second half of August- how's the weather? how busy is CA...

We%26#39;ll be in CA 2nd half of August. First a self-drive trip San Francisco to SaN Diego. Planning on the coastal route to SD, stopping at the usual sights, overnighting possibly in San Simeon. What%26#39;s the speed limit on this route? (in SA our highways are 120km/hr) HOw congested is it likely to be? I%26#39;m trying to get an idea of how long it will take getting from place to place. What%26#39;s the usual temperature along this route, and is it likely to rain?Then a few days in SD

Coming back, once again taking two days SD to SF. Not sure whether to do the same route back but stopping at different sights, or to go inland, vis Sequioa forest etc. Not keen on dying of the heat! but would like to see as much as possible, with routes as scenic as possible. Same questions- weather, speed,congestion.

The second week no car- we%26#39;ll take tours. We%26#39;ve already booked a day trip from SF to wine country (package with hotel). Would like to see SF%26#39;s best- trolley hop tour or should we just walk? Also Yosemite- should we just do a one day tour or more?. Maybe a tour inland to Grand Canyon for a few days, but once again, we%26#39;re not keen on desert-internsity heat, so not much time there. Is Sacramento worth visiting? Any other interesting towns/ natural areas up SF way or northwards? Due to scarcity of air tickets between SA and USA at that particular time, and unlikelihood of being able to change our flight, we have to return to SF at end of holiday, to fly out from there. We%26#39;ve heard SF fog makes weather dicey, but we%26#39;re not planning on beach time there.

second half of August- how's the weather? how busy is CA...

Get acquainted with mapquest.com

Enter your begining and ending points in the red and green areas. You can simply put in the cities like SAN FRANCISCO and SAN DIEGO (you don%26#39;t need street addresses). It will show you estimated mileage and estimated time.

There have been a ton of things written on this forum about driving up and down the coast. Below the narrow green stripe (above) type in some keywords regarding such a trip and you%26#39;ll see lots of info about it.

When you say COASTAL ROUTE, do you mean ROUTE 1? There are 3 roads that will take you from SF to SD:

1. Route 1 -- closest to the ocean, slowest and the most crowded. This a local road with commerce on it -- restaurants, hotels, retail, etc.

2. Route 101 -- Farther from the shore, faster, less crowded

3. Interstate 5 -- Fastest, farthest from the shore.

I would not expect any rain. Go to weather.com for weather forecasts. Type in the city name and then on the next page, look for the words ';10-day'; for the 10-day forecast.

Any plams to visit the second largest city in America: LOS ANGELES. You%26#39;ll be driving through it on the way to SD?

second half of August- how's the weather? how busy is CA...

Thanks for that, hopskipjump. We were planning to get through LA as quickly as possible. We%26#39;re not into Hollywood stuff, city stuff, theme parks..-prefer quaint, different little places and nature. If you can suggest something we%26#39;d like in LA, please do.

springbok, are you set on San Diego? It%26#39;s a long way to go and a lot of urban area to get through on the way from the north--Los Angeles can slow you down a lot. And the area to the north, the Big Sur area, is one of the most scenic natural places you can find. I wouldn%26#39;t want you to rush through Big Sur just in order to get down to San Diego, if what you want is scenic natural areas. Well, it%26#39;s your call, but if I were you I%26#39;d spend my four days within the Big Sur region, not travelling through and back again on the way to and from San Diego, and having to deal with all of LA in both directions.

No, I%26#39;m not set on San Diego- my daughter is. Remember Blink 182? (great music!).Thay had a TV special some time ago and showed a lot of San Diego, so she has her heart set on it. Also, she%26#39;s working up San Francisco way and wants to go to a fogless beach! She has already visited Monterey and yes, we definitely will spend as much time as possible in the Big Sur area on our way down/up.

Your comment on it being a long way to go is the whole point of my original posting- to see as much as possible in a little time and to avoid travelling through ugly or otherwise unpleasant areas,and to avoid horrible driving conditions.

I think your plan is fine except that you r visit to Yosemite should be on your internal route back to SanFrancisco not a separate tour.

coming down from SanFrancisco yu could take 101 down to Monterey and then get on rte 1 instead of doing rte 1 all the way down. The road from Monterey south through Big Sur etc is lovely. We like to stop in Cambria instead of SanSimeon. It is one town south of SanSimeon.

There are many lovely B%26amp;Bs or small motels/inns on Moonstone Drive which is at Moonstone Beach You can walk along the shore and watch the otters playing and there are many nice restaurants. It is a cute town. I fyou don%26#39;t want many overnights on this trip south youcan easily make it to Cambriain a half day from SanFrancisco. I fyou want to stop in MOnterey and then go down to SanSimeon for Hearst Castle then it will take longer. Rte 1 is 2 lanes 1 in each direction.

A half hour south of Cambria you will be in SanLuis Obispo and from there you can get back on 101 south(scenic an dfaster than rte 1) which actually follows a very scenic route through some low coastal mts. and then back along the coast down to Santa Barbara. I fyou want the fast route from here take 101 to the 405 south which then leads you to the 5 south to SanDiego.

When you pass Ventura on the 101 it becomes very urban with many lanes of traffic and can be crowded with traffic the rest of the way through LA YOu never know how long it will take. It can be anywhere from 3hrs- infinity depending on the traffic.

We drive to SanFrancisco often and it is easy to do on the rte I have described in 2 days. If you want to stop and sight see above LA of course it will take longer.

Riffsmom, thank you very MUCH.

If you do stop over LA.. A couple of ideas.. There%26#39;s Catalina Island which is quite quaint and there%26#39;s no cars allowed in this island.

http://www.catalina.com/main.html

Or go on an excursion to the Channel Islands National Park, which is all natural and isolated from the rest of the buzyness of Southern California

http://www.nps.gov/chis/

Either way have a nice time!