First California Trip!

[VandVsmama]

@bcla Is the Santa Monica Pier a whole day thing or will an afternoon and evening there suffice? Son's #1 request, just trying to decide how much time to allot to it. Thanks!

Not worth an entire day. Good for an afternoon and/or evening.

 

[catfan98]

Not worth an entire day. Good for an afternoon and/or evening.

Thank you for the info! I appreciate it. Planning this trip has been rough, lol. I know nothing about the area so even with research, I'm doing a lot of guessing.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Are you camping on the way up the coast? If not, stop in San Luis Obispo. That's 4 hours up the coast and a great jumping-off point for Big Sur. Morro Bay and Cambria, even Pismo/Shell Beach are also great options, but there's more to do in San Luis Obispo.
Personally I would skip the Santa Monica Pier (dirty, disappointing, not much to it - set your expectations appropriately) and opt for the Santa Cruz boardwalk instead. IMHO, that's the last, really great beachside amusement park left and it's worth seeing.

 

[catfan98]

Are you camping on the way up the coast? If not, stop in San Luis Obispo. That's 4 hours up the coast and a great jumping-off point for Big Sur. Morro Bay and Cambria, even Pismo/Shell Beach are also great options, but there's more to do in San Luis Obispo.
Personally I would skip the Santa Monica Pier (dirty, disappointing, not much to it - set your expectations appropriately) and opt for the Santa Cruz boardwalk instead. IMHO, that's the last, really great beachside amusement park left and it's worth seeing.

We aren't camping people (at least I'm not, lol) so we're planning to stay in a hotel. I was thinking Cambria for dinner and stay in Moonstone Beach overnight, then head to Big Sur first thing the next morning. They have some cute roadside hotel/motel choices in Moonstone Beach. But I will check out San Luis Obispo. I hadn't included that in our itinerary I don't think, so I will look into it. Thank you for the info!

My son is obsessed with seeing the Santa Monica Pier for some reason. From the sound of it we won't be spending much time there, but at least he will get to see it. What else do you recommend for that afternoon and evening in that area or surrounding areas? We have revised our itinerary yet again and are planning to stay somewhere in the area around LAX or Santa Monica, or maybe south of LAX if that is a better area, for 1 night and head over to Anaheim early the next morning before our Hollywood tour, so we will have from about noon on to explore in that general area the first day. Recs are appreciated if you have any!

 

[catfan98]

Not worth an entire day. Good for an afternoon and/or evening.

My son is obsessed with seeing the Santa Monica Pier for some reason. From the sound of it we won't be spending much time there, but at least he will get to see it. What else do you recommend for that afternoon and evening in that area or surrounding areas? We have revised our itinerary yet again and are planning to stay somewhere in the area around LAX or Santa Monica, or maybe south of LAX if that is a better area, for 1 night and head over to Anaheim early the next morning before our Hollywood tour, so we will have from about noon on to explore in that general area the first day. Recs are appreciated if you have any!

 

[VandVsmama]

My son is obsessed with seeing the Santa Monica Pier for some reason. From the sound of it we won't be spending much time there, but at least he will get to see it. What else do you recommend for that afternoon and evening in that area or surrounding areas? We have revised our itinerary yet again and are planning to stay somewhere in the area around LAX or Santa Monica, or maybe south of LAX if that is a better area, for 1 night and head over to Anaheim early the next morning before our Hollywood tour, so we will have from about noon on to explore in that general area the first day. Recs are appreciated if you have any!

There's the 3rd Street Promenade, which is an open air shopping area. That's fun for a couple of hours.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Your son (DD17) is the right age - have you thought about touring university campuses? There are some great ones along your route - UCLA, UCSB, and Cal Poly SLO are not even out-of-the way.

 

[catfan98]

Your son (DD17) is the right age - have you thought about touring university campuses? There are some great ones along your route - UCLA, UCSB, and Cal Poly SLO are not even out-of-the way.

That would be a really excellent idea if he were not already set on a technical college here. He will be going for a type of robotics repair/maintenance and the school he is attending works in conjunction with local employers for the student to work and go to school at the same time. The employer can actually sponsor the student and their college is paid for by the employer. It's a pretty good deal if they have a field you are interested in!

 

[bcla]

Your son (DD17) is the right age - have you thought about touring university campuses? There are some great ones along your route - UCLA, UCSB, and Cal Poly SLO are not even out-of-the way.

Well - along the way there's also UC Santa Cruz and Stanford. I'd even throw in a plug for UC Berkeley. However, the UCs and CSUs are back to prioritizing in-state students for admission.

