I love, love to plan trips but not sure I have enough time to figure this one out. D19 just got invited to go with one of her friends to CA. She would be going to Lake Tahoe then flying home from San Francisco. I have been trying to get a family trip together and we have always talked about CA because my brother lives in SF and the kids have never been there.
If we can make it work we would fly out and meet D19 in San Francisco on a Friday morning and would have to fly home the following Friday. I would love to make it longer but D19 and I have to go to her college on Sunday for schedule planning day and that has been booked forever.
So - I would have from Friday morning (land around 11am) until the following Friday and I really, really want to do a road trip. I know it would-be pushing it but do you think there is any way to do SF to LA or SF to Portland? I have always wanted to see the Oregon coast but it looks like the timing and flight prices would be better if we did SF to LA. Staying in SF and doing day trips would be our other option of course.
Basically it would look like this…
Fri - SF
Sat -SF
Sun -SF
Mon - drive to ?
Tue- drive to ?
Wed - drive to ?
Thur - Visit LA or Portland
Fri - Fly Home ( 12:30 if form LA, 8am or 11:30am if from Portland)
I know it is cramming a lot in a short time but because of the college trip it is the only way to do it. Thanks for any ideas!
We spent a few nights in Santa Cruz, which is a drive from SF.
Monterey and Carmel are also a drive from SF.
Muir Woods is nice to explore and a short drive from most points in SF (does require reservations).
The Presidio area is a large and lovely area in SF, near the Golden Gate Bridge. It has museums, the old bunker, a climbing wall and a recreational area. We even saw some folks fishing and crabbing.
The Golden Gate Park has the De Jong Museum, Science Center and Conservatory.
The Exploration is another nice place to explore.
Alcatraz and Angel Island are each interesting and can be reached by boat from Salsulito.
With only a week, I would probably not go to Oregon or LA—it would just be a lot of time driving, for us. We prefer more leisurely trips. Some folks are fine with spending much more time on the road.
We have caught the train from LA to Seattle—it was relaxing and fun.
Drive to LA or Drive to Portland - either one will work, depending on what you want to see and how fast you want to travel. SF to Portland is about 600 miles and SF to LA is about 400 miles. Either distance is doable in three days of driving, but of course the longer trip will require more time in the car.
On a northern swing you could drive up and see the Redwood National Park and stay for the night in say Klamath or Crescent City. Then drive up the Oregon coast and stay in Newport and visit surrounding area. Then on to Portland. Crater Lake would be something of a detour that you might not have time for.
On a southern swing you could take in Big Sur and San Simeon (Hearst Castle), maybe Solvang or Santa Barbara. There are lots of places to stay along the way. It really depends on what sorts of things you want to see and do.
The trip north will probably require coats and rain gear, since the Oregon coast is notoriously cold, overcast, and rainy on most days, even in the summer. The southern trip would be more likely to be sunny.
A road trip to either of those cities from San Francisco would be lovely, but I vote for driving to LA. Not because LA is fantastic, but frankly, there are a lot of really great stops on the way, as already mentioned. I grew up in both states, and a trip to Oregon would be lovely to, if you want to go to Crater Lake and see beautiful rivers and forests. No bad choice, and I think your days in SF are fine. Have fun.
Should add, Highway 101 is lovely, not sure if it’s been fixed since it was wiped out a while back. Monterrey, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, San Simeon, Santa Barbara all worth stopping in.
Thank you everyone! I think I will have to save Oregon for another time - as much as I have wanted to go there I feel like I want more time to stop along the way. I normally plan big trips far in advance but D19 got invited this week and would leave in less than 2 weeks so it is throwing me for a loop!
@HImom@Scipio We know we don’t have much time not his trip so basically driving and making short stops to see the sights will be fine with us. Would like to do some small walks/hikes but probably won’t have time for lots of in town sight seeing like museums and things like that. I guess that is why I am wavering between staying the whole week in SF and the road trip.
@Lindagaf Oh yeah -I forgot I should check out Highway 101! I will call my brother and see what he knows then google it.
When we took a family trip to LA, I thought I was clever by planning a “Big Bang Theory” day since our whole family likes that show. You could go on a Warner Bros lot tour, then to lunch at the Pasadena Cheesecake Factory, walk around Cal Tech and get a pic taken in front of the Rose Bowl stadium. My son especially enjoyed visiting the Ronald Reagan Library and the Nixon one isn’t too far away either, but we didn’t make it to that one.
