My wife and I are are trying to decide which cities would be the better stop-overs on our trip up the coast in August from LA to SF. Any stopover suggestions would help a ton we have 9-10 days and have never done the west coast.

My favorite is San Luis Obispo area:Morro Bay is 20 min. west amd north to Cambria is Hearst"s Castle.
SLO high light is their Farmers Mkt, on Thurs evening, Best one in the whole state!! Need to get reservations for Hearst's Castle tours, there are several and Aug is a busy month.
SLO could be warm, 85-90 but drive to Morro Bay will cool down to 68-72.
Wish I were going...
Good luck...

I'll second the SLO/Morro Bay area.

I would spend a day or two in the Santa Ynez area. Solvang is a fun destination with lots of shops. There are plenty of very good wineries for touring, Byron has terrific wine!

I would also heartily recommend a day or two in the Big Sur area. My favorite area is near Plaskett Creek campground (about 1 hour north of Cambria).

Solvang is a cute little town that many find just too, too touristy. Better to stay in Los Olivos or Ballard to visit the wine country. Arroyo Grande is another possibility. You could also stop slightly south of this area in Santa Barbara. San Luis is almost exactly halfway from LA to SF, but if you're going to drive hwy. 1 through Big Sur, it will take more time on that part of the trip. You have plenty of time--hope you're planning to take some time in the cities on each end.

Since you have the time, I recommend staying in Big Sur at least one night; this will give you a chance to "get away from it all" and also time enough to take in the various state parks and spend time both on the coast and in the redwood groves (in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park), which will be less crowded than those nearer SF. Most people on this forum mention Post Ranch and Ventana ($500+/night), but the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce site (www.bigsurcalifornia.org) lists all the options, and there are affordable motels and cabins. http://jrabold.net/bigsur/index.htm is a great online guide to Big Sur

Based on your response itb sounds like we should skip LA altogether and concentrate on SF down to San Luis and back up to mendocino and back to SF?
Is this a better idea?

I think it depends on what you want to experience, especially as it's your first time to California. The main reason that people posted recommendations for places to stay that are so far north is that it's only about four hours (without stops) up to SLO on 101, and then things slow considerably when you switch to Highway 1. If you go LA-Sf, you'll be able to experience both southern and northern California, which are different both geographically and culturally. You'd get to go to warm sunny beaches and visit missions, and experience the charm of Santa Barbara. On the other hand, I'll always argue for visiting the coast north of SF, one of my favorite areas. Frankly, I think you should stick with your original plan for its diversity (and the vacation advantage of not backtracking but always moving on to something new), but perhaps extend it a bit north of SF to northern Marin County or Sonoma County. Hope you're throwing in a few days *in* SF as well!

It is lovely from SLO to SF and surrounding areas, why are you missing San Diego and Coronado? The southern end of our State is really beautiful and I think San Diego is one of the most beautiful cities of them all.

Have a wonderful trip.