Help needed - Never been to California
 

Help needed - Never been to California. Arriving L.A. early June from Ireland.

Staying in L.A. area for 3 nights.
Want to hire a car & travel up hwy 1 towards Santa Cruz, will be on coast for 6 days possibly.
Santa Barbara, Morro Bay, Cambria, San Simeon – Hearts Castle, Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey, Pacific Grove ???? Where to stop ? Where to stay ?

Then across to Yosemite for 2 nights. Is Yosemite Cedar Lodge in the park? Accommodation is hard to find !!
What would be the best route ? I’m looking at the 17 to San Jose then 580 , 205 & 120 then down 49 & back 140 ???

Possibly Marine County - for 2 days. Any suggestions more than welcome. Brain is getting fried ! LOL

San Francisco for 2-3 days. Total 16 days. Any suggestions please :-) Thank you

Be aware that a section of Route 1 near the Bixby Creek bridge washed into the ocean between Big Sur and Carmel. The road may or may not be open by the time you visit.
Do you plan to fly into LAX and leave from SFO? You could use Amtrak (train) and 2 or three car rentals to cover all of the areas you want to see. Be sure to know what the fee is for renting at one place and dropping off at another. Going to Yosemite from Los Angeles and then driving southbound from San Francisco on the coast makes more sense to me.

I totally understand the fried brain syndrome with trip planning. I suffer from that sometimes myself.

So - to try and help you sort things out, you have 16 days in CA, flying into LA, out of SF and want to see the following:
LA, coastal areas between LA and Santa Cruz, Yosemite, wine country, and SF. This is absolutely doable, just a matter of how to divide your time.

First, lets tackle Yosemite since as you mentioned, lodging is hard to find. If you can get your accomodation in or around Yosemite, then you can build the rest of your itinerary around that. To get an idea of relative locations in and around Yosemite, check out a mapping site like maps.yahoo.com or maps.google.com. You can see the park boundaries and the neighboring towns. Cedar Lodge is not in Yosemite itself, but in El Portal on Hwy 140, just outside the Arch Rock entrance to the park. This is a good location for lodging at this late date (lodging fills up early for Yosemite because it is so popular).

Here is a link to park lodging so you can see if anything is available: http://www.yosemitepark.com/Accommodations.aspx

Other towns outside the park to look at are El Portal, Mariposa, Midpines, Fish Camp, and Oakhurst.

The best route from SC to Yosemite depends on where your lodging is. We can help you sort that out later once your itinerary is set.

For how to divide the rest of your time between the places you want to see, I think it really depends on what you want to do and what your interests are. Also, how many and the ages of the people in your group. A family with 3 teens will probably want different things than a romantic couple or a group of 20-somethings. Give us some more details and we can help you out better.

If visiting the area just north of SF, I would recommend the Sonoma area over the Napa valley. It has the vineyards and more history (Sonoma town square, Gen. Vallejo residence, Jack London State Historical Park). The Benziger Winery (tours and tasting) is right next to the park.

If you wanted to take a train to Santa Barbara this website would save you 20 % off the Amtrak fare http://www.santabarbaracarfree.org/
Have a good and safe trip whichever route you take.

From the Bay Area Hy 120 is an excllent choice. The old Gold Rush town Goverland is interesting. Also easy access to one of the Redwood Groves on that route.
Not on your route, but something to at least consider is taking 120 across Tioga Pass into Lee Vining and Mono Lake. Long drive if you make it a day trip, but worth it.

I would skip Santa Cruz and just head from Monterey/Carmel/Pacific Grove over to Yosemite. I would head east on Hwy 156, thru San Juan Bautista to Hwy 152. From there you go thru Merced on 140 into Yosemite. This will avoid Bay Area traffic.

If you really want to hit Hearst Castle you will need to make a reservation first; cannot just show up and see it.

I live in San Francisco, so these are my recommendations:
Golden Gate Park- so many things to offer from Museums, Stow Lake, Japanese Tea Garden, CA Academy of Sciences, and soo much more! if you go to CA Academy of Sciences go to the nightlife (every thursday night), they offer drinks, music, and get to see a lot of locals :) Golden Gate Bridge, the Pier, and Downtown. And i also recommend to drive to Napa Valley.

I also live in the Bay Area (and work in the city) and just wonder what "pier" you are referring to?

Pismo Beach (near Morro Bay) has many motels with great ocean views whereas Morro Bay does not.

I don’t know about Yosemite Cedar Lodge, but I do know that Yosemite Lodge at the Falls is at the heart of the park and a great place to stay. If you try booking a room once or twice every day, you will find a room there. Don’t give up: http://www.yosemitepark.com/accommat...togallery.aspx

The Napa Valley, the Sonoma Valley, and Muir Woods are three major attractions near San Francisco.

HTTY

Cedar Lodge is not in the Valley -- it is in el Portal, which is the easiest out-of-park location. Would be OK if you can't get into Yosemite Lodge in the valley.

I personally could never stay there -- its history is just too gruesome (it has been years - but I still get chills)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Stayner

Janis, I'd have a hard time staying there, too, in fact, I'm surprised it stayed in business. Such a hard-luck family, between Steven and Cary.

Sad story. Not just Steven Stayner, but most of all Carol Sund, her daughter & friend.

It still makes me sad for the Sund/Carrington family.