California-July 2016

cwalsh95

Hi there at the moment trying to plan California for the whole month of July, looking to fly Dublin-Los Angeles with San Francisco-Dublin return in early August, anyone know of when the best time is to book these flights and whats the best way of booking them??

Also I am looking for tips as to plan an itenery I have LA planned for July 1-7 then Vegas booked for 8 -11 for the McGregor fight after this I hope to cover San Diego before making my way up to San Francisco
:any places to explore in LA
:anywhere to visit between LA and San Diego
:anywhere to visit in San Diego
:any places to stop between LA and San Fran
:what is the best method of travel in Cali?

All feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks!

budgemook

Hey,

When I flew I found that it was much cheaper to fly in and out of the same airport. Virgin, London to LA is very good.

Car hire is your only man, around 800 would cover the month.

Between LA and San Francisco you have the Pacific Coast highway - make sure to spend a couple of days on it. Monterey is a nice town to stay.

There's loads to do: Yosemite, Sequoia, Death Valley, Joshua Tree - you should be able to plan a nice route around those places but don't plan too far in advance.

Wasn't mad about San Diego myself and wouldn't bother tbh.

dirkmeister

Travel: Hire a car. It's the only way, we booked the holiday with trail finders and they booked our car with Hertz…for cheaper than it was to book direct with the same company.

I travelled the west coast in 2014 and we did it in two and a half weeks.
We did it in a different order to your itinerary so I'll just try and remember what we did, where we stayed etc….

Started in San Francisco and I think we spent 3 days here.
We hired bikes and cycled around the city, out over the Golden Gate Bridge..really enjoyable you get the ferry back from Sausalito
Make sure you book Alcatraz in advance if you're going as it WILL sell out, I think bookings open 90 days in advance.

We drove to Yosemite from San Fran, spent 2 nights here, I'd highly recommend this.

We then made our way back to Highway 101 and stopped in Santa Cruz for a night. it wasn't anything special…The next day we stopped in Monterrey for a while, a nice fishing town and then drove along Big Sur. Pretty cool scenery along this drive. We spent the next night in San Luis Obispo and looking back I would have loved to have had an extra day here to visit a few vineyards etc…they take their alcohol seriously here, lots of sampling of local beers meant a fuzzy head for the drive to L.A.


One thing about L.A..you will have to drive everywhere as the city is just one big sprawl.
We went along the walk of fame one morning and then went to Universal Studios which was one of my highlights…if you like roller coasters then this is the place for you!

You do NOT need to spend so long in L.A.,it was probably the biggest let down of a city I've ever been to.

Venice Beach was quite possibly the most unsettling place I've ever been

We spent 2 full days(I think) in San Diego and it is a beautiful city…lots of history there.

We then drove from San Diego up to Vegas, 8 hours I think it was…lots of vast, vast miles of nothingness!

We did the Grand Canyon bus tour and it took about 12 hours…I normally hate buses but I was sick of driving at this stage though!


We flew back through NYC and spent a few days there to finish off the holiday, so that was a 3 week holiday in total.

You'll have an absolute blast, I'd do it all again if I could!


Hope that helps, if you have any other questions then just ask!

Hi, sorry to hijack your thread. I'm also doing the California road trip this July and would love some input.

We land in San Francisco on 4th July and I've provisionally reserved a few hotels for 3 nights.

Plan on picking up a rental when we leave on day 4 and have 3 nights to play with before another (provisionally) 3 night stop in LA starting 10th.

Get the coastal train down to San Diego and chill out there for 5 nights from 13th in a resort by the beach.

Was going to off hire car once we land in LA as didn't fancy the thoughts of heavy traffic jams, wrong side of road, city driving.

Return flights are from LA. If we chose San Diego, the connection would be LA anyway so why sit in another airport when we could take in the views one last time on the train?

What would anyone change/amend? The hotels are only provisionally booked so I'm open to any suggestions.

budgemook

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

Hi, sorry to hijack your thread. I'm also doing the California road trip this July and would love some input.

We land in San Francisco on 4th July and I've provisionally reserved a few hotels for 3 nights.

