California Road trip

[Anonymous]

If you were planning a California road trip (I think I have decided starting and stopping in San Francisco but open to ending in Los Angelos), how would you structure it? We have 9 days and could maybe squeeze out one more day. Traveling with two kids ages 9 and 13 so not interested in Napa this trip. We ARE interested in Yosemite, Big Sur, driving the pacific highway, Death Valley, Tahoe but I feel like all of those is over ambitious for the time.

[Anonymous]

Make sure you can get a one-way rental car for a reasonable price before you plan it. I'm sure it's better in CA/large cities, but I priced out a trip recently where dropping off the car in another city was $9k+ vs. $900 to pick up and drop off in the same small city.

[Anonymous]

You could do San Francisco to Yosemite to Sequoia over to somewhere around San Luis Obispo and then back up the PCH to San Francisco.

Or, San Francisco to Lake Tahoe to Yosemite to Big Sur and then a shorter portion of the drive up the coast back to San Francisco.

Death Valley would add a lot of driving time.

[Anonymous]

We did a similar trip when I was a teen. We flew in and out of LAX. Did LA and Disneyland for a few days then drove up to Yosemite. Then we cut over to San Francisco and spent a few days there including a day at Muir Woods (a must.) I would plan your route to only do the PCH for a small segment. It’s a beautiful route, no doubt, but it’s winding and slow due to people pulling on and off the road.

[Anonymous]

That's my dream trip minus death Valley! Have fun!

[Anonymous]

What time of year? 9 days makes it sound like a spring break trip?

[Anonymous]

Those parks may not have passes. I would check that before making any reservations.

In SF go to the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park.

Sea Lions at Fisherman's Warf.

[Anonymous]

We’re going in October (my kids have a week long fall break).
Not going to do the sights in San Francisco as we were there last year and did them, so will likely just fly in and drive out of SF.
Thanks for the suggestions so far!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those parks may not have passes. I would check that before making any reservations.

In SF go to the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park.

Sea Lions at Fisherman's Warf.

Can you clarify what you mean by passes? Yosemite doesn’t require reservations (we already have the national park pass) last I checked.

[Anonymous]

Schedule things so that you can stop to eat at Nepenthe in Big Sur.

[Anonymous]

Be careful in Death Valley. I read a sad story of the four German tourists who kept doing one thing after another until they could not survive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those parks may not have passes. I would check that before making any reservations.

In SF go to the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park.

Sea Lions at Fisherman's Warf.

Can you clarify what you mean by passes? Yosemite doesn’t require reservations (we already have the national park pass) last I checked.

Not that PP, but I think they did for a time in summers, but ended that in 2025.

[Anonymous]

We did a trip like this a few years ago with slightly younger kids and it was amazing. We have family in San Francisco and LA so we spent time doing things on both ends (like Alcatraz in SF and Disneyland in LA). My kids had some particular interests so we did the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose (fun and interesting if you like that sort of thing), Morro Bay (sand dollars were migrating at the time and it was incredible), PCH as far as we could drive/Big Sur (there were some rd closures at the time),Monterey Bay including the aquarium and Santa Barbara. Definitely research restaurants and make reservations along the way. It was an ambitious trip but it was amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you were planning a California road trip (I think I have decided starting and stopping in San Francisco but open to ending in Los Angelos), how would you structure it? We have 9 days and could maybe squeeze out one more day. Traveling with two kids ages 9 and 13 so not interested in Napa this trip. We ARE interested in Yosemite, Big Sur, driving the pacific highway, Death Valley, Tahoe but I feel like all of those is over ambitious for the time.

Time of year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re going in October (my kids have a week long fall break).
Not going to do the sights in San Francisco as we were there last year and did them, so will likely just fly in and drive out of SF.
Thanks for the suggestions so far!

Just saw this.

If you plan to go to Tahoe, keep in mind that it can snow in October so watch CHP and CalTrans for info on the pass. We have a house there and spend a lot of time there, so I’m not making this up—check local FB pages for better info. That said, it’s absolutely amazing and very hard to beat. Not many tourists that time of year and really breathtaking, lots of activities. If you don’t do it on this trip, it’s worth one on its own.