bear900

Alternate plan, based on staying away from palm trees and all of southern Ca. Visits to Ca IMO shoild be focused on South and central or North and central.

Coastal redwoods are taller and forests can be foggy, drizzly in summer but beautiful.

Sequoia redwoods are wider and located in warmer weather in July. Both are great to see.

The Mariposa grove has the sequoias and entrance to Yosemite and gold rush towns.

Consider flying in and out of Fresno. The trip will make a big loop to pick up and drop off a car there.

The trip would go like this:

1. Land in Fresno and drive straight up to Bass Lake on the 41 for a cabin house. Plenty of rentals if reserve ahead. Next day spend full day at Mariposa sequoia redwood grove and Yosemite. Exit the park on the 140 and stay the night in Mariposa (town not the grove). Two nights total.

2. Drive 140 to the gold rush towns of Jamestown, Sanora, Columbia and Angels Camp. Drive to Stockton, drop down on the 5 to the 580 into SF. Stay 3 nights. Two full days in the City.

3. To San Jose, then to Santa Cruz and Montery. Stay two nights.

NOTE: Hiway 1 through Big Sir is scheduled to be open by summer but plan the 101 first. Take 101 South to 46 east into Cambria. Two nights with day in between to Hearst Castle.

Back to Fresno overnight and fly out next day.

bear900

Oops, Big Sur...bum spell checker

staci1

Thanks november_moon. The park looks nice, but we do want to see really big trees.

I'm with you janisj-bigger is better. We will go to Henry Cowell State Park. It is a much better alternative to the crowds at Muir Woods.

bear900, oh my....now you gave me something completely different to think about and research..so many options.

The only reasons we were thinking of LA is because I thought the airfare would be much less. In my experience, flying from larger cities is usually more economical. On two teacher salaries, it makes a big difference to us. My daughter has her heart set on doing a movie star tour and we could go to the La Brea tar pits in the area. Back to planning..

staci1

Isn't it going to be very crowded in Yosemite National Park in July?

MmePerdu

"Isn't it going to be very crowded in Yosemite National Park in July?"

No more crowded than LA and much nicer.

cmstraf

If you click on my name, it will take you to my trip reports, one of which is on how to dodge crowds in Yosemite in high season.

janisj

Yes -- Yosemite will be VERY crowded in July. In ways more crowded than LA. Not nearly as many people as in LA of course, but a HUGE number for the very small area that is Yosemite Valley.

I Love LOVE <red>LOVE</red> Yosemite -- visit pretty frequently -- even spent my honeymoon there. But July and August have gotten completely out of hand in the last five years. Not a pleasant experience -- one can not drive around the Valley because once you get a parking place you don't dare give it up. So you take the shuttles to get around -- most of the year they are wonderful. But in Mid Summer they run at capacity and you VERY often have to wait for 2 or 3 buses to come by before there is space.

And you really don't have enough time for the more sparsely visited back country and east side of the Sierra.

The Giant Sequoia (the big around ones) and the Coastal Redwoods (the tall ones) are different but both are truly amazing. Stick to the coast this trip. Plan a visit to Yosemite at a better time of year - Spring Break time is perfect because the waterfalls are at full force and the park isn't as crowded as in Summer.

jamie99

Does your daughter want to do a tour of a movie studio or a tour of celebrity homes?
If a movie studio, either Warner Bros or Paramount are the best.
For celebrity homes, Starline is the oldest and possibly the largest and does among other things tours where celebrities live or used to live in both Hollywood area and Malibu. Or she might also like the TMZ Tour since you said she is a teen, they tend to visit more "in" restaurants and nightclubs, etc. than houses.

staci1

I'm not sure, jamie99. I wonder if there is a tour that does both the studio and the homes. Thanks for making my research a little bit easier. I will check those out.

O.K., you talked me out of Yosemite in the summer. That is a good Spring Break suggestion for the future, janisj.

cmstraf, I'm curious to read your trip report. Thanks for the suggestion.

staci1

Well, I bought my tickets for the end of July. We are flying in to Los Angeles and flying out of San Francisco. Alamo didn't charge a drop off/ one way fee. Yeah!

jamie99

Good, much better to do a oneway trip with only 10 days. Have fun.

staci1

O.K., so I am starting to look at hotels--what would be a good centralized place to stay if we plan on doing a studio tour, La Brea tar pits, Santa Monica Pier area?

jamie99

What is your budget per night? There is also a 15% room tax in LA on top of posted rates.

rjw_lgb_ca

The LA metro area is so huge that you'll have to basically throw notions of "centralized place" out the window. Stay where you have good breakfast and dinner choices as well as some R&R options and accept that you'll be driving and/or shuttling all over the place. Santa Monica is fine, I guess (I used to work there), since you'll have the Pier, some pretty good restaurants and some shopping nearby, plus good selection of hotels and lots of tour companies offering van and bus service all around the area. But you're actually MILES from Hollywood and the studios, Museum Row, the more high-end shopping (Beverly Hills/Rodeo Drive-- if you're at all into that), etc.

