San Diego and San Francisco

[gemboss]

I'm thinking of planning a trip to the West coast instead of our usual Orlando holiday. DS (14) really wants to go to San Diego and I'd like to visit San Francisco. The thought of being stuck in a car for miles and miles with a teenager is putting me off a road trip. I was wondering if the trip would be worth it if we flew into SF from the UK, internal flight to San Diego, then flew out from SD to the UK. Or are we crazy to miss out all of the "in between" bits

[Fireworks]

If you don't want to drive, both San Francisco and San Diego are easily do-able without a car. We had 3 nights in San Francisco, then got flights for about $50 each one way to San Diego and then spend 3 nights in San Diego. San Diego airport is very close to the city centre. We only picked up the hire car as we were leaving San Diego. We could have easily spent more time in each of these places so it depends how long you are going for and what you want to see

[meboo]

We did the same as Fireworks - we flew in to SF then an internal flight with Southwest was around £40 (with bags), then had 5 days in SD before picking up a car and driving back via Palm Springs (2 nights), Las Vegas (3 nights), Bishop (1 night), Yosemite (2 nights) and back to SF. SD airport is actually quite small and we were unable to get a reasonable flight back to the UK from there. LA is not too far to drive to, so you could always pick up a car in SD and then drive up to LA for a few days.

We previously flew in the Las Vegas, flew to SF (£27 each with South West), 3 nights SF, then picked up car for Monterey, Luis San Obispo, LA. It seems that most one way rentals now charge around $400 for north to south, but not the other way round and that's why we altered our itinerary this time so we would drive north

[grant_w]

The first time we went, we flew to SFO, then flew to Vegas then flew to LA. Didn't have a car in SF or LV but picked one up for LA

Last year we flew to SF but picked up a car, drove down to Monterey, then down to LA areas, then to Vegas, back to LA then finished in San Diego. The only really long driving day was when we left Monterey and drove down the PCH. And the 4 hours each way to/from Vegas, apart from that they were all pretty short journey times.

[400ixl]

It would work, but you can do San Fran is 2-3 days and San Diego in 3-4 so its a long way to go for a week. I'd look at adding LA as its only a 3 hour drive and you can easily do another week there and fly out of LAX.

[zoemoo]

Yep we did that too, flew into LA stayed in Anaheim for Disney then into Hollywood for the studios/beach and sights then flew from LA to SF. No car, no hassle and didn’t feel like we missed anything.
We did a trip from SF to Monterey and Carmel it was brilliant and we would highly recommend it...
Have a great trip

[Melbatb]

We spent 8 nights on San Diego and could have stayed longer! We twinned it with Joshua Tree NP which was spectacular! Details in my SoCal trip report in my signature!

BA fly direct to San Diego and Lufthansa fly direct from Frankfurt!

[gemboss]

Thank you for your replies …. they have really helped. Let the actually planning now begin :-)

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by gemboss

I'm thinking of planning a trip to the West coast instead of our usual Orlando holiday. DS (14) really wants to go to San Diego and I'd like to visit San Francisco. The thought of being stuck in a car for miles and miles with a teenager is putting me off a road trip. I was wondering if the trip would be worth it if we flew into SF from the UK, internal flight to San Diego, then flew out from SD to the UK. Or are we crazy to miss out all of the "in between" bits

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Yes you can and yes, imho you are missing out on an awful lot.
How about 3 days in SFO without a car and then picking one up as you leave? You could then make numerous stops and see the fabulous PCH .
You could then fly home from San Diego.

There are many great trip reports that cover this route.. and then there is mine, California N to South at Easter. It may be worth having a good read before settling on a cunning plan.

[Vinniecat]

We drove from San Francisco to San Diego with three two night stops on the way. The adults loved the coastal scenery. Our 14 year old daughter liked it when we stopped to look at things on the drive but our 18 year old son appeared to be quite indifferent to it. They both just looked at their phones whilst we were actually moving. The 17 mile drive was a hit with our daughter (son stayed at the hotel). We could have flown but I really wanted to see places. Why not ask your son his opinion. I just asked mine and he said he was glad we drove and visited different places as he liked the stopovers. He wasn't as keen on time in the car so maybe look at how many days you could spend on the route to reduce daily car hours.