Ashley

My boyfriend and I are thinking of taking a trip to Southern CA - probably starting in San Diego and ending before San Fran. Never been south of San Fran. Any suggestions as to what time of year would be the best to do this (thinking possibly April??) and the best major stops along the way?? (besides SD and LA) Would like to spend about 2-3 days in at least 4 cities and are interested in parks, scenery, nice driving tours, enjoy hiking, as well as cozy places to stay and good food!! Would like a good mix between exploring the outdoors and a little pampering! Any suggestions are much appreciated.

John

San Diego is great. The Zoo and Wild Animal Park are the best I've seen anywhere. Balboa Park is very pretty. Great place to stay is the Coronado Hotel. Expensive but great. About thirty minutes north you'll find the communities of Del Mar, Cardiff by the Sea, Oceanside, where you can find B&Bs with ocean views. In Los Angeles, there is lots of hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains. Any decent bookstore in the L.A. area will have good books on hiking in L.A. (There actually are lots of places, try Vazquez Rocks (sp) near Simi Valley. You'll recognize the area as a place where lots of westerns were filmed.)
Check out the Getty Center while you're here. Make reservations now.
April is a good time. September/October is the best. June gets a lot of fog in the mornings and evenings. Jan and Feb get rain.

Scott

Southern Cal can be great anytime of year, though it's cool in the winter. I went to school at UC Santa Barbara, and we'd go to the beach on New Year's Day.

I like Santa Barbara and environs. LA defies description. There is enough to see or do there to last a lifetime, but it's worth a trip once. Visit Venice for the beach scene. There is hiking along the coast, it's best in spring when everything is green and cool. Try the drive up hiway 1; but make reservations for camping and other lodging, spring summer and fall.

If you want to be blown away by hiking, try Kings Canyon or Sequoia Nat'l Park. Prettiest hiking I've ever seen, but far from anything else.

kam

Good wine tasting just inland from Santa Barbara--Buellton and Lompoc. You can also follow the mission route which takes you through small nice towns. Cambria is a nice little town where Hearst Castle is located. Morro Bay is nice in summer. Raggedy Point Inn (I think is the name) is a great hotel at the south end of Hwy 1 drive up the coast toward Big Sur. Big Sur and up to Monterey is great except in the raining season (Nov-April)---wonderful restaurant is Nepenthe and you can find lots of pampering in Carmel or a beautiful old Victorian B&B in Pacific Grove. Santa Cruz is "Surf City, U.S.A." a town that's kind of stuck in the 70s. Pinnacles National Monument is in the center, inland from Cambria---beautiful and not visited often. Then of course, Yosemite and the Gold Rush Country up to Sacramento. A unique place to stay is the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo---ask for their brochure. I would put it off until May but before the kids get out of school for sure. If not, wait until September, early October.

Brian Kilgore

I was once in Vasalia California with several hours to kill, and drove up into the mountains to some small town, found a restaurant and had lunch, and vowed to return some day to look at the mountains and the redwoods much more closely.

Consider developing a theme for your trip, like "places we saw in old movies" or "places where words really matter" or "speedy places."