Door County WI

Fly to Quebec, spend a few days there, and then drive to Tadoussac for whale watching. The scenic route along the St Lawrence River is beautiful, with lots of great little stops/sights along the way. We went with teens and they liked it so much they asked to go again a few years later.

Yes to California. No to drive up the coast. I agree with the poster who recommended picking a segment. Choose between San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Diego and pick activities within that radius (Sonoma, Muir Woods, Santa Barbara, Channel Islands, Catalina, etc).

It’s about 6 hours between San Francisco and LA, and that’s not the scenic route, so you don’t want to have a trip that’s basically half travel days and half vacation days. We actually did this trip when I was in high school and it was a lot of fun, but we did it in 10 days, I think.

Chicago.

Tour Boston so it's not just staying in the city but explore the NE area for a few days.

I personally would not do CA in 6 days and going west as it's a longer flight. I like more time in CA to see different places personally. However we really really loved Santa Fe. And no, it's great weather we did end of June and really loved it. One of my favorite places. Younger the outdoors but there's some serious money there so the food and shopping is amazing. One of the best kept secrets I think - people choose SD - I think Santa Fe is like 10000000x more fun and interesting in every possible way. I find SD a much more vanilla place. It's beautiful but I wouldn't spend a wk there. Id live there though the difference is that it's beautiful so I'd enjoy it everyday but in terms of stuff to do - I just don't think it's all that for an actual holiday.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CA might be far for only 6 days including travel time.
I’d stick with east/midwest to maximize vacation time.
Ideas:

Upper Penninusla MI (Pictured Rocks is stunning)
Maine (see if you can secure last minute lodging)
Montreal
Finger Lakes / upstate NY/ Adirondacks
New River Gorge if kids are into adventure stuff

With teens there’s not much difference between a 2 hour flight and a 5 hour one. You can be in LA of SF by lunch and have that entire first day.

This.

I wonder if most posters don’t travel for work? I mean, the dozen+ times I’ve flown to SD/SF/LA for meetings or conferences have typically entailed an early morning flight from DC and 3-5 nights at a hotel. No jet lag; just early starts in terms of waking up naturally due to my inner east coast clock—which makes it easy to enjoy a very full day.

Similarly, I’ve needed to be in London or Paris for short stints on business. It’s NBD.

Fly into Vegas. Visit Grand Canyon & Zion.
Or do French Canada.