Planning on taking the family (2 adults + 14, 11, 5yo) to California next year.
Originally we planned an RV for a bit of a drive around, this looks like it could be more hassle than she’s prepared to deal with!
So we are kind of settled on a Fly-Drive instead now.

Plan is; Fly in to LA then take in Vegas, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, San Fran and then back down the coast to LA.

Had a quote from an independent travel agent and it’s bloody expensive and they haven’t added the bits we wanted (Vegas show, Universal etc)

So back to looking at options to do it ourselves and I had a look at AirBnB, never looked at it before but at first glance it seems it could be a winner for at least some of the destinations.

Have any of the mighty hive done anything like this in Cali, or any other tips on AirBnB or frankly any other ideas!!

Thanks

We booked accommodation via homeaway.com when we went 4 years ago – had no problems.

I air bnb’d all over northern California last year

Stayed in some awesome places that beats the arse out of the off motel I ended up in along the way.

Under a garage in Tahoe – in a basement in mission district sf a more traditional bnb in fort Bragg . A rescue lodge in Lassen got a whole heap of local knowledge into the bargain as well

Used it again this year for tenerife hols and will be staying at a yoga retreat in the hills

PS Yosemite I high recommend the wawona lodge and staying the hell off the valley floor for accommodation

Staying in other peoples homes. Not for me but obviously it works for some. I did a similar trip with Mrs Taxi admittedly without kids, we just rented a car bought a campsite guide and stuck some camping gear in the boot. We had a great adventure and would do the same now 😀

Thatsa very general dismisal there, i guess you have no experiance in the matter or youd know it wasnt all other folks homes.

Some maybe ,…but ive yet to stay in someone elses house. You do get to pick .

Its not like couch surfing

Did it loads in the US in 2014. 3 months moving every 3-4 days. Only 1 miss advertising/ bad experience. So I would go for it.

I was over last year and there were a lot of restrictions looming in Cali over air BnB and others due to local housing issues so supply may be less.
Other thing is internal flights up to Vegas were cheap last time I was out, save the drive and start up the road?

I’ve used it quite a bit in several countries, never stayed in what I’d describe as ‘other people’s homes’. Every place we’ve stayed has been fantastic.

Can you fly into Vegas and out of LA with a one way car rental? It’s a hell of a drive from LA to Vegas.

This is all useful info for me too! Off to California for 3 weeks end of October doing basically what the OP is contemplating. Slightly different route/order though.

Oh and fwiw i wouldnt bother with vagas or la. Been to both previously , didnt rate either – oddly prefered the stop in bakersfield and thats regarded as a crap hole by most of cali. Santa barbara and monterey were cool if your into hip surfer stuff ,

Northern california has so much more to offer imo

We did sf , yosemite , mammoth , tahoe , lassen national park , fort bragg , point reyes , sf last year, thoughally enjoyed all of it

I use AirBnB all the time, for holidays and work. I’m yet to have a negative experience. I would say that you need make a judgement – last two days I have stayed with a family, who made it clear they had toddler and house was ‘lived in’. I’m OK with that – the friendliness and brilliant location far outweighs it not being pristine hotel service. They are people’s homes often, and although effort is always made, it is not a hotel.
I also used homeaway for holidays, and again that’s been great to just be able to deal with owners for bookings.

AirBnB may be a solution in the cities or bigger tourist areas, but my advice would be to nail down more conventional Yosemite accommodation well in advance. There aren’t that many options in or close to the park.

I just returned from a fly drive in California, starting in San Fran, then Yosemite, Monterey, LA, Santa Barbara, San Diego.

We 3 didn’t do it on a tight budget, although our 15 yr old shared our room, we had nice hotels in great areas with no food included, so ate out everywhere. It’s the eating that really adds up, as its so expensive everywhere, so I’m sure the camper option will help save you a lot of money.

Not sure about the Yosemite valley comment, we stayed in Yosemite View lodge just outside the park and overlooking the river…. And it was fine.

LA btw was awful, choked with traffic and really no charm or anything much of interest to me. All the expensive areas left me cold and desperate to move onto Santa Barbara, which was lovely.

Have any of the mighty hive done anything like this in Cali, or any other tips on AirBnB or frankly any other ideas!!

Just looking at this again and thinking about the OP’s situation. You’ve got a 5yr old and other quite young children and you’re considering some hefty journeys. I think that will be a big mistake. If I had children your age, I would try and reduce the number of stays, spend more time at each, rather than hours on the road. They really won’t enjoy it, while you probably will.

Personally if I had children that age I’d not do California, but head to Florida/Orlando for a week in the parks, followed by a week on the beach further south. You can hire a car for the journey, so in a way it will be a fly drive, but everyone will be a lot happier.

We did it with two 3 year olds and did Disneyland, Sea Life Centre in San Diago, Aerospace Museum, Aquarium of Los Angeles, some Mediaeval Knights Jousting night etc etc.

We didn’t do too much driving though – just dotted around LA for two weeks over Christmas then headed down to SD for the new year.

LA to Vegas isn’t much of a drive, Vegas to San Francisco, flippin heck that was a day out, especially as the Mrs was too scared to drive.

Contrary to trail rat’s experience me and the wife loved LA and Vegas, not so fussed on San Francisco, so I wouldn’t be put off. We did a self drive tour, Stayed in holiday inn’s and the Circus Circus in Vegas, had a great time. That was back in the days of $2 to the £ though, dread to think what it would cost now.

And if you haven’t driven there before, be prepared for a surprisingly relaxing drive once out of major conurbations – they have 2+ passenger lanes on the freeways which you are only allowed to pull into and out of at set points before and after junctions so you can get into the lane, pop the cruise control on and relax, not having to watch out for people coming in and out all the time.

