San Diego...Sea World and the Zoo, you should allow them each a separate day. Note that Sea World is closed around New Years but the Zoo isn't. You could stay in either La Jolla or Coronado. Just visiting either doesn't take too much time, a few hours each.

Los Angeles: Studio tours are either 2 hours or half a day. Check the websites for days closed. Sony is only weekdays, and not holidays. Warner and Paramount are mostly open (not Christmas). Hollywood and Beverly Hills take less than half a day, combined. You might be able to tour the Rose Bowl (Thurs-Sunday @ 10:30 and 12:30) but call them about closures around Christmas. So you will probably want two days in LA. As far as beaches, you can stop in Malibu as you head north, or perhaps just stay in Santa Monica.

Allow a full day to drive to San Francisco via Carmel (you may as well spend the night there).

Then you have the balance of your time there.

PS, flying in to LAX might be your best bet if you want to try to catch the Studio tours and Rose Bowl just after Christmas.
And fly out of San Francisco.

Then you can decide whether to drive down to San Diego for a day or two, from LA, depending on weather.

Southwest Air will have a few nonstop flights each day, but won't show up on Kayak or other search engines. Book early to get the lowest "Getaway" fares, they sell out far in advance around the holidays.

If you do choose to come to San Diego I would Not drive between the two cities. There's too much to do in each and I wouldn't waste time on the road.

I still think you should limit to 2 cities for such a short trip. You could easily visit SF and Northern Calif for 7 days. But if you do stay 3 or 4 then I'd pick another city to see for another 3 or 4 days.

>I don't think that is an unreasonable amount of travel time, at all.<

mlgb~you obviously have a longer attention span than I do.... :)

tenthumbs. Obviously. Some people like driving, some don't. I prefer it to sitting in an airport for 4 hours. The OP wants to see Carmel anyways, that's 3 hours from SF (on a bad day, and more like 2 hours).

Many people drive the stretch from Monterey to Los Angeles in a day. Do you really think that is a difficult drive? For some it's the highlight of their trip, not a burden.

This is the OP again.

Well, DH and I went over the flight schedules, air fares, and our holiday schedule. I thought we could travel Dec 26-Jan 3. However, DH doesn't want to leave until Dec 30, which only gives us four nights. So, that barely gives us time to even do one city.

He wants to do either LA or SF. Considering our schedule, which would you recommend.

With such a short visit I think the whole trip is a bad idea. I would wait til you have more time. Flying that time of year is a nightmare. You can pretty much scratch both flight days so really you've got only 3 days to see much. If you do go I would just ask your husband for his preference.

mlgb -- I think you are right about scrapping the whole trip. I think it would be exhausting to attempt.

Unfortunately, we will have to wait until next Christmas to go anywhere other than a long weekend. DH won't take off any time other than an occasional Friday here and there.

It bothers me to no end, but I have to accept it. Before we married, I traveled frequently. Now, not so much, especially not with DH.