Leaving Vancouver, need coastal help???

[jenny77]

Hi,
My bf and I are thinking of doing a road trip next month (October). We live in Vancouver and we'll have about 12 days. Our must do's are San Fran and San Diego. There are other stops we'd like but most are in or around California. Now, I wonder if this is way too far to do in 12 days? Should we scrap taking our car, fly down to San Diego, rent a car and maybe fly back from San Fran? Just looking for advice from anyone who may have done this trip before. I know we can get to Portland easily by the first day, but I'm not too clear on the rest. Any help would be awesome!!!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome back to the RTA Forum, after a 4 year absense!

I take it you never did take your trip back in 2005?

You could get down to SF in 2 days and SD in 3, if you are sticking to the interstates. That would give you about a week to explore. Of course, if you are hoping to take the coast, you'll need to factor in a little more time on the road.

Having said that, its now up to you to decide if that's enough time for what you want to do, or if flying is a better option based on your own personal preferences.

[jenny77]

Haha, I just looked at my old post. Guess I've always wanted to do this trip! No, we went to Maui instead.

Still trying to decide between flying or driving the whole way...

[Lifemagician]

Still trying to decide between flying or driving the whole way...

If you are going to fly, consider flying to SF and driving to SD... if you do the coast road, it will be so much more enjoyable.

[PNW Judy]

As Michael stated, you could do this trip either way. If you really like being on the road, then a roadtrip would be good. However, you need to keep in mind that you'll need three days each way, total six, to get to San Diego and back again, only leaving about six days maximum to explore. This will make it tough to see much of both San Francisco and San Diego and any points in between the two.

As Lifemagician pointed out, the coastal drive between those two cities is remarkable. You will really want a minimum of two days just for that.

So, if you are really looking forward to the drive itself and consider SF and SD as just major stopping points along the way, a roadtrip would be great.

But, if you really want to see those cities in depth, and other parts of SoCal while you're there (like that coastal drive), then flying probably makes more sense.

It's your call. Both would be good if they fit the people on the trip.

[jenny77]

Okay, so looks like we're going to fly into San Fran, rent a car loop down to San Diego and back up to drop the car off in San Fran and fly home. This would give us 12 days total. Long enough??? How many days should we do in San Fran to start? How many in San Diego? Where in between? We're a couple in our early 30s. We don't have a HUGE amount of money to spend. We like the idea of the Monterrey aquarium, the San Diego Zoo, (are they worth it?) we've already done Universal and Disneyland so we can skip them. Actually, we could probably skip most of LA...

[Midwest Michael]

The great thing about a roadtrip is that you don't have to follow someone else's itinerary or a generic plan - you can build it to fit your own interests.

I would say that you probably want at least 2, if not 3 days to drive down the coast, especially if you want to stop at places like the aquarium.

You may also want to include some time in Sequoia or Yosemite on the way back to SF?

But beyond that, you really have to figure out what it is you want to see, and how you want to break things up. With 12 days for this area, you've got lots of options.

[glc]

The San Diego Zoo is one of the world's premier zoos and is a "don't miss" in my opinion. Other major attractions in San Diego are the Wild Animal Park and Sea World. Combo tickets are available for all 3 attractions.

[Southwest Dave]

While in San Fran I would recommend an Alcatraz tour, it's very interesting and you get great views of the city and Golden gate from the boat. It's also worth booking in advance, if it's not booked up there are usually long ques for tickets. This is the only official ticket office where you can book in advance if you wanted to visit. Pier 39, Coit tower, China town and Union square are all worthwhile attractions among many.
You might want to consider renting the car as you leave SF rather than when you arrive. Not only will it save you a few dollars in rental but it's easy to get around the city without one and parking fees [even at your hotel] are generally high.
From the airport it is easy to get downtown using the Bart rail system which we found to be efficient and good value.

[jacksonjohn83]

On the way down to Santa Barbara, visit the town of Solvang.