It seems like we've been in the planning stages of this trip for months! Appreciate everyones help and advice. WE ( 2 adults and 2 daughter, 13 and 5) are visiting in August. We will start in San Diego, then LA, Santa Barbara(?) Solvang(?),San Luis Obispo(?), Monterrey, Santa Cruz,and then SF. I'm still not sure how long to plan to stay in each place, or if we even need to stay over in each place - maybe its a day trip or a one day visit. So, if anyone has any more suggestions, I'd welcome hearing them. Thanks

How long you stay at each place will really depend on how much time you have for the trip. You could probably spend a week at each location if you had the time.

Assuming you only have a couple weeks, here's how I'd do it:

San Diego, I'd plan at least a couple of days. LA at least a couple of days too, depending on what you want to do. Santa Barbara I'd probably stop in for a 1/2 day or so on the way to the SLO area. Spend at least a day in the SLO area, probably stay in Morro Bay. Solvang you wont need more than a couple hours. Plan to spend an entire day driving from SLO to Monterey on Hwy 1. It should take a few hours if you drive non-stop, but you will want to stop A LOT. Then a couple days in Monterey, at least a day in Santa Cruz, and then at least 2 days in SF. On your way from Santa Cruz to SF, you can either take the coast route up Hwy 1, in which case you should stop for lunch in Half Moon Bay which is a cute town. Otherwise, from Santa Cruz drive through the redwoods over Hwy 9 to Saratoga and on to SF. Hwy 9 is a twisty mountain road, but it is a lot of fun. Big Basin and Henry Cowell State Parks are up there. If you've had enough twisty roads from the trip up the coast and still want to see some redwoods, you can get to Henry Cowell SP with a short detour from from Hwy 17. Hwy 17 is still curvey, but not like 9.

JCorrea: Thank you. We have 2 weeks so your itinerary works for us!

I would spend a full day in santa Barbara (Natural History Museum, zoo... don't miss the giraffe with the crooked neck!, the Santa Barbara Mission and the Pier etc..) and less time, maybe half a day in san Luis Obispo. Stop at the Madonna Inn on 101 and have breakfast or dessert,,, their bakery is yummy! Wal downtown and find a great lunch place, their are many. Mother's Tavern and Linn's are favorites. Have a wonderful time!

If you will be taking either highway 9 or 17 from Santa Cruz, you should also plan to spend a day in San Jose. Lots to see in the area. Some things you and the kids would like: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Tech Museum, Wichester Mystery House. Your younger daughter would have a blast at the Children's Discovery Museum.

I think you might want to consider some other possibilities -

Don't know if you're into the Disney thing, but remember it's on the way to LA, it's not actually in LA and if you're going it might be easier and cheaper to try to arrive there early in the day and plan to stay over in Anaheim.

I live in LA and like it here, but I have always felt that it's a cool place to live but not all that exciting a place to visit. The standards, if you care about them, are wandering around Hollywood Blvd. (which despite restoration efforts is always less than people expect --- budget 2 hours at most), and going down to Santa Monica and Venice at the beach, which can be very pleasant but isn't going to change your life. I'd say 2 days in LA, unless you're really into the Hollywood/studios thing, is probably enough, particularly when the rest of California beckons.

I agree that Sta Barbara is sort of a half day. Again, lovely to live in but kind of a small town.

I don't think San Luis Obispo is anything major, nor Santa Cruz. Solvang is sort of a silly tourist trap.

You may want to go to Hearst Castle, north of Santa Barbara. It is an amazing property. If you go, they offer something like 5 or 6 tours. Plan to take the main one and then at least one of the additional ones that catches your eye.

Driving up Rte 1, which many people do, is an amazing and lovely drive. It also takes like 5 years. Driving all the curves and twists can get very tedious. Going north on Rte 101 is also pretty, but quicker. Going up Rte 5 is dull, dull, dull, but it's the fast route (and you do get to see the Central Valley, which feeds a lot of the country).

Monterrey and Carmel are worth going to. The Monterrey Aquarium is pretty neat (and I'm not a big animal person). The (I forget) 49 Mile Drive, 37 Mile Drive, some number of miles Drive is worth the time.

San Francisco is San Francisco. For me it's the opposite of LA -- a great place to visit but not a nice place to live.

But if you can compress some of the trip a little, it's worth going further up the coast to Wine Country in Napa and/or Sonoma. You can even go a little further to see the reconstructed Fort Ross, which was the southernmost RUSSIAN settlement in North America.

Another way to spend time would be to drive or fly east from SF and see Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mtns and/or Yosemite National Park.

these postings have really helped finalize our plans. Its great to be able to communicate with folks that have actual experience with the area and aren't trying to sell anything! So thank you all for your help.

And thanks from me too... Although this was not my post, I too am visiting the area. I am taking notes and appreciate all of the interesting advice.

Happy Trails,
Paul

If you plan to go to Alcatraz, order your tickets before you go. In SF there is a walking tour of Chinatown that was fun-its called Wokwiz and they have a website. Also enjoyed Muir woods to see the redwood trees. Golden Gate Park also was nice. In Monterey, definetely do the aquarium. San Diego has so much to do there that I would spend at least 3 nts. here,esp.if you want to see the zoo and seaworld.

