@Momofadult , the only place where I can imagine running into a bad neighborhood might be in the Skid Row part of downtown, but if you have a map app on a smartphone it’s very unlikely you’ll get lost there, and if you do, you’ll still be OK. Every other area listed is fine.
And yes, of course, La Brea! Californians are always amused when it’s called “The La Brea Tar Pits” because La Brea means “the tar(pits)” but we do it too, can’t help it. In the same area you can go to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), the Peterson Automotive Museum (super-cool building and amazing cars; I covet this: https://heacockclassic.com/articles/the-round-door-rolls-1925-rolls-royce-phantom-i-jonckheere/ ), and the original Farmer’s Market/Grove shopping mall. You can also stop at nearby Canter’s Deli where the food is not as good as it once was but it is iconic and the bakery is very good. There, I’ve just filled up a day or two for you.
Great ideas from everyone. Thanks @MImama - your question has really helped me with my research. CC posters always have such great ideas and advice.
Just to pile on to the ocean swim discussion, one of my kids was lucky enough to have a summer internship in Santa Barbara bringing the opportunity to learn to surf (sort of). Used a wetsuit from June to July. This is a kid used to Lake Michigan’s summer water temps, still much more comfortable with the wetsuit. I did swim off several Santa Barbara beaches without wet suit in late July, but I’m used to open water swimming (and cold water).
We’ve gone to CA in June for the last several years as DH has a conference there. I usually spend 2 or 3 days sightseeing in San Francisco. Then we visit his brother in Berkeley (very pretty campus and some good places to eat!) then we go to wine country. We’ve done Napa and Sonoma - we usually do some hiking in the morning, hit a few wine tasting rooms in the afternoon and then hit some good restaurants in the evening. Last year we went south to Monterrey and I highly recommend that as well.
Here are two of my threads asking for suggestions of things to do.
Since you will be traveling with folks under the drinking age, they may not find wineries very interesting. I’m sure you will be happy whatever you decide. Lots to do in CA in just one week!
The only thing I would add would be a few days at Lake Tahoe. The drive from the Bay Area over the Sierras is beautiful. If you want to be quick, take highway 80 to the north part of the lake, or 50 to the south. If you have a day to spend, make your drive a scenic one by including a stretch of highway 49 through Gold Country.
I would pick Northern or Southern if you just have a week. It is a long boring drive down hwy 5. The 101 would be a nicer drive but it will take longer. Definitely bring a sweatshirt and long pants as June can be foggy on the coast.
My kids love the Monterey Bay aquarium. They also enjoyed Hearst Castle along with the elephant seals in that section of the Ca coast.
Areas with hotels above the beach- Inn at Laguna Beach in Laguna. It’s a nice motel on the cliff above Laguna Beach. Cute walkable downtown and a nice beach. Look up Pageant of the Masters. It’s a fun show where art is brought to life.
For southern Ca laying on the beach can also be done in the beach cities of Los Angeles. Redondo, Hermosa, Manhattan Beach. I don’t know a lot about San Diego.
Pismo Beach if you want to stay more north. Lots of motels on the cliffs above the beach. It could be foggy but you can go into San Luis Obispo for the day and it will be hot. Could do the drive to Cambria and San Simeon for the day from here.
I live in Santa Barbara and June is almost always cold and foggy till pretty late in the afternoon. If you want sun you can head over the mountain to the Santa Ynez valley or inland to Ojai. My H goes in the ocean San wet suit almost every day. In winter it’s just a quick swim. If he is going surfing he’ll put on a wetsuit in winter. My kids will go in June to October without a wetsuit if the air is hot. I find the water cold anytime of the year and rarely go in beyond my ankles.
I will add to the chorus of picking either Northern or Southern. I’ve lived in San Diego my whole life other than an East Coast stint for undergrad. You can easily fill a week with San Diego alone, but if you add in a quick trip down to Mexico (bring your passports) or up to LA, the days will fly by. Likewise, a trip to the Bay Area could fill a week, especially if you add Monterey/Carmel as well as Hearst Castle.
Our kids would put up with a little bit of wine tasting. Some of the wineries have bocce ball courts or other things to keep the kids amusing. At Benzinger we learned alot about organic farming while riding around the vineyard.
When we lived in Pasadena even in August we’d be so hot we’d head to the beach in Santa Monica only to discover it was still cold and foggy there. I never got used to how cold the Pacific was having grown up with the Atlantic coach beaches. There was definitely plenty to do in Monterrey/Carmel without ever getting near a winery!
