first trip west May 2014 - any advice?

[Kayka]

Traveling are myself, DH, (adult) DD & her friend. We will fly in and out of San Jose, arriving 1pm, Friday May 16, leaving Saturday, May 31, 2014. Flights are booked so the dates are firm.


Loosely, our itinerary is: from the airport take a couple days to travel along the coast (to Anaheim). We'd like to see whales. From land or a whale-watching cruise (half day or less) any suggestions?

I have reservations in Anaheim, checking in Sunday, 5/18, checking out Thursday, 5/22 (might add one more day or change it to Mon - Fri.) We are planning three days in the parks and one day seeing the Hollywood sign and/or other tourist stuff.

This brings us to Memorial Day Weekend (Friday 5/23). The plan is to head north taking in the National parks. Should I be concerned about crowds because of the holiday weekend?

Finally we'll spend four days in and around San Francisco. We will make reservations for Alcatraz.

We are budget conscious but flexible because who knows when we will be able to do this again. Whales and redwoods are on the must see list. The General route (loop) could be reversed putting us on the coast for Memorial Day but, being from the Jersey shore, that seems like it would be worse for crowds and costs.

I've been reading as much as I can but would love and appreciate opinions/advice from real people. TIA

 

[momjeeps]

Memorial Day weekend will likely be busy no matter which way you go. I think your itinerary sounds pretty good. I absolutely love the Redwoods! If you get up that far our family tradition is to go to the Samoa Cookhouse near Eureka. It's an old logging meal house. The food is served family style all you can eat. Different menu based on the days of the week. I'd only do the breakfast there again if it was French toast day. They make their own bread. Get some good seafood somewhere along the coast! Yosemite will be very crowded and if you intend to get a room anywhere within 50-100 miles of there you should probably already have a reservation. But it's another place I love for beautiful nature setting with plenty of hiking and picture taking opportunities.

 

[Kristina4109]

I highly recommend Sequoia park! We spent my 40th birthday there and it was incredible. Warning - the elevation is quite high and we needed jackets in June. There were even small piles of snow still on the ground! Saw lots of wildlife and the trees are simply magnificent. Photos just don't do them justice.

I've never been whale watching but I've been told that Dana Point is the place you want to be for that. If you've got time, a day trip to Catalina Island can be really fun. You feel like you're on a Mediterranean island but you're still in the same area code.

Disneyland is indeed the happiest place on earth. And because of its smaller size, its logistically an easier trip to plan than WDW. What hotel are you staying in? We've stayed in all 3 of the on-site hotels as well as a handful of the off property ones.

 

[Kayka]

Thanks for the quick responses.

We have reservations at Desert Inn & Suites.

I guess I better figure out where we'll be staying over Memorial Day Weekend if it will be that hard to find vacant rooms (we need two.)

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

We will be making our first trip also and will be at DL 5/18-5/22. Sounds like you have a great trip planned.

 

[sheetz]

You should beware of hotel rates in San Francisco, which can be astronomical. If you can get good rates in SF you might see if you can rearrange your plans around that.