thndrstm

Traveling with teenages so they dont want to be gone a long time.
1st day, arrive LA late
2nd Day LA area-Hollywood?, leave late afternoon, drive to San Luis Obisco
3rd Day, Hearst Castle in morning, drive RT1
along coast. maybe stop at Santa Cruz for roller coaster or Big Basin Redwoods.Arrrive SFO (hotel near Airport)
4th and 5th day, SFO(alcatraz at noon). Golden gate park, leave late 5th day
Arrive Mariposa(outside Yosemite)
6th day Yosemite, leave at dinner time, arrive Bakersfield
7th day La again, maybe a beach day, redeye flight at night

Most of the heavy duty travel will be in the evening hours;

CF

Doable, but tight. You forgot to budget in time to eat and go to the bathroom. Seriously, I'm not being a smart ass. I'd go more for quality than quantity.

VoyageurFacile

No.

tommyd

i don't think so either. too much going on for the amount of time you have. it would be better to save up the cash and go back at a later date & do the second half of your trip!

ltt

drop everything after san fran and it would be more enjoyable. you really don't want to rush the drive along rte 1 between la & san fran. i'd plan on staying a night in monterey and then you'd have time to stop at santa cruz (teens love the boardwalk area) on your way to san fran.

J_Correa

The thing that worries me about Dowling's itinerery is Day 5. The drive to Yosemite from Santa Cruz is easily 4 hours and after a full day of activities, I wouldn't be up to driving up to Yosemite.

Pataskala

Not really doable in my opinion. Your talking about close to 900 miles of driving in one week. The coast along highway 1 is so breathtaking that you will want to make frequent stops. I would skip San Francisco, since this is the most out of the way place on your itinerary. I would do the following:

Day 1, 2, and 3 Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, and Hearst Castle as you have planned.

Day 4 Monterey. Definitely see the aquarium, Fisherman's Wharf, and Point Lobos.

Day 5 Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in the morning and Big Basin in the afternoon. After Big Basin drive to Yosemite.

Day 6 Yosemite

Day 7 Los Angeles

This itinerary will give you an excellent overview of California: City(LA), Coast, and Yosemite National Park.

Deloris

You forgot the biggest equasion....TRAFFIC!
Driving across LA could take a couple hours if you do it the wrong time of day! Same for Highway 1 up the coast, etc etc

daria

thndrstm,

I've lived in California all my life, the first 25 years in LA and the last 10 in San Francisco. You can do this, but I don't know why you would want to. I think it would make much more sense to try to cut something out. Many of the places you've chosen are great, but LA and San Francisco deserve more time.

Santa Cruz is really not much to see and could be cut. Hearst Castle is gawdy and could be skipped. The main thing to see on the coast is the coast itself and it is wonderful.

Also, I would not recommend back tracking at all. California is a huge state and you are planning to drive all over it. You will be wasting way too much time. It takes at least 9 hours to drive from Yosemite to LA, so why not cut out that back tracking and spend the time enjoying one of your destinations? Although I think you are the best one to decide what to cut, one suggestion is to fly into LA, then do the coast, then do San Francisco and fly out of San Francisco. You may already know this, but a multi-city flight is not necessarily more expensive.

Lastly, when in San Francisco, I wouldn't recommend Alcatraz. That is not what San Francisco is about. If you spend time there you will only be missing the wonderful city.

If you have more questions about any of this feel free to email me directly at [email protected]. I've been to all of the places you mention, and like I said above, I've spent my life living in LA and San Francisco.

Good luck planning!

rjw_lgb_ca

Daria is right. If you're doing the coast tour, skipping San Francisco is-- dare I say it-- ludicrous. It's a major city, and lovely to boot. You have to see it!!

David__DJ

thundrstm,

I just had to catch my breath after reading your itinerary. Although you could do it, you wonn't have enough time to enjoy anything because most of the time will be spent driving. Personally i don't think that missing SF is all that much of a radegy as some hear make it out to be. I lived in SF while I was in college and the one thing I can say is that unfortunately SF gets overhyped a lot and many i have talked with end up going to SF and say "this is it?" As far as major cities go, SF is not all that big. LA, San Diego, and San Jose are the 3 big cities in Calfornia.

On the other hand I think that southern California, LA in particular gets a bad rap. It's such a wonderful city with so much to offer. The weather, beaches, restaurants, museums, etc. San Diego is also very beautiful.

