Looking for a bit of advice from the Californian wordforgeraty or those who have toured the golden state. Basically the Stallioness and myself want to tour it before we get old and have other priorities in life. Last minute but it looks like this summer is the ideal time. Now if I had time to plan it properly I would probably be looking at 3-4 weeks, but time is not a luxury, and perhaps more importantly neither is money or annual leave from work. So basically I want to cram as much California into a two week package as possible. Ideally squeeze It down to 10-11 days as it would be rude not to go back to Vegas for a couple of nights when Im that close. So, I need advice as to must sees, driving times, areas to stay at. Given the timescales I don’t think I can go to the great outdoors and do the national parks, I know it’s a pain in the arse and we will be missing out. What I’m thinking is my tour needs to be coastal. I don’t want to only see interstate, so Highway 1 would seem appropriate. Im thinking, fly into San Fran and spend a good few days there. That city is top of my list. Drive the coast, those that pay attention to my posts will recognise that I’ll need to visit Monterray Bay. See the sites on the way, maybe go into LA for some time. I’m negotiable on this point as I’ve never given two fucks about that city. I’d probably be more interested in some of the music history and studios and the Stallioness would want to shop. Drive down to San Diego and spend another few days there. (This is a city the wife wants to visit so we will be going there) I also need to compare SD Zoo with Singapore zoo and really see which one is the best in the world. So, questions - Is it do-able in the timescales - What do I really need to see on that route - LA –yae or nae? - How long to drive each leg - Accommodation on route, is it readily available and affordable? I don’t care for luxury during the driving, happy with a motel. I’ll get a decent hotel in SF, SD and LV. - Areas to stay in San Fran and San Diego If I think up more questions, I’ll post them up. I won’t be bringing my gun so I don’t care about concealed carry laws!
I've done it. You need to do Route 1/ Big Sur. LA shouldn't be a priority. In San Francisco, stay around the Haight or somewhere like that.
Yosemite, Napa Valley, San Francisco, Giant Sequoia Natl Forest/Park. Hollywood studio tours if you're into that.
Lived in Oceanside for 2 years. That's about 30 minutes north of San Diego and 2 hours south of LA. San Diego? Fuck, I dunno. The zoo is world famous. The carrier is pretty cool. I liked to drink on Pacific Beach/College Beach. La Jolla is artsy-fartsy. LA? I always stayed at the Holiday Inn Express around Hollywood and La Brea. The Warner Brothers studio tour is expensive. And awesome. The Universal Studios Tour is crappier. And cheaper. When I was there Paramount--the last studio still actually based in Hollywood--didn't have a tour. The Walk of Fame and Mann's Chinese Theater are pretty cool. Disneyland is lame but what the hell, it's Disneyland! San Francisco is...I dunno, 8-10 hours north of LA. I've been there a couple times but maybe I should yield to Paladin on that. Rib Shack in San Bruno (near the actual SF Airport) has the best BBQ I've ever had. There's Fisherman's Wharf. And Alcatraz. And Lombard St, the crookedest street in the world. Cable cars. Chinatown. A bondage pornographer bought the SF Armory a couple years ago. You can do tours of it.
If I was going on my own obviously I could make this a red room thread and find out what to really get up too
Really? And I thought that the crookedest street in the world is Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington D.C.
You may leave feeling dissapointed unless you take in the Northen state nature. Some of it is stunning. Don't do too much of the touristy shit. It's a little too vulgar IMO. Few days of it are enough. Too many lakes and generally untouched and beautiful country to enjoy.
I believe the America's Cup sailboat event is this summer in San Francisco. I'd research that, you may want to avoid the city, or not, just be aware of it. Do you like wine, Napa/Sonoma is just a short drive north of SF. Highway 1 north of the Bay is some of the most spectacular scenery you'll ever see. Aside from that I'll leave it to the locals, most of my California experience is up in the wine country, love SF though, I'd go back in a minute.
Im Scottish. I appreciate all forms of alcohol! Been plenty wine tasting in France and Australia. I'll run it past the current Mrs Big Stall.
You gotta see Yosemite and Lake Tahoe. LA is way too touristy, trafficky and expensive. I'd recommend skipping it or just passing through. The furthest south you need to go is either Santa Barbara or Ventura. I also highly recommend Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park, but it's super far out of the way. It's where they filmed the Endor scenes in Star Wars.
Did something similar in 2010 (5 days in Vegas, then 8 or 9 days along the coast). We did the following stops as far as I remember: - SF (flew into SF) for 2 or 3 nights [hated it] - Drive along Highway 1 to Lake Nacimiento and camped there for 2 nights [fun but skip-able] - Drive along Highway 1 to Santa Barbara, 2 nights at the Doubletree [nice but boring] - Drive to LA [2 or 3 nights, loved it] - Day trip to San Diego [nice but boring again]
I grew up in NorCal, and have been in SoCal for three months. I'd honest recommend the SF/Napa route. San Diego isn't super exciting for a married couple (apart from the zoo, perhaps) and I've yet to visit LA so I can't comment on it. But SF has a lot of beautiful sites, and is close to Napa and Lake Tahoe. But for the love of God avoid Pier 39 at all cost...it's an overhyped tourist trap that my family burnt me out on before I left grade school.
