Central California road trip
 

We are 2 women who will be traveling to California in April or May, wanting to see Napa Valley, SF, and down the coast to Apple Valley where a family member lives (might reverse the route). Which airport would be better at either location and best way to get around? Don't know whether to stay in SF and take tours to Wine Country, drive to Napa, or stay there and take tours to SF?

Not sure where Apple Valley is on the Coast. I think it's a fine plan to first fly into San Francisco (or Oakland or even San Jose)and enjoy the city/sights, and then start to wind down a bit in Napa (an hour away by car - which you don't really need to rent until you leave SF - but sometimes weekly rates are hard to beat)- and then on down to Coast - to say Carmel/Monterrey (three hours or so from SF - and you could also go a "back way" from Napa to there) - and also perhaps venture a bit further south to see Big Sur and some of the incredible bridges over the canyons/ravines.

Would I be correct in presuming that this is Apple Valley in San Bernardino county (Southern California) on the edge of the Mojave Desert? And that your plan is to fly into the SF Bay Area and then take a one-way drive down the coast, or vice versa?

So, my first question is how much time do you have? The drive down the coast itself is worthy of several days. You could make it in one day going down I-5, but that of course is a long, boring, ugly drive - you'd be better off flying down, in that event.

I think any of the airports Tomsd mentioned would be good for the SF area. At the other end, I think the closest larger airports to Apple Valley are LAX, Palm Springs, and John Wayne. Your biggest consideration in both cases may be the drop-off charge for the rental car, for a one-way trip.

What's your departure airport? Are you in a Southwest airlines city? And yes, how much time will you have to fit this all in?

Driving to Apple Valley may not be the best idea -depends how many days you have in total.

SF to Carmel, down the coast as far as Santa Barbara and across the entire LA basin to Apple Valley is nearly 600 miles. 375 of which is slow/beautiful coastal driving.

Ontario is the closest airport to Apple Valley if you want to tour around northern/central CA before flying down to see the relatives

Unless there is an Apple Valley along the coast we are not aware of, rent a car in Oakland for the northern CA part of your trip and then return it and take the 712 or 714 San Joaquin from Jack London Square to Bakersfield and rent another car there to visit Victorville and Apple Valley.
The coach fare for 2 of you is about $100.

tomf is talking about the Amtrak train, in case you were wondering.

Tom - amtrak doesn't automatically work for <i>every</i> itinerary. If these folks actually went to Bakersfield (!) then they'd have those pesky drop off fees you are so against. . . unless they took the car back to Bakersfield. Once would be bad enough.