California: Redwood Forest to Disneyland

[ElleMo]

I am in the very beginning of planning our 2018 trip trip. I really want to see the Redwoods and my whole family loves Disney so we want to go from Redwood National Forest to Disneyland, with a stop in San Francisco (Fisherman's wharf to be exact).

We'd love to make a stop in Yosemite and Kings Canyon, but probably won't be able to get enough time off. So most likely we will drive down the coast. We'd like to spend at least two days at the Redwood forest and two days at Disney and will probably be in California for 7 days, so that is three days for traveling by car and making short stops along the way.

So if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I don't even know yet which part of the Redwood forests we are going to visit or where we will stay. And of course we want to make some stops along the way and I don't know what those will be.

We are from the east coast and hopefully we can get a flight into Crescent City; if not then fly into San Francisco; We would fly home from either LAX or Orange County airport.

Our other option is to go to Anaheim first, then Redwood forest and fly home from San Francisco.

I've just started playing with the interactive maps and researching stuff, but ay input would be appreciated! It will be my husband, 17-year old daughter and me.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

You seem to be pretty boxed in by your limited time.

If you've got 7 days and you want to spend 2 days each at Disney and the Redwoods, then you really don't have time for anything else.

Assuming you'd fly into San Francisco, you're looking at basically a day to drive up to the Redwoods, and then 2 days to drive back down to Anaheim - and that's on the freeways, you'd need more time if you'd travel via the coast.

So, between the 3 days of driving, and the 4 days at Redwoods/Disney, you've already used up all of your time, and we haven't even mentioned time required for flights. I imagine you might be able to squeeze in a quick stop at the wharf in SF on your way through, but adding anything else really isn't going to work.

If it were me, and I only had 7 days, I think I would do either Redwoods or Disney. If you did Redwoods, you could actually explore some of the Northern California Coast, maybe even some of Oregon, and San Francisco. If you wanted to make Disney a priority, then perhaps doing Yosemite and Sequoia would be a better choice than Redwoods.

[Southwest Dave]

I would agree with Michael that concentrating on one or the other [Disney or Redwoods] with Fishermans Wharf would work better with the time you have, and you could do a loop trip out of SF heading either North or South. If you decided south then flying into LA might be a cheaper option. Out of all the things you have mentioned, Yosemite would be top of my list.

[ElleMo]

So, between the 3 days of driving, and the 4 days at Redwoods/Disney, you've already used up all of your time, and we haven't even mentioned time required for flights. I imagine you might be able to squeeze in a quick stop at the wharf in SF on your way through, but adding anything else really isn't going to work.

If it were me, and I only had 7 days, I think I would do either Redwoods or Disney. If you did Redwoods, you could actually explore some of the Northern California Coast, maybe even some of Oregon, and San Francisco. If you wanted to make Disney a priority, then perhaps doing Yosemite and Sequoia would be a better choice than Redwoods.

Thanks for the advice. It's exactly the info I am looking for. We'd actually have about 9 days total so I assumed two days for flight.

If I fly into Crescent City, would it be doable? That's much closer than San Fran.

Mapquest says it would take 17.5 hours to drive along the coast. Is that accurate or would it be much more in reality? We've driven from NY to FLA in two days and that's about a 15-17 hour drive and don't find it too rushed. We'd leave early and drive to San Francisco, which is about 6 hours. So if we left at 5, we'd be there at 11. Then the next day drive another 5 hours or so stop somewhere. The third day we'd end at Disney maybe making a stop for afternoon somewhere?

Looks like I need to research two routes/ trips -- one from Crescent City, the other from San Fran and decide from there. Maybe I can see if I can get one or two extra days off too.

Thanks

[ElleMo]

I would agree with Michael that concentrating on one or the other [Disney or Redwoods] with Fishermans Wharf would work better with the time you have, and you could do a loop trip out of SF heading either North or South. If you decided south then flying into LA might be a cheaper option. Out of all the things you have mentioned, Yosemite would be top of my list.

This may be a stupid question, but by loop, do you mean San Fran to Yosemite to Disney then drive up the coast back to San Fran?

[ElleMo]

Hmm, so I am mulling my options. The two musts for my family are big trees and Disneyland. Sea Lions are up there too. So maybe San Francisco, Yosemite, Sequoia National Park and Disney?

[AZBuck]

As Michael has correctly pointed out, a week is simply not enough time to see everything on your wish list, and so choices must be made. However, I'd like to offer an itinerary that saves both time and money and still gets you at least the flavor of every place you wanted to visit. You would simply fly into Los Angeles, take a local car rental there, and fly home from L.A. That saves you the added costs and hassles of an 'open jaw' plane ticket as well as any one way drop-off fee on the car. It also saves you a ton of driving. I would also note that there are several airports in the L.A. area with scheduled service including Los Angeles International (LAX), John Wayne (SNA), Bob Hope (BUR), and Ontario (ONT), so be sure to check all of them for the best deals. Also be sure to include the cost of the car rental as part of a 'fly-drive' package, because the taxes and fees on that rental can vary considerably from one airport to the next.

That said, the only spot you wanted to hit in San Francisco was Fisherman's Wharf. A similar locale in the Los Angeles area is the Santa Monica Pier. And if you want to see mountains and giant trees, Sequoia National Park is a half day's drive from Los Angeles. So take three days/two nights for that, two days for Disneyland, a day at the beach/pier, and you can fit everything into seven days for less money and less driving. Worth at least some consideration, no?

AZBuck

[ElleMo]

That said, the only spot you wanted to hit in San Francisco was Fisherman's Wharf. A similar locale in the Los Angeles area is the Santa Monica Pier. And if you want to see mountains and giant trees, Sequoia National Park is a half day's drive from Los Angeles. So take three days/two nights for that, two days for Disneyland, a day at the beach/pier, and you can fit everything into seven days for less money and less driving. Worth at least some consideration, no?

AZBuck

Absolutely! Thank you for your suggestions

[Southwest Dave]

This may be a stupid question, but by loop, do you mean San Fran to Yosemite to Disney then drive up the coast back to San Fran?

If I were to drive the coast road I would head south down it which will put the Ocean and it's scenic pull outs on your side of the road. However I see that Disney and Big tree's are a must and with limited time I would agree along the lines of what Buck suggested. After Sequoia you could head towards Morro Bay and do part of the coast back to LA and perhaps check out the 'Danish village' of Solvang on route.

[Midwest Michael]

Mapquest says it would take 17.5 hours to drive along the coast. Is that accurate or would it be much more in reality?

If you're talking about the entire coast (CA-1) from the Redwoods all the way down to LA, that would be much, much more. It would take you about 17.5 hours just to drive the coast from SF to LA, which is why recommend 2 days to drive that section alone.

The last time I went from SF to Crescent City via the coast, I took 2.5 days, and while I wasn't in a hurry, I wasn't spending large amounts of time at any one location either.