Help with ideas for 2 week trip!!! PLEASE

[Hockeymommy]

My family will be taking a two week trip driving from Washington to California this summer. It will be my husband, myself, and two kids 10 (almost 11) & 12.
We know we want to go to San Francisco, Monterey (aquarium), Sacramento (family), So Cal (theme parks, roller coasters). We also raelly wanted to go to Yosemite.

The problem is I just don't know where to start. We have been to WDW 2 years in a row, one 12 day and one 17 day. We had the time of our lives. Of course we did all of the other Orlando must do's as well, even went down to Siesta Key (WOW). My question is as far as DL goes do we stay one site? We did both WDW trips and loved it. What about all of the other parks? We want to do Magic Mountain, Sea World, Knotts Berry Farm and
Great America too. We want to do San Diego Zoo, beaches as well as the other parts of the state I already mentioned. HELP!!!

Are there other great things I'm missing?

I would love any advice

 

[Hound 109]

My family will be taking a two week trip driving from Washington to California this summer. It will be my husband, myself, and two kids 10 (almost 11) & 12.
We know we want to go to San Francisco, Monterey (aquarium), Sacramento (family), So Cal (theme parks, roller coasters). We also raelly wanted to go to Yosemite.

The problem is I just don't know where to start. We have been to WDW 2 years in a row, one 12 day and one 17 day. We had the time of our lives. Of course we did all of the other Orlando must do's as well, even went down to Siesta Key (WOW). My question is as far as DL goes do we stay one site? We did both WDW trips and loved it. What about all of the other parks? We want to do Magic Mountain, Sea World, Knotts Berry Farm and
Great America too. We want to do San Diego Zoo, beaches as well as the other parts of the state I already mentioned. HELP!!!

Are there other great things I'm missing?

I would love any advice

Go to the DL board & look at the stickys at the top of the page. Read them all but first read HydroGuy's tip threads...essential reading.

IMO - 3-4 days at DLR minimum. If you prefer Deluxe Resorts at WDW, stay at a DLR hotel. If you enjoy the Pops &/or Moderates, the Motels on Harbor (a 5 min. walk...same as the onsite hotels) would work fine at half the price. Also IMO, skip Magic Mountain & Knotts. Do Sea World & maybe the SD Zoo.

Check out SpartanGirl's Trip report (DL Trip Reports). Great pictures & visited SF, Yosemite, Monterey, Central Coast, LA, DLR.

DO visit the Central Coast. Plan 2 days between Monterey & LA. (Highway 1 drop dead beautiful drive, Hearst Castle, Elephant Seals, Morro Bay/Rock, SLO, Winerys, Solvang.) Many people blow through this in one day, big mistake.

Have fun!

 

[caitlinsdad]

My family will be taking a two week trip driving from Washington to California this summer. It will be my husband, myself, and two kids 10 (almost 11) & 12.
We know we want to go to San Francisco, Monterey (aquarium), Sacramento (family), So Cal (theme parks, roller coasters). We also raelly wanted to go to Yosemite.

The problem is I just don't know where to start. We have been to WDW 2 years in a row, one 12 day and one 17 day. We had the time of our lives. Of course we did all of the other Orlando must do's as well, even went down to Siesta Key (WOW). My question is as far as DL goes do we stay one site? We did both WDW trips and loved it. What about all of the other parks? We want to do Magic Mountain, Sea World, Knotts Berry Farm and
Great America too. We want to do San Diego Zoo, beaches as well as the other parts of the state I already mentioned. HELP!!!

Are there other great things I'm missing?

I would love any advice

I'm in the same boat so to say,
Were coming from Ct.

Only set plans are 4 days at DL, we are meeting some friends there, Might Fly into SF and start there, hard to say at this point.

A great trip report with lots of pictures is SpartanGirl's Trip report

 

[mamacatnv]

First:
DL is a very different environment from WDW and has a whole hosts of "Sister" hotesl/motels that are literally right across the street from DL. Personally, I won't pay the premium pricing for the Disney resorts at DL.

If you are a member of AAA they have a great trip planning tool called Trip Trek, you can tell it where you want to go and it will map it and give you the distances along with icons for lodging, restaurants etc. I am currently using it to plan out our N. California Redwoods & Coastline road trip.

Look into buying yourselves the S. California "City Pass" lots of attractions, you pay 1 price and get entrances to several. If you utilize a few of the attractions, the pass pays for itself. Sometimes they can be found at Costco but you can look at the details on citypass.com

San Francisco also has a citypass. We were only there for a couple of days and it payed for itself. We really liked that it gave us unlimited use of the cable cars. We like to stay in the Dublin/Pleasanton area and take BART into SFO.

Washington to San Diego and back with stops in Sac and possibly Yosemite seems like a lot of driving to me along with all the stops you want to make. Since you have been to WDW 2 years in a row, I would consider skipping DL and checking out all the other attractions.

Happy planning