West Coast Trip Advice

Planning on taking the family on a quick coast trip from San Diego to San Francisco. This is a short quick 2 day visit and I wish it oculd be more, but due to timing and work we can only fit in 2 days maybe 2.5. We plan on taking the 5 up and work our way back down thru the cost after day 1.

So the thought is to drive up to Frisco late Friday/early Saturday and arriving in Frisco in the am for a quick breakfast and the following:

1) Visit Golden gate bridge in the am to catch a glimpe of the bridge and fog and hopefully get some great pictures.
2) Later in the am drive out to Muir Woods (I visited the redwoods yrs ago as a little kid and I know my kids would love this.) The thought is to go out and enjoy the large marvels of nature and for me get many pictures in.
3) As the after noon aproaches head back into town and enjoy the sites and culture of Frisco. Assumign this would be a lrage part of our day.

4) Check into hotel I am sure kids will want a break and dinner.
5) Head out to get some night shots of the Golden Gate bridge,walk the bridge and other sites of Frisco.

The following day we are kind of hung up:

We are not sure if we should Stop in monterey or Santa Barbara. I do plan on stopping by Hearst Castle and possible Big Sur. I would love to do it all and take time off from work, but we are out of luck at this time.

Any suggestions and advice would be great.

thanks

In SF:

Exploratorium -- kids of all ages LOVE this place!!!
Chinatown
Fishermans Wharf

Heading south from the Bay Area, my recommendation would be Monterey and Big Sur. If you want to see Santa Barbara, it's day-trip train ride away from SD.

My vote would also be for Monterey/Big Sur, especially if you haven't already. Some amazing landscape to see and explore, and some touristy family spots if you want that too. World-class aquarium, fisherman's wharf in Monterey, Cannery Row, 17-mile drive, Point Lobos, etc.

On a side note, I've lived in the Bay area and personally I'd take 280/85 when possible, instead of sticking on 101 from the south bay to/from SF. There almost always seems to be issues on that stretch of 101 causing traffic jams; construction, a 49er/Giants game, accidents, rush hour, concerts, etc. In 20 years or so, I've almost never run into traffic issues on 280 between San Jose and SF, except for the turn off to Half Moon Bay. And less time on the road means more time enjoying vacation

Might be changing plans and maybe not hit Sf. Apples WWDC is next week and I totally forgot about it. Hotels are ourtagous pretty much all over town and thinkign crowds will be bigger than usual. So Maybe we make it a Monterey Trip and head South.. really wanted to head up to the bay area. Still talking it through with the wife.

Assuming you're starting in SD, the drive north to SF is something more than a casual drive. It will chew 8+ hours out of your weekend.

Were you planning to sleep during day 1? Trying to drag around on zero hours rest will utterly ruin your trip.

Suggest you fly to SF then rent a car for the trip back. SF has excellent public transport, and a car is actually somewhat of a liability.

Geonerd wrote in post #14555386
Assuming you're starting in SD, the drive north to SF is something more than a casual drive. It will chew 8+ hours out of your weekend.

Were you planning to sleep during day 1? Trying to drag around on zero hours rest will utterly ruin your trip.

Suggest you fly to SF then rent a car for the trip back. SF has excellent public transport, and a car is actually somewhat of a liability.

Family of six.. but no we planned on driving up Friday, touring SF all day Saturday and drive the coast on sunday on te way back to SD.

Ambitious. We did a road trip from LA to SF in the winter and it was a heck of a drive. We managed to get a nice motel on Lumbard St with a view of the GG bridge. It was La Luna Inn. Very nice and low priced when we were there.

Note, we also had to detour from the 5 on the way back due to snow. You should be fine during the day. In fact the 5 is faster than the 101 so it should be doable.

I got a great sunset pic of part of the GG bridge from fisherman's wharf. Wish I coulda been a few miles to my right and put the bridge right in the middle of the shot.

Sorry the quality got degraded by the auto shrink on the board, no time to fix it myself.

if you do decide to go to SF a great place for night shots is this place called twin peaks.
im actually going to monterey this thursday on my SF trip. so i can let you know how monterey is.

Berkeley Marina!