Las Vegas and Palm Springs in August? I assume you are aware the temperatures will likely be between 100 and 110 degrees F. I personally see no reason to go to Palm Springs in August -- it's too hot to do the things the desert is wonderful for, such as hiking and playing golf, and it doesn't have the "attractions" of Las Vegas (I am not a Vegas fan at all, but I still think Vegas would be more enjoyable for teens, Palm Springs is a little "sleepy").

I'd shave 3 days off San Diego, drop Palm Springs, reduce Las Vegas to 2 days. Now you have 5 days to drive up the coast and enjoy Monterey and/or San Francisco.

What are you doing in Santa Barbara for 3 days?

I agree with everything sf7307 said. 7 Days in San Diego is too much, IMO. I would definately drop a few days (maybe half of that time) and use it to see San Fran and the Bay area. It is beautiful and there is plenty to do. However, it is not the place for swimming, the water will be too cold. Also, I would not make the time for Palm Springs with everything else you have in your itinerary. But that is just my opinion, you will find people on this forum who love Palm Springs.

Starting from SD (3 days) then to Palm Springs (1 day) to Las Vegas (5 days including a day trip to Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire). Drive through Death Valley on the way to Yosemite over Tioga Pass. Stay in Yosemite if you can get the reservation. From Yosemite, go to San Francisco for at least 1 night.
Drive down the coast from San Francisco to Santa Barbara unless there is someplace else you want to see closer to SF (Monterey?).
Spend your remaining time in the LA area.
Pick a LV hotel that has a good indoor pool (Golden Nugget?).

Well, I for one think you could find a lot to do in SD for 7 days - but if you are coming from Florida - you already are familiar with beaches.

Here is how I would do it:

Spend 4 or 5 days in SD - where again - there are plenty of things to do (see other posts in here under California for SD - and the Zoo, Wild Animal Park, going up to the old mining town of Julian and having their great apple pie, on and on) and then drive to Vegas (5 hours)

Spend 2 or 3 days - checking out the resorts (the architecture is amazing), go to a Cirque de Soleil show, visit Red Rock Canyon, Hoover Dam (a tour down inside is also very interesting) etc. Aria is a new hotel/in the huge complex - and it would probably be fine - but I prefer next door - at the Bellagio - with it's big/beautiful pool, incredible fountains, the Arboretum, etc. http://www.bellagio.com/ We also like the Wynn - but Bellagio/Aria are more center strip located.

Drive from Vegas back to LA (4 hours) - and check out Hollywood, etc for a couple of days. Palm Springs is very hot in the summer - and you could spend a day there en route if you really wanted to take the tram ride - or visit the Living Desert (zoo) - but as suggested - summer is not the best time, although it's a "dry" heat.

And unless you have a special reason - also don't see why you need time in Santa Barbara per se (it is a lovely town though) - and would instead spend a few days driving up the beautiful Cal Coast - taking in Solvang (Danish themed town 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara) - and maybe spend the night in Cambria and visit/tour Hearst Castle.

The drive from there through Big Sur is very scenic and a day or two in the Carmel/Monterrey area is also fun - checking out the Aquarium, John Steinbeck's fabled Cannery Row, taking the 17 mile drive, and so forth.

Then, drive 3 more hours - and wind up spending a day or two/three in San Francisco, also called "Bagdhad by the Bay" - by noted columjnist Herb Caehn - and may he RIP.

Here's a bit more on Carmel/Monterrey http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/camontereycarmel/tp/montereycarmel.htm

and Big Sur, http://jrabold.net/bigsur/

and also - Hearst Castle.
http://www.hearstcastle.org/

BTW - when driving through Big Sur - we always stop for Coffee at Nepenthene - http://www.nepenthebigsur.com/ and enjoy the great view, and we also pull off at the Elephant Seal beach (if the males are in - they can grow to over 5,000 lbs) - a couple of miles north of the entrance to Hearst Castle.

And for more SF info - check out Stu Dudley's recommendations. I love the Marina area - and we used to live there - and both Union St and Chestnut street are very nice with local flavor.

I have a teenager & she would HATE Las Vegas & Palm Springs. I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole in the summer. San Diego is ok for 7 days, but I would be done in 3. Being from Northern California, I'm not a big S. California fan, but maybe you are looking at colleges for your kids? Santa Barbara is good for two days, then move on to Morrow Bay & Hearst Castle and up to Santa Cruz & Monterey. I would include 3 days in San Francisco as the kids will like it a lot more than the desert, unless they've already been. Riding cable cars, roller blading in Golden Gate Park and walking across the GG Bridge are a few of the things I would do with them. Also, Alcatraz.

How are you going to see Los Angeles and Hollywood in 2 days?

Griffith Observatory/The Planetarium
Historic Downtown
Museum of Natural History/The Colliseum
The Science Center/ Endeavor Space Shuttle
La Brea Tar Pits/ Page Fossils Museum
The Grammy Museum
The Walk of Fame/Chinese Theatre Footprints
Universal Studios Tour/ or Warner Brothers
Beverly Hills and Bel Air/ Malibu
The Petersen Auto Museum
The Getty Center/ The Getty Villa/ Lacma
A Ball Game
The Beaches and Boardwalk/Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica Mountains Hiking
A Surf Lesson/ Manhattan Beach Strand
The Grove/ The Farmers Market/ Sunset Strip
Cemeteries of the Stars!/ Forest Lawn

www.discoverlosangeles.com

P.S. (In the heat of August, you don't want a hotel in Hollywood. Stay in Santa Monica or if that is too pricey, West Los Angeles or nearer the ocean. Hollywood = HEAT.)

