theDIBB - View Single Post - San Francisco to Anaheim- where in between?

Bluetrekker · 30 Aug 20, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

Might be worth viewing the trip report in my signature.. it is all on one thread and is pretty much the accepted route, other than that some go inland to take in Yosemite.

1. Where to stop? Well, it�s about 120 miles to the awesome Monterey.. home of some great whale watching and a world class aquarium. Many stop here for a night or two.
Anaheim is a further 360 miles on from Monterey, should you drive the beautiful PCH (Pacific Coast Highway).
Monterey to the wonderfully restrained Madonna Inn at San Luis Obispo or alternatively, Pismo Beach is just about short of halfway to Anaheim at 150 miles. This takes in Big Sur, Bixby Bridge, Pfeiffer etc as well as the Elephant Seals at San Simeon and Hearst Castle. I would choose one of these.
It is then a further 200 miles to Anaheim.

San Diego is further 95 miles on from Anaheim and was for us, the absolute jewel in the Crown of the vacation, notwithstanding that our accommodation was a bad choice. That again, is hopefully we�ll covered in my trip report... and we only got on one beach!

I believe that the important thing is to realise that this is a 1000 plus miles driving vacation with loads to do, spread over a large (albeit ribbon), Route. It is absolutely nothing at all like a fortnight in Orlando with a day trip to the Gulf Coast. For us, Disney formed a very small part in a brilliant whole and with hindsight, we would have scrubbed it altogether, such is the quality of the alternative attractions...

Since our 2018 vacation, we have done a further 2019 Boston, NY, Dayton OH, Orlando, Naples Miami vacation (see signature) and for 2020 we have twice booked (and failed) to get to California and surrounding areas once more. (SFO, Monterey, Madonna, Renton, Vancouver in March.. Then Phoenix, Tucson, Tombstone, Hollywood, Pismo, Monterey, SFO for August). The West Coast is truly fabulous and imho, vastly more interesting than Orlando.

What California showed us was whole new horizons in USA vacationing. It is doubtful that we will ever spend more than a few days in Orlando again!

Thanks for this and trip report. We are hoping to return to California next summer and it will be a first trip to SAN Diego. As we won�t have a car I was thinking of the Seaport area so that sounds like a good choice. Was it the Go SAN Diego card you had? I see you can have an option to include a fixed number of attractions.