You can visit the desert in S CA for a day trip. I am not fond of desert scenery I found. The time we did decades ago we should have brought a lot more fluids. The humidity tends to be low compared to other parts of the country. We have driven to Las Vegas with relatives one trip- too much dry brown scenery for me. Central valleys can be hot
California is a big state with a wide variety of climates. It also has different predominant cultures in different areas. You can either be places to say you’ve been there or choose one area as a home base to do day trips to sample a region. I would not waste my time in a car on the freeway in traffic. Even a scenic drive along the ocean gets to be more of the same and too much traffic after the first half hour.
For a trip to San Francisco we flew in/out of Oakland and stayed in a waterfront hotel in Berkeley with then teen son. Great views of the bridge and SF skyline from our side. Nice campus to drive to the top- and see fault line cracks. Many fun restaurants then and with the university I’m sure there are still good ones (I’m used to the UW-Madison campus area where the near campus street restaurants change over the years but quirky stores/restaurants replace the old, Berkeley had a similar vibe).
You need to make a list of sites to see in different locations. Then figure out a ranking of musts/maybes et al. Choose your region and figure out maximizing sightseeing, enjoying the atmosphere. We typically stay in moderate chain hotels, especially if we plan to be gone most of the time.
The OP mentioned traveling in June. It’s normal to reach 100+ temps in the desert that time of year, so likely not the most pleasant day trip. That said while the desert is not for everyone, there are a lot of interesting outdoor/hiking type activities in the desert like seeing the wind caves, exploring the extensive mud cave network, seeing the ~130 giant metal animal sculptures including a 350 foot dragon and fighting T-rexes, exploring the claimed largest wooden railroad trestle in the world and challenging/interesting hike to reach it, visiting the Salton Sea which is sort of like cross between a horror movie and bibical plague, Death Valley with the mysteriously drifting rocks and long flats/dunes/canyons/…, the desert tower and flying saucer repair which are a short hike from the border wall/fence, or just taking in the labyrinth of repeating patterns and desert mountains in the middle of nowhere.
I remember once driving through the Mojave Desert on our way to backpacking in the Sierras. Our car’s AC was on the fritz. It was like being in a convection oven. The desert is lovely and different at other times of year. Spring flowering at Joshua Tree is well worth a visit. (But not helpful to the OP!)
I live in San Diego, and I can’t count the number of out of town visitors I’ve seen who come to SD in June expecting to frolic on a sunny beach. San Diego has over 70 miles of excellent beaches, and it is sunny about 10 months of the year, but June isn’t one of those months. There are a few lucky sunny breaks, but May and June are mostly overcast - often all day long. It’s called May Gray and June Gloom.
The overcast does burn off some days, but that is mostly in the inland valleys. The beach is always the last place for the overcast to burn off, and many days it fails to burn off at all.
I love this town. There are many wonderful things to do and see in San Diego all year round. But be forewarned that going to the beach in May or June is likely to be disappointing if you were hoping for sun…
If you go to San Diego, please drive to Julian. It’s a charming town in the mountains…or at least it was when we wer there. We were ther in April a number of years go. Their big thing is apples…apple pie…we had the best apple pie ever for breakfast, and then more best apple products for lunch. And we bought an apple pie to take back to SD.
^^On the same trip to Julian you can also drive up Palomar Mountain* to see the observatory. You can see the famous 200 inch Hale telescope which for many years was the largest telescope in the world. They have a nice little astronomy museum there. There is a also nice little mountain gift shop and adjoining delicious vegetarian restaurant back a couple of miles at the cross-roads. Moreover, there are lot of nice mountain hiking trails in the area. One has its trail head right at the observatory grounds.
*Don’t say “Mount Palomar.” That’s not the proper name of the place and saying it will identify you as an auslander. PS: “Palomar” means “pigeon coop” in Spanish.
Wikipedia has information about sunshine hours and % possible sunshine in different months – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_San_Diego . Roughly 2/3 of days are at least partially sunny, which is a few days less than the SD average.
If you are going to go hiking at Palomar, I’d recommend skipping the observatory trail and heading to the Palomar Mountain State Park, which is a few minutes away and has better trails that get away from the road, have fewer bugs, more dense trees, better viewpoints, better campgrounds, more likely to see animals, etc. The Lower Doane and French Valley loop is particularly nice and short enough that you can combine it with the Observatory and other daily activities. It has some of the largest trees in the area including one that you walk under/climb on as part of the trail, an interesting history with grinding holes left by Indians and George Doane’s antics, etc. While the Palomar Mountain trails are nice if you happen to be in the area, I don’t think they are something really unique to CA that you can’t find similar elsewhere. It’s nowhere near as awe inspiring as other forest areas of CA, like Yosemite or Sequoia.