Plan on picking up a rental when we leave on day 4 and have 3 nights to play with before another (provisionally) 3 night stop in LA starting 10th.

Get the coastal train down to San Diego and chill out there for 5 nights from 13th in a resort by the beach.

Was going to off hire car once we land in LA as didn't fancy the thoughts of heavy traffic jams, wrong side of road, city driving.

Return flights are from LA. If we chose San Diego, the connection would be LA anyway so why sit in another airport when we could take in the views one last time on the train?

What would anyone change/amend? The hotels are only provisionally booked so I'm open to any suggestions.

3 nights is a nice amount of time to spend getting from San Francisco to LA. I would keep the car in LA though, it's not very easy to get around without one and it's massive. Just stay off the roads between 6am - 10am and 3pm - 7pm

Are you dead set on 5 nights at a beach resort in San Diego? You're missing out on loads of stuff inland. You could drive to Joshua Tree in half a day from San Diego, stay there for a night or two and explore the national park. You could be on a beach in Spain tbh, seems a long way to go to sit on a beach. I'm not a beach person

Uncle_moe

In LA I would def go to the Griffith Park Observatory at night. Amazing views of the city. Drive the length of Mulholland drive, some spectacular sights again.
Rodeo drive and Beverly hills is worth a visit to just walk around and take in the sights. Make sure you get to in-n-out burger, habit, and pinks. Walk of fame is worth seeing if you've never been, could even spend a couple of nights at the Roosevelt and go up to yamashiro restaurant where they filmed the crazy 88's scene from kill bill.
Loz Feliz is a good place to stay and not too far if you want to take in a Dodgers game. Alternatively, go to Petco Park in downtown san diego if you visit because the stadium is walking distance to everything.

solerina

dirkmeister wrote: »

Travel: Hire a car. It's the only way, we booked the holiday with trail finders and they booked our car with Hertz…for cheaper than it was to book direct with the same company.

I travelled the west coast in 2014 and we did it in two and a half weeks.
We did it in a different order to your itinerary so I'll just try and remember what we did, where we stayed etc….

Started in San Francisco and I think we spent 3 days here.
We hired bikes and cycled around the city, out over the Golden Gate Bridge..really enjoyable you get the ferry back from Sausalito
Make sure you book Alcatraz in advance if you're going as it WILL sell out, I think bookings open 90 days in advance.

We drove to Yosemite from San Fran, spent 2 nights here, I'd highly recommend this.

We then made our way back to Highway 101 and stopped in Santa Cruz for a night. it wasn't anything special…The next day we stopped in Monterrey for a while, a nice fishing town and then drove along Big Sur. Pretty cool scenery along this drive. We spent the next night in San Luis Obispo and looking back I would have loved to have had an extra day here to visit a few vineyards etc…they take their alcohol seriously here, lots of sampling of local beers meant a fuzzy head for the drive to L.A.


One thing about L.A..you will have to drive everywhere as the city is just one big sprawl.
We went along the walk of fame one morning and then went to Universal Studios which was one of my highlights…if you like roller coasters then this is the place for you!

You do NOT need to spend so long in L.A.,it was probably the biggest let down of a city I've ever been to.

Venice Beach was quite possibly the most unsettling place I've ever been

We spent 2 full days(I think) in San Diego and it is a beautiful city…lots of history there.

We then drove from San Diego up to Vegas, 8 hours I think it was…lots of vast, vast miles of nothingness!

We did the Grand Canyon bus tour and it took about 12 hours…I normally hate buses but I was sick of driving at this stage though!


We flew back through NYC and spent a few days there to finish off the holiday, so that was a 3 week holiday in total.

You'll have an absolute blast, I'd do it all again if I could!


Hope that helps, if you have any other questions then just ask!

We also did SF and hired bikes to cross the bridge, a definate highlight. Yosemite was amazing, we spent 2 nights, I also loved San Luis Obispo and the nearby beach at Avila Beach. Santa Barbera is also a great little town. Having a car at your disposal made the entire area so accessable.

Fathom

cwalsh95 wrote: »

:what is the best method of travel in Cali?

Car. Ineffective & inefficient public transportation.