 

[catfan98]

Never been there, or at least I don't remember. Maybe my parents took me there when I was less than 5, but I don't recall. I'm from Northern California and far more familiar with our coast and Santa Cruz.

Can you recommend where at in the San Francisco area I should stay for a couple of nights? Or should we stay outside of SF? We don't mind driving (obviously, lol), so somewhere outside or in a town close by would be fine.

 

[Lumpy1106]

That would be a really excellent idea if he were not already set on a technical college here. He will be going for a type of robotics repair/maintenance and the school he is attending works in conjunction with local employers for the student to work and go to school at the same time. The employer can actually sponsor the student and their college is paid for by the employer. It's a pretty good deal if they have a field you are interested in!

Good for him - glad to see the demise of technical schools has been highly exaggerated.

Well - along the way there's also UC Santa Cruz and Stanford. I'd even throw in a plug for UC Berkeley. However, the UCs and CSUs are back to prioritizing in-state students for admission.

This needs its own thread. My son (DD17) has visited U of W, CPSLO (my alma matter), UCSB, and UCSC. He's interested in the AZ schools too but haven't made it out there. Would love to see what others have found. Like I said though, enough thread-jacking - will bump or start another thread later.

 

[bcla]

Can you recommend where at in the San Francisco area I should stay for a couple of nights? Or should we stay outside of SF? We don't mind driving (obviously, lol), so somewhere outside or in a town close by would be fine.

I don't do a whole lot of hotel stays since I live here. The hotels in San Francisco are extremely expensive, and quite a few people complain about the various social issues (homeless encompments, drug use, etc) so you might not want to stay in SF.

I rather like the hotels around Emeryville, although they're across the bridge. The prices are more reasonable, although they might charge for parking. Emeryville has a Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Four Points, Hilton Garden Inn, and Courtyard. I set up some visiting friends at that Courtyard, and I found it was pretty nice. I was concerned about freeway noise but when I went in the room the soundproofing was amazing. I'd stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn before after a party, and the freeway noise was distracting.

Also, if you're in Emeryville there's no real way to visit Pixar without knowing an employee, although some people just take photos of the entrance.

There are a few places in Berkeley (Doubletree is fine) I might recommend, but then there are are host of places along University Ave that might be best avoided at night.

Other than that - maybe around San Francisco Airport. They've got many airport hotels, and it's actually well outside of San Francisco proper.

Also - if you're crossing the Golden Gate Bridge - they have gone totally cashless in the toll direction (to San Francisco). You would either need a FasTrak transponder (and hope it works) and/or register the car you're driving for a license plate payment. Rental car agencies have ridiculous fees for FasTrak use.

 

[Lumpy1106]

If you are just looking for a place to crash, my company recently put me up in the Executive Suites in Oakland. It's next door to the Motel 6 between the freeway and the bay. Hear me out; I was pleasantly surprised, this was not bad! I would definitely splurge for a room on the bay side as you can hear the freeway. Free parking, breakfast is included and they offer free shuttle service to the BART station and the trendy part of Oakland that is also along the bay. I can't vouch for the Motel 6 but it looked really similar in quality from the outside and shared the same parking lot.

 

[catfan98]

Also - if you're crossing the Golden Gate Bridge - they have gone totally cashless in the toll direction (to San Francisco). You would either need a FasTrak transponder (and hope it works) and/or register the car you're driving for a license plate payment. Rental car agencies have ridiculous fees for FasTrak use.

So, are you saying if we’re in a rental, we can’t or shouldn’t cross the bridge?

 

[bcla]

So, are you saying if we’re in a rental, we can’t or shouldn’t cross the bridge?

You can cross the Golden Gate Bridge in a rental car, but then you'd have to figure out how you're going to pay the toll coming into San Francisco. I would have no problem with my family cars since we're set up with the FasTrak toll system that's used throughout California. Mine is set up for automatic replenishment via my credit card. I've heard of some visitors buying a FasTrak transponder at Costco, which comes with $25 in toll value and requires no deposit at Costco. Then it can be returned for a refund of any unused value. However, that would rely on the transponder working properly. If it doesn't communicate then it would check the license plate, which may come with additional fees and possibly rental agency fees for a "toll invoice". The rental agencies can be really punitive when they get charged and pass on additional fees to the customer.

The other way to do it would be to set up the license plate for prepayment, and it should be possible to do it with a rental car. This one only works for the Golden Gate Bridge. They have options to prepay for a specific date or for a 30 day window. I've never used it before, but it's just kind of a curiosity for me.

https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/tolls-payment/