La to San Francisco

banchang

Fellow travellers

planning to fly Aer Lingus with family (14,11,10,wife) to LA in Summer, pick up a People carrier, drive north & fly back from San Francisco 3 weeks later

Suggestions gratefully received on

- where to stay
- what to do & see
- shopping

etc

Some assumptions
- we dont want to stay in a different place every night - to me thats not a holiday
- caveat to the above is if you recommend going inland for Yosemite etc, can do this for 1 or 2 nights depending on what you think
- happy to stay in hotels or self catering
- would like to stay in a couple of place for 3-4 days

Thanks

jos28

Don't know about LA, but I was in San Francisco last year and LOVED it. Fantastic city,couple of points that come to mind:
The car won't be of much use to in the city, parking is extremely expensive.
Get a muni pass, very cheap and you can get a family one for about $20 and it covers street cars, cablecars, buses and trains.
The cablecar trip is a must.
Definitely bring the kids to Alcatraz, book online with Blue Gold line before you go.(Make sure you book for the audio tour).The queues are miles long in the summer and if you have pre booked you just walk on board and you save money.Try and book the last trip of the day as the views of the city from Alcatraz with the sunset are amazing. Pack sweatshirts, it is freezing in the evening. Another thing that the kids would love is "bike the bridge". Pick bikes up in Fishermans Wharf and cylce over the Golden Gate bridge and then downhill into Sausalito, a lovely place to ramble and have lunch. You don't have to cycle back, you just hop on the ferry with the bikes and you are back where you started. It's a brilliant day out.
We stayed at the Radisson in Fishermans Wharf, no complaints. Although you might prefer to be in town.
I could go on for hours, there is so much to see and do.Lucky you !

therecklessone

jos28 wrote:

The car won't be of much use to in the city, parking is extremely expensive.

Little tip:

Leave the family in SF then drive on out to the airport. Park in the long term car park (think its $12 a day) then get the BART back into the city.

Jocksy

Did that exact thing just 3 weeks ago.

Would reccomend the Chancellor Hotel on Union Square. They have valet parking with your room for about a tenner extra and its as central as you get.

ChuckProphet

banchang wrote:

Fellow travellers

planning to fly Aer Lingus with family (14,11,10,wife) to LA in Summer, pick up a People carrier, drive north & fly back from San Francisco 3 weeks later

Suggestions gratefully received on

- where to stay
- what to do & see
- shopping

etc

Some assumptions
- we dont want to stay in a different place every night - to me thats not a holiday
- caveat to the above is if you recommend going inland for Yosemite etc, can do this for 1 or 2 nights depending on what you think
- happy to stay in hotels or self catering
- would like to stay in a couple of place for 3-4 days

Thanks

did this last year...went LA(2 nights)-Santa barbara(4)-SLO(2)-Monterey(2)-Santa Cruz(1)-SF(5)
had no kids so u might wanna spend longer in LA for the theme parks