CA/LV Vacation Suggestions

[Hoax]

Now that we have more of a clue I'm strongly apposed to flying into Portland instead of flying into Oakland/San Jose/SFO. If it saves you a huge chunk of dough fine but you will get plenty of driving on the California coast going from the Bay Area to LA and it will take plenty of time you don't need that added drive from Oregon.

I would map it out roughly:
-3 nights Bay Area
-On fourth day drive to Big Sur / Monterrey / Carmel area (2.5-3hrs down the coast) depending on if you feel like nature or fancy food and window shopping or whenever you see something that strikes you to stop at. Sleep somewhere down there.
-Day 5 is the drive to LA, this probably takes around 5 hours. You might want to research or look for somewhere to stop, eat, see things. Sleep somewhere in the sprawl?
-Stay in LA another two nights. Visit your hometown (?).
-Day 8: There are two ways to drive to Vegas for my money. One is leaving at the crack of dawn and one is to make sure you arrive at night. You must do one of these two. I favor arriving to Vegas at night because its much cooler. Depends on how familiar you are with LV I suppose. If you've seen it a dozen times do what you like. Google says it takes four hrs to get from LA to LV. Sounds about right to me as it takes 9-11 to get from SF to LV depending on a lot of things.
- +2/3 nights in LV means 11-12 day trip. You've driven roughly 13 hours, 8 of them along highway one and the pacific coast. You've gotten a taste for San Francisco, you could have stopped a lot of seaside towns and places, you've checked out LA and you probably hate Las Vegas.

[pants]

If heading from LA to LV, think about going through Joshua Tree national park.  Its a touch out of the way, but I found it incredible when I went there.  I went there as part of a 3 month trip that literally took me from San Diego to Boston, and for me Joshua Tree was the highlight of the whole trip.

[Strazos]

Now that we have more of a clue I'm strongly apposed to flying into Portland instead of flying into Oakland/San Jose/SFO. If it saves you a huge chunk of dough fine but you will get plenty of driving on the California coast going from the Bay Area to LA and it will take plenty of time you don't need that added drive from Oregon.

This is a portion I am still seriously reconsidering. My only concern is missing pretty stuff from the northern PCH.

Also, the hometown is Atwater/Merced, so between that and Carmel, I'll probably be in the SF area for at least 3 days.

[Samwise]

You will be going right past the Santa Cruz Mountains, so it's not like you'll miss the redwoods entirely if you just go from SF to LA.  Worth considering.

I realized that although it was one of the many I already listed, the Musee Mecanique is worth calling out in particular -- it's a museum of arcade games and music players, most of them pre-electronic (a few modern games in the back too but that's not really the point).  If you like gadgets and/or vidjagames you might get more out of it than you would from an art museum.

[Hoax]

Yeah Joshua Tree is fucking awesome but I wonder if its as awesome with nobody to look over to and say "holy shit can you believe this?". I would feel very lonely by myself there but I'm not a solo vacation type of person so giving advice in this thread has been difficult.

[Ingmar]

I'd say it's more than a touch out of the way, as well. But yeah it *is* awesome.

[Khaldun]

It's not ridiculously out of the way if you're going to Vegas, but it's a bit of a detour, yeah.

[Strazos]

So I'm sitting in the PHL airport waiting to board my PHL-PHX-PDX flight. If anyone is at all curious, here's the schedule we've settled on:

June 25 - 27 - Portland

27 - 28 - Eureka, CA

28 - 29 - Sonoma

June 29 - July 1 - San Francisco

1 - 2 - Carmel

2 - 3 - Big Sur

3 - 5 - Santa Barbara (with bonus Channel Island hiking on the 4th)

5 - 7 - LA

7 - 9 - Vegas

I managed to convince one of my friends to come along on what is essentially a free vacation, so that should help to alleviate the potential tedium. This thread was pretty helpful, but if anyone had any final random suggestions, I'll gladly take them.

And yeah, those first two days have a hell of a lot of driving - as we're seeing some friends in Portland, it couldn't really be helped. We'll just have to push through.

[Hawkbit]

My favorite place in the US is the Oregon coast.  If you can swing it, drive out of Portland on 26 to 6 until you hit Tillamook.  Turn south and take 101 to Eureka.  101 is a longer drive than I5, but so, so worth the extra time. 

In August we're doing Seattle to Eureka to visit the Redwoods, then winding our way back north over a week.  Have an awesome time on your trip!

[Hoax]

I would have skipped Carmel entirely unless your friend is a girl who likes window shopping. Unless you have an actual plan for Carmel of course. But just visiting it for the hell of it is a waste. I'd rather add the extra time to anywhere else on your list except Portland or Eureka.

