Holiday in the California area at Easter - advice please
Discussion
We are thinking of going to California between the 9th to the 26th April for say 10 to 14 days. Anyone done it at this time of year and where would you suggest we visit, any advice greatly appreciated.
Also any recommendations for tour companies
Also any recommendations for tour companies
Edited by buzzer on Saturday 1st January 14:09
Did it at pretty much exactly that time of year a couple of years ago.
No issues really, it's fairly quiet and a couple of the roads (Tioga Pass) will be closed due to snow.
Rather than list all the things to do, I'll point you in the direction of the travel blog that I wrote on my trip (21 days, 6,000 miles and 5 states) and simply say that whatever you do, wherever you go, DO NOT miss Hearst Castle at San Simeon - it's worth the flight to the US on its own.
Anyway, the blog is here
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/showthread.ph...
No issues really, it's fairly quiet and a couple of the roads (Tioga Pass) will be closed due to snow.
Rather than list all the things to do, I'll point you in the direction of the travel blog that I wrote on my trip (21 days, 6,000 miles and 5 states) and simply say that whatever you do, wherever you go, DO NOT miss Hearst Castle at San Simeon - it's worth the flight to the US on its own.
Anyway, the blog is here
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/showthread.ph...
buzzer said:
thanks 50 DEL, very interesting!
Guess I wold like to do the San Francisco area and also a few days in La Vegas. What will the weather be like at Easter time?
Very nice... Vegas will be hot.. I struggled a little walking the strip in the middle of the day, but the evenings and early mornings were excellent. The Canyon was a nice temperature to sit and have lunch.Guess I wold like to do the San Francisco area and also a few days in La Vegas. What will the weather be like at Easter time?
Death Valley was too hot to have the roof down on the 350Z, I tried it, but had to give up when it hit 110f
San Fran will be cooler, I still only needed shirtsleeves, but Alcatraz required a sweater in the evening (if you're going to go there, read that section of my blog for advice)
Basically the further north you go, the cooler it will be, Southern Oregon still had 8ft of snow at Crater Lake with the temp around 5 celcius.
Inland you will also get some rain and you may also find that some of the higher Interstates will have snow chain advisories on them.
That said, I drove over a few of those roads in the 350z with no chains and summer tyres and although one was a little dicey I made it over all of them with no real problems.
The weather can vary there the same as it can here - each state has its own road monitoring website, they're well worth checking out before you set off.
California is run through Cal Trans at http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roads.cgi
Nevada is through www.nevadadot.com
One final thought... remember at that time of the year that the Northern Rim of the Canyon will be closed due to snow, I never thought of the Canyon as being a place it snowed and had to change my plans somewhat because of it!
I'm keeping an eye on this thread as I'm planning on doing Highway 1 with the Fubelings late May. Being quite young I didn't want to be in the car all day every day so I've earmarked 6 or 7 places Id like to visit, giving us time to spend a few days in 1 place if we like it, maybe do some 'beach time'and a national Park (liking the look of those Redwoods 
)
)FUBAR said:
I'm keeping an eye on this thread as I'm planning on doing Highway 1 with the Fubelings late May. Being quite young I didn't want to be in the car all day every day so I've earmarked 6 or 7 places Id like to visit, giving us time to spend a few days in 1 place if we like it, maybe do some 'beach time'and a national Park (liking the look of those Redwoods )
Where have you earmarked fella?)K50 DEL said:
buzzer said:
thanks 50 DEL, very interesting!
Guess I wold like to do the San Francisco area and also a few days in La Vegas. What will the weather be like at Easter time?
Very nice... Vegas will be hot.. I struggled a little walking the strip in the middle of the day, but the evenings and early mornings were excellent. Guess I wold like to do the San Francisco area and also a few days in La Vegas. What will the weather be like at Easter time?
We have pictures of doing this. It is also funny seeing people who clearly haven't seen snow before. I don't think our experience was unusual as the roads have names of Snow White characters. (i think) On the way down the road is straight instead of winding which is crazy. Once you have rented a car you might as well see Hoover dam (loved it but I'm and engineering geek) and it is possible to see the canyon by car. However, I wouldn't recommend doing so because the Indians and their glass walk way are a bunch of con men. It's better to go by helicopter.
