will be civilised and beautifully scenic, with lots of nice place to eat and a relaxing end to a hectic holiday. But we aren't wine buffs and can't take crates of wine home on the plane anyway, so is it an unnecessary stop?

Back to San Francisco to fly home.

This is a lot. It doesn't include Lake Tahoe, or San Diego. I'm getting FOMO about those but don't want to overload us. Should I be omitting somewhere on the list in order to do Lake Tahoe or San Diego instead?
How long would you recommend staying in each place? Which are the places to just drive to, see for a day, or even just grab dinner, sleep then move on?

I really don't care about any of the tourist attractions in LA and the whole place sounds like a dump. Is it even worth stopping in Santa Monica if we aren't going into LA at all? What's Santa Monica like?

We are middle aged and have no children with us. We like beautiful gardens and desertscapes, iconic architecture, stunning scenery, artsy communities, charming towns full of character, great food. More food. Casual and laid back rather than flashy.

We like to see the coast but we don't care about having beach time per se. We hate anywhere brash and loud and full of party animals.

Any advice appreciated.

We've just booked 4 nights here:

www.evergreenlodge.com

May grey and June gloom, lol.

This is an issue all along the So Cal Pacific coast. That's why often the best time to do costal driving is on a sunny winter's day. Far less likely to get fog. Generally, in San Diego county it'll burn off by the afternoon, but not always, especially in May and June, and sometimes, April.

@SanFranAndCali We stayed there! Can I just ask you to check carefully for confirmation of your booking? This was a good few years ago for us but there was some sort of glitch in the 3rd party booking agent system (probably booking.com or similar) and whilst they confirmed it to us (which we could prove), they didn’t then pass it on to evergreen, who it turned out were completely full. We got there after a long journey to be told there was no space! We had wondered why everyone warned us it would be hard to find accommodation when we booked for August at around Easter.
We were lucky in that that found us a glamping tent and gave us free drinks and then the second night they had a cancellation and upgraded us to a luxury cabin so it turned out well.
Please do just check for sure though. X

Looks excellent! I’m all envious now…

Oh and by the way, SF can be bloody cold too, especially when the fog rolls in (which is very often). Alcatraz is freezing in the wind. It’s no accident that so many people buy SF hoodies when there!!

IMHO Cabazon is a better outlet than the Citadel (if that's the one you are thinking about going to in LA). But they both have great kitschy value - there's the massive dinosaurs by Cabazon and the Citadel used to be a tire factory built in Assyrian revival style.

That’s sounds like a fantastic itinerary. Nice and relaxing but lots of great things to see.

We did book via booking.com so thanks, we will double check.

This holiday is turning out to be a nightmare to pack for. So far everyone's telling me it's going to be either too hot, too cold, too snowy, too foggy or too windy. 😂

@SanFranAndCalibe aware that both Yosemite and Sequoia NPs are in the list of 10 parks where overseas visitors now have to pay $100 surcharge each.

Well worth investigating the America the Beautiful annual pass - it may end up being cheaper for you

https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm

The $250 America the Beautiful pass is a no brainer, even now it has more than trebled in price. It gets a car full into all National Parks, National Monuments and US Forest Service land for the whole trip (or indeed a whole year).

Came on to day this. We stayed in Williams which is a historic route 66 town just outside the grand canyon. Was fantastic. Went to do the helicopter and told to come back the next day due to visibility/fog.

July can definitely be foggy in SF. Personally, I definitely prefer SF but it depends where you stay and what you do. San Diego is more about beach life. We felt SF had more iconic things to see and going across the bridge is great.

So glad you are now excited again. We stayed in the Mission Bay area when visiting San Diego. Walkable to the beach and lots of neighbourhood restaurants/bars. We felt much nicer than the city centre.

Have also had a great view of Bryce Canyon flying out of LAX, so fingers crossed for you.

I’M EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!

I would half ur itinerary, otherwise, You will spend too much time in the car, you will only see the facia of everywhere you go.

if you go big sur, stop of at Pfiffer beach, it’s a spectacular local treasure and not well advertised.
if in San Francisco, hire bikes and go over Golden Gate Bridge and free wheel into Sausalito with ferry back to San fran.
or stay in Sausalito ‘inn above the tide’ and go and visit muir wood and see the redwoods.
only go to napa if you are a real wine fanatic or go Livermore vineyards instead as they are closed to San fran and actually Livermore was the first wine area before napa (wente and concannon are good visits, check for events)

each area you list can be a magnificent visit but you need to spend 3-5 days in each area and then explore. I think you are trying to do too much and may miss a lot by doing too much.

