I could use some feedback on this possible itinerary for a trip up the CA coast this fall.

Coming from Arizona. This is what I know so far...
day 1: AZ to Los Angeles
day 2: tour of LA and then drive to Cambria
day 3: tour Hearst Castle then drive to San Francisco
day 4: San Francisco - tour sightseeing
day 5: San Francisco - Alcatraz
day 6: drive to see redwoods. How far up to go? Arcata looked like it has a decent selection of hotels??

From here I'm not sure. Should we continue up the coast all the way to the Oregon border or is that just overkill? We have 4 or 5 more days and want to go to Yosemite on the way home. If we go as far as Arcata, mapquest is routing us through Sacramento on the way to Yosemite. Is there anything interesting to see there that we would want to make that a stopping point? Or is it just "a city". I'm thinking 2 nights at Yosemite. And then a long day from Yosemite back to Arizona.

Thanks for any suggestions.

w/o addressing the question of where to go after SF -- I'd personally re-think the first half of your trip.

Arizona is a biiiig place - where are you starting from? Phoenix to LA is a long slog so you'll get in in the late afternoon/maybe early evening. Then you have the next morning to "tour LA" before driving hours up the coast to Cambria. The next day San Simeon and then another loooong drive to SF. Then 2 days later another loooong drive to the North Coast.

I would slow down a LOT. Another day in LA (if you haven't toured before). Another day on the coast between Cambria and SF. Another day to see places along the coast between SF and the Redwoods. A day IN the northern Redwoods. etc.

This pretty much eats up your whole time frame - even w/o traveling back to Yosemite. W/ that few days you should think about cutting back how far you want to go.

The main purpose of the trip is to see northern part of CA. There's not much interest in LA but since we're going through there anyway we thought we'd hit the main sights.

When you say looonnngg time - what's your definition of long? Mapquest says 5 1/2 hrs from phoenix to LA, 4 hrs LA-cambria and another 4 to San Francisco. Obviously there would be stops in the 2 legs from LA to SF. Are mapquests times fairly accurate? Or is that way off? That would definitely make a difference.

And just for a reference I would consider 8 - 12 hrs a long day of driving. 4 hrs isn't a concern. My thought was taking stops to see things etc. you could turn the 4 hrs into 7 or 8 and still get to the next stop by nightfall.

We could leave out Yosemite and do that another time, but it seems like we've got to get back to Arizona somehow so rather than backtrack that would be a good idea. But maybe it's not?

Janis is correct, so far all you are doing is driving. Why not hop a flight to SFO or Oakland, & start there ?

your entire trip consists of sitting in a car. you won't see much. You will see very little of SF in less than 1 day that you have scheduled. You need at least 2 full days there. You need to book Alcatraz ahead of time and that will take all day. You need to book Hearst castle ahead of time and tha will take half of that day. You are missing Monterey which deserves a stop. Honestly, in 6 days you should stick to SF and Monterey/Carmel area and that's it. LA needs at least 3-4 days to see as well. If you don't have the time and HAVE to make it to LA in 6 days, you should see SF and not make only one stop on the way down for 1 night.

Yes, that is the point of this trip. To drive and see the sights. That is what we want to do. I appreciate the concern and understand that is alot in a short time. If we have extra days at the end before we have to be home then I would love to add another day between LA and San Fran. That's why I'm trying to determine the next part of the trip to see where we're at and how much time I can stay.

So does anyone have any advice as to how far north into the redwoods to go? Is there a certain point where it all begins to look alike? Is Arcata a good location for staying? Too far, not far enough?

If you go to Yosemite you will see Redwoods there - in Mariposa grove. Also, you can see redwoods in the bay area without going north of San Francisco. The easiest park to get to is Henry Cowell State Park in Felton. This is off Hwy 17 between Santa Cruz & San Jose. I would suggest going to Yosemite on your way home as you have planned and try to fit in Henry Cowell SP, too.

I believe the psters are gently trying to suggest that drving is ALL you will be doing. Touring LA and driving to Cambria is simply not possible in one day. Having breakfast in LA and spending the most of the day driving to CAmbria is a more realistic possibility. A drive from Pasadena to Cambria would be four hours with no traffic.

I will leave it to someone else to explain what LA traffic means... it could add hours onto your trip.

You don't mention what days you'll be traveling but that too is very important.

If you're going to Yosemite and drving home from there... why not go to the redwoods at Sequia Naional Park? There you can see the largest redwood trees in the world.

If your point to the trip is seeing Northern CA... you really should fly into SAn Francisco and rent a car.

I would think that with the times tht you have gotten from mapquest, that you will be driving the highways instead of the route along the coast. To me that is a big mistake itself. I would take the coastal highway and add another stop between Cambria and San Francisco, maybe in the Montery Bay area. Big Basin, just north of Santa Cruz and Muir Woods, which is just north of San Francisco, are both great places to go and see the redwoods without having to go too far out of the way. I am a person who doesn't really mind spending time driving on a vacation, but you seem to allowing very little time to see the things that you want to see. It's an awful tight schedule with little give.

We would be leaving from Santa Monica on a Monday to head to Cambria.

I was told on here that Santa Monica puts us in the right area of LA to avoid the traffic heading north out of town. Is that true?

What if we went LA Monday afternoon ending in Santa Barbara for the night. The next day tour Hearst castle and travel to Monterey and spend the night there? Would that be more doable or is that still too much?

That would be much better.

As for the Santa Monica part, it depends on what tour you are taking, checkout time of your hotel in Santa Monica, etc. You probably wouldn't want to take a tour of Hollywood and then head all the way back to Santa Monica just to check out of your hotel and be on your way. From Hollywood just head north to Santa Barbara before the afternoon traffic.

