Monterey, Yosemite, and SF - Post your suggestions, photos, and trip ideas

[disneyfaninaz]

KC, sounds very similar to the trip we are planning at the end of May to Yosemite.

We are flying into San Jose and then driving to the park. We have reservations at Tenaya Lodge and are looking forward to staying there. After our park visit we are also driving to Monterey and see the Aquarium and 17 mile drive.

Any other tips you find, please post. Thanks!

 

[UCFALUM]

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Seaside when we first moved here. Suites- so larger rooms, fab (huge) breakfast and happy hour both included. You may not be at the hotel for happy hour with your travel plans! We have been here 3 months and are having a great time. The Aquarium can get quite packed but that is only a 1/2 day event. You could drive through Pacific Grove (starts 17 mile drive) which is a neat little town and into Pebble Beach ($9.25 a car) and maybe in Carmel. Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach has a bagpiper playing at sunset and you can sit out and get drinks/food (and your $9.25 entrance fee back) Big Sur could actually be it's own day trip and we haven't been to The Hearst Castle yet but have heard great things. In Big Sur you need detailed directions to get to the Pfeiffer Beach which is incredible. There is lots of hiking as well-Point Lobos, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, even hiking here in Pebble Beach. The year round temperature of the water is 50 something but we went to the beach today-in our clothes. People tell me that's the way it is here. Have fun and off to research our weekend trip to Napa.

 

[KCmike]

Which major airline flys into San Jose? Is it more expensive than SF?

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

Which major airline flys into San Jose? Is it more expensive than SF?

You can check www.sjc.org for more information, but I know for sure that American, Southwest, United, Delta/Northwest, JetBlue, Hawaiian, and Alaska all fly in. I think Horizon and Continental also stop at SJC, and there may be others.

Sometimes it's cheaper to fly into SFO, sometimes it's cheaper to use SJC. You also need to consider any additional ground transportation time/costs. SJC is undergoing new construction and renovations right now, so that's another factor to think about.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Which major airline flys into San Jose? Is it more expensive than SF?

We are flying SWA from Phoenix. Right now airfare is $94 each way to and $79 each way home.

It is then about a 3 1/2 - 4 hour drive to the South entrance of the park.

 

[jennyparker19]

The primary draw of Yosemite NP is the scenery and there's ample to be had in the Valley, which will be the only place you can get to in the dead of winter by car anyway. When we were there in January my family and I walked to Yosemite Falls from Yosemite Lodge which is paved and only icy once we reached the falls. No one but us continued across the bridge and down a trail that led back to the road.

The next day it began to snow and we hiked with our umbrellas and winter gear around the Valley, crossing the Merced River, walking along the path by the nearly empty road and had lunch near the Valley Store. After lunch we hiked to the Ahwahnee hotel and then went into the woods on a trail that led through the deserted Upper Pines campground where we finally picked up the free shuttle and returned to the lodge. Later we took the bus to the visitor center, museum, and Miwok Village and rode the bus to Camp Curry where we found the restaurant closed for private use and the ice skating rink closed due to the snow, and the bus took over half an hour and we got a bit cold. We finally had dinner at the buffet restaurant across from the lodge.

Overnight it snowed more and we had to use tire chains in the morning. On the way home we stopped at the snow play area near Crane Flat which is down a long ice covered road and offers only a trailhead for x-country skiers and no snow play area. Once we left the park the road had been plowed and we could take off our tire chains. For some reason the roads inside the park aren't plowed, sanded and salted like the rest of the roads in the Sierra?

Yosemite Bus Tour

 

[ScooterL]

Ohhhh...that sounds just wonderful!!!! I've been in Yosemite just once when it snowed, and it was absolutely magical!!! Disney's got nothing on Mother Nature!

As far as road clearing goes...as I understand it, CalTrans is responsible for road clearing only as far as the park boundaries, and after that it's the park service that takes over...and they aren't quite as responsive as CalTrans. Oh, and the roads in California aren't salted - they only use sand here. (Or at least in the Sierras they only use sand.)

 

[lisah0711]

Mike, you might want to check out flights to Oakland as well. We just returned from a trip to San Francisco. Here is my short trip report if you are interested. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=31173711&posted=1#post31173711 Have fun planning!

 

[KCmike]

Thanks lisah0711 I'm on my way to your report right now.

 

[thesoldtrain]

Hi Mike,

Found your thread and thought I might pass along a few thoughts to you. We did a huge CA trip in June/July '08...have a 4th grader who is studying our state history and wanted to show her and the whole family the sights. We had some great experiences I thought I would pass along. If they don't fit in this time around, maybe you can file them away for next time.

