Although I agree with most posters about that being an over-ambitious trip, my teenage daughter and I did a round trip road trip from San Diego, where we live, to San Francisco. First day we drove to San Luis Obispo and staying at the Madonna Inn. I think we probably stopped for lunch in Santa Barbara. The next day, we went zip lining in Santa Margarita. This is also wine country, but she was underage. Then we drove to Hearst Castle. We stopped and saw the elephant seals, and then did a tour at the castle. We drove to Carmel that night and spent the night and walked around the town and looked at the art galleries. We drove to San Francisco the next morning and did an Alcatraz tour, we went to Haight Asbury and stayed in Union Square. Shopped and drove around SF. Spent another night in SF and then drove back the next day. Stopped and spent the night in Pismo Beach, and drove back to San Diego the following day. I think we were gone, 5 or 6 days for the round trip, so it is doable, but we didn’t do anything in San Diego, because that is our home base. Therefore, I echo everyone else saying to just pick one or the other location and maybe do day-trips from each location.
I live in the Central Valley, and you would have to drive past my town to go from the Bay Area to Yosemite. Don’t do it! This area has become a traffic nightmare, going over the Altamont, and you would waste so much time. People talk about the traffic in SF or LA, but don’t be fooled thinking inland areas have to be better, they can have crazy highway traffic!
Just returned from a very ambitious reverse of this trip, and didn’t hit all of our revised itinerary… The driving is INTENSE (but great views) on the PCH. and if the weather is good, be prepared to be stopped for road work delays. We arrived on a Friday night to SD and got to SF Wed evening. We had to be in Berkeley by Friday for a family function.
We did manage to hit Balboa Park, SD Zoo, Coronado, Dana Point, Hollywood, Universal Park, Santa Monica Pier, Drive through Malibu and Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, Carmel, 17-mile drive, Monterey (but not the aquarium), SF - Fisherman Wharf and Embarcadero, Big Bus tour, Golden Gate Visitor Center, Muir Woods, Berkeley Downtown and Campus. It was quite a whirlwind.
We had to eliminate La Jolla, Disneyland, Hearst Castle, Monterey Aquarium, and Alcatraz (unable to obtain tickets).
Wishing we had done what others suggested - a few nights in SD, then a quick shuttle to SF for a few more days there.
Choose whether you value city or scenic coastal beauty more. Because you can’t do it all. Have 2 days in SF and another 2 in San Diego. Or as another poster mentioned, fly into San Jose, which is a far more efficient airport, rent the car and head south, going to some of the state redwood parks, Big Basin and the like. Santa Cruz if interested in roller coasters, and then take Highway 1 south on the coast, stopping on the Monterey Penninsula for the night. Drive highway 1 via Big Sur. Paso Robles is wine country, if that has interest. There are many interesting places to stop on the coast. Solvang, Santa Barbara. Fly out of LA, saving SD for another time might be an idea.
Many thanks for such enlightening views about the shortcoming of our plan for the road trip. I couldn’t agree more on the fact that the duration of the trip should be longer than we have planned. Both my wife and I are senior citizens and our daughter enjoys long drives - full of life and enthusiasm wants to do this trip, together with us.
We had visited SF but that happened a decade back. Therefore, a visit keeping SF as the base and spending 3/4 days visiting places which some of you have suggested seems to be a good idea. Let me share these posts with my daughter and see how she responds?
My son did this drive in a rental truck once, when he moved from San Diego to the Bay Area several years ago. He had the drive all planned out but got derailed by the immense traffic in the Los Angeles area and ended up staying in different places than planned and arriving later than planned. It’s always rush hour in LA.
My kid went to Santa Clara University which is about 10 minutes from the San Jose airport. We spend six days staged out of there on graduation weekend. We had a rental car, and could easily get around. The Caltrain station was also right across the street from the college campus…easy peasy to get to San Fran, or Mountainview (great restaurants in that town). We drove to Napa, and had a fabulous day trip with several vineyard tours. And if you go on Sunday…definitely go to the brunch at Brixx…one of the best I’ve ever had.
There is a ton to see and do in the Bay Area…a ton. And you will still be able to spend some time driving around…like that drive to Napa, for example.
If you decide to stay in the Bay Area, come back and ask for the ton more of suggestions of things to do there!
Has anyone taken Amtrak from San Jose or oakland to San Diego ?
Takes over 20 hours or about 13 hours depending upon train choice.
Is this a scenic route ?
Least crowded trains leave on Monday according to Amtrak.
It has been decades but I have taken the Amtrak Coast Starlight from LA to Davis. It was a long trip–13 hours iirc-- with some scenic portions but a lot of views of backyards.
Someone had mentioned Big Sur and Carmel. We live near that area and D had a year of rotation near Carmel, so we are frequent in that area.
Most ppl will drive through the “17 Miles Drive” in Monterey and think they are done, but actually, Point Lobos State Park is a world apart from anything else.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=571
You can spend a whole day just in Point Lobos(bring your own food and water) and we have done that several times. In addition to Carmel, Monterey and other parks.
Truthfully, you can and will spend 4-5 days just in the Greater SF area, never even touch Lake Tahoe or Yosemite.
I’ve taken Amtrak from San Jose to San Diego. Some parts are gorgeous. I took the Coast Starlight from San Jose to Los Angeles. From an hour or two south of San Jose to San Luis Obispo, the train travels through beautiful wooded canyons (no redwoods, though, IIRC) and mountains. Then it goes right along the ocean for many miles. If it’s on time, a BIG if, the prettiest parts of the route are in daylight.