[WayAbvPar]

My favorite place in the US is the Oregon coast.  If you can swing it, drive out of Portland on 26 to 6 until you hit Tillamook.  Turn south and take 101 to Eureka.  101 is a longer drive than I5, but so, so worth the extra time. 

In August we're doing Seattle to Eureka to visit the Redwoods, then winding our way back north over a week.  Have an awesome time on your trip!

26 goes right into Cannon Beach. Have lunch at Pizza a'fetta. It is amazing. The drive from Cannon Beach down through about Lincoln City is gorgeous, so make sure you aren't driving at night through that stretch.

[Hawkbit]

Thanks for the tip on the pizza place.  I haven't tried that yet.  I've had a burger from Bills Tavern in Cannon Beach, it's one of the better bar burgers I've had out here.  Place is always busy though.

EDIT: Our current plan is to retire on the north Oregon coast.  We stay in Pacific City 2-3 times a year for long weekends.  I don't want to retire in Pacific City, but close to there would be awesome. 

[Strazos]

I would have skipped Carmel entirely unless your friend is a girl who likes window shopping. Unless you have an actual plan for Carmel of course. But just visiting it for the hell of it is a waste. I'd rather add the extra time to anywhere else on your list except Portland or Eureka.

We're really only doing the afternoon/evening there, as we're leaving SF for Merced/Atwater, and Carmel is a nice place to break up the drive a bit instead of going all the way to Big Sur without the time to enjoy it.

And yeah, friend is a girl...don't know about the window shopping, as we met when I was in Benin and there was no such thing as window shopping there.

[Khaldun]

We just stayed in Morro Bay on our big CA trip, as the Big Sur campgrounds were all full, and I was surprised both at how little it had changed in the twenty-odd years since I was last there and how pleasant it was. Feels like the late Seventies in a good way--very little evidence of the money that has overwhelmed many other places closer to the Bay Area.

When you go from Big Sur to Santa Barbara, I'd go via 101 rather than 1--do a bit of wine tasting in Paso Robles maybe and then get off 101 here and there on the way. There are a few interesting towns and places just off of it--I remember liking Los Alamos, though I gather it's been built up a bit.

[Furiously]

Go to Huntington Beach and have a mai tai @ Duke's (is it still there?). Best cocktail I have ever had. I drank dozens of them to be sure, and yep- they are the best.

I think you should probably compare it with dukes in Hawaii too...

[WayAbvPar]

I remember them being pretty similar, but it has been almost 20 years since I was in Honolulu so who the hell knows at this point.

[TheWalrus]

Do a strip club tour. 

[jgsugden]

June 28 - > 29 is Pride weekend in SF. You're catching the end of it. 

http://www.sfpride.org/ 

Traffic may be an issue.  Anyone coming into SF on that weekend should be prepared, whether they're coming for the event, or coming despite it.

[Strazos]

Yeah, that parade sure fucked up our morning good - a 45 minute drive in from Vallejo turned into 2+ hours with obnoxious traffic due to the parade shutting down Powell.

Anyway, the driving from Portland (once we got to the coast) downtown about Petluma was unbelievable - did 101 to the PCH the entire way, and it was gorgeous. Going through the Redwoods and the Avenue of Giants (lol) was truly majestic, and the drive up and down the switchbacks to get in and out of Fort Bragg is possibly the coolest driving I will ever do; top down, sun out, absolutely fantastic.

My friend got a bit car sick, buuuut...what could I do? It's not like I'm going to drive 20 mph through more than 60 miles of winding roads.  Not when I have a car that can actually take that sort of stuff at speed.

[Strazos]

Some photos from the first half of the trip, if anyone cares to browse:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76281093@N02/

[Tannhauser]

Nice pics man!  I really like the sign against stabbings on Obama Beach.  Stabbing still OK otherwise right?

[Khaldun]

Oh man, I remember that Paul Bunyan place really well. Haven't been there since I was eleven.

[Strazos]

Nice pics man!  I really like the sign against stabbings on Obama Beach.  Stabbing still OK otherwise right?

Yup - Bush Justice is totally a thing.

I also have some other photos not included in in the Flickr stream, but they're phone shots that I've taken while out and about (and of food). But they've been getting put directly on the Facebook page.

[WayAbvPar]

Oh man, I remember that Paul Bunyan place really well. Haven't been there since I was eleven.

Where is that? I don't think I have ever been there, but have seen so many pics I feel like I have. Or went there when I was wee and don't remember well.

[Strazos]

It's along the 1, near the "Trees of Mystery" attraction I think.

It's an amazing drive, especially in a sports car...

[Scold]

Late to this thread, but Los Angeles is one of the greatest cities in the world -- wish more people came to visit. Definitely hit up the Museum of Jurassic Technology while you're here.