I might suggest you look at Beverly Hills/West Hollywood for more centrally-located choices, but then you won't be near the beach. One must choose one's battles. Especially on such a short trip. If you were here longer I'd suggest something really unique to southern California, like a concert at the Hollywood Bowl or a trip out to Catalina Island (some will scoff, but I love that special little trip back in time) or an overnight down in Laguna Beach to hit the Sawdust Festival and the Pageant of the Masters (world-famous tableaux vivants-- and it IS a lot of fun). Well, that can be for your next trip. And I would bet that after you experience the magic of this state, you'll be coming back.

rjw_lgb_ca

Oh, and one more thing-- the tours of the stars' homes are going to be a bit of a disappointment. The homes of many stars of yesterday have been scraped to make way for tasteless McMansions shoehorned onto far-too-small lots (a lot of tacky nouveaux riches with more cash than taste have moved into these neighborhoods), and most of the existing Stately Homes of the Celebs are well-hidden behind nice, thick walls. You're not going to see Kim Kardashian in a floral-print schmatta schlepping her empty Cristal bottles to the recycle bin on Trash Day, I'm pretty sure. But you might get some juicy stories here and there, and you do get to see fun parts of the area, so what the hey.

staci1

rjw_lgb_ca, thanks for the info. Beaches aren't important to us and we don't want to be driving miles, especially with traffic, so I think I will look more in the West Hollywood area. It is just so hard, not knowing the area because I hear there are some pretty rough neighborhoods. I was also looking on airbnb and found a possibility.When I e-mailed the owner to ask about the safety of the area, they told me it was a bit "grungy", but for each unusual looking person there are 7 cops so we would be o.k.!

jamie99, we usually spend no more than $150 per night, but I see that is NOT going to happen in LA. Even with AAA and state government rates, they are not even close!

bachslunch

Some thoughts:

-agreed with rjw that the star's homes tours may be a little disappointing. Went on one and there were a lot of homes "formerly owned by" pointed out as well as several partly to mostly hidden behind walls or hedges. Liked it best because it allowed the experience of seeing Mulholland Drive, Beverly Hills, and the Sunset Strip in one convenient trip for someone who doesn't drive. I also don't know of any combo packages that include this with studio tours.

-agreed with Jamie99 that the Warner Brothers and Paramount studio tours are excellent. Well worth doing. It's probably wise to make an advance reservation.

-have been to San Jose and found the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum disappointing -- there weren't many original pieces except for small items, most were reproductions of artifacts from famous European museums. Did like everything else I went to, though. Brief summary: Winchester Mystery House (liked a lot, tour was very informative), Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (not a big fan), San Jose Museum of Art (very good), Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph (worth a pop-in), San Jose Historical Museum (good, mainly consists of historic buildings from the area).

jamie99

Staci, you need to be careful with short term rentals including AirBnB, many cities, especially beach cities, have outlawed them or only allow them if they are a homeshare (owner is also living on the premises). West Hollywood has outlawed them, but they are legal in Hollywood for the time being.
I'm seeing only 38 properties listed on booking.com for a midweek in July for 3 adults at $180 and under (not including 15% tax) so I do think you have to up your budget or look for a legal rental.

staci1

Thanks, bachslunch-you saved us a trip to the Egyptian Museum. I would be very disappointed to see artifact reproductions. We decided not to do a star home tour but will do a studio tour. We are looking forward to the Winchester House and it looks like they are making a movie about the house too. jamie99, I had no idea that there were restrictions on AirBnB. So I guess I can't assume the rental is legal if it is listed? Is West Hollywood a better neighborhood than Hollywood? We are looking at July 19th to July 22nd in LA. I guess we will need to start saving and adjust our hotel budget. Hopefully, the hotels aren't that expensive in other parts of California

5alive

I went onto Hotwire for your dates July 19-22. I noticed in the Culver City zone, Hotwire offers a named hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott for $209/night. Those are a nice level Marriott. You could potentially call the hotel and see if you can get that rate or even better. I do like that area.

If you do decide to use Hotwire itself to reserve a hotel, understand that it's a pay-up-front nonrefundable. They will guarantee up to 4 people in a room if you set that parameter. Usually Hotwire gives you mystery properties in different zones. You can often figure out what the mystery properties are by posting a query over on betterbidding.com (a forum dedicated to Hotwire and Priceline bidding). Be careful what zones you bid in Los Angeles. I would stick to Santa Monica, Culver City and the two Beverly Hills zones. Maybe someone who lives there now could give you more advice on any of the other zones.