Need help with planning

[Jajone]

Our family (me, DH, DD16, DS14, DS10 and DMIL) visited southern Ca a couple summers ago. Spent time in San Diego and DL and then one day trip to Hollywood. We are considering another trip, but want to see some other things. I have done some research and have a few things we are considering, but I am bad with geography/drive times. Can someone help or make suggestions. The following is what we would like to do:

Southwest flights (would consider flying in and out of different airports) thinking in and out of LAX right now.
San Francisco : alcatraz, Golden Gate bridge, ??city tour, Disney family Museum. I'm thinking we need 2 days
Would like to see redwoods or sequoia trees somewhere without a ton of driving out of the way
Yosemite for a day, kids do not like hiking but hubby wants to see
3 days at DL
boys want to do Hollywood, studio tour and try to watch a show taping (Ellen??)
Las Vegas? with a day trip to the Grand Canyon or can we get the to Grand Canyon from California??

I realize we will not be able to do everything, but need some direction as to what order to try to do these things. Or for someone to just tell me I'm crazy lol.

 

[bcla]

You can see redwoods in San Francisco, but they wouldn't be old growth. They've been planted throughout Golden Gate Park. The biggest redwoods would be up the North Coast, but that's probably in the opposite direction as your plans. If you're already crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, then Muir Woods National Monument is your best option.

Yosemite is my favorite place on Earth and well worth even a short visit. Most would recommend the Mariposa Grove for sequoia but the parking lot is being relocated and the only way in will be via long hike. There are other sequoia groves in Yosemite, but they all require at least 1.5 miles just hiking in. A side trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks would let you check out sequoia trees, but that's going to require at least a half day just for added driving.

Somehow an Ellen taping came up in another topic, and they have a minimum audience age of 14.

 

[Jajone]

I am not opposed to driving to Kings Canyon, if we skipped Yosemite. One adult would be staying back from seeing Ellen if we did that.

 

[VandVsmama]

SF:
I agree about 2 days in San Francisco. Start your trip in San Francisco. I think that Southwest now flies into SFO, but the Oakland airport (OAK) is usually a lot less expensive to fly into. Since you'll likely be renting a car, expect to pay high prices at your SF hotel for parking.

Downside of flying into 1 city and leaving from another city is that your rental car will cost more. So perhaps compare a couple of itineraries in terms of total costs and see how it pans out. Flying in/out of LAX would also save you in rental car fees since dropping a car off in a city that's different than where you original rented from costs a pretty penny, BUT what are faced with by flying in/out of 1 airport is that you will need to get in the car after a long plane ride and drive 6 hours north to San Francisco.

Yosemite, seeing redwood or Sequoia trees:
Yosemite is about a 4 hour drive from San Francisco. The DIS Unplugged has a Day 6 Adventure podcast that's all about Yosemite & the surrounding area, how to plan a trip there, etc. It's very informative.

• If you skip Yosemite but still want to see big trees, another option is to do a 3rd day in the SF area and spend part of a day at Muir Woods, which is just north of San Francisco.
• Or you could go to the Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton near Santa Cruz. That has redwood trees and it's fun. Santa Cruz is about an hour south of San Francisco. http://www.roaringcamp.com/
• there's also Kings Canyon near Yosemite.
• And don't forget about Sequoia National Park, too. That's near Yosemite.

Hollywood, studio tour, show taping:

• Many TV shows have age minimums in order for you to watch a show taping. The minimum age can vary by the TV show.
• Warner Brothers has a studio tour that people ages 8 and up can do. I'm guessing that it's probably a couple of hours long in total. https://www.wbstudiotour.com/. Costs $62/person,
• Hollywood is not nearly as glamorous as it appears on TV. In fact, the area around Mann's Chinese Theater is pretty grungy and is NOT a place to hang around after dark. Lots of homeless and drug addicts. But if they want to see part of the Walk of Fame and take a picture in front of the theater, you should do it just to check it off on your bucket list. Seeing Hollywood is NOT an all day thing. Maybe an hour tops, I would say, not including driving time.

Las Vegas:

• Drive time from Disneyland in Anaheim to the Las Vegas strip, according to Google Maps, is 4 hours.

Grand Canyon day trip from Las Vegas:
It's a 4-5 hour drive one way. So sure, you could make it a day trip, but most of that day will be driving, with an hour or two at the Grand Canyon to walk around, get something to eat, and take pictures. You can take helicopter tours of the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas, but they are usually quite costly.

My recommendations:
Do Yosemite OR Las Vegas/Grand Canyon, but not both.