SB to Cambria is much easier than L.A to Cambria.
If you leave L.A around noon you could have a nice late afternoon & dinner in Santa Barbara. Leave early for Cambria and hit a 1pm tour, then you could make it up to Monterey in time to at least have dinner and relax. Howard Johnson Monterey on Munras Ave is a good budget spot. Columbus Motor Inn or Chelsea Motor Inn in San Fran are great because parking is included. Other hotels get $25-$40 just to park.

you simply do not have time to do AZ > LA > Hearst Castle > SF > the north coast/redwoods > Yosemite > AZ. We are trying to help you here. Honest. If you are bound and determined to do your original itinerary (or close) you just need to do it and not hope for a lot of agreement/support.

Yor total time is only 10 days. If the North Coast and Yosemite is what you mostly want to see - then that is about doable in 10 days. Fly to SF for 2 days nights, drive as far as Mendocino 1 or 2 days/nights, drive up into the redwoods 2 days/nights. one day/night enroute down to Yosemite. 2 days/nights in Yosemite. 2 days/nights for LA and back to AZ.

That is STILL a hellacious rushed itinerary. But w/o taking the shortcut of flying to SF it is just about impossible.

henny16: It's your trip, you may do whatever you like! YOu asked for feedback and I'm cringing because you CAN do as you're suggesting... but know that you'll be blitzing through someof the most beautiful part of our state!

Sure, spend the night in SB and drive as fast as you can up to the Castle... you'll skip seeing the Mission, the rose garden, the beautiful adobe buildings, the harbor, the beautiful homes in Montecito and the volleyball players at East Beach... you'll pass by the charming towns of Los Olivos and Santa Ynez... you'll miss sampling the wines or stopping at the farmers markets that have the best corn you'll find anywhere this time of year.

YOu CAN geet to MOnterey in just a few hours from CAmbria... but then you'd miss the beauty of driving along Highway 1, seeing Big Sur, having lunch and enjoying the rugged coastal mountains... no hikes for you... no tidepools at Point Lobos, no historic Monterey, no seals, no drive along the 17 mile drive,no iceplant along Lovers'' POint, no bagpipers at Sunset at Spanish Bay, no wtching polo at Pebble Beach, no shopping in Carmel, no ocaen sunset, no Carmel Mission,no waves crashing along the shore.

See? It's just that you'll be missing So much... and since you asked, we're pointing it out!

I was posting the same time as joesource. Yes Santa Monica to Santa Barbara to San Simeon to Monterey is a doable drive in 2 days/nights -- BUT it still doesn't leave you enough time for the rest of your plans.

given your new plan, how much time do you actually have in LA before you leave Santa Monica to drive to Santa Barbara?

If you leave SM around noon, you will be in SB at 2pm or so. Once you check into your hotel and go out to explore, it will be 4pm. From 4pm to evening, you can probably walk around for 2 hours and have dinner and then head back to hotel because you have to wake up early to leave for Hearst Castle the next day. You will see a little of SB, but not much basically. In order to make the 1pm tour of Hearst Castle, you would have to realistically leave SB around 8am. After the tour, you basically have to get right back in the car and drive to Carmel. By the time you check into your hotel, you won't see much of that area since it will be dark, so you need the next half day to at least see a few things there. That means you leave for Monterey around 3-4pm. When you get to Monterey, it will be dark, so you won't see much. You can into your hotel there and need the next full day to see things. After that you can leave at 6pm or so to start your 2-3 hour drive to SF to get to SF in the evening.

So there is your itinerary. As you can see, it doesn't leave much time for seeing things, but at least you can get a glimpse of things for a few hours.

janisj-Phoenix to LA is only about 5.5 hours-6 hours if you're heading to the west side of LA. So if henry leaves early the first day he should get to LA right after lunch.

I agree the rest of his schedule is pretty crazy. Are you just planning on doing a bus tour or maybe a driving tour of LA and then driving to Cambria. With traffic in LA, you won't see much so not really sure what the point is of even touring LA. Cambria is about a 3.5 hr drive without traffic and no stops. You won't have any time to sightsee along the way. Then you'd have to get an early tour of Hearst Castle so you'd get into SF at a decent time. Unless you have driven through Big Sur before, there is no way you should miss that. I agree with janisj-slow down, add a couple more days along the coast. If you really felt you had to, you could probably fit Yosemite into the trip but definitely don't go further north than SF. All you will be doing is spending your time in the car.

Maybe something like this.
Day 1 Drive Arizona to LA
Day 2 Tour Los Angeles
Day 3 Drive to Cambria-lunch in Santa Barbara or maybe do late afternoon tour of Hearst Castle.
Day 4 Drive through Big Sur-Stay in Monterey or Carmel
Day 5 Tour Monterey area Drive to SF in afternoon
Day 6-7 Tour SF-(You can see redwoods in Muir Woods or in Santa Cruz on the way from Monterey to SF).
Day 8 Drive to Yosemite
Day 9 Visit Yosemite
Day 10-11 Head back to Arizona with a stop on the way.
Day 4

Sorry Day 4 shouldn't be on the bottom of my thread. I started this itinerary last night before you had some of the other comments. And as others said you can see also see redwoods in Yosemite. I certainly wouldn't miss Big Sur, though.

Without reading everything else posted, I will just share recent times for a trip from LA to Cambria or thereabouts.

Santa Monica is the right spot to leave from, take the Pacific Coast hwy out via Malibu, thru Oxnard ( a bit confusing, be sure to have a map. Allow about 2.5 hours to reach Santa Barbara (always a congested spot). Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo also allow 2.5 hours, there is freeway construction around Santa Maria.
Less than an hour SLO to Cambria, via US 1. But again, there will be traffic.

Overall 5 to 6 hours total, not including stops.