Hello,

We are planning our first trip to California. Yes, long overdue! We have at least 7 or 8 days before we need to fly to Portland, OR for a wedding.

We love hiking and the seacoast. I will be a bit disappointed, if we miss a drive on the Pacific coast. However, not a the expense of spending too much time driving; it will be nice to space the drives a bit. At the same time, I will like to enjoy these wonderful places without too much rushing.

So, what do you think of this preliminary itinerary? we already have a place booked in Yosemite.

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

1. Thursday, Sept 15 late arrival in SFO. Stay at airport
2. Friday, September 16 Drive to Yosemite
3. Saturday, September 17 Yosemite Day#2
4. Sunday, September 18 Yosemite Day#3
5. Monday, September 19 Drive From Yosemite to Carmel
6. Tuesday, September 20 Drive To Carmel to San Francisco
7. Wednesday, September 21 San Francisco Day #2
8. Thursday, September 22 San Francisco Day#4 Late Flight out of SFO

We could also work on extending our trip by one day, and leave on Friday instead.

Thank you!

Car rentals are cheaper in downtown San Francisco than at the airport. How late an arrival on 9/15? Can you make it to downtown (by BART) before the rental agencies close?
Plan on arriving at Yosemite as early as you can on Friday.
Plan on at least 2 hours at the aquarium in Monterey.
If you didn't want to fly to Portland, you could catch the 9:35PM Amtrak bus from the Ferry Building to Emeryville to catch the Coast Starlight.
The Coast Starlight is scheduled in to Portland at 3:40PM on Friday 9/23.

Looks OK -- Trouble is you have next to no time on the coast. Yosemite Valley to Carmel is about a 4.5 hour drive (or more if there is construction anywhere along the route)

So you arrive in Carmel after lunch and leave again the next afternoon. You wouldn't have time to explore much of anything.

If it was me - and I absolutely LOVE all three places - I'd either 1) stay an additional night in Carmel and then drive up to SF the next morning. If you leave Carmel after 9AM you'd still get a lot of that day in SF but miss the worst of the traffic.

or 2) cut Yosemite back to 2 nights and add the night to Carmel.

Didn't see Tom's post. You really don't want go into SF to rent your car. That would just have you driving through more traffic to get to YNP the next day -- plus, city center agencies aren't open as late -- plus plus, the $40-$50 you'd have to pay to park would more than negate any savings from renting in the city.

Any chance you could fly to Sacramento, Oakland or San Jose?
I had a bad experience renting a car at SFO once and vowed never to rent there again.
You might get an earlier flight into one of those other airports. All around I like Sacramento the best for renting a car and getting onto I-5 or I-80.

I didn't notice your last sentence -- "We could also work on extending our trip by one day, and leave on Friday instead. " -- if you can at ALL add one more night, that solves everything.

Thank you All for your great suggestions. The planning adds to the excitement of the trip.

We already have our flights arriving in SFO late at 11:30PM on Thursday. We need to rethink the itinerary.

janisj: we may just extend our CA stay by 1-night in order to better fit in the coast.

tomfuller: great idea regarding the Amtrak option instead of flying.

Thank you again. I will post again soon with my revised itinerary. All wonderful places to explore... I know we are not doing San Francisco justice in our planned time there; however, I am very certain it will not be our last trip there.

I'd think twice before booking Amtrak if you must be in Portland by a specific time. If you are at leisure and don't mind delays, Amtrak is great/relaxing. But the Coast Starlight is a long train ride and frequently runs late -- sometimes hours late. Last time I picked someone up off the Starlight (in Sacramento coming southbound) they were actually thirteen hours late . . .

Granted 13 hours isn't the norm - but it runs late more often than on time.

janisj: Thank you very much for the information. we plan on meeting family members on Friday evening for dinner. Before you mentioned it, I was under the impression that Amtrak may be more reliable than flying. Thank you again!

Amtrak is never more reliable than flying.

The flight to Portland is easy - quick, reliable, and should be fairly cheap.

Since your flight into SFO is set, you might consider swapping your itinerary a bit and then flying out of San Jose or Sacramento when you go to Portland rather than SFO. If you visited SF first, then rented a car to go to Yosemite and Carmel, you could save a little driving time by flying out of an alternate airport. San Jose is an hour closer to Carmel than SFO, so it would be a good choice if Carmel was your last CA stop. Alternatively, if it works out that Yosemite is your last CA stop, Sacramento airport would be a good choice.

Can you switch it around so you first go to Yosemite during the later part of your trip? That way you won't be in Yosemite during the weekend when it's more crowded.

Sigh. I actually previewed that and didn't notice the mistake til I hit the submit button. Change that first sentence to: Can you switch it around so you go to Yosemite during the latter part of your trip?

I am learning a lot from this post.

Shanti: I never took into account the crowds for the fact that our visit is in September; however, thank you for bringing it up, since my visit will fall during the weekend, and the inevitable crowds.

november_moon: we were scrutinizing the itinerary yesterday after my post, and we were contemplating the same thing. By visiting San Francisco first, we'll also have the benefit of spending two full days there.

I have contacted the owner of the accommodations in Yosemite; according to the calendar there's still availability for my new dates; if not, I will need to begin my search again. I still have a bit of time to find something else.

The revised itinerary looks like this now:

1. San Francisco - 3 nights (Thurs-Sunday)
2. Yosemite - 3 nights (Sunday - Wednesday)
3. Carmel - 2 nights (Wednesday - Friday)

I have looked at the flights to Portland out of SJC, and they look good. Now, I am really excited about this itinerary. A bit of everything we want to see on our first trip to CA.

Thank you All for all of your help!