California Road Trip w 2 Teens
 

Jersey Shore Family taking a 15 day trip, starting Aug1st, 2015, flying in and out of San Diego. Need HELP in planning. Thoughts were to do a triangle of the state wanting to get to Yosemite, San Fran and down the coastline. All ideas welcomed!

It's one of the more frequent questions here.

http://www.fodors.com/search/results...lifornia+Coast

Before you set out an itinerary the VERY first thing you need to do is book accommodations in Yosemite. Then you can build your route around those dates.

First try IN Yosemite Valley, preferably at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. If successful -- then you can decide what order to visit the other places on your route. If unsuccessful, book at Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal. Then you can plan the rest of your trip but still trying for a cancellation in the Park. If you get one, you can cancel at Yosemite View.

Also -- do the theme parks fit in your plans or not (Disney, Universal, etc. ) That makes a huge difference how long you will need in SoCal.

We do not want to go to Disney. Since arriving and departing in San Diego, do I go directly to Yosemite and how days? Then across to San Fran and the the coastline

What about evergreen Lodge?

I agree with janisJ's comments about making your Yosemite Reservations first to see when you can get in and plan around that.

How long you stay depends on how much hiking you want to do. A day for the valley, a second day for Wawona groves & Glacier Point and a third day for the Tioga Road and Tuolumne Meadows would be the minimum for me if there wasn't much hiking. If you want to do hiking then add more days.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/placestogo.htm

Utahtea

Cannot get into Yosemite view lodge, thinking nod south entranc.

sara you may need to call every day for Yosemite, people cancel all the time and sometimes the cancellation does not even make it to their website, as it may get snapped up by others calling to get a place to stay inside the park.

>>What about evergreen Lodge?<<

It is in Groveland which is a long drive from Yosemite Valley -- like nearly 1.5 hours each way.

If Yosemite View Lodge is full -- try Cedar Lodge also in El Portal. Not as nice as Yosemite View but the next best for location.

>> . . . thinking nod south entranc.<<

Which means Oakhurst (or maybe Fish Camp) -- which is an even <i>longer</i> drive than Groveland.