Road Trip

[lou86]

Hi all,

After 3 very successful Florida trips, thanks to the Dibb, we have decided to tackle California next year. It's completely new to us and unfortunately do not have any family or friends that have visited to help us out with the planning process.

So far we know that we would like to visit end of July/August for 21 days and we will be hiring a car. We have made a list of the key places we would like to visit, but now need to decide as to how many days we spend in each.

So far we are thinking of starting up in San Diego for 3 nights. We would then move to Anaheim for Disney for 3 nights with a further 3 nights in LA. We would then travel up the PCH and spend 2 nights in Monterey followed by 4 nights in San Francisco and then 3 nights in Yosemite. Our trip would end with 3 nights in Vegas. Having read a few reports and done a bit of research most people tend to start in SF. However I've seen this route and feel like it might best suit our plans, but are open to suggestions.

Have we missed anything off? Is this a ridiculous route with too long/too little spent in some places?

We are at the early stages of planning and want to make sure that we cover everything and do it the right way, so are open to all suggestions and criticisms!

Thanks in advance

[jdouds]

Hi you will love it . First off to many nights L A area , to many good things to se to waist time there. Suggest 5 n max. Perhaps a night Santa Barbara before you tackle coast . In Monterey definately consider whale watching, best part off our trip. After that similar to what we did. We had added Palm Springs to our trip 3 days

[CrispyA]

I think your route sounds good but you might want to think about some of the driving times and distances and maybe break them up a little? It’s a very long drive between Los Angeles and Monterey and that’s only if you stick to the main highway and don’t drive along the coast. If you want to see some of the coast, which is beautiful, it will take much longer. Maybe lose a night in LA and add a stop on the way to Monterey?

Also, it is a very long drive between Yosemite and Vegas, especially if you want to see Death Valley. You could stop in Death Valley or in one of the towns nearby.

[pad406]

I think your route is good, but agree with CrispyA that some of the legs are quite long. LA - Monterey via the PCH is probably a good 7hrs. Yosemite to Vegas 6 hrs. A couple of stops would make it a very long day.

Are you flying in/out of San Diego? Maybe it would make sense to fly into SD and out of Vegas, would save nearly 5hrs drive back just to catch a plane.

Now I know some may think this is sacrilege, and if you've never been you'd probably want to see it for yourself, but we thought LA was a complete waste of time. Did a few nice things but as a whole I would not sacrifice time in other places just to visit there.

And contrary to my comments above re time on the road, I think it would be an awful shame to miss the Grand Canyon. I'd drop the 3N in LA, add an overnight at the GC south or north rim (this gets you a sunset and a sunrise) and use the other 2N somewhere else along the journey. 1N probably on the way up to Monetery, 1N on way to LV

[alysond]

Agree about LA... I`d miss it, especially if you`re already planning 3 nights at Anaheim. It`s just a big dirty city ram jammed full of cars! If you really feel you have to see it an overnighter is certainly enough
We took all day to drive between Carmel and Pismo, we were stopping at every point of interest until we realised we won`t arrive til midnight! Hurst Castle is definitely worth a visit if you can fit in an overnight stay close by.
I wasn`t that keen on Pismo but Morrow Bay looked lovely
Everyone seems to head to Monterey too, but we stayed at Carmel instead and it was just fab. We then did a day in Monterey which felt like enough

[sparklegirl]

ooo am gonna keep an eye on this one because me and the hubster are thinking of the same thing next year :-)

[400ixl]

Really depends on what you are interested in, we could spend weeks in LA and still not do everything it has to offer. If however you only want to scratch the normal tourist things to do then you could do that in a lot less.

For example, you could leave Anaheim early and go to to Universal that day. Then stay overnight, do the Warner Bros tour first thing the next morning, then to Griffith Observatory, Walk of fame, Beverly hills, Santa Monica and Malibu on the way across to Santa Barbara in the rest of the day.

Santa Barbara is worthy of a few hours minimum, so if you were to go from there to Monterrey in one go it would be a long drive if you stop to see all that you should on the way.

Personal opinion is you have at least one too many locations in your plan. Trying to do the West coast in 3 weeks really does not do it any justice and you will just be jumping from one location to another without being able to see what you should. I would drop either San Diego, Las Vegas or San Francisco / Yosemite to do another time and spend more time taking in places.

Most people do San Fran - Yosemite - Monterrey - LA because it minimises the wasted hours in a car. Your route is going to have an additional day of driving between Yosemite and Vegas which the other route turns into a few hours.

As mentioned, the Grand Canyon is somewhere really worth going and deserves an overnight stop. The West Rim which you can do in a helicopter trip from Vegas is nice and memorable, but is not a touch on the South / North rim as far as scale goes. Add to this Death Valley which is the opposite side of Vegas and you have added a few days to that leg.

I would really suggest making this the first of at least 2 visits and do less places and spend more quality time in those locations.

[S'mE]

If you're doing the coastal route up to Big Sur & Monterey from Santa Barbara, do yourselves a big favour and stop at San Simeon overnight & visit Hearst Castle. The bloke who inspired the film Citizen Kane was a newspaper magnate who took the top off a mountain and built an estate where, Churchill, Chaplain, Cary Grant, Greta Garbo etc. stayed regularly. Magnificent rooms, buildings & views. Imax cinema film about the history was great too!
hearstcastle/tour-hearst-...nd-rooms-tour/

[cornishfrogboy]

I guess that the best start point would be to go on the ‘California trip reports’ section of the DIBB and then after reading lots, threadstart with a detailed plan. Best DIBBERS advice would inevitably follow.

For what it’s worth, we went this Easter and highlights were as follows..
Dylan’s ultimate cycle trip of SFO that took in the waterfront, cycling the bridge, Sausalito and then a minibus pick up to take us into Muir woods before returning us to SFO. The best!
Alcatraz
Cable car ride.

Monterey and a whale watch trip.

The Madonna Inn

6 Flags at Santa Clarita

Boat trip San Diego harbour
USS Midway
The Topgun diner (Kansas City Grill)
A walk to the Mexico border by the sea at Tijuana
Horse riding in the sea from ‘ponyland’
A night on the Queen Mary at Long Beach.
A day excursion tour of Hollywood, Bev Hills etc from Santa Monica.

You will find my own trip report with images on the report section.

California N to South at Easter.

Good luck with your planning!