Yeah, that place is just a huge money-sink. As far as waterfront tourist spots in SF, the Ferry Building and Fisherman's Wharf are way better. Also, take a ferry ride past Alcatraz while you're there.
A 10 day California itinerary by car that crams in as much as possible? Okay... Fly into San Francisco Day 1 - San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39 Bay cruise Alcatraz Island tour Day 2 - San Francisco Do the obligatory cable car ride Chinatown/North Beach Coit Tower Golden Gate Bridge Catch a show (give me a date and I'll tell you what's playing) Day 3 - Day trip to Napa Valley This will be an all day excursion to one of the world's great wine regions, about an hour northeast of San Francisco Drink some wine and have a nice dinner Day 4 - Drive to Monterey Have lunch in Santa Cruz Consider a short excursion to Mission San Juan Bautista (one of California's old Spanish missions and location for Hitchcock's Vertigo) Day 5 - Monterey Monterey Aquarium Cannery Row Want to go to the beach? Take your pick. Day 6 - Drive highway 1 Tour Hearst Castle Stay over in Santa Barbara Day 7 - Los Angeles (get an early start today!) Disneyland Walk of Fame/Chinese Theater Griffith Observatory Day 8 - Los Angeles Universal Studios (consider the cheaper, more authentic, and less touristy Paramount Studios instead) Rodeo Drive Santa Monica Pier Venice Beach Day 9 - San Diego Sea World U.S.S. Midway Day 10 - San Diego San Diego Zoo Coronado Beach This is a purely "coastal" itinerary. Alas, it misses a few of California's top attractions--Yosemite, Point Reyes, Lake Tahoe, Joshua Tree, Redwoods National Park--but it checks most of the big boxes. California is really a lot more than the coasts, but the truly iconic stuff is concentrated in the SF and LA areas. The California central valley is pretty flat and uninteresting, Silicon Valley has a lot of industry and dynamism but not very much in the way of attractions, and the mountains and deserts are too remote for a 10 day trip. Let me know if this sounds good and I can help flesh it out some more!
^ What about all your state's interesting & diverse climates, weather, & terrain? Something visitors should like, enjoy, & appreciate.
The terrain IS pretty diverse...if you get away from the coasts. The best you can do on a trip from SF to SD along the coast is visit the beach, see a scenic coastline, or maybe hike in a forest. Unfortunately, their schedule probably doesn't allow for a stop by The Pinnacles, one of my favorite hiking spots in Northern California.
Touristy sights are usually what tourists want to see. And all of those I listed ARE worth seeing. The state's too big for me to have off-the-beaten-path recommendations for everywhere. But the rough itinerary I set up allows time to "soak up" some of the local flavor. Stallion said he didn't really have time to go do the big outdoorsy things--Yosemite is a huge miss--but the coastal drive itself is one of the most scenic in the world, particularly between Monterey and San Luis Obispo. I can make some restaurant recommendations in Northern California and can advise on hotels, etc. when the dates are firm.
To be fair to you, the state is so large that there are whole sections of the north that really require an additional week or two. Hell, the skiing resorts are worth a couple of days at least, even if they are out of season. Lovely country.
Yeah, it's a shame that Mt. Shasta, Point Reyes, Redwoods National Forest, etc. are probably out of reach for Stallion. They are all quite spectacular. Culturally, the far north of California is relatively uninteresting; there are not a whole lot of globally recognizable attractions. I grew up in Sacramento, the state's capitol, and can tell you there's very little reason for a tourist from Europe to spend even an hour there that could be spent elsewhere. To borrow Gertrude Stein's famous quote about Oakland (another completely unremarkable California city): "There's no there there." You bet. California's got some of the best skiing in the world and the Sierras are quite breathtaking in winter.
Thing is, California is roughly the size of the entire country of Japan. Being able to see everything in ten days is damn near impossible.
