California Holiday

Looking for recommendations of places to visit in California / Nevada. We are planning a family (wife + 11 & 14 yr old girls) trip next Easter and want to do many of the main sites, San Francisco, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, but I would also like to get some biking in for a couple of days out of the 2 weeks. I’m think Lake Tahoe and Sedona but also mindful of the massive driving distances. We are not bothered about LA and even the kids don’t want to go to any of the theme parks.

Anyone done a trip like this and any recommendations?

Also anyone know how to delete a double post!!

Will there be lots of snow in the mountains around Easter time? If there is it might be difficult to visit early on in the season?

I’ve never been to the area but that’s the impression I get about the weather.

^^ Yosemite should be quite accessible by April however be aware you need to book in advance to drive through. It’s still on my bucketlist to visit (I have only been to California once and that was over Christmas).

We based ourselves in Sacramento to do almost exactly what you’re describing.  It was then around 2h drive to most things and Yosemite was 3-4.  We didn’t do Vegas.  This got us to San Francisco, Nappa, San Jose, Tahoe, Reno, Yosemite, Silicon Valley and a few others.

Yeah we did it in Apr 2022 (2 adults + kids 15 + 13 + 7). Some hardcore planning shrunk a 3.5 week pre covid August trip into an 17 day April trip). I’ll post more later but itinerary was San Diego > Palm Springs / Joshua Tree > LA (which I wanted to swerve, was outvoted and really enjoyed it) > Yosemite > Monterey > SF. I didn’t bike but I wouldn’t have changed any of the itinerary. We skipped the coast road bar Monterey area because of time but the original itinerary did some of that.

From the other post, Tioga Pass will be closed in April which puts Vegas / GC even further away from SF/YNP.

Very long time since I road tripped that area, but a highlight was some of the national parks just up into Utah – Bryce Canyon in particular.

Tahoe will still be in ski season at Easter. It’s stunning though and the skiing is amazing but passes are really expensive these days.

my mate had an awesome day of mtb outside Santa Cruz which is only 90 mins south of SF. He rented an ibis and joined a shop ride I think. Santa Cruz is a cool beach town with an old wooden rollercoaster.

In San Francisco there’s a cool diner at the ocean end of Geary ( I think) above the ruined pump house. Fisherman’s wharf is a tacky tourist zoo imo. Santa Barbara area is lovely too. Monterey aquarium is pretty cool and there’s an area called “elkhorn ” slough ( I think) just north of it that is a rivermouth you can rent kayaks and cruise around seeing sea otters / seals etc. Pretty cool

Big Sur is stunning too & PCH 1 across bixby bridge is a classic thing to do.

San Francisco for three days, Monterey Aquarium and whale watching if I season, across to Yosemite and back to SF. The southern part is less exciting, Santa Barbara and highway 1 are lovely, as is Joshua Tree. But it’s a BIG place. Sequoia National Park has the biggest trees, but Yosemite has plenty of redwoods and much more impressive scenery. Tioga pass, if open, offers a huuuuge shortcut to Death Valley.

But SF-Monterey-Yosemite is an easy tour.

You can get massive trees 45 min south of Yosemite at Mariposa Grove. And if you’re heading north into Yosemite afterwards you get that view.

Downieville for biking https://www.discoverdownieville.com/

Downieville will be under 20ft of snow in Easter….

OP: do your own research but you’re gonna be weather limited at some of the places being suggested. For instance, the obvious route between Yosemite and Vegas is via Tioga Pass which is highly likely to be closed due to snow. You can probably Google for data on past years when roads were opened.

Yosemite will almost certainly be highly restricted as to what is open and will probably require booking (and expect it to be busy). I think only the main valley floor is kept open year round.

The coast road between LA/Big Sur and San Francisco has been closed pretty regularly after the last few winters due to landslides, so you might want to have a back-up plan if that happens and you’re looking at going that way. It’s very scenic though, and at that time of year I think you’ll still catch the (stinky) elephant seals near San Simeon. Note that camping along Big Sur is pretty restricted, and hotels are pricey!

