San Francisco roundtrip this August

Hi all!

We’re planning a 10-day trip in California this August; it will be me (19), my brother (24) and my parents (in their mid-fifties). The only thing we’ve already booked is the plane tickets (BCN – SFO and SFO – BCN).

We made a rough plan of our stay there and this is how it turned out:
FRI 9: arrival at SFO/4pm; night at San Francisco
SAT 10: night at San Francisco
SUN 11: 240km drive to Big Sur; night at Big Sur (1)
MON 12: 340km drive to Santa Barbara; night at Santa Barbara (1)
TUE 13: 340km drive to Palm Springs; night at Palm Springs
WED 14: night at Palm Springs
THU 15: 400km early drive to Sequoia National Park; night at Sequoia (2)
FRI 16: 200km drive to Yosemite NP, night at Yosemite (2)
SAT 17: night at Yosemite (2)
SUN 18: 400km drive to San Francisco; night at San Francisco
MON 19: departure from SFO/1pm

And here are our questions:
(0) We know the trip is pretty busy, but we had to cut our stay down a little and weren’t willing to give up any sights... Anyway, if you think that we really need to omit something or do any kind of schedule rearrangement, please let us know!
(1) The names Big Sur and Santa Barbara are intended for orientation purposes only. Would you recommend any other bases to explore the central coast?
(2) Same happens with Sequoia and Yosemite: where would you stay in these parks? We will be pretty car-dependable (my parents are dreadful hikers) and we won’t be equipped to camp out either, but we wanted to escape the crowds as much possible at the same time… any ideas of where to sleep?
(3) Of course, any other suggestion related to the trip will be very welcome!

So that’s all, many thanks in advance…!
(and excuse my English!)

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I think you've got a pretty nicely laid out trip where you're are making the most of your time without overdoing things. Pretty much all of the places you are looking at visiting will have plenty of things you can see without going on major hikes or going more than a pretty easy walk from the car.

That said, you are visiting some of the most popular tourist destination in the US, and you'll be traveling during peak season. I would expect to be dealing with some crowds, especially on the weekends. However, with your current plan and desire not to get too far off the beaten path, I'm not sure if you'll be able to do more than expect to see lots of other people. In many of these places, you should be looking at making reservations now, especially if you desire to stay within the boundaries of the national parks.