Need Help Planning CA Summer Vacation.
 

Hi, my son will be going to a summer camp at Stanford. Have never been to CA with the kids, ages 16 and 18. Would like to fly to San Diego and spend a couple of nights, go to Palm Springs for a couple of nights, LA for a couple of days and hit at least one Nat'l Park maybe Sequoia and end up in San Fransico for a couple of days. We would then drop him off at Stanford and we would head home. Is there a way to get back to the coast after say Sequoia and head to San Francisco? Is this way to much to do in say two weeks? Should we forget the Park and just stay on the coast? As you can see I'm in need of help! Thanks for any thoughts.

Its a pretty aggressive plan and involves a ton of driving along the coast, but it could be done.... we tried a similar trip(LA toSF) and I will admit we didn't allot enough time to see and do all we wanted...

My kids (same ages) wanted to spend much more time in LA...hollywood,venice beach, beverly hills and in San Francisco...alcatraz,the pier,chinatown... also wanted more time in monterey, carmel, whale watch....

You might want to cut out Palm Springs, and stop in Big Sur and do Muir woods when you're in SF... I can't help you with San Diego, but starting in LA was fine with us for this trip... SD and Mexico are a separate plan....

Good Luck and have fun!!!

SD to LA I think you can take of. After that you vould easily drive to Sequoia or Yosemite. Yous could stay in Three Rivers for a visit to Sequoia. It would take you aboout 3.5 or 4 hours to get to the park. If you drive to Yosemite it would take another hour or so to get ot Fish camp where you could overnight. You'd be able to see the southern part of the park and then the next day you could drive to the valley and then sty there.

Leaving the park you could take 140 and head ot Monterey. There's nothing to see on the way so you'd just be heading to the cost as fast as possible. ; )

Two weeks is a good amount of time to see this.

I think it is a lot to crowd in, but 2 weeks is plenty of time do and see quite a bit. There are a lot of great tips on here about S.D. I think 3 days there would be sufficient depending upon your kids interests. I would have a plan in place of what to see and do in all places.

A lot to cram into 2 weeks but doable. But I really must ask -- is there some reason you want to visit Palm Springs, and during the summer no less?

There is a very good reason the resorts cost 70% less in the summer. I would 100% skip it - especially w/ kids along. Temps could easily top 115F - not a place to be outside during the day.

And by cutting out Palm Springs you have more time for the rest of your plan.

Oh yeah I meant to say skip PS too. It's like 1000 degrees in the summer. Oh but it's a dry heat. ;)

Thanks for all the help. We lived in Houston for 20 years so we are pretty use to the heat with lots of humidity. My thought was just to have a day or two to relax by the pool there. But, if you think we should skip it, I will rethink my plan. Sounds like maybe I should rethink SD and just start out in LA. My daughter is really wanting to hit a beach though. She has mentioned Laguna any thoughts on this one?

Don't miss out San Diego. It's a great place and you will all love it. We have great beaches here. Spend three nights here so you have time to do some sightseeing and time for the beach.

I agree that you could miss out Palm Springs.

Otherwise, you can visit everything you've listed. You won't have time to see as much as you'll want to, but it doesn't matter how long you stay at each place, you still will want to see more. You just have to come back!

Which month will you be doing this?

I agree with the others, skip PS, but absolutely go to SD. It is a great place and I bet your kids will love it - esspecially if they want to hit the beach. The waves can be rough and the water chilly, so it isn't like swimming in the Atlantic, but they can do a little swimming. Besides, most of the beach activity is on the sand and the streets running a long the beach.

Has anyone mentioned the Big Sur coast yet? If you decide to stay along the coast rather than heading inland for the national parks, Big Sur has some fantastic scenery. I don't know if you'd have time to drive through Big Sur and do the national parks - trade off sort of thing depending on your interests. If you got to Monterey, you can get a taste of the Big Sur coast at Point Lobos state park just south of Carmel.

Barbara we will be there mid June. I know we won't be able to see everything just want to hit the highlights so the kids can get an idea of what they like the most and will be able to go back someday. My son really wants to go to a baseball game in San Diego so maybe we will skip PS, start in SD and head up to LA then hit the Nat'l park and SF. My daughter has to have activities and not a lot of scenary so think we will skip the BIg Sur area and spend more time in SF. How does that sound?

If you are going to pretty much start in SD and move on up the coast, then why don't you just skip the Nat'l park and replace it with Big Sur which is on the way to Monterey/Carmel before hitting San Francisco.

I don't think you can ever go wrong with more time in SF :)

You will have a pretty long driving day between LA and either Sequoia or Yosemite through some monotanous country, but that is your only day of that, so not too bad given that you will be travelling for 2 weeks. The drive between Yosemite or Sequoia and SF is kind of long as well, but can be done in a half a day, so not bad.

I know skipping the Nat'l park would be the simpliest thing to do but trying to give both kids a little of what they like. My daughter loves the city and beach and my son is into the outdoors so that is why I'm going a little out of the way. But, it sounds like from what everyone has said that we should be able to make it all in two weeks. If we want to do the Hollywood thing and maybe a studio tour will two days be enough in LA or should I plan for 3?