The Coast Starlight’s route ends in Los Angeles. As I recall, the connection to the San Diego trains is not great; I stayed overnight in LA in a nearby hostel. (But I was traveling with a bike and didn’t want to arrive in San Diego late at night; I can’t remember if it was possible to take an evening train.)
I love taking the train. Indeed, in two weeks I’m taking the train from Emeryville, CA, traveling all the way to Albany NY. But riders should understand the drawbacks.
I agree with everyone else that you don’t have enough time to really enjoy yourselves in that time period between San Francisco and San Diego.
Amtrak: The Coast Starlight goes from Seattle to Los Angeles. I haven’t taken the Coast Starlight, but I have taken the Pacific Surfliner. The Amtrak Pacific Surfliner goes from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. A lot of it is on the ocean. From San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara it goes along the beach through Vandenberg Air Force Base which you don’t see when driving on the 101. The Surfliner only goes directly from San Luis Obispo to San Diego a couple times a day, but goes multiple times a day from Los Angeles to San Diego (and vice versa). We live in Orange County, and my daughter went to San Diego State and often took the train from San Diego to Irvine or Santa Ana.
The point of driving from SF south, as a tourist, not rushing through, IS the coast/PCH… We did this last Sept. Just seeing Big Sur is spectacular. We stayed in Monterey, Cambria and other spots .Agree, not to miss Hearst Castle, I found Solvang interesting (better than memories,) but the other to consider is the Montetey Aquarium, whether or not you “think” you’ll be interested.
One other point we had was to drive through farmlands.
I love the Mid Coast wines, but even with 6-7 (?) days on the road and ending in LA, not enough time.
The train from LA to SD does go right along the beach, at points.
Have to realize just how big CA is. You can’t do it all in one short trip and do it justice. I lived in SF, Santa Monica, OC, and SD…and it all can be so beautiful. Do the research to figure out what trip makes sense.
As others mentioned, you need at least a week to enjoy this road trip. We took train from LA to SF. It was great for the experience since DD never been on a train before, but was twelve hours long with poor WiFi and ok food. Coastal views were breathtaking but lasted probably about an hour. If you only have three days to spend I would focus on SF area or SD area. Both have plenty to offer.
Since my last post, I did more intense research on the feasibility of what we initially thought would be possible. Now, we have left the entire planning to our daughter and will follow her plan. She has gone through all the posts and working out the itinerary. Thanks to all of you, for your time and patience in sharing your views and opinion.
One other idea would be to do the trip as planned, but end in Santa Barbara. That would give you time to enjoy the coast. You can fly out of SB, although may have to switch planes. Enjoy your trip!
That is a really tight schedule but I think you could get some of it done in your the frame. We did a CA vacation this summer and managed to fit in more than most people recommend but we had 8 days. With your short visit I would focus on the coastal roads and not so much on the cities. You may be able to make it to San Diego but I think LA is more likely. Oh - and if anybody gets car sick or nervous on scary roads I would go from south to north - the cliffs on the ocean side of the road are steep!
Here is what I think I would try to plan if I were you. I am not sure how much you guys like to drive or what things you’d most like to see though (we would focus less on the cities and had to make a long lunch stop at Pebble Beach for my golf obsessed son.)
Sunday - get to SF in the evening (how late - can you fit in any sights that night?
Monday - SF touring all day, drive to Carmel that evening. You don’t have to stay along the coast for this section, it is a little over a 2 hour drive but it would set you up to start the coast first thing in the morning. If you do want to do the 17 mile drive you could do it on the way to Carmel if it is still light out. We did it because we had time and we had to make that Pebble Beach visit but I would have been OK skipping it, we thought the rest of the coast was just as nice if not better.
Tuesday - Go to Point Lobos as soon as it opens - this was probably our favorite spot on the coast. We did the two main short walks out to the points. If you park in the main parking lot there is one to the left and one to the right. The one to the left is short, you can see the end from the parking lot. The one to the right is a little longer but SO, SO beautiful with the cliffs and the flowers and the waves crashing! Bring binoculars, we saw tons of sea otters (the ranger at the start showed us how to spot them.)
Drive down the coast towards Big Sur. Stop at all of the top sightseeing spots. I suggest paying the money for the GyPsy app - I never pay for any apps but have bought that for Yellowstone, Tetons, Yosemite and PCH and my whole family loves it. It is like having tour guide in our car - you plug your phone into the car and as you drive the narrator tells you exactly where to look and where to turn for all of the top spots. He also gives a lot of history of the area. We would never have seen the zebras without it - I knew they were by Hearst Castle but they were far from where I would have guessed. We did not do Hearst Castle because of our quick visit but I know a lot of people say not to miss it.
Find a spot to stay somewhere around Big Sur or a little bit south.
Wednesday - Drive the coast from Big Sur area to LA.
Thursday - fly to NYC
We ended in SB, but flew back from LA. Drove that last bit on the last full day.
Varies by person, but imo, the best trips are when you’re aware of what you want to see. NOT following some tour book that tells you your “musts.”
@thumper1 avoid rush hour by driving between 11-pm to 5 am 
We caught the AmTrak from LA to Seattle and booked a sleeper car. It was fun but we slept overnight. It was very scenic. I believe it gets into the SF area at a highly variable time in the middle of the night.
It would be worth considering catching the train from Bay Area to LA or San Diego. The train passes lovely areas with lots of scenic views. Food on train was surprisingly good.