Hi,
we are planning our first trip to CA and have to spend a few days in LA area. We can leave Sunday 4/18 in the afternoon, but will have to come back to LA on the 24th very late in the evening to fly back home. I would like to know whether it is realistic to drive from LA to Yosemite, spend 2 day there, drive to SF and spend another 2 days there and finish the trip by driving back to LA spending the night some place between SF and LA. It is probably tight and we can cut time here and there. I would very much appreciate any advice and suggestions including places to stay near Yosemite and in San Francisco.

thanks.

You can certainly do this. Do a search for Yosemite or go to the National Parks page. Yosemite is fantastic. Depending upon which route you take to enter the park there are some towns in which you can find lodging. As for SFO,most hotels are pricey so you will have to do your homework. Also check any atlas and see what is a halfway point between LA and SFO and plan a stop.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34483580

It's doable, but not very relaxing. It's about 1,000 miles of total driving with only a couple of days in each place. If I were you, since you are starting from LA i would do Yosemite as a sidetrip and skip SF this time around since it's too far out of your way.

thank you all for your suggestions. There are so many good suggestions on places to see in CA on this forum that it is hard to decide what to sacrifice.
Any take on SF vs. Yosemite if you can't do both?

SF vs Yosemite.

SF is city, museums, Golden gate bridge, China Town, Fisherman's wharf, Trolly cars, Zoo, fancy eatting, mostly man made kind of stuff.

Yosemite is scenic, relaxing, breathtaking, getting out doors, hiking, waterfalls.

It depends on what you want. I live in the Bay Area and I go to Yosemite when I have a choice.

Utahtea

Another thought. Drive LA to Yosemite; drive to San Francisco and turn in the rental car; and fly back to LA. You will cut back on a lot of driving, you do not need the car in San Francisco, and you will have time to do both places. If you book in advance there are some very cheap flights on Southwest.

Southwest doesn't fly to SFO, only to Oakland and San Jose (which are a bit more hassle to get to from SF without a car). It would still be a reasonable option to do one-way with the car, though.

If it were me, I would do Yosemite, then cut across to the coast either at Monterey or San Luis Obispo and spend a couple of days along the central coast. I would really try to stay in Yosemite Valley (Yosemite Lodge or Awahnee) if possible.

I also would recommend cutting out SF in favor of Yosemite. Since you will already be visiting a City (LA), Yosemite would
be the most logical sidetrip from there.

all of which is academic as the originator of this thread has already reposted a revised itinerary that doesn't include YMITE.

Millions of thanks to all of you for sharing your ideas. It is really helping me to shape our itinerary. So your discussion is not academic at all, it is a huge help. This is how it looks for the moment.
Day 1-drive from LA to San Simeon stopping on the way; stay there for the night
Day 2-Hearst Castle/Cambria/drive to Big Sur/Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park/Point Lobos. Spend the night in Monterey Area. Is 1 night enough there? We still don't have a place to stay.
Day 3-Explore Monterey/Carmel/Pacific Grove are and leave for SF late in the afternoon.
Day 4-5 in SF and then drive back to LA on Day 6 and Yosemite is still a possibility.

We are trying find a decent hotel in SF possibly with a free parking since we can't get rid of the car at that point. Any suggestions? We've never been there and don't know which areas of the city to avoid and what to expect.
thanks!

Everybody seems to like recommending the Cow Hollow Inn in the Cow Hollow/Marina district. There aren't many hotels that offer free parking.

Areas to avoid would be ANYTHING labelled Bayview/Hunter's Point and any of the chain hotels between 6th and 8th Streets off Market.

There ar a couple of motels along the beach, one near the zoo and the L Taraval streetcar (Muni to locals) and the other one near the N Judah streetcar line. Street parking is no problem in either area. I would pick soemthing on the N Judah because the line goes through a couple of interesting neighborhoods: Cole valley and the area by USCF (7th ave.)

We found a motel situated on Lombard Street. It's in the Marina district closer to the Golden Gate Bridge if I understand the map correctly. Is it a good spot or should we try to move closer to the downtown area as Michael has suggested? I would prefer to walk, but we don't mind using public transportation to get to the city center if it doesn't take too much time.

BayArea, I couldn't find the Cow Hollow Inn, is there an address or a phone number?

SF sounds like an exciting city. We will try to get the most out 2 days that we will spend there.

thanks!

Actually, the place you found is considerably closer to most of the places that tourists like to go. His recommendations are more like residential neighborhoods, although Cole Valley is a great neighborhood, and not too far out. I did a mental HUH? when I saw him recommending out by the zoo, that's WAY out! Who wants to spend their vacation time commuting??

Lombard street runs right along Cow Hollow. Here is the website for the Cow Hollow that I nicked off Yahoo: http://www.cowhollowmotorinn.com/location.html I have never stayed there, I live here. However, there is another Fodor's poster (Patrick???) who has stayed there and liked it. I'm sure if you do a search on it, you can find some comments about it. There's another Motor Inn that people like, but I can't recall the name.

Another place to check is there is a Comfort Inn at the corner of Lombard and Van Ness. If you got an upper floor room, you'd conceivably have a nice view. I have no idea if they charge for parking or not.