california vacation
 

Is there a central location from which we can see San Diego, LA&amp; area and a central location from which we can see SF, Big Basin, all without too much daily driving and still end up where we start the day?<BR><BR>I'm assuming that if there is, we could see Monterrey, Big sur and Hearst Castle along the way from Southern California to Northern.<BR><BR>Your input is appreciated. Thanks

San Diego and LA are approximately two hours apart, so a central location would be somewhere in Orange County. You could, for example, stay in Laguna Beach or Newport Beach if you want to be near the water; Irvine or Costa Mesa if you want to be inland.<BR><BR>However, I think it would be more practical and involve less driving to simply rent a hotel in San Diego, sightsee for X number of days, drive north to LA and stay for X number of days, and then continue north on your journey up the coast to the Bay Area. <BR><BR>

re san diego - la. agree with the above poster that you are better staying a few nights in each. even if you stay central around laguna beach, you will be spending hours of your day commuting. san diego and la may be two hours apart from northern san diego to southern l.a. in good traffic. i'd say three is a more reasonable estimate.

I agree with the above posters. How are you getting to San Francisco? If you are driving then you can see everything on your way there. I'm not sure of the distance but Hearst Castle is a long way from San Francisco. I drove from San Francisco to Carmel and back last year, but we certainly wouldn't have made it as far as Hearst Castle and back in a day.<BR><BR>Good luck!

Anaheim (Orange County)is centrally located between LA and San Diego. On the way up route 1 you can stay the night in Cambria before visiting Hearst Castle. San Jose is also centrally located for day excursions to SF, Big Basin, and Monterey/Carmel.

Laguna Beach is about half way between L.A. and San Diego. But if you intend on seeing several sights in each city, even though it may not be a lot of miles, it could mean a lot of time in your car as the traffic is really bad in both cities. I would suggest spending time in each of the cities, then a night in Cambria (Hearst Castle), a couple in Carmel (wherhere you can travel through Big Sur on your way and see Monterey and do the 17 mile drive while there), then on to San Francisco for the rest of the nights, visiting Big Basin along the way. Don't shortchange yourself on the drive up the coast, it is a wonderful drive with a lot to see.

We did a trip similar to yours last summer. Laguna Beach was our base for LA and San Diego sightseeing. We then stayed in Cambria when touring Hearst Castle, which I highly recommend. From there it was up to Big Sur and stayed over in Monterey for 2 nights. 17 Mile Drive, Point Lobos, and Carmel were beautiful. We spent the last 3 nights in San Jose, since we were flying out of the SJ airport. It is a convenient area for daytripping to see the redwoods in Big Basin as well as SF. There was also alot to see in San Jose itself. Since we did not go to Napa Valley, we were surprised to discover all the great wineries in the SJ area, mostly in the Santa Cruz Mountains.