Nothing is set in stone, so bring it on!

July 23-26 in SF (which presumably would include Yellowstone)
27-28 in Monterey (2 nights)
29-30 ?Need a good central,affordable town from which to tour between Monterey and LA
July 31-Aug.2 LA area (flexible) for 3 nights/ fewer?
Aug. 3--drive back to SFO
Aug. 4 Have to be back at SFO for 4:45 pm flight

What are the must sees along the way? What should we skip?

Yellowstone? Do you mean Yosemite? What kind of visit to SF would include Yosemite? One day visit? 4 hours each way minimum.

Moro Bay is good place to stay between Monterey and LA. There is a good selection of rooms with ocean views.

HTTY

If you want to see SF, Yosemite, Monterey, and the Central Coast, you have sufficient time. You could even maybe get down to Santa Barbara. But, I'd skip LA this time and save it for another trip where you can focus on Southern California.

Most folks driving Hwy 1 through Big Sur take the time to visit Hearst Castle. If this interests you then the place to stay a night might be San Simeon or Cambria. Pismo/Shell Beach and/or Santa Barbara are also excellent choices in addition to Morro Bay which was recommended abov.

If you must see LA, consider a one way car rental and fly back to SFO. Otherwise, you waste a day driving a boring road (I-5).

So your flights are already scheduled? And you mean Yosemite not Yellowstone? I agree with Otis, you don't have time. I would spend 3-4 days in Yosemite and San Francisco each. Good luck at trying to get lodging at Yosemite this late in the game. Even camping might be tough.

I agree with everyone you should skip Los Angeles. I think you have enough time to do SF, Yosemite and the Central Coast if you can get a place to stay close to Yosemite. I checked online for Yosemite reservations. Looks like there are a couple of days that tent cabins are available in Curry Village but only for one night. Also try Yosemite West condos. I stayed there before and while it's a little bit of a drive, they are in the park. Looks like they have availability although not for 2 nights in a row in the same condo. But you could probably switch condos or they could work something out for you. www.scenicwonders.com

Here's how I would do the itinerary:
July 23-26 SF
July 27-28 Monterey drive through Big Sur and stop at Hearst Castle
July 29-30 Pismo/Avila Beach
Aug 31-2 Yosemite
Aug 3 return to SF

If you feel you have to go to LA, then I would skip Yosemite. It's going to be tough to get a reservation there at this late date. People make reservations for the summer at Yosemite often a year in advance.

So the alternate would be:
July 23-26 SF
July 27-28 Monterey (Big Sur and Hearst Castle)
July 29 Cambria
July 30 Santa Barbara
July 31-Aug 2 LA
Aug 3 drive back to SF via I5

Does "nothing is set in stone" mean that you are flying Southwest airlines and can easily change your return flight to depart from the LA area?

Paula--I'm filling your non Yosemite schedule into my itinerary right now. How I wish LA were negotiable, but it's not--16 year old on board.
Is Santa Barbara close enough to LA that we could do our LA touring from there and not have to switch hotels, or is there another place equidistant from the two that would fit that purpose? (I could pull out a map, but I'd just be staring at names of places I don't know.)

Miss M--we're on American, and my husband is desperately tryng to see if we can fly out of LA since the damn plane stops there. Suppose it depends on how many people just need to fly from LA to SFO and not on to WAS where we're going. We may end up hopping a Virgin air to SFO--is avoiding the drive worth $175? Is there no interesting driving route for us to return to SFO by 2:00 pm, but then even if there were, there'd be no time to do anything but wave.


Why does this trip seem harder (and seems to be getting more expensive) than last year's Italy trip?

I think I would just drive down to Los Angeles on that first friday, get the "hassle" part of your trip out of the way right off. Spend Fri night, all daySat all day Sunday in LA , leave Sunday night for the 90 min drive to Santa Barbara, (this avoids monday morning LA traffic.). Sun and Mon nights Santa Barbara, Tuesday drive up the coast with stops, Tues and Wed and Thurs nights Carmel/Monterey and/or try to get a night at Yosemite, then final Fri Sat Sun up in San Francisco area.

No worries this way about backtracking up to San Fran near the end of your trip, worrying about making it on time etc etc. You can relax and have a nice weekend in San Fran knowing that you can change plans/wing it etc without having to worry about that final drive north on your last, most tired day.

"Why does this trip seem harder (and seems to be getting more expensive) than last year's Italy trip?"

I live in California and find it is more expensive than Italy for the same level of vacation (other than the air fare).

I agree with Clark that you should go to LA right away and end the trip in San Fran.

I think clark is onto something!!

One of the reasons I suggested doing LA last is because the drive through Big Sur is much nicer going North to South than South to North. You are driving along the coast and it's much easier to pull into lookout points. People on this forum recommend this all the time and I agree. It is true that being in LA on the weekend helps with the traffic issues.

In the itinerary I gave, the OP is driving back the day before their flight which is the way they also had it. So they are not rushing back on the same day to make their flight.

