We (2 adults and 11-yr old) have 5 nights/6days to get from SF to San Clemente (visiting family). Opinions please:

Friday: arrive SFO 9:00 am and pick up rental car - do 49-mile drive to get overview. Staying at Tuscan Inn.

Saturday: usual touristy stuff

Sunday: drive to Monterey in am, want to visit Aquarium, Point lobos, Carmel (too much for one day??) Staying at Monterey Bay Lodge (?)

Monday: am 17-mile drive (we love big houses and golf courses). Begin drive down the coast - lunch or stop at Nepenthe.
Overnight in Cambria.

Tuesday: am tour of Hearst Castle, look around Cambria, visit Sea lion beach (my daughter is a huge sea lion/seal fan)

Here's my question - where should we stay this Tuesday night? We need to arrive in San Clemente Wednesday night.

We are considering another night in Cambria area, Santa Barbara, or even adding a 2nd night in Monterey (thinking of a whale tour). We've been to southern California many times so don't need to stop anywhere south of LA.

Suggestions?

I think you are planning too much for Sunday. Realistically, unless you get up pretty early in the morning, you wont get to Monterey until late morning, so that gives you roughly 1/2 a day in the area. I like the idea of adding a day to Monterey, and taking a boat tour is a great idea, esspecially if your daughter likes sea animals. The Mission in Carmel is really nice, so if you have time, it's definitely worth a stop.

There are also several boat tours out of Morro Bay if you decide to spend an extra day down there instead of Monterey.

Hi, cem!

Nice trip!

May I suggest the following:

Friday: drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, have lunch at the Spinnaker Restaurant. You'll like the view of SF from across the Bay. Lunch is better than dinner as you will miss the commute traffic.

Saturday: when about town, go to Pier 39, where I believe you will see a lot of sea lions (someone else help me on this?) who have taken over the boat slips.

Sunday: yes it's ambitious, but doable. You should start early. Need about a couple of hours to get down to Monterey, drive along the coast, Highway 1. Then you want to get into the Aquarium early and spend at least 2-3 hours here. Late afternoon you are free to wander around Carmel.

Monday: there are lots of sea lions, seals along the 17 mile Drive, depending on the time of the year.
At Nepenthe I hope you get a good table with a view of the California coast that is to die for.

You can overnight higher up the coast before Cambria. There are lots of charming small towns along the way. The "beach" towns - Avila Beach, Shell Beach, etc. come to mind.

Tuesday: I would recommend Santa Barbara. Old Town would be worth a visit. Or you could try going inland a bit to Solvang.

As far as I'm concerned, there's not that much in Cambria that you wouldn't find in the other central coast towns, so one night is more than adequate. But you might be going to Cambria for a specific reason...

I definitely would not backtrack to Monterey. There's too much to explore and enjoy just by keeping in a "straight" path going south.

Welcome to Beautiful California!

Thanks for the suggestions. To Jason: I didn't mean to backtrack to Monterey just to add a second night while we were there! Any idea of drive time from Cambria and/or Santa Barbara to San Clemente? Any other thoughts?

Hi, cem!

Yes, of course, another night in Monterey would be even better! Less hurried - and you could stay a bit later in SF and enjoy SF more!

Time to drive between Santa Barbara and San Clemente: probably a good three to four hours in non-commute traffic, which means leaving Santa Barbara no later than 10 am. This will give you enough time to stop for lunch somewhere.

Along 101, there is some commuter traffic in Santa Barbara and in Ventura. Once past Ventura and up the "hill", you will be in Greater LA traffic. From that point, it's a good hour's drive at least to where the 405 joins the 5. Once past the juncture, the traffic gets better. So, try and drive this whole stretch during non-communte times.

Happy travels! Great place, San Clemente!