California ideas

I would like to say thanks to all the excellent advice from everyone on here I am very excited to say I've just booked 4 upper class rewards from Manchester to San Francisco next April. I am not sure how as I only had 200,000 miles but I spoke with a very helpful guy at Flying club and was initially going to buy some miles and use my amex premium upgrade voucher. I asked him for a price to buy an upgradable return in premium as the prices were quite low and it worked out at £900 each return using my miles for the outbound. I thought I would then have to buy some extra miles to upgrade to upper class but He said the system was not asking for any extra miles for upgrade to G's for the return, so I've got return G's for £ 900 plus 50,000 miles each. Does this seem like a good price ?
Also does anyone have any advice of good places to stop on the California coast. We are thinking of doing a couple of days in Yosemite then Vegas and then LA (disney) and then working our way up the coast back to San Francisico. We are travelling with 2 children (17 and 21).

Well done on the Gs. If it feels good to you, then it's right.

As to the CA coast there are loads of places. You don't say how long you're going for, and that's one of the key factors. I'd try and avoide an itinerary that involves trying to cram everything in, as you then end up just driving, stopping, driving again...

We're doing LA to SF next year, stopping overnight at Santa Barbara and then Monterey. The Santa Barbara to Monterey drive is going to be a very long day for us and you could easily stop for at least another night on the way, or go further up, say to Cambria, for the first stop. As pjh says, the key is not to try to do too much or you spend all your time travelling and don't have time to see or do anything.

Also I believe that Yosemite accommodation sells out months in advance, so you need to get that booked up now if you want to include a stay there.

Also I believe that Yosemite accommodation sells out months in advance, so you need to get that booked up now if you want to include a stay there.

I have already booked our lodge in Yosemite, its the only place I've booked so far.

Well done on the Gs. If it feels good to you, then it's right.

As to the CA coast there are loads of places. You don't say how long you're going for, and that's one of the key factors. I'd try and avoid an itinerary that involves trying to cram everything in, as you then end up just driving, stopping, driving again...

Well done on the G’s – that sounds an amazing price especially for four !

Having driven 2,384 miles across California, Nevada and touching Arizona in 13 days this year (actually 10 days of driving as we had three full days in Vegas ) I'd agree with pjh - although our tour was to deliberately light touch a number of places and next year we have 14 nights with a number of two nighters planned.

In May we drove up the Pacific Highway from LA to Carmel, with one night at San Simeon – chosen for it’s proximity to Hearst Castle and price at the time. Hubby and I now feel that we would have preferred to pay the extra and stay at Cambria.

The drive from San Simeon over Big Sur was around 90 miles, which Google Maps will tell you is around 2½ hours driving (before stops). It was a Sunday, and there was a bike race on, the road is single carriage way and twisty – driving north we were on the right hand side of the road with the cliffs on our right rather than the sea. I would guess that we took 5 to 6 hours to drive those 90 miles - and we didn't stop at every view point and only really walked at McWay Falls which was hardly strenuous!

We also drove from Carmel to Mariposa (about an hour outside Yosemite) - this was around 168 miles. I can't imagine it will be an issue on the main roads and highways but there may still be snow around Yosemite dependant on how this winter goes - winter 2015/16 was an El Nino winter and the roads across Yosemite were still closed when we were there in May.

You don’t mention how long you were thinking of staying in Vegas – I’m sure you’re aware but don’t forget your 17 year old can only walk through the casino areas and will not be allowed to drink or gamble, and your 21 year old will be ID’ed everywhere

We drove from Vegas to LA along the I-15 and it was a horrible drive - five hours on four lane highways with speed-unlimited HGVs under and overtaking - and we weren't going slow either! Hence we are seriously considering flying next year - although the recent outages at South West and Delta are making me think about extending the car hire as a contingency – just in case!

You could drive from Vegas to LA via Death Valley and break your journey there - but it is still 4.5 hours from Death Valley to LA.

Our current thoughts for 2017 are:

Flying into SFO and spending the first night near there – Pacifica/Half Moon Bay area
spending two nights in Carmel/Monterey (whale watching trip planned one morning)
Cambria or Paso Robles for two nights (wine tour planned for the in between day)
Santa Barbara for a night
two nights in LA
flying/driving to Vegas for six nights.

I hope this helps!

Having stayed there twice, I can definitely recommend a stay in one of the many great hotels on Moonstone Beach, Cambria .... the Sand Pebbles Inn being one - we had a ground floor balcony room overlooking the ocean .... such a wonderful, relaxing stay ... for a bit less the Kon Tiki Inn at Pismo Beach is a budget-friendly gem where all rooms gave spectacular coastal views

Rich

In May we stayed with family, and they took us to Carmel for a few days (direct from SFO), with a visit to Monterey and the Aquarium - which is amazing, then up to theirs in the Bay Area, a few days in South Lake Tahoe and then a trip to Sonoma. I would recommend all of them, and also having done Vegas and LA on previous trips, I would pick them ahead of LA but Vegas is worth the trip. It is important to get the balance of enough without it being too much, particularly if you're driving it. There is also an amazing outlet mall at Gilroy between SF and Carmel. We bagged some great bargains. Tahoe was stunning and blew me away. If you like your golf it's worth doing Pebble Beach as well whilst you're in Carmel.

Thanks for all your advice. I've also been reading some of your trip reports as well. I've decided that we are going to skip Vegas this time and save it for when we have more time. We only have 11 nights so I think it will be difficult to fit everything in. We are staying our first night just outside San Francisco to cut the driving time down to Yosemite the next day. Then 1 night (but 2 days) in Yosemite ( Evergreen Lodges) and then driving to Bakersfield for a stop over. Then 2 nights Disney followed by 2 nights Santa Monica and then driving up the coast to San Francisco with overnight stops at Pismo beach or Cambria and 1 night at Carmel. We will then have 2 nights in San Francisco.