Yosemite & California Coast

We plan to travel September 08 and would like to include Yosemite, Northern California down the coast to the Los Angeles area. We will be flying ';somewhere';, renting a car and on from there. We will have 12 days to explore. We would like to fly Southwest since they seem to have the best deals. We%26#39;re traveling from St. Louis and I%26#39;m not sure where we should start and end. Is this itinerary too much for 12 days? We%26#39;ve never seen any of these areas. Is Redwood National Park too far to include? There are just 2 of us so there won%26#39;t be any kids to take into consideration. We want to hike and of coarse do a lot of sightseeing. I would appreciate any input.

Yosemite %26amp; California Coast

You can fly Southwest into Oakland a spend a few days in SF, then rent a car and head out to Yosemite.

At Yosemite, I would recommend staying at least 2 nights, although if you like hiking you may want 3 nights, as you%26#39;ll have access to the high country and Tuolumne Meadows in Sept.

From Yosemite you could head west to Monterey and then south along the coast to LA, but then you may not have time to return to SF and will incur one way rental charges.

Or you could drive to Monterey, head south for awhile to say, San Simeon or Morro Bay, and stay the night, then head back north to SF and Oakland and return your car. If you still wanted to see LA, you could fly down, again on Southwest.

Are you more interested in seeing the coast or seeing LA?

Yosemite %26amp; California Coast

Since there are just 2 of you I think you can see a lot of California in 12 days. Are you planning to rent the car in one place and drop off in another or are you concerned about the auto drop off fees?

Let%26#39;s assume you are concerned about the drop off fees - I%26#39;d suggest flying into Sacramento.

The route I%26#39;d suggest for 12 days is as follows:

1) Fly into Sacramento.

2) Day One - Drive about 2 to 3 hours and stay the night at Lake Tahoe. Perhaps take the dinner cruise on Ms. Dixie.or Tahoe Queen

www.zephyrcove.com/cruises/index.cfm鈥?/a>

(If not your thing - The Forest Room in Harrahs has a great view of the Lake....).

3) Day Two:

Drive from Lake Tahoe to Highway 395 - this area will take you through Bridgeport (you can stop at Bodie Ghost Town and see that) and continue to see Mono Lake. Drive Tioga Pass and enter Yosemite. Stay in Yosemite (suggest Staying in the valley at park lodging if this is your first trip.)

http://www.bodie.com/

http://www.monolake.org/

http://www.nps.gov/yose/

Day Three:

Yosemite - Plan on a hike and do the normal sight seeing such as Glacier Point, etc. Since just the 2 of you, I%26#39;d plan on a nice dinner out at the Ahwahnee Hotel in the evening (get reservations.)

Day Four:

Depart Yosemite - See Big Trees, Wawona and end in Sequoia National Park for the evening.

http://www.nps.gov/seki/

Day Five:

Drive to Los Angeles - Not sure what you want to see here but suggest staying either in Hollywood or Santa Monica Beach area.

Renaissance Hotel (if in your price range) would be a good place to enjoy the evening.

http://www.renaissancehollywood.com/

This would let you enjoy seeing the Hollywood sights - walk of the starts, Graumanns Manns Chinese, etc.

Day Six:

Los Angeles

Perhaps a morning studio tour of Warner Brothers Studio

http://www2.warnerbros.com/vipstudiotour/

Lunch at Farmers Market

http://www.farmersmarketla.com/

Enjoy the afternoon and evening in Santa Monica/Venice Beach.

Dinner in Santa Monica

Return to Renaissance Hotel.

Day Seven:

Depart Los Angeles and drive to Pismo Beach. Stay the night at Seaventure.

http://www.seaventure.com/

or Best Western

http://www.shorecliff.com/

On the drive up see Santa Barbara and Solvang.

Perhaps stop at a winery or two in Santa Ynez Valley.

http://www.santabarbaraca.com/

http://www.solvangusa.com/

http://www.syvva.com/

Day Eight:

Tour Hearst Castle (get reservations in advance)

http://www.hearstcastle.org/

Drive through Big Sur to Carmel

http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/

If into outdoors, you might consider staying at Asilomar

http://www.visitasilomar.com/

Easy walk to beautiful ocean country and reasonable pricing.