Possible itinerary #1:

1. Day 1 - Fly into SFO or OAK. Rent a car.
2. Day 2 & 3 - Spend a couple of days touring around San Francisco.
3. Day 4 - Check out of SF hotel in the am, hit the road around 9-10am (so you miss rush hour traffic) & drive the 4 hours to Yosemite. Check into a hotel for the night either at Yosemite National Park or nearby. There are lots of options. If you want to treat yourselves, have dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley. You'll need a reservation and you can't wear shorts. Or have breakfast or lunch at the hotel. The dining room is really incredible and it's a beautiful location. Everyone should eat a meal here once in their lifetime.
4. Day 5 - check out of Yosemite area hotel. See Kings Canyon or Sequoia National Park before you leave the area. Drive to Anaheim. The drive from Kings Canyon National Park to Disneyland will be about 5.5 hours. The drive from Sequoia National Park will be about 4 hours without LA rush hour traffic. Check into hotel in Anaheim in the evening.
5. Day 6 - use your hotel in Anaheim near Disneyland as your home base. This will be Day #1 at Disneyland.
6. Day 7 - Day #2 at Disneyland.
7. Day 8 - do the Warner Brothers Studio tour in Burbank, then see Hollywood in the early afternoon afternoon. Rush hour will start around 3-3:30 pm, so either be out of there before then, or hang around somewhere and have dinner and then drive back to Anaheim around 6:30-7:00 pm.
8. Day 9 - Day #3 at Disneyland
9. Day 10 - fly home from LAX, Ontario airport, Long Beach airport, or SNA.

 

[VandVsmama]

Possible itinerary #2:

1. Day 1 - Fly into SFO or OAK. Rent a car.
2. Day 2 & 3 - Tour San Francisco.
3. Day 4 - Go to Muir Woods. 40 min drive north of San Francisco. On your way back, stop in Sausalito. Cute bayside tourist town with cool shops and fun restaurants. Stop at the lookout point at the northern end of the Golden Gate bridge & take pictures. Have a nice dinner somewhere in the city. If you're all feeling adventurous, eat dim sum in Chinatown. San Francisco has the largest Chinatown in the US. Here's a list of options from 2012 --> http://www.sfweekly.com/foodie/2012/02/08/san-franciscos-top-10-dim-sum-restaurants.
4. Day 5 - check out of hotel. Drive to airport. Turn in rental car. Fly on 1-way tickets on Southwest to SNA (John Wayne Airport). Cheapest fares for this will be by flying out of OAK to SNA. Hire a cab to take you to your Anaheim hotel or if it costs less since there is 6 of you, rent a car at the SNA airport. Check into your Anaheim hotel...preferably one that is within easy walking distance of Disneyland. Hotel parking fees will run you anywhere between $18-$10/day. Explore Downtown Disney. If the weather is warm enough, go swimming in your hotel's pool. Go to bed early.
5. Day 6 - day #1 at Disneyland.
6. Day 7 - day #2 at Disneyland.
7. Day 8 - go to the Alamo Rental Car location at Downtown Disney. Rent a car for the day (they open at 8am). Since you'll likely need a large vehicle, reserve it online ahead of time so you are sure to get the correct sized vehicle for your crew. Go to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in a.m., go see Hollywood in early afternoon, return rental car at Alamo before 6pm closing time. Have dinner at DTD.
8. Day 9 - day #3 at Disneyland.
9. Day 10 - airport transfers to SNA airport or LAX airport, depending on where home is for you. Hire a cab or a car service or airport transfer service like Super Shuttle or something like that. Make sure that you consider rush hour traffic when picking your departure time from LAX.

 

[VandVsmama]

Possible itinerary #3:

Day 1 - fly into SFO or OAK. Rent a car.
Day 2 & 3 - Tour SF.
Day 4 - go to Muir Woods. See Sausalito on way back. Stop at north end of Golden Gate bridge lookout point for pictures.
Day 5 - check out of hotel, return rental car. Fly on 1-way tickets from OAK to Las Vegas. Check into a Vegas hotel. 2 nights in Vegas is usually sufficient for most folks.
Day 6 - Las Vegas
Day 7 - check out of Las Vegas hotel. Rent a car that you'll return in the Los Angeles area. Drive the 4 hours from Las Vegas to Anaheim. Check into hotel in Anaheim.
Day 8 - studio tour & see Hollywood. Return rental car. Have dinner at DTD.
Day 9 - day #1 at Disneyland.
Day 10 - day #2 at Disneyland.
Day 11 - day #3 at Disneyland. Or take a day off and sleep in, take a shuttle bus to "The Outlets at Orange" if you & your family would like to do some shopping. See at movie at the movie theater in DTD.
Day 12 - if day 11 is a day off, then this would be day #3 at Disneyland. Otherwise, this is travel day to return home.
Day 13 - Travel day to return home if day #3 at DL is on Day 12.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

VandVsmama has really good tips.

