Are we doing justice to this CA trip.
 

Any comments would be apppreciated concerning the following itinerary. Flying into San Diego in am then driving to LA - staying in Hollywood for 3 nights (4,5,&6). Driving to Solvang for overnight lodging visiting enroute Ojai, Ventura, & Santa Barbara (7). Drive to Cambria visiting enroute the mission in Lompoc & San Luis Obispo for 3 night stay to visit Hearst Castle, the wineries, & the mission at San Miguel (8,9,&10). Drive to Carmel via Hwy 1 & Big Sur to stay 3 nights to visit the area (11,12,&13). Drive to Sonoma to stay 3 nights to visit the area (14,15,&16). Drive to Visalia, outside of Sequoia Nat'l Park, for overnight (17). Visit the park the next day and driving to Bakersfield, or elsewhere depending on the amount of time spent in the park, for overnight lodging (18). Drive to San Diego to visit for 4 nights - 1st night in Old Town at Casa de Bandini (19,20,21,&22).

What time of year?

I'd be inclined to stay in Santa Barbara rather than Solvang, though there are a number of good wineries in the Santa Ynez valley around Solvang. In summer there is a nice outdoor rep theatre in Solvang.

You could reasonably stay anywhere from San Luis to Cambria/San Simeon for visting Hearst castle and the area. Thursday night is farmers market night in downtown SLO, worth it if you are in the area then.

Visalia and Bakersfield are not all that attractive (hot and dusty in summer, gray and chilly in winter); if you can manage to work lodging in the park, it would be well worth it.

Thanks for the response. We are going Oct 4 - Oct 23. We will be in the SLO area on a Thursday night so the market is a possibility. Thanks for the tip.

The easiest road into Sequoia is the northern route, Hwy 180 from Fresno. The southern route is steep, and has many switchbacks. Going downhill is fine, but still an adventure. I would recommend making a slight adjustment and staying in and near the park, enjoying Grant Grove, Kings Canyon and Sequoia as mentioned by a previous post. (You can check google.com regarding the road.)

The whole trip sounds well planned and not too rushed. However the Visalia and Bakersfield stays are a bit jarring in what is otherwise a lovely itinerary.

Neither place is worth a stop. And as curmudgeon says - they are hot, hot, HOT in the summer, and cold and FOGGY in the winter.

You could stay in or near the park on night 17. I'd actually stay 2 nights because the drive from Sonoma is long. And then on the next day you could drive from Sequoia all the way to San Diego. No reason to stay in Bakersfield.

Where are you staying in Cambria area?

I would make a few adjustments, but we may not have the same interests. For example you are bypassing San Francisco - I would not. And you have a lot of winery visits planned which I personally don't find THAT interesting.

How about this:
(also what about days 1-2-3?)

Hollywood (4&5 - your 3rd night could be on the way back instead of Bakersfield)

Santa Barbara (6 - stop in Ojai and/or Ventura on the way up)

Cambria area (7&8 - Lompoc, SLO on the way; Hearst Castle is basically in Cambria)

Big Sur/Carmel (9,10,11)

San Francisco (12,13)

Sonoma (14,15)

Sequoia Ntl Park (16,17 - one night will not be enough; also DO NOT stay in Visalia it is probably a 90 minute drive from there up into the park. Stay IN the park - Wuksachi Village, John Muir Lodge, Grant Grove cabins are all inside the park. If you change anything on your itinerary change this)

Los Angeles area (18 - for your 3rd night here, NOT Bakersfield. It is only about 4.5 hours from Sequoia to LA)

San Diego (19-22)

Message to John H:

Day 4 -- refers to OCTOBER 4th as Shea's first travel day, and then on down the line as indicated by Shea's second post.

Hi, Shea!

Please don't take highway 17 through Santa Cruz. It is a narrow and mountainous road, is difficult to drive, and is considered one of the five "meanest" highways in the Bay Area.

You fastest and straightest route is to take Highway 1 out of Carmel, then cut over on Highway 156 to Highway 101. Proceed north on Highway 101 until Interstate 280. Get on 280, which becomes Interstate 680. Head up 680 until Vallejo and continue on 680 until Highway 12 to Napa. This is a relatively flat route and has few surprises. Just try not to be on 101 or 680 during peak traffic hours and you will be fine.

Happy driving!

Although Hwy 17 isn't an easy road to drive - not a road you would set the car on cruise control and relax - it isn't that bad. Plenty of tourists go over that road every year. It is curvey and some drivers go fairly fast, but there are 4 lanes in each direction so you can keep to the right lane and drive the speed limit (50mph) if you want.

