Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Day trips from San Fran & LA

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Day trips from San Fran & LA

I'm soon to spend 3 weeks in the US - intending on spending most of my time in San Fran, LA and San Diego. Was just wondering if anyone could recommend any good day trips from either of these areas worth taking (although I will be using public transport) Thanks in advance! Anna

Well, it will limit you somewhat being that you do not have a car however, there are still places that you can get to without it. First of all I would look into taking a Gray Line bus tour from SF. They offer excursions to Monterey and Carmel as well as Muir Woods. Also you can take the BART train over to Oakland's Jack London Square. You can also take the Caltrain down to San Jose, as well as Palo Alto(Stanford University). The train form SF to San Jose is $12.00 roundtrip. Keep in mind that Caltrain does not run on the weekends because of improvements to the rail line. The following links will give you more information. http://www.grayline.com/ http://www.jacklondonsquare.com/ http://caltrain.com/ http://sanjose.org/ http://sjdowntown.com/

Many thanks for your quick response David. Will certainly look into what you've suggested further. The hyperlinks will come in useful. Anna

Los Angeles is vast, what part of the city will you be staying in?

I'm hoping to stay in Santa Monica Joe - when everyone says LA is vast do they mean vast as in London, UK or a lot bigger?

Have you considered a bus trip to Yosemite? I think you would want to make it longer than a day trip, and you would see California's natural beauty along with its concrete jungles. IMO, a trip to California is not complete without a visit to Yosemite.

When someone says "LA is vast", they mean the city covers a vast area-- over 450 square miles just for the city itself, and at least a couple thousand square miles for the metropolitan area. Some come here thinking that the city is laid out like a municipal Disneyland-- Beachland here! Hollywoodland there! Shoppingland over there! It's quite a bit more spread-out. Santa Monica (where I work) is nice, but hard to get into and hard to get out of-- especially now, as the city is repairing major sewer lines under just about EVERY major road running parallel to the beach. Note also that hotels are quite expensive for what you get. Hopefully you'll get good rates. There is a Youth Hostel here also.

how about the Green Tortoise for Yosemite trips? http://64.70.148.149/yosemite.national.park.html

A very easy trip by public transport from San Francisco is to come over to Berkeley. The ride on BART from downtown SF to Berkeley takes just about 30 mins and costs about $3. Trains leave every 20 mins or better (every 15 mins on weekday and Saturday daytimes) Just get off at the dowtown Berkeley station. The downtown area along Shattuck Street is quite nice, with many restaurants, shops and a beautifully restored Art Deco library building. The University of California at Berkeley campus is one of my favorites. It's about a 10 minute walk from the Bart station towards the hills. Just wandering around the campus is a nice experience. Of course, there is always Telegraph Avenue, just south of the campus. The four block stretch closest to the campus is loaded with bookstores, music stores, cafes, bars, cheap eats and a very interesting mix of people (students, faculty, ex-hippies, disenfranchised youth, crazy people, etc). There is a lot more to Berkeley than just this, but it's more spread out and not as close to BART. If you want more info, let me know. I live here, so i can help out a bit. Also, I'd recommend visiting the Stanford University Campus in Palo Alto. You can take Caltrain from SF to Palo Alto in about an hour, for $4.50. Trains leave every 30 mins, but currently, they do NOT run on weekends. There are free shuttle buses from the station in Palo Alto to the campus. You can also walk through downtown Palo Alto (very nice, if fairly upscale) to the campus in around 20 mins. There are a surprising amount of nice parts of San Jose, given the reputation it gets from people in SF. However, it's not very accessible by public transit. The train goes from SF to downtown SJ, but most of the interesting sights are scattered around the Valley and not necessarily downtown SJ.

If you are staying in L.A Hollywood area.. or actually Santa Monica, you can use busses or the subway, to get union station, and from there, take a Metro link to Long Beach and a bus to Port of L.A. Then you can do a day trp to the island of Santa Catalina. Also, by metro link you can visit: Ventura, Long Beach, and on the way to San Diego you can stop of at San Juan Capistrano, which is a great day trip. If you do end up hiring a car, I would suggest Ojai, in Ventura County or possibly Big Bear lake area for mountainous day trips.

Anna, You have gooten some great advice here, disregarding some of the nasty stuff being posted by some. I do like the idea of going to Berkeley. You can get there on BART and do Jack London Square the same day. As far as San Jose is concerned, there is actually quite a bit to do downtown. The Caltrain goes lets you off downtown near the Compaq Center arena. It's a short walk or cab ride, if you prefer, to museums, restaurants, nighclubs, etc. Most attractions outside of downtown are accessible by public transportation (Light Rail or bus) If you go to Stanford, look into taking a guided tour of the campus. I think that you can even go to the top of Hoover tower.

Clarification: MetroLink most assuredly does NOT go into Long Beach. You can connect from Union Station to the Blue Line, which DOES go to downtown Long Beach. From there, there are buses to the Catalina Express landing. The Queen Mary is also nearby, if you want to see a big old boat. The lesson here is: Using public transit to get around the LA metro area is very challenging, and requires lots of connecting and good timing. The mta.net website is invaluable in this effort. I wish I *could* get around without my car, but I can't, so....

Just a clarification - the Compaq Center, formerly the SJ Arena is now the HP Pavillion due to the merger between Compaq and HP. I know it's a minor point, but I figured I would post it to avoid any possible confusion for anybody looking at maps and things like that.

J Correa, Thanks for catching my error. I totally forgot about the fact that the Compaq Center is now the HP Pavillion. Just when we were getting used to the name change from San Jose Arena, there they go changing the name again. I guess that it's easier if we all just call it the Shark Tank.

you got it gerry - it will ALWAYS be the Shark Tank no matter what the sign says on the front!

riw// thanks for catching my boo boo.. I could have sworn it was metrolink all the way. TLS

thyra-- No problem at all! MetroLink actually is rail service going to the outer hinterlands of LA county-- El Monte/Rialto areas, and I think up into northern LA county, but I'm not sure. Long Beach is served by MTA Blue Line-- and that's about it as far as rail service, darn it!