California dreaming...

heading to California at end of August for a fortnight - plan to spend a week with relatives in San Fran. Any ideas on how best to spend the second week?
Currently thinking about 2 options - either:
a) fly to Vegas and hire a car to drive out to Grand Canyon etc or
b) would it be nicer to spend the week driving from San Fran down the coast , going via Big Sur/Monterey etc, and then fly back to San Fran from Vegas????

Places we'd like to see would prob include Napa Valley,Yosemite,Tahoe, Vegas, Death Valley/Grand Canyon. (already been to San Diego)
Anywhere else we should see??? Someone mentioned that Yosemite is too difficult to get to and is far too packed in August - should be saved for a different trip.

Also, is there a good website for booking internal flights from (eg San Fran - Vegas return)?

Dunners,

I can certainly recommend the Napa Valley
Also Highway 1, Big Sur, Peeble Beach, Monterey, Hearst Castle etc

Couple of years back we flew to LV , then drove down to the Grand Canyon then drove back to SF WOW!! Only spent two days at GC need to go back and hike all the way down sometime.

SanFran

Depends what you want,
If you go to Grand Canyon, you are looking at spending a couple of days in vegas (enough for most people) and then the other 5 days in GC. With 5 days you are probably looking at hiking about it for 4/5 days. It takes a full day to go down to the bottom of it. Temperature may be a problem in August.

As for the other option, you could drive north to the Napa Valley on the first week, convince your relatives to go up with you. 2 days (Sat/Sun) would see most things.

Then second week could drive south down the coast as far as Carmel & 17-mile drive). That is the most scenic section of the coast. Then head inland towards Yosemite and spend a couple of days there. Yosemite is really nice heat would be less of an issue than in GC.

If I had to go with one or the other I would go for option 2 as there is a bigger variety of stuff to do so you do not have all your eggs in one basket. Don't forget to get out to Alcatraz in SF, it is excellent also.

As Far as I know yoou cannot use Irish Credit Card to book tickets online in US, you will need to get your relatives to do it. Cannot remember the names of the budget airlines that do SF-LV, try jetblue.com

enjoy the hols............

Re: SanFran

Carmel is a very nice town, if a bit quiet. You can use it as a base for Monterey, Pebble beach and the 17 mile drive. Lovely area.

There is a small hotel in Carmel called the Blue Dolphin which is very nice and reasonably priced. If it's full there is another similar place directly across the road, can't remember the name.

Re: SanFran

A couple of years back my wife and I took a month, flew to San Diego and drove up the California coast to Oregon. We then drove inland via Mt. Shasta, Tahoe & Yosemite to finally end up in Vegas.

The one place that I would strongly recommend is Yosemite - It blew us away!! It's about a three hour drive from San Francisco and well worth the trip. You stay in these log cabins and are surrounded by amazing scenery ( I don't know how Board Failte sell scenery to this lot!! ).

After that you can take your pick. If you're interested in wine, Napa and Sonoma are a short drive north. I would say though that both are becoming more and more pretentious. We found the Central Valley ( between San Luis Obispo & Monterey ) excellent. You were visiting small vineyards and having a drink with the owner.

I could go on and on, so I'll leave you with that!!

Cheers

California Dreaming

The airline you want to check on is Southwest. Think about the Redwoods too, head over to Santa Cruz & then to Monterrey/Carmel, Big Sur. There is just more to see than you have time. Have a great trip. I just returned from a wonderful week in Ireland and only saw a small portion.

I am planning to go between LA and SF in October. So Mutley and Christine 10blue and everbody else ... please go on and on ...

Marion :hat

California Dreaming

There are many good suggestions. I live about 100 miles west of San Francisco. October will be a great month, nice weather and leaves may be changing especially in the Wine Country & the Sierras, Tahoe is beautiful and a stop in the Gold Country or Sacramento's "Old Town" would be nice too. As for rental car, check Enterprise, I have usually found them to be the cheapest. If you drive south on Highway 101 you could stop in Santa Barbara which is beautiful, or you can drive Highway 5 which is a bit faster, but not scenic. Northern California is much more scenery and southern California more things to do like Disneyland, Universal Studios, Santa Monica Pier area of Venice Beach, very good people looking place. It is a matter of so much to do and so little time to get it all in. Traveling only adults or children to, that may make a difference. Drive from San Francisco to Tahoe will take about 4 hrs, to LA about 6 hrs, To Santa Cruz about 2 hrs . I'll check again to see if you have any other questions or want some more specific.

Hi Christina10blue

Thanks for the information. We've now decided to skip LA (no kids) and travel on the coast road between Santa Barbara and SF. We hadn't considered Tahoe, but it will now be on the itinerary.


Regards

Marion :hat

Re: California Dreaming

I've just come back from a 3 week holiday SF/LA/Yosemite.