LOL. The visitors may have to add another week to do everything.

I also would skip Vegas and Palm Springs; way too hot. Last time I was in vegas in August, it hit 115 degrees.

5 days would do fine for San Diego, although I've had guests stay for a week who had a great time. (Coronado, La Jolla, Del mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad.... all wonderful villages to explore) Hike Torrey pines state park, do downtown Gaslamp, do Little Italy, Old Town, a day at the beach (it will be cool but refreshing), kayaking in La Jolla Cove with sea lions or otters nearby, Balboa Park, the zoo or Wild Animal Park (it has a different name now), Sea World, etc.

With the extra days, you can make it up the coast and see SF. It is a great city with fantastic areas around it. Napa and Sonoma county, and the whole coastal drive north, are lovely.

Stay coastal, avoid the heat. But then, if you are coming from Florida, maybe you won't mind as much.

My kids are 17, 14 and 12. They love Los Angeles and Orange County. Some of their friends go annually and I can tell that they would love to do the same if it were offered. If you take nothing else away from my comments: 2 days there is not enough.

For tourists coming from overseas (especially England), Las Vegas is a "must." But if you live in the continental USA, I'd wait until they are 21 to go to Las Vegas and do it when it's not so hot out, and doors won't be shutting in their faces. Financially, you'd do better to do Las Vegas as a standalone trip. Tickets to Vegas are cheaper and can be found packaged with a hotel.

I have only spent a few days in Santa Barbara, but it was just so beautiful that I would suggest at least an overnight (if not two nights).

The main advantage of San Diego over LA/Orange County - is that it's a lot less congested here/easier to get around - and there is plenty to see/do for teenagers (the beaches will be very well attended) - but there are plenty of points of interest in LA/Orange Cty.

And the reason I suggest skipping Santa Barbara is that after seeing San Diego and some of LA/Orange County - it's not that different (it is a nice area no Q) - say compared to spending more time driving up the Coast and spending time along the way.

As for Vegas in the summer - people still visit and deal with the heat. Get out and do things early - and then hang by the pool - or visit the air conditioned resorts, etc - which all have free parking.

And do have water with you in the car.

Patrick - can you elaborate a little upon your (and your family's) interests? Outdoors, urban, sightseeing?

I gather you're from FL (I went to high school near Orlando) and you've been in San Diego before. Have you been to the other places you are thinking about? Is seeing new sights a goal of this trip or not so much?

I generally agree with some other comments above:

1) I personally think 7 days in San DIego is not the optimal use of limited time. To a person from FL (me) the water is always too cold there! And while it is a pleasant town, I think there may be places that are more interesting, depending on your, well, interests.

2) I have been in Las Vegas when the temperatures were reasonable and when they were not. Given that that my preferred MO as a tourist anyplace is to walk around and see the sights, I did not enjoy the time I was in LV when the temp was over 105 (in May, by the way). Seriously, I wished I could RUN from the car to the building, or from building to building, the heat was so unpleasant to be out in during the day. If you intend to be mainly inside at casinos or shows, etc. that will help. I'm not really a LV-type person in general, so my opinion may be unduly negative. It was interesting to see and experience, but if you have any choice at all, I would definitely recommend going there some other time of year.

3) Ditto, to some degree, for Palm Springs. We go there every March (for a conference) and I love it then. You can hike, wander around town in a leisurely fashion, enjoy being outdoors. But again, the times I've been through there in the summer are a somewhat different story, depending on the heat.

4) If you like sightseeing and you haven't done it before, the drive up the coast through Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey and on to San Francisco, is hard to beat and would be a lot more interesting, to my mind, than 7 days in San Diego. Although I will admit the water at the beaches would be even colder than SD! For beach vacations (for non-surfers anyway) I can't recommend anywhere in California over FL. But then I expect to spend a lot of time in the water when I'm at the beach, some people like to just look at it and California beaches are wonderful for that.

If you like warmer water - people from Florida are spoiled - but in the summer in SD - certainly starting in July - (also June - but more Marine layer/fog in the mornings in June) - the people flock to the beaches and many are in the water - which will warm up to the high 70's.

Heck - when I was younger - I body surfed year round - without a wetsuit, but I am more Polar Bear than most.

Hey Tom - yeah, you do sound more polar bear than me anyway! I admire you hardy souls.

I have relatives in San Diego, and I can't say I personally have experienced any days there where the ocean was what I would call warm. I just looked up the average water temperatures in SD and came across this: "The ocean off San Diego reaches its warmest point of the year in August when the temperature averages 68 degrees Fahrenheit" whereas the NOAA site says the average water temperature in Miami in August is 86. But of course there are local and daily variations, I'm sure. I would love to be in SD when the water is in the high 70's!

Anyway, it's all good. In my family we used to joke about how we always wondered why you often see people playing volleyball on the beaches in CA but not so much in FL. Then we figured it out: in FL the sand's too hot to stand on, and in CA the water's too cold to get in!

Let me state it differently. The official water temp may be in the high 60's - but if you go into the shallow, sandy areas - including say the Cove at La Jolla - or Mission Beach, etc - it's warmer than that and many people - including kids - are in the water during the summer months.

For some though - guess it will alway be too chilly.