If you stay in SF, Sausalito is fun for a day. You can ride bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge, have lunch overlooking the bay and SF, check out the cool shops, and take a ferry back. Ghiradelli square and Pier 39 are touristy but worth seeing. I have walked for miles around San Francisco, along all the piers or across the city.
Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Carmel are also fun. I assume 17 mile drive is still “a thing” on the coast?
I know there was a recent thread about things to do in and around SF, so you may want to try checking it out if you spend significant time in the city.
Thanks! @1Lotus Not Big Bang fans but I still think some of that stuff would be fun! I have two cousins who live in LA who I can ask to show us around but both are actors so you never know when they will be home. @1214mom I LOVE San Francisco but the kids have never been so it will be fun to do all of the tourist stuff with them. I have never been to Sausalito or any of the day trip type places so that would be fun for me!
one option:
Monday - drive to Monterey. Go kayaking with otters or visit the Monterey bay aquarium or take the 17 mile drive. Or go to super-cute Carmel (next town over). Or go to Santa Cruz (not quite as far) with the board walk (rides on the beach).
Tuesday - drive to Santa Barbara. If no one in your group gets especially car sick go via highway 1 and consider stopping at Hearst Castle in San Simeon. If carsickness is an issue go inland via 101.
Wednesday Santa Barbara to LA - see your favorite sites - Hollywood blvd? Griffith Observatory? etc.
Thursday - Disneyland or Universal Studios ;-). Or more LA sites. Or beach…
@washugrad Thank you - that’s about what I was thinking when I started to map it our on goole maps. Kayaking with otters was not on my radar but now I feel like I must do that at some pointing my life!! I am a little worried because D19 gets carsick but she is usually ok with medicine. Last year we went to Yellowstone and would drive hours a day just searching for animals and seeing the sights and she was pretty good.
Good idea to check on the state of the roads. We went from SF to stay near the coastal redwoods to the north and then wanted to drive along the coast on the way back. We couldn’t as they closed the highway and were doing a lot of repairs due to heavy rains.
You can’t go wrong. There’s a ton to do and see if you opt to just stay in SF or go south to LA. We have spent a lot of time in SF and LA. When the person who has a tougher time in long car rides sits in front, it seems to help minimize queasiness.
if you’re into churches, you may want to do the Mission tour of many of the Mission churches of California. Let’s see, starting from SF, you can do Mission Dolores in SF, Mission San Jose in Fremont, Mission Santa Clara in Santa Clara (inside Santa Clara University), Mission San Juan Bautista, then the Carmel Mission (most beautiful surroundings), San Luis Obispo, the La Pirisima in Lompoc, Santa Ines in Solvang, Santa Barbara (most beautiful on the inside). In reality though you probably don’t have enough time for all of them, so if you had to pick out three, I would say Santa Barbara, the Mission in Carmel, and the Mission San Fernando Rey in the Valley in LA.
This time of year going through the mountains and driving down Highway 395 is absolutely spectacular, with all the snow capped peaks. Tioga Pass may not be open for another 2-3 weeks, but Sonora Pass may be open as soon as this Friday. I much prefer it to Highway 1 (note Highway 101 is not the coast road through Big Sur), especially when you get June gloom along the coast.
Once Tioga is open I would do Monday to Yosemite, Tuesday over to Mammoth or Bishop (visiting Bodie on the way, an amazing ghost town, and if possible going up Rock Creek where you drive to over 10,000ft and you can do a great short hike up the canyon), then Wednesday to LA, stopping at Lone Pine to see Mt Whitney and the Alabama Hills (think western movie sets) or driving through Death Valley if you are up for a longer day.
If Tioga isn’t open then go over Sonora Pass to Bodie and Mammoth, either skipping Yosemite to go to Death Valley instead, or backtracking from Yosemite (adds about 2-3 hours). Though personally I would spend more time in the mountains as I don’t think SF necessarily warrants 3 days unless you can get a boat ticket for a day trip to Alcatraz (which can be hard at short notice, check online).
Oh boy @Twoin18 now you have me thinking again. I have always wanted to go to Yosemite but for some reason didn’t consider it this time. Now I have been sitting here online looking at the drives you mentioned and checking out hotels. The in park places are booked of course but I found a cute place outside the park called Tenaya that has a cabin big enough for all of us. I think the girls would rather do the coast since we did Yellowstone and Tetons last year- they say they want to go somewhere they can wear cute clothes instead of hiking boots. But DH and I may have to talk about this because we could always overuse the girls!
