Road trip to San Diego, CA - "Must see" attractions along the way?
 

I'm taking a 2 week vacation road trip with my wife and 2 kids (age 9) this summer. We will be driving from Dallas, TX to San Diego, CA and then up to San Francisco. What are the "must see" attractions along the way? We will be stopping in the following cities for sure:

Yuma, AZ
San Diego, CA (San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld)
Anaheim, CA (Disneyland)
Hollywood, CA (Universal Studios and Hollywood Walk of Fame)
San Simeon, CA (Hearst Castle)
San Francisco, CA (Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, Alcatraz of the Bay)
Las Vegas, NV
Flagstaff, AZ
Albuquerque, NM (Sandia Peak Tramway)

What are we missing?

Why Yuma? It's 3 hour drive to SD..
If you stay in Phoenix, it's about 6-7 hours to SD.
SD..kids love Sea World and SD Zoo..you can do both..great beaches at LJ Shores and Coronado.
Sedona is what your missing..

Santa Fe NM
Jerome AZ
skip Phoenix

<i>Alcatraz of the Bay</i>

do you by any chance mean "Aquarium of the Bay". If so, by all means, skip it -- it's got a pretty terrible reputation, and since the new aquarium at the new Academy of Sciences opened, there is no reason to go to a bad aquarium.

If you don't mean Aquarium of the Bay, what <i>do</i> you mean?

I agree with the others - skip Phoenix (it wasn't on your list in the first place), add Sedona, Jerome and Santa Fe (and maybe something like Bandelier National Monument -- but I have no idea if it's "on the way"; I am geographically-challenged LOL)

Well, I would add:

The Monterey Bay Aquarium, ( if you skipped Sea World). It's very kid oriented and kids love it.

Also, kids love the Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park on the beach in Santa Cruz.

Everyone will like Point Lobos State Reserve just south of Carmel. And shoppers will love Carmel-by-the -Sea.

I was thinking that you would be taking the more southern route from Dallas to SD and stopping in Phoenix but I see Flagstaff, which Sedona, is a half hour drive down..
Jerome is a cool mining town to stop and see for a couple of hours..max.
Your kids will love San Diego!
Ocean temps will be perfect for boogie boarding and swimming.
Knotts Berry Farm is a great theme park in Buena Park.
One of my favorites and your nine year olds will love it!

www.knotts.com

I think I have figured out your approximate loop route. You asked what you missed. Here's my list of what's missing.

1. Carlsbad Caverns (Incredible).
2. Saguaro N.P. (Tucson).
3. Wild Animal Park (Escondido).
4. Legoland.
5. Santa Barbara Mission.
6. Golden Gate Bridge.
7. Hoover Dam. (Las Vegas).
8. Historic Lowell Observatory (Flagstaff).
9. Meteor Crater.(Between Flagstaff and Winslow).
10. Petrified Forest N.P.(On your way to Albuquerque).

great list but Legoland seems to be geared for kids 7 or under but who knows, maybe the 9 year olds will love it!

Carlsbad and Tucson are very much out of your way if you are going from Dallas to Albuquerque to Flagstaff.

I can't imagine 9-year-olds being very interested in Santa Fe or Sedona. This site does list things for children in Santa Fe (http://www.thesantafesite.com/articl...with-Kids.html) but I find it interesting that the first category of attractions is playgrounds and parks.

Acoma Pueblo (Sky City), a Native American pueblo atop a mesa (and the oldest inhabited village in the US), is west of Albuquerque (south of I-40). It is fascinating to visit, but you have to take a guided tour, and they cost a lot more now than when I lived in NM! (I have no idea what the difference between the full and abbreviated tours is). Check out their website (http://sccc.acomaskycity.org/overview) - and note that they are closed to visitors at various times over the summer.

our friends have 9-10 year olds and they love Sedona..
Slide Rock, Pink Jeep Tour, Hiking..Cowboy Club..vortexes.
Santa Fe maybe not so much..

Yuma, AZ is just one of the sleeping/stopping points on the way to San Diego. We aren't planning on seeing anything there. And while we are in San Francisco, I meant to type that we plan to see Aquarium of the Bay but we don't have to if there is a better museum that would entertain me and the kids.

Thanks for all the great inputs!

Sedona is great if you love t-shirt shops and phony spiritual tourist traps.

The Grand Canyon, Jerome and Prescott AZ are less touristy and tacky.

IMHO, Tucson and Phoenix are to be avoided if possible.

ge..tex.
Coming from Sedona/Flagstaff you can drive that in 7 hours and be in SD..don't waste your time sleeping/stopping over in Yuma...pretty rough town.

RB..
Do you not see the red rock beauty of Sedona?
Who hangs out in downtown Sedona?
I was just there in March and I counted 3 t-shirt places in downtown..big frigging deal..any tourist place has that kind of stuff.
Sedona is considered to be a very sacred place.

You are one of those kind of posters that can never say anything nice about anything and everything is always negative..
How sad.

I see go to Sedona but don't go to the actual town.

As I stated "phony spiritual tourist trap" = "considered to be a very sacred place"

Jerome has more character and better views.

I might have misunderstood your route - are you taking I-20 to I-10 to I-8 on the way out? If so, and you have never been to Carlsbad Caverns, I think it is worth the detour to visit.

And Saguaro NP is not out of the way at all, so the children would probably think the cacti there are pretty cool.

They also might find a visit to a ghost town interesting.

Are you planning to stop at Yosemite, Kings Canyon/Sequoiah, or Death Valley on the way from San Francisco to Las Vegas?

Cranachin, I hope the OP will see your your last sentence. She can go from S.F. to Yosemite, gawk a little and then drive through Yosemite over Tioga Pass, then down to rt. 395 and south to Lone Pine. She can stop there briefly to get a view of Mt. Whitney, then head to Death Valley, where she can visit Badwater, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere, and a few other sights, and continue south to exit Death Valley and head toward Pahrump and Las Vegas. And when she gets home she can brag that she went through Death Valley in the summer. The National Park Service says it's OK if your car is air conditioned and in good shape. I checked and the summer average high temperature in Death Valley is only a few degrees higher than Baghdad, Iraq!

It looks like the distance will actually be less than if she went down the central valley and connected with I-15 to Las Vegas. And nowhere near as boring.

RB/Brian..you don't go to Sedona for the town..you go for the hiking and sheer scenic beauty..yeah, you might walk through the small town to get to a restaurant but I have never known anyone that just hangs out in the town.
Sedona is home to Native American tribes including the Yavapai and Apache..considered one of the most sacred places in the world.
Obviously you don't travel much.

even without the history or sacredness, Sedona "rocks" in unique natural beauty. There are so many great and easy hikes throughout the area. Flagstaff is a cool town close by as well. I agree that Jerome is a nice 2 hour max stopover.

I just had my sister visiting for a week and we only got half the things done that I wanted to show her. You're packing a lot of territory in here, IMO.

Definitely go to Carlsbad Caverns on the way out here.

I agree that Sedona is great, and downtown does have some nice galleries, but unless you spend a day or so and do the things ksucat suggested, it'll be pretty boring for your kids. There are also jeep tours in Sedona that all of you might enjoy.

However, I don't think you have time to do much on the way back to Dallas other than drive!

I'm not clear if you plan to get from Flag to Yuma via I-17, I-10, and 95 or you're going to head further south and take 8 west. If you do the latter, be sure to stop in Dateland for a shake. That's about all 8 has to recommend it.