Monterey aquarium is amazing! Don’t miss it if you do make it up there. The Sea Otter Classic festival is 10-13 April next year in Monterey if the whole family likes bike stuff. For Sea Otter, I’ve been there when it’s been quite cold and damp, and other times pleasantly warm. If you drive south, once you drop off the Big Sur it’s suddenly warmer, like a whole other season. Worth bearing in mind if the family wants a shorts and T-shirt only trip!

If you do go north, Fairfax is super cute, and the Marin Museum of Bicycling is a place to definitely make it to if you like bike history. Make sure it’s open – it’s not open every day – and look out for the founders of MTB hanging around the town’s bars and cafes.

Most of the big Redwoods are a fair trek north, but there are some younger ones around Mill Valley. If you want some easy access big ones, Cathedral Redwoods in Henry Cowell State Park are impressive and there’s an easy marked trail around the highlights. There’s a campground there too if it works for an overnight stop.

National Parks now mostly operate timed and ticketed entry systems, which sell out very rapidly. If you want to do Yosemite, you need to really plan it, and probably plan around the ticket you get. Note that many State Parks are just as/almost as incredible as the National Park honey pots, and aren’t subject to the same busy hoards of people.

If your kids are anything like mine (or me!), they’ll think hot springs are amazing. Some are developed, some are just a rock pool at the side of a river. Well worth looking for some on your route once you figure one out.

Unless you all really like sitting in the car and looking out of the window rather than getting out to explore, you might want to narrow your goals. Do you want to tick places off, or explore them? For reference:

– With kids a similar age to yours, we did a camping trip through North Utah/rural Idaho that Google Maps estimates as 14 hours of driving, 850 miles. We took 9 days to cover that and enjoy some places along the way.

– Just two of us did a week of driving and riding from Vegas to Bisbee and back up to Phoenix – that was a fairly relaxed pace but still moving camp every day. Google says 11hrs driving/715 miles

– San Francisco to LA took 5 days including sight seeing for two. Google says 8 hours/430 miles

All were great, but we were tired after all of them!

Don’t underestimate driving distances. And have a look at weather conditions from previous years. Places like Yosemite NP have a ‘mean’ date for road reopening.

I did a family holiday as a ~15 yr old on roughly the same itinerary in two weeks. I have since been back several times to various places as an adult, far more slowly, and with activities booked in to see places better (multiday walks, canoe or rafting etc).

Know the USA will be crazy expensive, motels aren’t cheap anymore, the bottom end has inflated massively since covid. You will need very deep pockets.

Assuming 2 weeks at Easter I would either:

– do California well, or

– Utah-Arizona landscapes / NP / native american culture loop.

California will be milder. UT/AZ deserts at elevation (e.g. Grand Canyon rim, Flagstaff, Zion) will be around freezing at night but mid 20s in the day.

California… Pacific highway at Big Sur still closed. San Fran needs several days, bike in the red woods, Visit Monterey and sea kayak with sea otters (or at Moss Landing), do a whale watching boat trip, Yosemite deserves a few days, then Sequoia / Kings Canyon, consider visiting Channel Islands NP, then beaches and nicer bits of LA area (museums, astronomy, nicer suburbs).

AZ/UT fly in and out of LV or Phoenix, but I would spend zero time in LV.  Sedona and Flagstaff have lots of hiking, biking, and native american sites, and Route 66 Americana, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, slot canyon tour (Page) or find ones outside Navajo Nation land you can walk yourselves, a day kayak on the Colorado from Lees Ferry, toadstools and abandoned mine workings, Zion, Bryce Canyon, visit a natural hot spring under Hoover Dam. Everything from forest to desert, cactus to pine, lots of wildlife in the woods, stargazing, extinct volcanoes, and the deepest canyon.

I wish I could offer some advice but it’s 14 years since I was there. We spent 2 months driving from Vancouver to Tijuana and back on a shoestring budget so stayed in lots of sketchy locations and met some very interesting characters. Had an absolutely incredible time.

My memory is hazy but I know I met a woman in a bar in Astoria OR who I should have married. I would have happily lived in almost any of the small towns we stayed in. Santa Cruz was cool.

I prefered north to south. It’s very sparsely populated above San Fransico and gets more crowded and hectic the further south you go. I’d swerve LA, it’s a dump.

