San Francisco to Anaheim?

[gjdjud]

Please excuse my ignorance as the West Coast is very new to me. We are going to be doing a West and East coast trip in 2022 so very early in the planning stages. Initially I thought we’d fly into LAX and head straight to Anaheim but now I’m leaning towards a small road trip. Thinking of flying into San Francisco and having a small road trip down to Anaheim, 2 maybe 3 days. Any advice of what sites to see and where to stay including SF would be gratefully appreciated. Anything, pros and cons. Like I said very new to the West Coast planning.

[400ixl]

Staying in San Francisco I would look at the Fishermans Wharf area. You won't need a car in San Fran and parking is expensive. Better to just get a car on the way out (Uber back to the airport for the better prices and choice).

Alcatraz is the major to do, and lots book a tour with Dillan's to get to see many of the other sights. You have things like the trolley cars, Coit Tower, China Town etc to see.

I would recommend 3 nights as a minimum in San Fran really.

As for driving down Pacific Coast Highway, then you will need a minimum of 2 nights, maybe 3. Monterrey tends to be the 1st place to stop and there is enough there for a full days sight seeing with whale watching etc. So 2 nights there then one night somewhere around Pismo.

There is so much to do on the west coast, personally I wouldn't even consider doing an East coast visit as part of it. You will miss so many opportunities.

Have a look at some of the trip reports to see how much there is to do. Even with a month you would have to limit what you can do.

[gjdjud]

Thank you for that

[kateb78]

We did a similar trip just before lockdown. We didn’t spend any time in San Francisco as we’d been there before but this is a summary of the road trip part... Things changed as a result of corona but the plan was (and will be when we redo the trip!):

Monterey 2 nights
Cambria 1 night
Santa Barbara 1 night
Burbank (for Warner bros studio) 1 night
Anaheim 2 nights
San Diego 3 nights

We had to miss Anaheim this time and we had to fly home early because of the pandemic/travel ban, but those drives and timings were really manageable and we had a brilliant time.

There are lots of great trip reports on this forum about people who did similar trips so they’re well worth a read too - cornishfrogboy and smithlane are examples of a couple that I used to plan my trip.

[Bozza]

We did our first trip to the West coast a couple of years ago. This was our itinerary, but we made some of it up as we went along.

Flew into SFO
1 night Silicon Valley area (visited the Googleplex and Apple Park the next day)
2 nights Monterrey
1 night Solvang
4 nights Glendale (for LA/Hollywood/Universal)
4 nights Disneyland Hotel
2 nights Hermosa Beach (chilling)
Flew Long Beach -> SFO
4 nights San Francisco

If you're into tech at all - in fact I'd even suggest if you're not - some time in the silicon valley area is great. You can (or could in normal times) just pick up a multi-coloured Google bike and ride around the complex, and as an Apple Fanboy it was great to go to Apple Park.

Monterrey is lovely and both the aquarium and whale-watching a must IMO.

Solvang was really just somewhere to sleep for the night, but it's a lovely little town - like a little slice of Denmark in California. We loved it there and would visit for longer next time.

When we left Solvang we spent the day in Santa Barbara before the short drive to our hotel in Glendale.

[KarenG]

If you are Disney fans (and I think you are!) the Walt Disney Family Museum is not to be missed. It’s close to the Lucas Arts (May have the name wrong) site too which has photo opps.

ETA this is in San Francisco

[JudyC]

You say a small road trip from San Francisco to Anaheim. Do you mean driving there and back or leaving the car in Anaheim and flying back?
It may not look far on a map but it's a long drive and quite a lot of winding road if you go down highway 1 costal route. Amazing scenery but you want to take your time and enjoy it.

[gjdjud]

Originally Posted by JudyC

You say a small road trip from San Francisco to Anaheim. Do you mean driving there and back or leaving the car in Anaheim and flying back?
It may not look far on a map but it's a long drive and quite a lot of winding road if you go down highway 1 costal route. Amazing scenery but you want to take your time and enjoy it.

See more...

It would be SF to Anaheim then leaving the car there before flying to Orlando.

[gjdjud]

Thanks for all the advice. a lot to consider and think about.

[jdouds]

Hi lots of good advice already . For us 3/4 n in San Fran, Alcatraz, electric bike tour, cable car, cycle bridge to Sausalito and back on ferry.
Monterey 3 n to include whale watching, aquarium, 17 mile dr, Carmel , pebble beach
We then stoped at Santa Barbara but many stop a bit further up. On route we stoped to see elephant seals at San Simeon, condor point, and a view round every corner.