No Santa Barbara is not close enough to LA to commute. It's about 90 miles but could sometimes take 2.5 hours to more to make the drive with traffic.

I think the biggest problem you are going to have with this trip no matter which direction you drive is finding lodging especially on the coast areas. If you do find lodging it's gonig to be expensive. Since this trip is only in 10 days, I think you need to make a decision and get reservations right away. I sure some of us here can help you but be prepared to pay summer, last minute rates.

We've got our reservations for SF and Monterey--that is if we don't flip and do the LA first route. Staying in Marriots b/c husband has and earns lots of points. A couple of the stays on this trip should be free.

Ok, a few decisions made, but still need more help. We booked air back to SFO from LA, so the north to south direction is set. Using Paula's itinerary, I'm thinking do July 23-27 in SFO. 28 and 29 in Monterey. 30 in one of those towns (I'm really clueless here) between Monterey and LA. Please offer pros and cons here, and after spending all that money in SF, I'd like as much bang for my buck as I can get. July 31-Aug. 3 stay in LA and tour around that area.
My husband kept inexplicably pushing for more days in LA, and now he tells me that he can get 5 nights for the price of 4 there. I'm hoping he can get that deal for SF instead.
I hope my next post will not be WTH am I going to do in LA for 5 days.

In looking at Marriots, it looks like my choices between Monterey and LA are in San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, and Santa Ynez. I'm liking what read, albeit only on the Marriot site, about Santa Ynez. Thoughts?

The Santa Ynez area is beautiful and is close to Solvang which is a touristy town. There are some great wineries and if you ever saw the movie "Sideways" this is where it was filmed. That being said, things close up early so it would be a quiet evening. If you stayed at the Marriott in Santa Ynez you could then get up in the morning and drive to Santa Barbara via the Santa Ynez Pass which again is beautiful. Maybe make a quick stop in Santa Barbara before heading into LA.

When driving to LA it's always about finding that window of time (very small) where the traffic isn't so bad. So for me, it's always about getting there and not about stopping to see the sights. At least with three of you, you can use the car pool lanes when they are available. Where in LA are you staying?

If you don't want to stay in Santa Ynez, the second choice would be San Luis Obispo. Can't think right off the top of my head where the Marriott is but SLO has a very cute downtown area which stays open a little later than things do in Santa Ynez/Solvang.

If you decide to spring for one night that's not a Marriott, I would then suggest staying in Pismo or Avila Beach. Your 16 year old would like staying right on the beach. I'm going to be there next week for business and always stay in this area. You can usually get a room at least during the week days for around $200. The Kon Tiki in Pismo is very reasonable but you have to call them for reservations. I think they me told the rooms were either $139 or $159 but I know they had limited space. They have a free breakfast, free parking and I love getting up and taking a walk on the beach before I head out. www.kontikkiinn.com

I also like the the Sandcastle in Pismo but it's more expensive.

California is just so large it is difficult to visit it all as you want. I wrote a suggested 10 day itinery in an earlier post, but it is so ambitious that it could be exhausting. I doubt if you tried to visit all of Italy in 11 days which is why California as you are approaching it seems so impossible. When my grandkids were 16 the loast thing they wanted to do was to drive so many miles on their vacation. Have you considered just visiting California in the greater area covered by the non-negotiable LA. There is plenty to do in that area for a family. Here are my favorite things to do:
1. Lay out at the beaches when possible. Santa Monica, Huntington and Malibu call to a person. The 16 year old would find a surfing lesson memorable.
2. Disneyland which I presumt is why you want to be in LA.
3. The newly opened LA County museum (early in the day and early in the week to maybe cut down on the crowds.)
4. The Griffith Park PLanetarium.
5 Attend something at NBC.
6. Santa Monica Pier
7. Hollywood bowl and/or Greek Theater performance (see Stubhub for last minute tickets)
8. Stroll along the touristy part of Hollywood Boulevard (during the day) Fun to see all the stars and check out the footprints and handprints.
9. Go for dinner on Westwood and maybe check out UCLA.
10. Stroll along Venice Beach.
11. Attend Dodger and/or Angel games (Stubhub)
12. If yuo like fishing check out the pier fishing at Redondo Beach.
13. LA Zoo or better yet the San Diego Zoo.
14. Seaworld in San Diego.
15. Alvarado Street in LA.
16. La Brea Tarpits.
17. Malibu Pier http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24409 and environs.
18. Santa Catalina for a day.
19. Universal Studio tour and Citywalk.
20. Just walking around in Balboa area, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach is a lot of fun.

If you decide to do something like this change hotels to be near where you are. You will need 3-4 to do this. Traffic can be such a problem. IT can take 2 hours to drive 40 miles, even in the middle of the day or on a weeked. I would stay in Burbank, Santa Monica, Huntington Beach, and maybe Oceanside planing each part of the trip accordingly. Check out Tripadvisor for hotel recommendations. .