So much information. Where to begin ?

[lizzie145]

I'm thinking about a trip to LA but I want to do Disneyland, universal and six flags.
Would also like to see San Francisco for a couple of nights.

I dont want yo drive so trying to figure out the best way especially as the price for a flight starts at £350 return at the moment

[Batman1]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Hi having looked at whats been suggested i would suugest you do san fran then yosemite and then back to coast at monterey and then decide what time you have from there. Have a look at yosemite view lodge at el portal. Would you consider one of the tents with proper door etc.

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That's what I'm thinking, although I'm also thinking we should leave Yosemite for another time and concentrate on the coast.
It now looks like we will be restricted to going in July for various reasons. Yosemite looks expensive in summer. Do the crowds get uncomfortable in July or is it manageable?

[Vinniecat]

We did the following
5 nights San Francisco
2 nights Monterey
2 nights Pismo beach
2 nights Santa Barbara
7 nights San Diego
5 nights Anaheim
Unfortunately we had to cancel Yosemite due to fires.
I loved San Francisco and I would say I'm not usually a city person. You definitely do not need a car whilst in San Francisco. We did a Dylan's tour on the first morning, cable cars and baseball another day, walked to the Golden Gate Bridge and Alkatraz one day and we did a Segway ride around the golden gate park amongst other things. We stayed at the holiday inn express fishermans wharf it was an excellent location.
Monterey was brilliant I would have liked longer there.
We only went shopping at Pismo beach so didn't really get a feel for the place.
Santa Barbara was lovely could have done with longer here too.
I liked San Diego but didn't like the driving there. The zoo was fantastic.
I am glad we did Disney and the teenagers enjoyed it but I would not wish to return.
Overall I loved California and hope to return as I was gutted about Yosemite and I would also like to go to Lake Tahoe.
Enjoy your planning I would say try not to do too much. If I was to go again I would say no stays shorter than 3 nights otherwise it can feel like you are just waiting for your next move and have at least one longer stay somewhere but others will disagree with me. Also decide where exactly you want to visit before pricing up flights. We flew into San Francisco and out of Los Angeles slightly more expensive than in and out of the same airport but saved on petrol and driving time.

[jdouds]

Yosemite in summer is fine, busy but ok . Bear in mind that quite often you can't do the the high roads other than June through to sept/ oct. Last year tioga pass didn't open to end of June as they where clearing 25 ft snow drifts.

[fiona88]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Fiona88 your trip isn't unlike a couple of ours, you have 7 n LA area for us we would cut this and take another n in yosemite. 3 n really only gives you 2 full days there. Would really recommend on your first day you do the valley floor tour,great for getting your bearings and a little history in an easy way. 2 hours

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I have been a bit concerned about the same thing, but, our first and last day in the LA area are travel from santa Barbara (via Malibu, Santa Monica, la Brea tar pits) then the last day is the flight home. If we decided to move a night from here to Yosemite would mean changing 3 or 4 bookings so will likely add to the cost as it's a few months since we booked

The current plan is to leave Yosemite fairly late to travel to Monterey, so we still get most of the day, I might change that 1st Monterey night to be somewhere closer to Yosemite so it's purely to sleep and therefore we get more time in the park but could still be at Monterey early in the day, then the issue is whether 3 1-night stays in a row would kill us, so confusing 🤪

[pinkandfluffy]

We have just returned from our road trip of California. 16 nights total flying in and out of LA - we managed to get cheap flights £300 each with Virgin from Heathrow. We had a great time everywhere we went but Yosemite was absolutely the best. We stayed in a log cabin in Wawona, inside the park but an hours drive from Yosemite Valley, it was perfect.
this is what we did:

Manhattan Beach (15 mins from LAX) - 2 nights (did six flags magic mountain and then drove to the next Fresno (3 hour drive) in the evening)

Fresno - 2 nights (did sequoia national park and general sherman tree from here before driving to Yosemite an hour away)

Yosemite - 3 nights then longest drive of the holiday - 4hrs to San Francisco

San Francisco - 3 nights

Monterey - 2 nights then headed down PCH

Pismo Beach - 1 night (this was our only 1 night stop to break up the journey)

Redondo Beach LA - 2 nights

You could do this loop from San Francisco. We felt we had the right amount of time in each place and most of the driving was around the 2.5 hour mark. It was an amazing trip and much better than we imagined.