Hwy 101 is a fine road too, just not much to see out there.

Wow! Lots of good info. I will stay in the park, entering via Fresno, if I can get some reservations & eliminate Bakersfield - also Visalia. We are staying at the Best Western Fireside Inn in Cambria. It wasn't our 1st choice due to other places being fully booked but it sounds like it will be o.k. The only reason we are not giving SFO any time is that we have been there several times & love it but San Diego is our favorite. We have never seen anything of LA, the coast north (Big Sur), or Sequoia NP. We have visited Yosemite NP. On this trip we will also finish seeing all 21 missions. All the road info you guys give us will be put to good use. Thank you!!!!

Well, the post that I was responding to on the Highway 17/not recommendation got deleted - so it's the multiple poster again!

Anyhow, I stand by my recommendation not to go by way of 17. Whereas the scenery is better, as J_Correa has said, you will be too busy trying to stay on the Highway to really enjoy the scenery. The really steep parts are two-lane in one direction and it seems like people are just hurtling down the mountainside going 80/90 miles an hour! I've personally never felt relaxed driving that highway. Whatever, it's your choice!

As for the Lompoc Mission, it's great! La Purisma is one of the two State-owned missions (the other is Sonoma). It's very well restored and the padres there ran a "farm" with 300,000 acres! We visited it earlier this year and were more impressed with what the State had done with this site than with the Catholic church-owned San Juan Capistrano Mission, which we had visited on the same trip.

North of San Simeon (Hearst Castle), Highway 1 starts to really curve and wind, so give yourself plenty of time for this portion of the road. The twisting and winding continues until Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Then it "straightens" out a bit, but you will be in redwoods country. More stopping and gawking country!

Recommend the following stops: Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park for the very walkable hike to see McWay Falls -wheelchair accessible - gotta push hard, tho! :)

Stop off in Nepenthe, just to stop. Don't have to buy any food or drink (bit on the expensive side). You can take pictures from their cafe terrace for free. Gorgeous view.

Also very walkable, Point Lobos. You'll probably hear the seals barking before you even catch sight of one! Get a pair of free binoculars (in exchange for car keys or driver's license) from the ranger on duty.

Have a great trip!

Thanks Jason.

Some additional thoughts...

I would agree with a jun20 on going into Sequoia via hwy 180 up from Fresno; it is a nice drive along through there. If you have time, stop in Grant Grove, on the Kings Canyon side, and ask the way up to Panorama Point, a great view. In Sequoia, Moro Rock is a fun hike, though best if the weather is clear over the central valley.

Depending on your time/interests, you might like stopping by some of the gold-rush era sites; old town Sacramento, Coloma, or Columbia would be good choices.

I was going to say this was an unusual vacation especially "Driving to Solvang for overnight lodging visiting enroute Ojai, Ventura, & Santa Barbara (7)." as I don't think one day is enough for this area and thought you might skip Sonoma and spend more time winetasting in the Santa Ynez region and save Sonoma for another trip, but I see that you have a goal of visiting several missions so I will just state my agreement with everyone who has suggested staying in Sequoia. If you can find a way to add another day I would do so. Kings Canyon is also incredible, but my visits in October have not been as great to KC because the waterfall flows are much lower. Put it on your list for a future Spring/Early Summer Trip.

Isn't Lamda's post almost verbatim the same as the previous one that was deleted!!!???

Yes jason - it seems Fodors is catching our "friend" a lot faster lately. He posted under two different names on this thread and both were deleted before any major damage was done. I have noticed the same on some other threads - looks like Fodors finally has a handle on the problem . . . . .

Thanks to all of you for the info. In doing research for a trip including the locals opinion adds much to what a person can find in a travel publication. I received a lot of tips from this site for this trip which I truly appreciate. I have made note of the hwy info & have also made some changes to the itinerary. Thanks again from Alaska. I am looking forward to California because it's beginning to get cold up here.

Hi, Shea!

Only a month more to go! Welcome to California! Have a great time here!

janis: Thanks so much for the explanation!

Fodors: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :)

Shea: The post from Chilin is exactly what jason888 and I were talking about. This is the 3rd identical post by this person on your thread (under 3 different names). Each time Fodors has nuked them because 1) they are awful advice, and 2) this person has used at least 13 different aliases to get around registration. Each time he is kicked off the board he immediately re-registers and re-posts with a new name.

(this was Chilin's very first post so that is when he noticed he had been eliminated again.)