West coast newbie!

[TravelaruaL]

Hi all
With all the time I'm spending indoors I'm finding myself planning about a million different holidays for something to keep me entertained!
With this in mind i just wanted to post to hear people's experiences of doing a west coast trip as this is something I'm definitely considering! If not for this year then for in the future 😊
It will just be my partner and I going and we would like to drive for some of the trip.
We would definitely like to visit the following places:
San Francisco
LA (not keen on staying a long time here as I've heard its not great but was thinking Santa Monica and possibly burbank for WB studio tour)
Anaheim for Disney
San Diego

We have already been to vegas so happy to miss that off.
We will have 14/15 nights to plan for so if there is anywhere from your experience that shouldn't be missed please let me know! I was thinking of flying in to SF and out of LAX with an internal flight from SF to SD then drive upwards. However I've seen from other threads that a drive down the PCH is my other option but not sure where we would stop here...
Any ideas please let me know!

[jdouds]

Hi for a first trip we would suggest
3/4 n San Fran
2/3 n Yosemite
3 n Monterey/Carmel you must go whale watching
1 n Santa Barbara or similar
Then your bits in LA and on for a few days San Diego

[TravelaruaL]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Hi for a first trip we would suggest
3/4 n San Fran
2/3 n Yosemite
3 n Monterey/Carmel you must go whale watching
1 n Santa Barbara or similar
Then your bits in LA and on for a few days San Diego

See more...

Thank you I didn't know there was that much to do in Monterey. I will consider Yosemite but need to think about the amount of nights I have too!

[TinkerBabe]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Hi for a first trip we would suggest
3/4 n San Fran
2/3 n Yosemite
3 n Monterey/Carmel you must go whale watching
1 n Santa Barbara or similar
Then your bits in LA and on for a few days San Diego

See more...

I second this, for our first west coast trip we did the following:
San Francisco -3 nights
Yosemite (Oakhurst)-3 nights
Monterey -2 nights
Capitola -1 night
San Luis Obispo -1 night
LA -5 nights because we wanted to spend a few days at Six Flags
Las Vegas-5 nights

We had an amazing time, the Pacific Coast Highway was a fantastic experience, whale watching in Monterey was a highlight and we really enjoyed things like 17 Mile Drive. We stayed just outside of Yosemite and it worked really well for us, Oakhurst is a great little town and there is Lake Bass for fishing, water sports etc. We always thought Orlando holidays couldn’t be beat until we visited the west coast! We have a Grand Canyon, Route 66 and Vegas trip booked for this August which sadly is unlikely to go ahead due to the current situation, we may need to shift it to next summer instead.

[TravelaruaL]

Oakhurst sounds like a great tip thank you! What a fab trip 😊

[cornishfrogboy]

It is a great vacation. We did it with our boys.

Jdouds post is pretty much the standard way of doing it and for good reason. N to S also puts you on the ‘coast’ side of the PCH, improving the views.

We went at Easter though and believe we saved plenty of cash whilst avoiding the worst of the crowds and also the LA smog. The weather was absolutely perfect and we loved the vacation. The downer was that Easter can render Yosemite ‘marginal’ due to remaining snow some years. It also limited us to 14 days, due to School Hols.

As it was, we still drove 1200 or so miles.

You will find my trip report in my signature. It is hopefully an ‘easy starter’ in that it is brief and in a single thread, covering pretty much all that you are looking at doing.

Obviously other, one thread one day reports can then be used to view other bits of info and also what I covered in greater detail.

Top tips.
1. You don’t need a car in SFO.
2. San Diego is absolutely stunning.

[shack69]

For yosemite Oakhurst is a good size place and has several accomodation options with an easy drive into the park. The other option is Mariposa , this is smaller and brings you into the park via a different route, we like both.
If LA is not something you want to do then about doing a northern loop instead. So SF , Napa, lake tahoe and maybe Reno (smaller vegas) , then down to yosemite.

[TravelaruaL]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

You will find my trip report in my signature. It is hopefully an ‘easy starter’ in that it is brief and in a single thread, covering pretty much all that you are looking at.

See more...

Wonderful! I'll take a look. We are also limited to the school holidays so thank you.

Originally Posted by shack69

For yosemite Oakhurst is a good size place and has several accomodation options with an easy drive into the park. The other option is Mariposa , this is smaller and brings you into the park via a different route, we like both.
If LA is not something you want to do then about doing a northern loop instead. So SF , Napa, lake tahoe and maybe Reno (smaller vegas) , then down to yosemite.

See more...

I'll take a look at Mariposa we are quite keen on visiting San Diego but thank you for this other option!

[jdouds]

Hi again Oakhurst is good but if you can stay in the valley floor or just outside. Have a look at the blue butterfly bb or valley view lodge both at el portal and very close to entrance which is good to get in ahead of the crowds.
Monterey and Carmel ,17 mile dr,whale watching,fantastic aquarium, pebble beech.
For Yosemite or Monterey you will arrive about mid day or slightly after ,after you get your bearings you will then have the evening and next full day if you do a 2 night stop and then of the next morning, this is why we would suggest 3 n if possible.
Yosemite do the valley floor tour. Walk to El Capitan ,walk up to vernal falls and down the John Muir trail, glacier point view point 10,000 ft, tioga pass. Before you go watch the film free solo, amazing and you will look in wonderment as how can somebody climb 3000 ft without ropes.

[jdouds]

Oops Yosemite view lodge.