karens

Hi all. I'm in the process of booking hotels for our trip to SF. Our itinerary is SF to San Jose to Big Sur to Yosemite.

We want to stay in San Jose to take the kids to Raging Waters. We want to stay somewhere not too far from here, but not too expensive. Clean and quiet necessary. What is the San Jose Hampton Inn or the Holiday Inn Express like? Are they in a decent location?

After we do Raging Waters, I want to drive down to Pfieffer SP to see the waterfall. Will that be full in mid-July? From there it is a long drive to Yosemite, so I thought we'd do a bit of the drive the evening before. Is Salinas nice? I don't care if there's anything to do but I don't want to stay in a depressing area, either. We'll just be spending one night and getting a head start right out the next day to Yosemite. I can't seem to locate a place to stay that's about 1 -2 hours away from Pfieffer SP towards Yosemite. Any suggestions?

Many thanks, Karen

J_Correa

Do you have the addresses for the motels in SJ that you mentioned? I think there are probably more than one of each in town.

I think that driving down to Big Sur after spending the day at Ranging Waters and then driving further to where you will sleep is really pushing it. I would add another night. Or if you can't, then I would either cut out Big Sur because you really don't have much time to see it anyway or I would go to Monterey after Raging Waters, stay the night and see Big Sur in the morning before heading up to Yosemite.

Salinas is an ok town with some reasonably nice sections and some really bad sections. It's grown quite a lot in recent years, and I am not very familiar with it anymore.

If your trip is this July, you might not have many choices for Yosemite since things fill up fast. I would stay in the valley if possible - Yosemite Lodge is basic motel style accomodations. Curry Village has some hard sided cabins with bath and some tent cabins with shared bath. If you can't stay in the valley, El Portal is the closest town to it.

karens

Thanks, JC. Actually, we are planning on spending 2 nights in San Jose. Spending 1/2 day in SF on day 3 of our trip, then driving to San Jose (first night here). Then spending the next day at Raging Waters and staying in San Jose (2nd night). Next morning, driving down to Big Sur (Pfieffer), and then driving a little bit back up towards Yosemite. Would like to get a bit further than Monterey/Carmel.

I tried to make lodging reservations in Yosemite back in Nov. and the lodge was already sold out. Back in Nov. I then made reservations in Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal.

I still have to book our hotels for San Jose and someplace else on the way to Yosemite. In SF we're staying at the Holiday Inn Express Fisherman's Wharf.


Thanks, K.

J_Correa

Your plan makes more sense now. Once you leave Big Sur, you could head up to Gilroy for the night. That is a little further than Salinas. Once you get past Gilroy, there are a few options. There is a place called Casa de Fruta which is about 30 minutes past Gilroy. I think they have a motel. It's a funny place with a coffee shop, fruit stand, gift shop, candy shop, and small train, play ground. Coffeeshop is famous for the Cup Flipper who flips your coffee cups over. It's just one of those quirky places and we ALWAYS stop there on our way through. About 30 minutes further are the towns of Los Banos and Santa Nella - at the Hwy 152/I-5 junction. There are motels and restaurants there too. Beyond that, the next real town you come to on the way to Yosemite is Merced, which is probably another hour past Los Banos.

J_Correa

For the San Jose hotels, I just did a Yahoo search to see if I could see where they are.

The Hampton Inn you are looking at is the one on Old Tully Rd, right? This area is ok, but it's kind of run down. Basically Monterey Road, which is the main cross street was the old highway south. As often happens, when the new highway gets put in (Hwy 101), the old highway becomes sort of a back water area, run down and forgotten about.

For the Holiday Inn Express, I came up with 2 locations. One is right on Monterey Highway, which would have the same issues as the Hampton Inn.

The other is near the airport, which is just fine. Staying near the airport would be fine. That's probably where you will get the best bargains and be in a good neighborhood. Downtown or north would be good too. I wouldn't stay south of downtown or east of it.

karens

my goodness - thank you so much!! This is the kind of info that you just cannot get from a travel book or hotel's website. This is the stuff that makes this forum so great!

I appreciate you taking extra time to look into this for me!