California Road Trip - Itinerary advice

[maddogging]

Evening all, planning for our West Coast trip next summer and would love any advice on our itinerary. We are a family of 6 with my 4 boys aged 14, 11, 11 and 9.
Plan as follows;

2 nights San Fran (wife has been already so we are going to do as much as we can in one full day)
3 nights Yosemite
3 nights Monterey/Carmel
1 night San Luis Obispo
2 nights Santa Barbara
1 night Santa Monica
4 nights San Diego

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[cornishfrogboy]

Would the fact that you can fly direct for about £80pp from San Luis Obispo to San Diego, having driven down that far from San Francisco and then not need a car in San Diego as it is very compact (Balboa, Airport, Seaport, Midway, Hornblower Cruises) affect your planning? That would save you an awful lot of driving, whilst still seeing what many regard as the highlights of the PCH.( 312 miles and 6.5 hrs on a very good day from SL Obispo to San Diego if you do not stop at all).

Of course, Santa Monica and Santa Barbara may be very much part of your plan.. or they may just be break stops.

You could then do more days on the front half of your vacation and take in Dylan’s cycle tour (Cycling over the bridge to Sausalito, then a minibus to Muir Woods), Alcatraz (your wife may have been, but you have not), San Francisco Love Tour etc... or another day on the end at San Diego.

Just a thought.

[smithlane]

Looks fairly perfect to me. We only had one day in Santa Barbara and San Diego but wished we had longer so it's great you've got more time there.
If you're anything like us, you'll love it all. Have a fab time!

[jdouds]

Looks good but would definitely keep the car. In Monterey whale watching trip was fantastic one of the best things we have ever done and great for all ages. The aquarium is also very good. One of the best pieces of advice we could give is make sure you take a pair of binoculars.

[Andy9137]

we went here sycamoresprings/ when in SLO and hired a hot tub in the woods for a few hours. was very different and we loved it

[maddogging]

Thank you all for the replies. Santa M and Santa B are part of the plans but an interesting option given there.
Lots still to look over but glad our plan seems to be doable