Decent agenda. I'd forgotten about Venice Beach. Absolutely do that. Is Paramount doing tours again? They'd suspended them after 9/11 and never reopened them while I was out there. I suspect it was an opportunity to get out of a money-losing nuisance and focus on making movies and television. I really enjoyed the Warner Brothers studio tour. It was a VIP affair and cost $45 or something but it started out with a small museum with things like the blimp miniature from "Blade Runner", Sam's piano from "Casablanca", Brando's Jor-El costume, Clint Eastwood's Gunny Highway costume, etc. Then we saw the "Friend's" soundstage, the ambulance entrance for "E.R." the facade for "The West Wing," and then the back lot, which featured heavily "The Dukes of Hazzard", the city hall from the Adam West "Batman" series, and a lot of locations for "Gilmore Girls"(?). We also got to see the costume department, drive through props (on a big golf cart) and a couple other things I forget. Fascinating. Oh, one of the streets was closed down because they'd just been using if for..."Minority Report"? Another neat thing about the Warner Brothers lot is that all the office spaces are designed to look like apartments and such from the outside so they can use them as exterior shots for shoots--have your actors park on the street, walk up to the payroll office, open the door, and cut to an apartment set on a soundstage. Movie magic!
Some great advice, thanks to all and particularly Paladin for that agenda. I agree, that things are touristy because they are what tourists want to see. Im in a rush this morning but i'll write on here properly tonight. Is there much the wife can get up to in Monterray for 5 hours if i decide to drop $500 and play pebble beach? A studio tour might be cool but im not too bothered about theme parks. Done plenty in plenty places including Orlando. Im certainly not going to Disney land, that can wait until any such time i have a little person to take. Cheers
There's a place in Upland I recommend if your wife wants to spend a day shopping Rodeo Drive. Your basic plan is very doable, and should be enjoyable. I recommend not skipping L.A., as you'll be driving through anyway. Studio tours, Hollywood in general, Santa Monica pier, Venice Beach, hamburgers, and donuts, are all a must in L.A., along with the aforementioned side trip to Upland. I agree with others that it's a shame you'll miss places like Yosemite and the deserts, but at the same time, I think your strategy of following the coast is the most sound for the time available. I once took friends on a tour of California over the course of Spring break. We hit San Francisco, wine country, Hearst's Castle, L.A., Disney, San Diego, and even Tijuana. In fact we even managed a few hours at Joshua Tree, long enough for me to shag one of them under the desert sky (as you Brits say). It helped that I know the state intimately well, but you should do just fine. Paladin's itinerary looks like good bet.
I can recommend Z&Y Chinese restaurant in Chinatown while you're in SF. Wonderful Kung Pao shrimp! But honestly there are so many places to eat in Chinatown, if you like the cuisine, that it's hard to go wrong. A quick Google search will provide lists/rankings/reviews. When I was in SF a couple of July's ago, I hit the Giants game at AT&T Park the first night, rode the cable car on the Powell-Hyde line out to Fisherman's Wharf and had dinner at Neptune's Palace at the end of Pier 39 the next night, and walked to Chinatown to sight see and eat dinner the third night. I can recommend all of that. I missed a lot of other touristy stuff because I was attending a training class, so my free time was limited to the evenings.
In that case San Diego is known as the beer capital of America with the most breweries and the most award winning beers so you'll definitely want to take a beer brewery tour when there. Also a stop off in the wine country of Napa and Sonoma must also be on the list. Just try to buy tickets with an organized tour company though because, especially during the summer high season, there are DUI check points every where and it would ruin your vacation to get locked up in jail. As for an itinerary... A lot is going to depend upon what you're interests are but this is what I would do (please note I like the outdoors, all things gastronomic, and we'll try to fit in all of the major tourist spots as well). Must visits: -San Francisco & Napa -Greater L.A. including Hollywood and Disneyland (you may want to skip Disney if that's not your cup of tea) -San Diego including Zoo (you might think that is boring but it really is the best zoo in the whole world), Sea World, Wild Animal Park, and Brewery tour. -Yosemite, this goes without saying. -Las Vegas, one or two nights should be more than enough. Would be nice to do: -Grand Canyon, yes, it is in Zonieland and summer is the worst time to visit but it's still a good stop. - Drive up the coast highway (US Highway 1) from LA to SF. This takes three times as much time as just driving up Interstate 5 but the views are amazing. The road is twisty and lots of people go off the edge because they're so busy looking at the breath taking scenery they miss a turn so make sure you allow enough time to not rush things. -Death Valley, it's in California but only a few hours drive from Vegas and it's well worth a trip. Personally, I'd rather do it in spring instead of summer because it's not an accident the place is called death valley. It really is that hot but the geologic formations and just pure desolation and isolation make it worth visiting. -Caviar and cheese tasting (Napa would be a good place for this though there are a surprising number of artisan producers in the central valley). -Whale watching and/or deep sea fishing, San Diego is the choice to do this. -A day trip to Tijuana/Northern Baja California, Mexico. This place still has some rough edges (it's a developing country) but it is the epicenter of an absolutely amazing boom in gastronomy. We're talking truly amazing world class fresh and local stuff sold for half the price it would cost in the US. If you do want to go down there I will give you specific recommendations which even the New York Time's food critics raved about and don't worry about language because most people speak English.
