Travel advice for travel from Portland to San Diego
 

My husband and I are planning a 2 week vacation in California. We fly into Portland, Oregon on September 16th, and hope to rent a car to travel the California coastline as far south as San Diego, and return to Portland to fly home the evening of September 30th. We hope to include San Francisco, Nappa Valley, Monterey, Carmel, LA, San Diego. Any advice/suggestions on what to include, how long to allow for visiting different sites, accommodations, travel time etc, would be very helpful, and much appreciated. We do want to visit some wineries and enjoy a bit of hiking, biking, general outdoor activities/sight-seeing, local theater..

Sorry -- but 2 weeks isn't really long enough for all that, especially if you stick to the coast. Portland, the Oregon coast, the Redwoods, Napa/Sonoma would require a couple of days <i>each</i>. SF 3 or 4 days. Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur 2 or 3 days, Santa Barbara and the regional wineries around there another day or two. And SanDiego 2 or 3 days and you are approaching 3 weeks.

Now, a one-way trip flying into Portland and home from SD (and paying for the rental car drop off fee) would be more doable but still a bit rushed and you'd have to cut something.

Just pointing out that the fastest way Portland to San Diego is over 1000 miles, by the coast where possible adds 200+ more, close to 24 hours just driving.

At very least, to have any time at all for activities along the way, plan to fly home from San Diego, if possible. If you need to change your flights to do so, it will be well worth any fees incurred.

Agree you only have time for a oneway trip.
Also avoid San Francisco Sep. 18-22 since Oracle World (60,000 plus) will be in town then and everything from hostels to high end will be sky high in price.
Drop Napa, you can taste very good wines in both Paso Robles (inland from Cambria) and the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara and not have to pay the $25+ tasting fees that Napa charges.

Thank you so very much for all the info. I will check into changing our return from San Diego--since we are making use of our AirMiles, it might not be possible. If we are bound to the arrival/departure from Portland, what if we trim off time in Oregon, and maybe eliminate LA and San Diego, and pick up San Francisco at the end of Sept to avoid Oracle World---would that work?

>>If we are bound to the arrival/departure from Portland, what if we trim off time in Oregon, and maybe eliminate LA and San Diego, and pick up San Francisco at the end of Sept to avoid Oracle World---would that work?<<

If you are flying in/out of Portland, trimming Oregon really doesn't make a lot of sense since Portland is a the very northern tip of Oregon so you'd have to drive the length of the state anyway - twice.

W/ two weeks in/out of Portland consider Oregon and northern CA - San Francisco - possibly as far south as Monterey but that would be a trek (lots of vineyards in Oregon and in places like Mendocino County CA).

OR --think about Oregon and Washington state instead.

Sure a Portland to San Francisco round-trip would work in two weeks.