We did do one of the guided tours of Yosemite. In fact, we did the whole day 8 hour one with our kids, ages 9, 5, and 3. Now, we do have great little travelers and they hung in there just great, but at the end, my 5 year old turned to me and said, "That was impressive, but long." (she is a little precocious) Anyhow, we were glad to take a tour to give us an overview of the sights, but in retrospect, we enjoyed getting on the shuttle and roaming, discovering those wonderful places around Yosemite Valley more than anything else. I saw someone else give you that advice and I so would go with that! We did enjoy some of the ranger activities, specifically the night star gazing for $5.00 a person. I am not sure if it is going while you are there, but you can look it up on the Yosemite website. THAT 2 hours was fabulous and my kids still talk about the constellations and stories the rangers shared. You do sign up for that and pay in advance through Delaware North.

In Monterey, not sure what your budget is, but we splurged (Pricelined the whole trip except for Monterey and Yosemite, so we thought, hey what the heck?!) and stayed at the brand new Intercontinental Clement Monterey which is literally right next to the aquarium. AWESOME location, but you'll need 2 rooms. Sometimes they have specials on their internet site when you pay in advance, so it might be worth checking into. Not sure how adventurous your kiddos are, but we have very brave and fun loving ones. While at the aquarium, our daughter took advantage of the kids' intro to scuba lesson which was AMAZING. They do a kids intro to surface scuba right in the part of the outside aquarium where it meets the ocean. No special skills or equipment needed. We did it spur of the moment and they outfit them with everything. VERY, VERY fun.

If you have the opportunity, another highlight of our trip was the night tour of Alcatraz in San Francisco. We read a great kids' book about Alcatraz history to the kids before we left. The night tour is SO neat; our girls LOVED the slight creepiness of it and the "Sounds of the Slammer" presentation they do on the night tour. The cable cars are a not-to-be-missed; we didn't do too much at Pier 39 or Ghirardelli Square, although I know there are tons of folks who swear by them.

Have fun! You will have a blast!

Jeanette

PS: BE PREPARED..... We consider ourselves a huuuuuuge Disney fanatic family, but in Yosemite, our 10-year-old said, "I love this place more than Disneyland" and in San Francisco our 5-year-old said, "San Francisco is my new favorite place!" YIPES! Sounds like you might need those days in Disney to keep them on the straight and narrow, haha

 

[DawnCt1]

We had the best trip was following a bump from WDW to home. We had 6 free tickets. We flew into San Francisco, stayed two nights. Pre ordered tickets to Alcatraz and did the audio tour. Love it! Visited the major sights in SFO and on the 3rd morning left, had breakfast in Sausalito, (beautiful town) and spent the morning in Muir Woods looking at the big trees. From there we drove to Napa Valley and did the Mondavi Wine tour around 1 pm or so. Pre made reservations.Loved it! By night fall we made our way to Lake Tahoe, beautiful drive. We stayed on the California side at the Embassy Suites. We enjoyed the lake, did parasailing, jet skiing and climbed Mt. Rose. From there we headed south for the East Gate of Yosemite. We drove through the California high desert, passed Mono Lake (weird looking) and visited Bodie, the Ghost Town in a state of "arrested decay". http://www.bodie.com/ We stayed a couple of hours. I could have stayed twice that long. I expected to see Clint Eastwood galloping over the desert at any moment. We arrived at the east gate of Yosemite by late afternooon. Took some pictures, drove through the Tullame Meadow but we still had 60 miles or so before we got to the Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal. http://www.yosemite-motels.com/yosemiteviewlodge/ It was roomy, clean and convenient to the floor of the valley. We stayed there two nights, had lunch at the Ahwahnee Lodge in the park. I made reservations ahead of time and explored the areas around the floor of the valley and up top. On the third morning in the area we packed up and left through the Mariposa Grove of Tall Trees and did the tram tour. Well worth it. http://www.americansouthwest.net/cal...sa-wawona.html. We drove southwest through lots of farm land, past Fresno and to the shore, staying one night in Cambria at the Pelican Cove Inn. http://www.pelicansuites.com/ I could have stayed longer. It was beautiful. We had dinner at Robins in Cambria which was wonderful and a great value at the time. I found it both in Foders and Frommers so that was a good sign.
http://www.robinsrestaurant.com/ From there we went to the Heart Castle and did tour #1. Booked that ahead of time. http://www.hearstcastle.org/
Loved it. Then up the Pacific Coast Highway, through the Big Sur, took in all of the sights along the way and spent the night in Monterey. The Concourse de Elegance was going on at the time so we saw tons of neat cars that we couldn't begin to afford. We did enjoy the aquarium however. We left there the next morning, went to Santa Cruz, road on the roller coaster, headed to SFO and flew home. If I had it to do over again, I would do the same trip but stayed longer. We only had 9 or 10 days.
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