I would definately include Lake Tahoe. The weather in August will be perfect, the best month of the year to go, although it is busy. You can kayak, hike, swim, take the ski lifts up to the top of the mountains, etc. I would also try to include Yosemite. It would only be hot driving there, but perfect when you got there......and you can bike, hike, take raft trips and swim in the river. San Diego would also be lovely in June with lots to do, a great zoo, trips to Mexico if that interests you, lots of water sports, and of course, SF which has museums, ferries in the bay, you can go to the ocean, etc. All would be great

Thanks again for continuing to respond to my question. It is very daunting try to plan this trip for some reason.

Is it realistic to do a trip that includes:

San Francisco -2 nights
Yosemite - 2 nights
Tahoe - 3 nights
Monterey area - 3 nights

bennie,

I live in the Yellowstone area.
It is best to fly into either Salt Lake, Idaho Falls or Bozeman depending on the best airline deal. I think the best approach to the park is from Idaho Falls drive west thru Swan Valley, Driggs and over Teton Pass. It is spectacularly beautiful. Jackson Hole has a lot of good hotels or look for a place on Jackson lake. This company does a great Kayak or whitewater trip http://oars.com/

If you want to spend time in parks and your family doesn't you could do a quick 1 day in Yellowstone. Amazingly enough you can see a lot of yellowstone in just one day.

After that you could go a couple of directions. North/West to Bozeman, Missoula, Couer d Alene then either take the freeway to Seattle cut up to Highway 2 (beautiful)

OR from the park go East to Cody (good western museum in town) then over to N Dakota and all the incredible stuff south of Rapid City... custers last stand, mt rushmore.

That being said San Francisco south along hwy 1 is wonderful.

"realistic" is in the eye of the beholder insomuch as you can physically be in many locations but not really see them.

Put more simply, I would cut one of these four destinations and add two or three additional nights to San Francisco.

I agree with bardo. San Francisco is worth quite a few days.

I want to thank all who have contributed such great ideas and great details. I am continually amazed at the time Fodorites are willing to put into responding to questions.

We finally have made a decision, based mostly on finances. We are headed to Southern/ Central Coast for 9 days. I was able to secure 2 roundtrips on frequent flyer miles and good prices for the remaining two.

Southern California has all of the criteria the family was looking for:

Cheap flights (free for 2 and less than $400 for the others)

Water Sports - will do a kayaking tour

Amusement Parks - Disneyland/California Adventure

Golf

Easy hikes

Museums - Getty and maybe San Simeon

Most likely will spend 4 days in Orange County area and 4 in Santa Barbara area with one night near LAX. Wish we could have managed to get to San Francisco but that will have to be for another trip.

I'm sure I will be posting again with lots of questions.

Really looking forward to spending time with the family. Hopefully we'll have a real California Adventure to write a trip report about.

Hi bennie,

I'm sure you will all have fun in southern CA.

You really need to convince the family to broaden their horizions! Next vacation should be to the Tetons and Yellowstone. They have absolutely NO idea what they are missing. You can't run out of things to do, and there are even golf courses if you must have something UNatural!

The perfect spot in the middle of August - Alaska. Don't know what airfare would be from your area but it was the best vacation we ever took. Rented an RV (as cheap as renting a minivan and hotel plus we were able to cook our meals - eating out in AK is very expensive) We went on day cruises and saw glaciers and wildlife, went kayaking and biking, did flightseeing tour. We camped on the side of the road (free), in some state and national parks ($12-15/night), and a few private campgrounds ($20-$35/night. We played yahtzee and cards in the RV at night. It was a wonderful family vacation. I cannot forget to mention that I am truly a beach lover but I would go back to AK in a minute - it was that spectacular.

I second the Alaska suggestion, as we went there last year.

I mostly posted to say, though, that if in the future you decide to hit the Tennessee/Virginia region, West Virginia has great whitewater rafting on the New and Gauley rivers. Mostly around Fayetteville.

Enjoy California!