As for San Fran, we stayed at teh Ritz which at the time was reasonable. It may not be now. Loved the city. We did Alcatraz on a Sunday with out booking and didn't have to wait. That is unheard of an very lucky so book ahead.
If you are around a little longer take your car up RTE 1 as it is a great driver's road in places. Also spend some time at Yountville and try out the restaurants. (expensive but great) Yountville is near Napa and is much nicer. From here you can have a tour of the Napa vineyards. I drink wine because I enjoy it not because I'm an expert but the tours were fun. If you go to Deldotto (sp) do not drive. You will get plastered or frustrated. Deldotto has the extremes of reviews and nothing in the middle. This is because the caves were set up not so long ago by a guy who tried to get rich in many ways and was sued for all of them. He then set up the vineyard and created something I really enjoyed.
K50 DEL said:
Where have you earmarked fella?
Have only really picked some names I recognised off the map as a starting point, happy to be advised. Early days in the planning (going to book the flights and take it from there)Was thinking something like:
LA/Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Guadalupe/Pismo Beach, Big Sur, Carmel/Monterrey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco. With a National Park (or 2) chucked in.
Although not overly fussed about LA, I do have 2 sets of friends there whom I'll probably have to visit, so may end up killing a couple of days in the area. Not fussed about the touristy areas as the kids are too young (will be 7 and 8) to really understand it all. They want beaches and parkland
Might pre-book a hotel at either end, but the plan is to hopefully just find a decent motel type thing in each place as we go along.
FUBAR said:
K50 DEL said:
Where have you earmarked fella?
Have only really picked some names I recognised off the map as a starting point, happy to be advised. Early days in the planning (going to book the flights and take it from there)Was thinking something like:
LA/Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Guadalupe/Pismo Beach, Big Sur, Carmel/Monterrey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco. With a National Park (or 2) chucked in.
Although not overly fussed about LA, I do have 2 sets of friends there whom I'll probably have to visit, so may end up killing a couple of days in the area. Not fussed about the touristy areas as the kids are too young (will be 7 and 8) to really understand it all. They want beaches and parkland
Might pre-book a hotel at either end, but the plan is to hopefully just find a decent motel type thing in each place as we go along.
We were there for 17 days and did a sort of reverse J. We started in San Fran and had a few days there without a car, seeing all the sights and had an amazing time. Then picked the car up and headed south. Our first night on the road was in Monterrey (loads to see round there) then did Highway 1 (also known as Pacific Coast Highway PCH) and that was stunning scenery and roads.
Then worked our way down to Santa Barbara, which is a nice place and then onto Santa Monica which we weren't that bothered about. Ended up the driving bit in San Diego and stayed with friends for a few days before flying to Vegas for a few nights and then home.
PM me if you want to ask any questions, I found loads of useful info on here (search through the older posts) and also lots of people happy to email me with ideas and suggestions. You're spoilt for choice in CA, so I'm sure you'll have a fab time whatever you do.
Couple of tips for you. We only booked a few of our hotels in advance and then did the rest once we got there....most nights we just rocked up to a town and then asked what the best deal they could do was...although that worked best on week nights. We got great deals on our car hire and also staying at the Bellagio in Vegas.
Enjoy!
FUBAR said:
LA/Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Guadalupe/Pismo Beach, Big Sur, Carmel/Monterrey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco. With a National Park (or 2) chucked in.
We stayed at the Sanctuary Beach Resort in Marina, near Monterrey. It was superb! It was late when we got there, and very foggy, but we had a nice 'suite' pretty much directly on the beach. They also give you a golf buggy to get to your room, which was fun trying to drift around the place.K50 DEL said:
buzzer said:
thanks 50 DEL, very interesting!
Guess I wold like to do the San Francisco area and also a few days in La Vegas. What will the weather be like at Easter time?
Very nice... Vegas will be hot.. Guess I wold like to do the San Francisco area and also a few days in La Vegas. What will the weather be like at Easter time?
As said SF can be damn cold at that time of year when the mist rolls in, and then next day can be sunny and warm.
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