The Central California Coast from Santa Barbara to Monterey/Carmel is absolutely amazing. If you take your time along this stretch of coastline you will not regret it. Hearst Castle is a such a unique place that it would definitely be a shame to miss seeing it.

The best part of California is the natural beauty (coastline, mountains, redwoods). The cities are nice but you can get a city experience pretty much anywhere. For me New York City is the best place for that.

joesorce

I guess you've your tickets already so there's no use telling you that the best way to visit Ca. is to fly into one city and fly back from another.

Anyway, you can do a lot in the LA area in one day, especially with teens, so I definitely wouldn't leave LA in the afternoon, when traffic is horrendous. I'd stay through dinner, then head north around 8pm, stopping for the night at 9:30 or 10 in Santa Barbara or Solvang. Then head to Hearst in the early morning. It makes for a couple of long, busy days, but you can do it!

David__DJ

Since you will be flying in and out of LA, it makes more sense to focus on a southern California itinerary. I agree that dividing the state into nort and south is the best way to see it. It's just too big to see all at once with only a week.

sdkur3

Just returned yesterday from an 11 day trip SF to LA, flying in and out of San Jose. It's a lot of driving. We couldn't have added any more stops. If you are in LA, you can probably do the Santa Monica pier, it has rides and stuff, then you can skip Santa Cruz. Don't need a whole lot of time in LA in my opinion. We were with our 15 year old. Highlights for him were pictures in front of Ozzy Osbourne's house, Melrose Ave. (funky shops), and Hollywood Blvd. (Walk of Fame, Mann's theater). This can all be done in a day. We took about 6 hours to drive the coast from Monterey to Cambria (10 minutes south of Hearst Castle). The scenery is beautiful and you'll want to stop a lot. Make sure you book your reservations for Hearst Castle beforehand. We had the 10:10 am tour booked in advance. Stayed for the movie and got out of there about 12:30 or 12:45. People coming in at 10 am without reservations couldn't get on a tour til the afternoon. That will really mess up your itinerary. I'd stop overnight in Monterey, do the aquarium, then head up to SF. If you really want to do Santa Cruz, it can be done with Big Basin in one day if you leave Monterey in the morning and arrive SF later (We did it). We were glad we did Alcatraz. Again, make sure you have reservations in advance. On the Sunday we went, they announced they were sold out for the whole week. You might want to skip Yosemite this trip.

Watsen

If you anything on your itinerary, it shouldn't be Yosemite, as this is one of the most unique natural settings in California. I too would say that with only a week the best thing to do is to do LA, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, and Yosemite.

I would save San Francisco and San Jose for another trip.

Watsen

My fist sentence should be "If you skip anything on your itinerary, it shouldn't be Yosemite,"

kkclub

Traveling with teenagers? For your itinerary, focus on Hollywood, Melrose, Santa Monica, or even Universal Stuio for some funky/rowdy atmosphere. If they are also into beaches, simply choose Santa Barbara(Hwy 101) or Pismo (route 1 & Hwy 101) and then SKIP Santa Cruz. SKIP Hearst Castle totally unless you are into architecture. If they are into nature beauty, spend more time on route 1 and definitely more on YOSEMITE (if you go to Yosemite, then skip Big Basin & GG park in SF).
From LA, you can drive partly on Hwy 101 (via Santa Barbara to Pismo) & partly on route 1 (Pismo to Monterey/Carmel). Skip San Luis Obispo.
If you really make it into SF, probably stick with GG bridge (and along with Palace of Fine Arts) for some nice pix. Skip Pier 39 & alcatraz for cable car, Chinatown or Haight/Ashbury for the teens (*coughing, if you are on your way to SF from Monterey, probably consider a detour to Stanford, even more pretty than Hearst Castle, and your kids may get inspired. *grin).

unclebill

Listen to all those folks who say stay near the coast. I've traveled California from the Oregon border (can't think of that beautiful little fishing village) to San Diego and its worth every minute of the drive - outside the cities.
Absolutely have to go to Monterey and see Pebble Beach and the sea lions. Going to Yosemite is a separate trip.
I'd be surprised if your teenagers will let you out of the LA area, so listen to all the good advice, but be sure to ask the kids what they want to do!

anneofingleside

California is too big a state to cover in one week. Focus on one half--either Southern or Northern California and stay there. I live in the Bay Area and love it here, but maybe your teenagers might like theme parks and beaches, so maybe you should do Southern California for now--L.A. and San Diego. If you decide to do Northern California, I'd stick to San Francisco, the wine country, Monterey/Carmel and/or Yosemite. Have fun and welcome to California!