Breakfast is usually included in price of room for the morning.

Day Nine:

Take a morning hike at Pt. Lobos - just a couple of miles south of Carmel.

http://pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us/

Drive north to Santa Cruz and see Santa Cruz Boardwalk

http://www.beachboardwalk.com/

Drive to San Francisco and have dinner in San Francisco.

Check into Chancellor Hotel.

http://www.chancellorhotel.com/

Day Ten:

Enjoy San Francisco till late - in evening drive to Garberville and check into Best Western.

bestwesterncalifornia.com/garberville-hotels/

(This hotel is close to Avenue of the Giants - The Redwoods.)

Day Eleven:

Take some hikes in the redwoods.

Avenue of the Giants

http://avenueofthegiants.net/

Then drive to Napa and have dinner in Napa.

Perhaps Celadon

Stay overnight at Best Western Elm House Inn

http://www.celadonnapa.com/

鈥estwestern.com/bestwestern/productInfo.do鈥?/a>

Depart in time from Napa for the short drive to Sacramento to catch your afternoon flight back to Missouri.

Note: If you want to spend more time in San Francisco, you could skip Garberville and see Big Basin by Santa Cruz and Muir Woods just north of San Francisco and see the redwoods.

If you%26#39;re ok with 3 to 4 hours a day in the car and changing hotels this itinerary would work to see a lot and still have time to explore.

If you want to see more of Los Angeles (i.e. not sure if you%26#39;re planning several days at theme parks, etc.) then you%26#39;ll want to revise accordingly.

Just some ideas - if you have questions or other things you%26#39;d like to consider, do advise. Have fun planning your wonderful trip.

Thanks for your feedback. When looking at maps, I had originally thought about flying into Reno spending a couple of days (??) at Lake Tahoe and moving on from there. Your suggestion of flying into Sacramento looks like it would be more central. I definately want to spend 2-3 days @ Yosemite.

I also thought about driving to Eureka to see Redwood NP and traveling down the coast from there. Is that being too ambitious?

I don%26#39;t have a problem flying into one city and out of another. All of the things you suggested down the coast are definately things I would like to see. I%26#39;m not sure what I want to see in Los Angeles. I%26#39;m not interested in any amusement parks (been there - done that). Venice Beach is about as far as I%26#39;ve got. I%26#39;m still doing a lot of reading.

Do you think we need to make lodging reservations in advance for September?

Again - thanks!

In terms of lodging reservations, if its Labor Day weekend, its a must.

In the rest of the month:

Big cities like San Francisco can be busy and hard to find if there is a large meeting or other event (note: There are always places you can find in the suburbs if the case.).

Yosemite however is a MUST to have a reservation - its extremely popular and people without kids and people with kids under the age 5 find this an amazing time to visit the park.

Weekends in Monterey/Carmel can be busy - during the week days you should be able to easy find a room to stay at. Sorry its not a more straightforward answer - it all depends on your timing.

California is a huge state. To do Redwoods National Park and surrounding areas it takes a good 3 to 4 days from San Francisco to loopback.(we visited again this past August and although the roads are a lot faster than our last trip, it still takes time. In terms of ';equivalent'; amazing redwoods the Avenue of the Giants is fantastic. They have a wonderful nature trail to take (the person I was with who grew up in Crescent City loved it and thought it was one of the best redwood trails he had been on to see the redwoods in a short amount of time.) The other problem is that there are few flights that fly into Eureka. If you want to save some time, you could of course, fly into Reno - see Yosemite and return to Reno. Then fly to Los Angeles and take the drive up the coast. Perhaps 3 days in Yosemite; 7 days to drive the coastal route; 1 day to get back to an airport area; and fly home.

The coastal route is slow. The roads are slow (note: the best equivalent I can think of is driving from Hannibel, Missouri to St. Louis in the dark on the windy country road however with more up and down hills....the entire drive along the coast is sort of like that. So imagine 600 miles of that type of driving. Its pretty but it will be slow.