First trip to California-- when is the best time to visit in the summer?

[isabellea]

I started planning our first trip to California. So far our plans are to stay 18 days, rent a car and visit Disneyland, San Diego and Yosemite/Sequoia National Park.

When should we go between June 24-August 25? Finally, what order would you do SD, LA/DL and Yosemite and how many night should we plan for each region? We would like to visit DL for 3 days, visit San Diego zoo (1 or 2 days), Legoland (1 day) and maybe 2-3 days at the beach. The rest is open so suggestions are welcome. We are also used to long drive since we do the Montreal, QC-Florida drive (1400 miles each way) with our kids every year to visit the grand-parents in Fort Lauderdale or to go to WDW. Our girls will be 5 and 7yo when we'll go.

THANK YOU for your help!

 

[GoBears 1980]

The later in August you go the better the odds of crowds being a bit lower and nice weather.

As soon as you figure out the timing, book Yosemite right away. The hotels in the park book quickly and months in advance.

The SD Zoo is a one day thing.

Disneyland is not in Los Angeles, it is in Orange County (Anaheim). If there are sights you'd like to see in LA, I would not use Anaheim as a base to do it from.

In Orange County leave days to visit Newport Beach & Laguna Beach.

How many days in Yosemite depends on how much hiking, etc you plan on doing. With two small children I'd think 2 nights (3 days) would be enough, Sequoia, even less since there is less to see.

If you spent 4 nights in San Diego, 5 nights in Anaheim, 3 nights Yosemite/Sequoia that would leave you 5 nights to drive over to Monterey CA and down Highway 1 back to LAX. You could see Monterey/Carmel, Big Sur, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara and Santa Monica that way.

 

[Carstairs38]

I am going to second the suggestion of booking Yosemite ASAP. They open it a few months ahead of time, and it sells out almost immediately. But you've got some time left to figure that out.

The only other thing I will add is that Yosemite's waterfalls will be fuller the earlier into summer you go. But the crowds will be smaller everywhere later since schools in California seem to start beginning to mid August most of the time, so it's a tradeoff. Hopefully, we will indeed get the snow and rain they are predicting, so the waterfalls will be full all summer next year.

 

[bcla]

I am going to second the suggestion of booking Yosemite ASAP. They open it a few months ahead of time, and it sells out almost immediately. But you've got some time left to figure that out.

The only other thing I will add is that Yosemite's waterfalls will be fuller the earlier into summer you go. But the crowds will be smaller everywhere later since schools in California seem to start beginning to mid August most of the time, so it's a tradeoff. Hopefully, we will indeed get the snow and rain they are predicting, so the waterfalls will be full all summer next year.

Yosemite Falls could be dry by late July. Right now it's barely flowing. However, more water also means more mosquitoes.

Some climbers even go up Yosemite Falls when it's dry. Gets interesting if there's a sudden summer rain.

Vernal Fall flows well even if it's dry in the rest of Yosemite, but that takes work to get to.

Yosemite reservations go on sale a year in advance. However it's getting interesting with the new concessionaire taking over In March. I'm not sure how smooth the handover will be. I think the current concessionaire is still taking reservations, but I'm wondering how they plan on handing over the reservation records.