My cousins came out from Spain for a little over a week, and this is what we did:

• Day of arrival dinner by the shore
• Disneyland
• Sightsee in LA area
• Drive to Monterey, spend the night in Monterey
• 2 days in San Francisco with one day in the city proper and one day at Napa Valley
• drive to Yosemite for 2 nights, then left early and headed to LA via Sequoia. Stopped at Hume Lake for picnic and swim, then drove to Giant Forest and stopped at Lost Grove, then visited General Sherman (largest living thing in the world), then drove home to LA - we got home late, but loved that day, and my cousins really appreciated visiting Sequoia
• Relaxed, slept in, washed clothes
• Drove 10 hours to Grand Canyon, and stand at the Grand Hotel 2 miles from entrance, next morning took a one-day tour that started at 6am with a plane ride to Lake Powell Dam, then took a shuttle to Antelope Canyon (Navajo land), and toured that - absolutely beautiful, then went back to Lake Powell Dam, where we drove down to the river and got on huge pontoon boats for a 4-hour ride down a calm river. We stopped twice (once to see petroglyphs and once to eat lunch that was provided), and then stopped at a point where buses picked us up and took us the rest of the way back to the airport at the Grand Canyon. http://grandcanyon.com/tours/south-rim-tours/canyon-river-adventure-tour/
  
• Next morning we went to the southern rim and looked around a bit, then drove about 4-hours to the western rim because my cousin wanted to walk on the Skywalk. We stayed at a ranch that had individual cabin rooms or tipis (rooms had a/c, so we stayed in the rooms).
  
• Drove home the next day
• They flew to Spain the next day.

Our itinerary was a little aggressive, but everyone was organized, so we had a great time. If you want to do it, you can, you just need to make a plan and stick to it, especially if you make reservations.

 

[bcla]

• drive to Yosemite for 2 nights, then left early and headed to LA via Sequoia. Stopped at Hume Lake for picnic and swim, then drove to Giant Forest and stopped at Lost Grove, then visited General Sherman (largest living thing in the world), then drove home to LA - we got home late, but loved that day, and my cousins really appreciated visiting Sequoia

My personal favorite spot was Redwood Mountain Grove, which is the absolute largest sequoia grove anywhere. It's also a more "primitive" experience without any pavement and no signs for named trees. The rule allow off trail travel since there's no pavement or fences, and you can walk right up to any tree. Visitation is so light that they don't worry about soil compaction or other effects on the trees. It's in a fairly recent addition to Kings Canyon National Park.

There's also some contention about the world's largest living thing. Some feel it's a large stand of self-cloning aspen trees with an interconnected root network. There's an underground fungus in Oregon that may be about the same mass.

Also for the OP, there's not really that much of a distinction between Sequoia and Kings Canyon. They have a single superintendent and management. A lot of people I know just call the whole place "SEKI".

I still haven't been to Mineral King. It used to be in Forest Service land (before NPS took over operations), and that's where Walt Disney wanted to build a ski resort. Country Bear Jamboree was originally designed to be an attraction at Mineral King.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I think you mentioned Redwood Mountain Grove. So, it looks like instead of turning to go to Hume Lake, take the road in the opposite direction & it will take you to Redwood Mountain Grove? I'm so tempted to visit. We're going to Yosemite in May and plan to hike the Panoramic Trail, IF the road to Glacier Point is open. The waterfalls should be spectacular. I haven't been to Mineral King, either... but, it's on my list.

... and I'm not going to count that fungus against the General Sherman.

 

[bcla]

I think you mentioned Redwood Mountain Grove. So, it looks like instead of turning to go to Hume Lake, take the road in the opposite direction & it will take you to Redwood Mountain Grove? I'm so tempted to visit. We're going to Yosemite in May and plan to hike the Panoramic Trail, IF the road to Glacier Point is open. The waterfalls should be spectacular. I haven't been to Mineral King, either... but, it's on my list.

... and I'm not going to count that fungus against the General Sherman.

It's via a side road off Generals Highway. If you're coming in from Grant Grove it's a right turn at that intersection. The grove has the tallest giant sequoia, but it's kind of hard to tell without any signs. It's also a different experience not necessarily looking out for the biggest or most famous tree. When I was there I got to appreciate that they were all pretty remarkable, without worrying about trying to find named trees. It's really a very different experience than Giant Forest or Grant Grove. There are trail signs, but that's about it. It's not all that heavily visited, which to me is a good thing. It takes a serious effort to visit this place, and it nice that a place like this exists that isn't all that developed with signs and where you're walking on a dirt trail instead of asphalt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwood_Mountain_Grove

Here's driving directions. It's right at that intersection where you could go four different directions. Google Maps didn't really end at the parking lot, but I marked it with a waypoint. There's a dirt parking lot and they have bear boxes for food storage.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Gra...6ac49150e!2m2!1d-118.9189942!2d36.6938351!3e0