West Coast Adventure - opinions welcomed

[jdouds]

Hi great trip idea, on the coast Santa Barbara is good fo a night stop. On up the coast a couple of nice places but we prefer Carmel/Monterey. 17 mile dr, Carmel itself is very nice with great beach, pebble beach , Pacific grove and Monterey some nice bars and restaurants, the aquarium, and the jewel of the whole coast whale watching in Monterey bay one of the best things we have ever done.

[eaglesrest]

Originally Posted by pinkandfluffy

We stayed in a log cabin in wawona - just inside Yosemite National Park. It was such a lovely place, our cabin was called the birdhouse, would highly recommend Wawona.

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Cheers, will take a look. Wawona is on the short-list. A cabin is what we are after with a larger group.

[eaglesrest]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Hi great trip idea, on the coast Santa Barbara is good fo a night stop. On up the coast a couple of nice places but we prefer Carmel/Monterey. 17 mile dr, Carmel itself is very nice with great beach, pebble beach , Pacific grove and Monterey some nice bars and restaurants, the aquarium, and the jewel of the whole coast whale watching in Monterey bay one of the best things we have ever done.

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That sounds amazing. The kids will love whale watching. We did it with the Southern Right whales off Cape Town many years ago and loved it.

I'm thinking that we pass through santa barbara and stop 2 nights in Monterey, taking in Big Sur, etc.

[eaglesrest]

Looks like the Grand Hyatt SFO will be the best choice for a 21:15 landing. Straight on the skytrain to the hotel, then a shuttle to the car hire next day.

Not cheap but I doubt we'll fancy too many transfers at around 5AM GMT

Either out of or into LAS looks like the most efficient route, but doesn't look like we'll get the reward seats, so we'll have to suck up some extra driving unless we get lucky.