I would highly recommend the Yosemite thing, but I think you would find it extremely difficult to get accommodation there at present. They have an online reservation system, either under the National Park Service, or their own website. It's been a while since I used it (last Jan/Feb) and I can't remember where I booked it from. The thing is to keep trying daily as cancellations will free up rooms. Alternatively you could camp!

I have been there two years in a row, both times in Curry Village which has canvas tents, cabins and a handful of "hotel" rooms (basically meaning that the room has a toilet/bath attached) but from what I could see after that you used the same facilities as everyone else. There is proper hotel accommodation in Yosemite Lodge, Wawona and Awahnee.

The experience is as the Americans say "totally awesome" - in fact nothing can describe the sheer scale - other than being there and experiencing it yourself. When we were there last year it was in the 90s, this year we had thunder storms (not all day). The vision of lightning on the mountain tops and then the explosion of thunder echoing through the valley was incredible. We hiked, bussed, drove, cycled, rafted - got eaten by mosquitos etc etc. It was a wonderful experience and one I would intend repeating.

We drove from SF to LA on the scenic route, but as our final destination was Disneyland (2 kids) we didn't really explore all the lovely towns along the way, with the exception of Santa Barbara. Beautiful place. In fact John Cleese was on TV last night expounding its virtues. If you go to LA, while it isnt the most attractive of cities, it has quite of lot of places to visit, Universal, Santa Monica Pier, Griffith Observatory, Hollywood Blvd (we just drove in to see Mann's Chinese Theatre on our way from LA to Yosemite and the Black Entertainment Awards were on). While it was too early for all the celebrities to arrive, we did get "Brandy's" rehearsal (I didn't know who Brandy was, but my 11 year old daughter was spellbound!). It's fun to watch out for celebs while driving around. None this time, but last year we saw Robin Williams.

The Napa end of things wasn't really my cup of tea (being a non-drinker) - all the vineyards look the same to me and wine tasting isn't something that would turn me on, but apparently the whole "wine tour" thing is extremely popular, However, it is nice to see the huge mansions (visions of "Falcon Crest").

SF is spectacular too, make sure you go to the Headlands in Marin Co, and look down on the GoldenGate Bridge (fog permitting).

I'm still suffering from jet lag, so I may be rambling a bit. These are my thoughts for what they are worth.
Hope your trip is great.

just wanted to bring this post up again...any more suggestions?

not really much driving from San fran to LA or Vegas.
If it was me i would spend 5 days in San Fran ,
make sure Alkatraz is booked at least 2 weeks in
advance online as it will be booked out.
Then fly to LA for 3 days , staying in hollywood,
recommend the holiday in,
visit universal studios, Disney if you havent been to
disney before ie paris/florida.
I would spend a half day getting a bus from hollywood
to Santa monica to stroll around the beach /shops
you will pass rodeo drive etc on the way.
A half day doing the tour of the stars homes around hollywood.
then get the greyhound to Vegas (5hrs).
Then 5 days in vegas, i would get a flight over the grand
canyon either small plane or helicopter.
The grand canyon is 270 miles long you wont see much of
it by driving to it.
All of the above no of days in each place is enough time
to see everything any more and you will have nothing to see.

I would recommend Yosemite & Death Valley; the scenary is stunning. Hire a car and travel through these areas from San Francisco and you can head to Las Vegas this way over say 4-5 days. Alternatively drive down the Pacific Coast Highway towards LA, some stunning cliff side drops along the way (although when I did it last year, it was fairly foggy at some spots)

Dunners said:

Someone mentioned that Yosemite is too difficult to get to and is far too packed in August - should be saved for a different trip.

Also, is there a good website for booking internal flights from (eg San Fran - Vegas return)?

Click to expand...

I was in Yosemite a few years ago in August and don't recall it being packed. We just went for the day and was very impressed by it. Its fabulous. Highly recommended!

This website searches few places to get cheap US internal flights
http://www.bookingbuddy.com/

Yosemite is amazing. I Spent 4 days in SF then drove to Napa and across to Yosemite. I came through the park east-west so you get a different perspective on the half dome. Its a hiking paradise, breathtaking views. After that shot across to Santa Cruze and Montrey. One of teh best holidays I ever spent, one word of warning it can be expensive in California unless you prebook accomidation well in advance, especially around Napa and Yosemite. Enjoy!

A group of us went to Yosemite in the first week of Sept a few years back. We camped, so had no issues with no accommodation etc. It is fantastic and is the only place that I have promised to visit again, and next time for 5-6 days.

The one thing I would advise if you're going there, and particularly if you're camping.....bring warm clothes. It will be beautiful weather during the day, but it gets damn cold at night!

If you can make it to Yosemite at all, do it !!