Please Help with July Itinerary

[kkfinley]

We will be traveling to Las Vegas, Yosemite, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Disneyland for the first time in July. Party includes myself, DH, DD11, & DD8. My mom will be joining us for the first part of the trip, but will not be traveling to LA and Disneyland.

My husband will be attending a conference in Las Vegas July 6-10 and the girls, my mom and I will be joining him on July 9. We will be using Marriott Reward points and staying in military lodging to help keep the costs down. We will also be using the Military Salute 3-day park hopper tickets while in Disneyland and will not have a MM entry.

Here's what I have come up with so far:

Wednesday, July 9 Arrive in Las Vegas
Thursday, July 10 see the strip, swim, and maybe Hoover Dam (depending on DHs conference schedule)
Friday, July 11 drive to Lemoore, CA and staying at the Navy Lodge
Saturday, July 12 drive through Kings Canyon and staying at the SpringHill Suites in Madera, CA.
Sunday, July 13 drive through Yosemite and staying at the Fairfield Inn in Tracy, CA.
*We will be stopping and doing some of the shorter hiking trails. My mom and daughters are not big hikers and none of us really like camping.
Monday, July 14 drive to Mountain View, CA and staying at the Navy Lodge Moffett Field. This will be a sleep in and laundry day. If we are feeling okay, we may drive into San Francisco in the afternoon.
Tuesday & Wednesday, July 15 & 16 touring San Francisco.
Thursday, July 17 drop my mom at the San Francisco Airport and drive to the TownePlace Suites Anaheim Maingate near Angel Stadium. (This is as close as I can get to DLR with the number of points we have)
Friday, July 18 go to Disneyland.
Saturday, July 19 go to Disney California Adventure (only day that does not have EMH while we are there)
Sunday, July 20 tour Los Angeles and go to the beach. DD8 wants to see the Hollywood sign.
Monday, July 21 back to DL and DCA to ride the favorites again!
Tuesday, July 22 drive back to Las Vegas (DH has to leave from the same airport to have his travel paid)
Wednesday, July 23 fly home!

Please let me know how this sounds! Thanks for your help!
Krista

 

[Susiecat]

Ooh, neat. I can only really speak to the San Francisco part (where we live) and DCA/DLR, but I'm glad you've given yourself a couple of days in San Francisco. There's just so much to do and see! Since you're staying in Mountain View, you have the option too of leaving your car near one of the Caltrain stops and taking the train up to the city. Traffic up 101 is fairly horrible for big chunks of the day.

My husband (Thanlis on the boards) and I are happy to give whatever SF advice you might need!

 

[ncc1701]

Suggestion for SF is once you get into town is to get a hop on/off bus tour.
We used one that had a 2 day option. It went over the Golden Gate Bridge with stops at both ends plus Golden Gate Park and at least 10 other stops .
We also did an Alcatraz tour one trip. Those you should to make a reservation for if you want to go as they have a limited number of trips every day.
From Anaheim you are 30 minutes from Huntington Beach if you just want to go the beach. It is one of our favorite vacation places.

 

[kkfinley]

Ooh, neat. I can only really speak to the San Francisco part (where we live) and DCA/DLR, but I'm glad you've given yourself a couple of days in San Francisco. There's just so much to do and see! Since you're staying in Mountain View, you have the option too of leaving your car near one of the Caltrain stops and taking the train up to the city. Traffic up 101 is fairly horrible for big chunks of the day.

My husband (Thanlis on the boards) and I are happy to give whatever SF advice you might need!

I didn't realize there was a train that we could take up to San Francisco. We girls loved riding the Metro when we went to DC a couple of years ago.

Which is faster on a Thursday morning, taking the train to the San Francisco Airport or driving? We are hoping to get an early AM flight out for my mother and then leave for LA. I was planning to send my DH to drop her off while I stayed at the hotel to pack and get the girls ready.

Once we figure out what all we want to see, I will post a new thread or PM you with questions.

Suggestion for SF is once you get into town is to get a hop on/off bus tour.
We used one that had a 2 day option. It went over the Golden Gate Bridge with stops at both ends plus Golden Gate Park and at least 10 other stops .
We also did an Alcatraz tour one trip. Those you should to make a reservation for if you want to go as they have a limited number of trips every day.
From Anaheim you are 30 minutes from Huntington Beach if you just want to go the beach. It is one of our favorite vacation places.

We are looking into a hop on/off bus tour. My mom also mentioned wanting to ride the cable cars.

What company did you use for your bus tour? Did it go to Sausalito also?

Thank you so much for your help. I'm sure I will have more questions as we get closer to leaving.

 

[bcla]

I didn't realize there was a train that we could take up to San Francisco. We girls loved riding the Metro when we went to DC a couple of years ago.

Which is faster on a Thursday morning, taking the train to the San Francisco Airport or driving? We are hoping to get an early AM flight out for my mother and then leave for LA. I was planning to send my DH to drop her off while I stayed at the hotel to pack and get the girls ready.

As someone who occasionally takes Caltrain, the parking at the stations could be an issue if you arrive later in the morning. They charge $4 for up to 24 hours and to issue tickets. Also - Caltrain requires that tickets be purchased before boarding. They haven't sold tickets onboard in over a decade. I have also seen people without tickets who tried talking their way out of a $250 fine for fare evasion. So if you do take Caltrain, be sure to buy tickets before boarding and make sure you can find them once you're on board. I personally use a multi-agency pass (Clipper Card) with an equivalent cash balance system. I get a 25 cent discount for riding on Caltrain. There are other discounts, such as Golden Gate Ferry (the discount is substantial) or reduced fare transfers for using the same pass when going from one system to another (like BART to MUNI) within an allotted time. This is also the only way to get monthly passes now for many systems. It used to be free to get a card with a $5 minimum balance applied to the card, but currently it's $3 just for the card in addition to a minimum starting balance.

Caltrain is traditional heavy rail. They have their own stations, but travel on many of the same tracks as freight traffic. Some of the stations that they use are shared with other passenger rail, including Amtrak and ACE (from Stockton to San Jose).

 

[gatorfreud]

I think it's too much....

We did a kind of similar thing this summer with some friends (4 boys ages 6-10 between us) - starting in LA (one day at DCA) and then back up to SF. We were a different place every night (except 2 at DL), and honestly, it was too rushed. We were exhausted, and I feel like we didn't get to see much of the places we were.

Why Leemore? Why not just 2 days at Madera?

Madera - through Yosemite - to Tracy is like over 6 hours. I'm not sure about this plan - then just getting out a bit to look around... sounds really exhausting to me.

Honestly... I think this is way too much ground to cover in that time. I would try to consolidate - even I think LV, SF, and SoCal is ton... We were exhausted moving every night.

I guess the Vegas part is set - I would spend 2 days there, then drive straight to Yosemite (7 hours), maybe 3 nights there, then to SF (4 hours), maybe 4 nights, then down to SoCal....

Not sure, but just really think about that first part...