Thanks for all the replies, I’ll have a proper read over the next few days.

Has to be LA-centric because we’re going to see the sis-in-law.

We’ve had a bit of a chat and are planning on a few less stops for longer.

Happy to share what we’ve come up with once we decide.

I’m thinking we’re more likely to do the planning ourselves rather than rely on travel agents, none seem to want to put in the work to suggest other possibilities!
sis-in-law has come up with a few ideas so hopefully it’s going to be a memeroable trip for reasons other than the huge hole in my bank balance!!

Thanks all.

L.A. is so huge you cant really classify it as one place, Mailbu Santa Monica/Venice, Hollyweird, then you have all the parks down Annaheim way, all the different beaches have their own character. Traffic is mental though.

Hire some cruisers at Venice and cycle down to Manhattan and Redondo its all flat and 90% on the beach paths, great fun.

Late to this thread, we did San Francisco – Sonoma – Yosemite – Santa Monica – Pacific Coast – Carmel.

Used AirBnB for Sonoma (lovely house, single retired history teacher, happy to chat and share a bottle of wine with us) Santa Monica (young couple’s granny flat, basically our own self catered apartment) Carmel (beautiful basement room in a nice hillside house, friendly owner who we had a few whiskys with). Loved the AirBnB experience overall.

We ‘glamped’ at Yosemite in Curry Village. It was fine and I quite liked the communal eating arrangements, our particular camping deal got us vouchers for dinner and breakfast, choice of nice canteen style meals for dinner or outdoor pizzeria. Chose pizza every time. Not cheap for camping but seemed fine. Loved Yosemite.

I feel obliged to write this on all Cali threads, but please, please don’t miss San Diego. It’s 2 hours drive from LA and is a phenomenal city. Great atmosphere, friendly, wonderful beaches, great restaurants and bars and generally a brilliant place to visit.

It knocks spots off LA in my humble opinion.

Me too Lunge. Our son and his family live in San D and we go there 3-4 times a year.
OP’s trip sounds good. Yosemite awesome – if you go there visit Tolumne also on the way in/out, and if you’re going there you might as well swing round to Mammoth Mountain for some great biking. Tahoe also fantastic, and good biking there too.
We’ve used AirBnB with no probs, as well as other rentals. As said above need to book early for Yosemite, and better value/choice staying just outside the park, we’ve rented two brilliant cabins.
LA – avoid if poss !

Next trip to SanD and Mexico for Oct/Nov just being set up…

I feel obliged to write this on all Cali threads, but please, please don’t miss San Diego. It’s 2 hours drive from LA and is a phenomenal city. Great atmosphere, friendly, wonderful beaches, great restaurants and bars and generally a brilliant place to visit.

It knocks spots off LA in my humble opinion.

Absobloodylutely!

Lot of us saying avoid LA, but the OP has to base his visit around the shitehole place. I couldn’t wait to get out of the place and comparing notes with a mate who did a similar trip, he said exactly the same. I’d happily live in San D.

And don’t miss a visit to the chilli sauce shop 🙂

Lot of us saying avoid LA, but the OP has to base his visit around the shitehole place. I couldn’t wait to get out of the place and comparing notes with a mate who did a similar trip, he said exactly the same. I’d happily live in San D.

Ditto. San Diego is one of 3 non-UK cities in the world I have considered living in. In contrast, I would happily never set foot in LA again. Although I did see Diana Ross at the Hollywood bowl, now that was pretty cool.

We use AirBnB for pretty much all holidays now – brilliant and extremely cost effective for family accommodation.

Went to California with wife, 3 yr old and 6 month old back end of 2014 for 6 weeks. Started in San Diego (echo others comments on what a great place this is) and worked our way up the coast (via Disney Land, Carpinteria, Morro Bay, Carmel and Aptos) to San Francisco. Brilliant – AirBnB all the way except for 2 overnights in hotels. One benefit I appreciate is that you tend to end up staying out of the more touristy areas.

Distances are huge out there – think very carefully about how much driving you want to do with kids in the car. We sacked off Yosemite for this reason.

Don’t miss Monterey Bay aquarium. Awesome place. Disneyland a bit tired and full of hick yanks. Santa Barbara/Carpinteria lovely. Santa Cruz bikes very (comparatively) cheap out there.

Air b and b’d lots in Italy and Spain. All good, always booked whole apartment or house though. Personally I hate hotels and the only motels I could afford when I was in the states usually had crack Bo’s as my neighbour. Chair propped under door handles was a given.

Staying in other peoples homes. Not for me but obviously it works for some.

You’ve not noticed that practically every traditional seaside B&B is someone’s home, and I’ve looked at using Airbnb for coastal holiday accommodation, but decided to camp ‘cos it was a third of the price, and I’m perfectly capable of doing my own cornflakes in the morning!
I don’t have to vacate the ‘room’ during the day, either.
I’d certainly consider it for foreign holidays, or in the UK if the weather looked iffy.

Just a little update…
We booked flights last night through BA as we decided to plan our own accomodation rather than going through a travel agent so we will look into any and all options.

I will deffo look at San Diego though, not somewhere we had thought of.

Whilst booking the flight I thought I’d just check out the hire car deals BA offered bundled with the flight, wow!
Got a Chevy Tahoe for 16 days for an extra £200 on top of the flights! Saved us a good chunk there I think, and that should be plenty big enough for us to have plenty of space.

Top tip – as you will need a child seat for the youngest, order one from Amazon US to be delivered to your first accommodation – it will be much cheaper than hiring one for 16 days.

Airbnb

Hidden cameras in the all bogs and bedrooms, just to catch you masturbating.