Joshua Tree is adjacent to Palm Springs so you would go from there. You can spend a whole day in the park - it's massive. There's not that much in Palm Springs that would take you that length of time to see - you can go look at the houses used in the movie Don't Worry Darling. If you want to relax that's fine. Definitely go up the aerial tramway. It's another world up there.

Definitely better balanced, you'll have an amazing time. I agree with those that have suggested cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge, a must do experience!

I absolutely love Palm Springs; both times we’ve driven from LA for some chill time during a road trip. There’s a great shopping outlet just outside, where we’ve always stocked up. The cable car up the mountain was a highlight, especially for the difference in temperature. I also enjoyed horse riding in the desert. Husband played golf.

If you’re near La Jolla en route to San Diego, then we had a memorable meal at the Marine Room. Ideally you want a table next to the window, and time it for the tides coming in.

Hello all, me again. I'm back again for more advice, specifially on San Francisco so if anyone knows SF well, I'd love your thoughts.

We will be here for three nights, mid May. The evening we arrive then two full days before collecting a car and going to Yosemite.

We'd like to go to Chinatown for dinner, possibly see Japantown, deffo Alcatraz and probably a stroll through the Mission District. Fisherman's Wharf doesn't really appeal. Maybe Sausalito if time allows. We will go on a trolley bus/tram/streetcar or whatever it is they are called, and see Lombard Street etc. obvs.

I'm now looking for a boutique hotel or air bnb in one of the nicer districts, well away from all the drugs and homelessness issues SF has become so notorious for. I've seen some lovely, trendy, funky hotels but they look in sketchy AF areas. I really want to swerve all that as much as possible (I know it's inevitable to some degree, as it is in my own home town) but I won't be staying anywhere where it's a distinct possibility that the local scenery will include rows and rows of Fentanyl addicts in tents.

Don't really care about seeing the SF equivalents of Oxford Street or Piccadilly Circus etc, and we do not need 'nightlife'.

I'm very happy wandering around lovely neighbourhoods away from the tourist traps, looking at beautiful Victorian painted houses and lovely architecture and just soak up the atmosphere in little coffee shops and independent restaurants etc.

My research tells me to look at Noe Valley and Pacific Heights. PH is likely to be foggier and less sunny but this is mid-May so maybe fog is not such an issue at this time of year?

I'm looking at 2 Air BNBs in Delores Heights.

Also one in Sacramento Street (Presidio/Pacific Heights area) this area looks upmarket but possibly a bit boring?

Then there is one in the lower section of Fillmore Street which seems to be around Turk and Eddy Streets. It's a beautiful apartment in a beautiful building and walkable to so much but AI tells me this part of Fillmore is borderline sketchy compared to the upper section. Although that could mean not very sketchy at all, really? Just comparatively. All the reviews seem great, no-one mentions any issues.

Ideally we'd like easy access to public transport but if the nearest BART station is an unpleasant experience then we will just Uber around. So proximity to safe public transport versus the cost factor of Uber is a consideration.

Which location would you recommend based on all these factors? Please and thank you.

And once I am all done on the accommodation front for the whole trip, I'll post my full itinerary with all the hotels/air BnBs in case it's useful to anyone else in future.

Avoid Union Square. Lots of homeless people around there.
Have you looked on Trip Advisor? Lots of good tips re AirBnBs and areas to consider/avoid for accommodation.
Likewise places to eat.
Look at the cable car routes and try to stay somewhere close to a stop or, the bus routes; a good way to soak up the atmosphere whilst getting from A to B.
Random suggestions:
Inn at the Presidio
Stay in Little Italy - lots of lovely restaurants, bakeries etc
Telegraph Hill
Apparently there is a big convention 16 - 20 May in SF so prices will be high

Yes I know to avoid Tenderloin, Union Square, SoMa and Market Street areas.

Haven't considered Little Italy or Telegraph Hill, will have a look, thanks.

Don't fancy USA ICE six week imprisoned
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/21/karen-newton-valid-visa-detained-ice

We stayed in a boutique hotel in little Italy, right across from washington square. Great little area, loads of local restaurants and walkable to fisherman's wharf, China Town etc.