California-what part to visit poll

[KarenB]

DH and I are starting to plan a vacation to California summer 2010. We are having trouble deciding which area to visit. Can you give us your opinion or experience? A few tidbits about the trip/us.....

-It will be DH, DS 20, DS 21, and me traveling
-DH, youngest DS (then 17), and I visited San Diego and LA area, stayed in the Grand California and Hotel del Coronado about 2 years ago. We LOVED it and would not mind going back to that area.
-we are DVC members and can use points at some places
-we love hiking, but we also love the coast
-we like to have some things planned on our trip, but also like to have time to relax
-DH and I have been to the San Francisco area in 1985
-we will fly from the east coast
-the trip will be 7-10 days

Poll coming.......

 

[shortbun]

7-10 days. San Francisco AND Monterrey.

 

[chisnpeke]

Since you've already been to southern California I would pick Yosemite.

 

[goodeats]

Monterey and San Francisco. Monterey is 2-3 days at most. I recommending hiking and kayaking. San Francisco is another 2-3 days, but you could add Wine Country for a few more days too.

 

[nskjerven]

comando traveller here so take this for what it's worth. I think you could see SF, Monterey and Yosemite in 7-10 days

ok, and I'm a Nor Cal kinda girl

 

[justhat]

We're from DC and spent 11 days in CA in February and split the time between Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, and San Francisco. Obviously much different than the summer, but we skiied in Tahoe, hiked a bit in Yosemite, did all the touristy stuff in San Francisco and the area just north.

Based on that, I wouldn't recommend Yosemite on its own, simply cause I think 7-10 days would be a bit much. We only had 2 days there, which wasn't enough time, but we also had feet of snow to contend with, along with a 2yo who complained of walking everytime we started hiking (though the kid never stops moving normally so we thought we'd be okay). The bus tours were cancelled due to snow while we were there so we couldn't even do that. We did some basic hikes, but didn't see much of what we would have liked to since some paths were covered in feet of snow, some roads were completely closed, etc. Had we gone in the summer, with longer daylight hours, I would think 3 days would be sufficient. Also, if you stay in the park (we stayed at the Ahwahnee), there's sort of just 1 restaurant, which would get annoying after a few days I am sure.

San Francisco we had 4 days and got to see all the major stuff, including the zoo, which eats up time, and Muir Woods. I would skip the San Fran aquarium if you are going to Monterey as theirs is much better. We would have liked to spend more time just walking around in various neighborhoods, but again, February, so it was 40 degrees and raining the whole time, so with kids, not so much an option. We stayed at an incredible place, the Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square, which is sort of a hotel/ownership composed of condo units that are really incredible. The price was actually really good and we were upgraded from a studio to a 2 bedroom, which was incredible. And having 3 Ghirardelli stores/ice cream shops right outside the room was of course a great bonus. But I'm digressing.

Anyway, I posted because I thought you could incorporate a few of the places you mentioned. If you did San Fran/Monterey, you could also add in Yosemite. The drive isn't terrible and none of those places really need more than about 4 days a piece, at a max. If you did 3 days at each and then allowed a half-day to drive between San Fran/Yosemite (and a little less for the Monterey part), you'd be fine.


ETA: Just read the above post and I agree! We are also pretty commando, but we do still have 2 small kids, so not as commando as you could be. We wrote out our itinerary in advance, booked the hotels based on that, and stuck to the plan. Not much room for error when you have the rooms booked and stuff (and in Yosemite you need the 1 restaurant booked in advance too).

And if you don't want to be all commando like that, then I would do SoCal. Less driving and stuff, so it would be a little more low key.

 

[crz4mm2]

I LOVE San Diego.
There is plenty to do there AND it has the BEST weather of anywhere I have ever been

You can travel from there.

 

[Lib E]

Since you've done San Diego, and given the age of your kids, I'd go for a day in Monterey, a day in San Francisco, then over to Yosemite for a couple days and up to Lake Tahoe for the remainder.

 

[KarenB]

.....a friendly bump since the DIS is back on the air

 

[OctMtnWoods]

We did 2 weeks to San Fran & north of the bridge, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Gold Rush area of Rt 49 & 50, and Yosemite. Flew into San Fran, flew out of Fresno so we wouldn't have to complete the loop back to San Fran.

Loved Tahoe & Yosemite. I felt like it was somewhere I was meant to be. Glad it was the end of the trip, but I didn't want to come home.

We are more into nature than manmade attractions now but we had a mix of both.
LOL We even hit the Jelly Belly Factory Tour driving from San Fran to Sacramento.

 

[wonderlanne]

if you can manage the 10 days, you can do all those locations, but it depends how you plan to spend your time.

in s.f., you can see a museum, sights, dine in two or three days and hit some of the major stuff. monterey/carmel area two days.

yosemite: if you're driving, plan on a day for that, but it's closer to either monterey or s.f. (i live 110 miles from there), and it depends on what you'll do there...if you want two or three days for hiking, that works, but it's a drive to get IN to the park.

so. cal. it sounds as though you're already familiar with.

you might also consider napa/st. helena/santa rosa areas, and maybe hiking through the redwoods up north a bit.

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

don't mean to state the obvious, but there is a section of the boards that has info that might help you.

I am biased toward Southern California, and the nice thing is that you can drive down the coast and do all sorts of fun stuff.

I would post a link, but the boards are a bit slow right now.