Hi
Great thread, heaps of info here!
We are coming from Australia and have four weeks planned in the West.
We have two small children aged 3 and 5 so we like to travel slower and explore a bit rather than just cross main attractions off a list...
Fly to LA
have 7 nights in Anaheim see Disney and visit LA shopping outlets one day.
pick up hire car and drive to Santa Barbara (2 nights)
drive to Cambria (2 nights); see Hearst castle and have some beach time
drive to Monterey (2 nights) aquarium, pebble beach and surrounds
drive to San Francisco (8 nights); explore the city
fly to Las Vegas (5 nights); DH has a conference
LA (1 night) not sure here whether to stay in LA and see grove, farmers markets etc or stay in Santa Monica.
C
Have you considered visiting the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park while in San Diego? You can easily spend a couple of days there.
We have many friends from the UK and shopping is always on the agenda! You can plan visits to several outlet malls (i.e., Ontario Mills, Cabazon, Carlsbad Premium Outlets) just from Anaheim to San Diego. I don't know which part of NY you're visiting, but my favorite outlet there is Woodbury Commons which is about an hour or so north of Manhattan.
Have fun visiting and planning!
It does sound simple, flying into SFO is great and in SF you don't want a car anyways ... I live here in East Bay and refuse to drive into SF, always use public transportation. The Bay Area Rapid Transit system connects to the SF airport terminal, so getting to their hotel in SF should be easy.Love this thread! My sister just contacted me last night about booking a trip for her and her husband in May to see California. She had a tour picked out on Yahoo but it was only going to allow 1 day to see all of San Francisco and I thought it was horribly rushed so now I'm trying to do some research and plan the trip myself.
They do not want to rent a car which is making it kind of difficult to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B. I was thinking of having them fly into San Francisco and getting a hotel there. I found simple tours that you can pick and choose what you want to do and they'll pick you right up from your hotel. I thought 2 nights in San Fran and then go back to the airport to fly to LA and get the shuttle to a Disneyland resort then they could take advantage of the tours offered through DLR with transportation included.
How would this sound? Simple enough? Is there an easier way or am I overthinking it? I'm completely unfamiliar with California.. never been.