My husband and I did the drive about 3 years ago and really enjoyed it.
We flew into L.A. then drove down to San Diego and went back up all the way to San Francisco. We did it in about 1 week. It's nice that you have 2 weeks because you'll have a bit more time to explore.
San Diego is beautiful. You can definitely do 2 days. We only did a day and didn't spend the night there. I'm sure you're planning to take your girls to Sea World.
We drove back to L.A. to see the Jay Leno show. We didn't stay in L.A. because we're not fans (but that's just our personal opinions so fans of L.A. please don't jump on me!). We stopped in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Morro Bay. We drove on Highway 1 which we just loved. We did Big Sur. We also did the 17-mile drive and enjoyed that as well.
Almost forgot, we visited Hearst Castle which I do agree is something to see. They have lots of tours. I think doing just 1 is enough though.
Frankly, it was a really great trip. You will love it.
We're big fans of Fodors books and when we were planning the trip we bought their "Coastal California" one by John Doerper. That was our reference for our trip planning [for routes/places to see/some history, etc...]. The minor annoying element of the book was that it started north going south..so since we were driving south to north, we were reading the book from end to beginning!
So with the help of the book, we decided where we wanted to stay and for how long [which was determined by how much we wanted to see at that particular place] and found hotels on the internet near where we'd be driving.
ENJOY your trip!

We did a trip that was similar to caribtraveler about 18 months ago. Except we flew into LAX and immediately drove north to Santa Barbara--we had no desire to see LA, either. Santa Barbara was a delight--we could've easily spent more time there. But the next day was on to Morro Bay, and then to Big Sur, and then a couple of days on the Monterey Penninsula before going on to the City. There are some pictures up at http://community.webshots.com/user/bookhall . Enjoy--we're talking about doing it again...

Remember when planning your stay in LA, that distances are great. I would say that the most interesting for children are Disneyland and Universal studios. You should make a stop at Hearst Castle, Spend a night in Monterey and stay at the Monterey Bay Inn. Its rooms are over the bay and have a King size bed and a sofa bed (double). It (and some other hotels) give its guests passes for early admission to the Monterey Aquarium so you can beat the crowds and avoid the long lines. The Aquarium is the best that I have seen. Don't miss the jelly fish. Their exhibition is like art work.

Be sure to drive through Big Sur for its spectacular scenery.

If you are traveling between December and February or March to August, go to Point Año Nuevo to see sea lions on the beach.

You need more than two days in San Francisco. Go to Golden Gate Park on a Sunday (if you drive there it is hard but not impossible to find parking). During the summer there are often concerts there (check the newspaper in SF or for online sites such as citisearch). Go the the Japanese Tea Gardens and Stowe Lake (where they rent peddle boats). Don't miss the Exploratorium and make reservations ASAP for the tactile dome (information at http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/t...ome/index.html). However, anyone who is clausophobic should not through the dome.

Absoutely go the Zeum (across the street from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). Not many people know about it, but it is so much fun for children. They can make clay dough figures, place them in a scene and create a cartoon play with them. You can purchase a CD of their final project for a few dollars.

The Alcatraz tour provides a short cruise on the bay and is very interesting. Besure to get the audio head sets. I enjoy this tour everytime I take people there. However, it is a prison so you need to decide whether it will freak out your kids.

If you want to splurge, go to tea at the Sheraton Palace Garden Court on a Saturday. (www.sfpalace.com). It is quite an experience. For children 12 and under they have a special princess tea for which you need reservations. They give the children a paper silver crown and a candy scepter and have kid appropriate sandwiches.

Have a great trip!

P.S. You of course have to go the wharf area . May people miss the sea lions on the west side of Pier 39. I could spend hours watching their antics.

Also, on your way to Golden Gate Park be sure to check out the Painted Ladies (Victorian houses) by driving up and down the streets on both sides of Fell St. I am sure you can find information on where to go to see them online.

There are also all the typical tourists attractions to see such as Chinatown and North Beach (right next to each other), the crooked street in the world (Lombard Street) and the cable cars.

The website for the Zeum is www.zeum.org.

How much time do you have for this entire trip? You will probably need about 2 weeks. We did a trip similar to this last year. I'd break it down like this:

San Diego: At least 3 days to see Balboa Park including the San Diego Zoo and the museums, Coronado Island, Seaworld and the Gaslamp District.

Los Angeles: 3 days including the Getty Museum, Hollywood, Universal Studios, and Disneyland in Anaheim.

Santa Barbara, Solvang, and San Luis Obispo: 1 day in each of these locations.

Monterey: 2 days to explore the Monterey Bay Aquarium, 17 Mile Drive, Fisherman's Wharf, Carmel, and Point Lobos. From Monterey I think the best route to SF is via highway 1 to 17 to 280. Highway 1 north of Monterey is not nearly as scenic as that south of the Monterey Bay Area along Big Sur.

If you have time, stop off in Felton at Roaring Camp to ride the steam train through the redwoods. I would also make time to spend a day in San Jose. The Tech Museum and Winchester Mystery House are just a couple of things that we thought were really interesting when we stayed in SJ.

San Francisco: I think that 1 or 2 days should be plenty of time in SF. It is a relatively small city, so it does not take very long to see the highlights. Once you get outside of the small downtown area, there is not too much else. We we did this trip, we actually did SF as a daytrip from San Jose. The train from SJ to SF is very convenient and takes about 1.5 hrs.

Hope you have an excellent trip.

try to plan your days in LA on a Sat & Sun as the traffic is MUCH more manageable on the weekend.

Wow - such great advice. I hope by my reply, I don't make it more confusing. (I also just skimmed through other people's replies)

Santa Barbara and Solvang are very close to each other (within 30-45minutes). I have to agree that SOLVANG is a very short trip but family friendly. Only a few hours. You pretty much just eat and shop. But I do recommend (if you have time and can't make it to Sonoma or Napa) stopping by the wineries. Gainey Vineyards is near Solvang but there are many more in Santa Ynez Valley. (It's a family friendly winery - after a tour you can wine taste and have a picnic) check out: www.sbcountywines.com/home.html

I'm from LA and took a trip to visit both San Luis Obispo and the Hearst Castle. We stayed in a small town called Cambria, located between the two points of interest.

Have a wonderful time!