I did Touolomne, Owen River Gorge, Buttermilks, Tahoe, SF, Tuolomne, Buttermilks, Red Rocks, Vegas, J Trrey first time.

Then Yuba, Kings, Merced, Touolomne, Mukolomne and a few others second time

And book Evergreen Lodge in Yosemite. Thank me later. I’ve been twice. Cabins and tent. Order the pancakes for breakfast.

https://www.evergreenlodge.com/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwxNW2BhAkEiwA24Cm9NFFhkMDdVzJU0zk_eKLMFWjhe863hTc_OmzADhBPgtNVglUnsKCeRoCwnIQAvD_BwE

Our kids were much younger when we went, but we did SeaWorld, the Space Centre in LA (with the Space Shuttle), we had to do the Disney thing, the LA zoo and my highlight – HotLicks Chilli Shop in San Diego (West Harbour Drive).

I also found the driving to be very easy, especially when on the freeways as you aren’t allowed to change lanes between junctions so you can just sit there on cruise control knowing nobody is going to be trying to fill the gap between you and the car in front.

we honeymooned there – 4 nights SF (recommended) then drove north up through Sonoma (geyser, petrified forest, fainting goats) to Sacramento. We weren’t impressed, only stayed one night (we were on an AAA voucher scheme so could go to all kinds of AAA motels on spec, in late Oct/ early Nov was easy although this was 24 years ago) and then headed up to Tahoe.

Very cold, it snowed first dump of the season overnight (properly, like 18″) and for a time we thought we’d be stuck but we escaped over the rim and out, just. We got stopped by a CHiPman who asked if we had chains (no) and where we were going, plan was through YNP and over Tioga to Death Valley and he just laughed = I asked when it would be clear again and he said late April, early May (repeat this was late October!!)

But then he got our roadmap out and put in a whole load of places around the lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada, old silver rush towns that had just been abandoned but almost perfectly preserved because of the dry air. It also gives us an excuse to go back.

That took us south of the mountains proper and via the desert road to Vegas. Had a great time there but wouldn’t necessarily recommend it if not your thing; we got to stay in a pyramid and do a helicopter of the Hoover dam and fly inside the rim of the grand canyon. Then back (long drive!) to Carmel and Monterrey where I second the aquarium, Cannery Row, etc. and also a trip up the PCH to Hearst Castle, before finally heading back to SF for a flight home.

Loads to do, much of it already mentioned. Some oddball stuff besides the fainting goats would be the Jelly Belly factory tour and Bakersfield, the raisin capital of the world factory tour. We just drove around, saw stuff and went and looked at it, with only a few prearranged setpiece things as a framework.

2 years ago we were there in early may, it was bloody freezing in San Fran, the coast road closed south of Big Sur due to landslides,  Yosemite/Sequoia/king’s Canyon all closed due to snow water floods and Tioga Pass was very closed.

We still had a great time California is a big place with loads to do, but take a heavy wallet, the place is cripplingly expensive.

San Fran has seen a dramatic downturn in the last few years. My daughter has been travelling around the states for a few months and she reckoned San Fran was the sketchiest place she visited. A real shame as it was amazing when I went 20 years ago.

San Fran has seen a dramatic downturn in the last few years.

I suspect that statement could apply for most major US cities. Poverty, homelessness and the effects of drug/alcohol addiction/mental illness can be stark if you’re not prepared for it but it is usually fairly well contained (geographically).

For better or worse, it’s usually kept away from most touristy areas though…

I was going to recommend Downieville for the biking, but not that early in the year as shuttles won’t be running. Likewise Tahoe/Truckee/Northstar. It’s really high up there and there will be snow.

Downtown SF isn’t great at the moment with a huge homeless and drug problem in plain sight. Not sure what I’d suggest (I used to stay in Berkeley and take the BART into work when I was visiting). The redwoods sequoia are a must-see though.

Thanks everyone for the amazing advice. Seems like weather could play a big part in where we go, especially as Easter holidays are early April 5th. This isn’t something I had thought about so I am really glad I asked for some advice!!

We went April 7th and it was t-shirt weather in the daytime pretty much everywhere when the sun was out. When it was overcast or exposed it was jumper / jacket weather. I’ve no idea if the weather was unseasonal but I’m pretty thorough and I don’t remember planning for it excessively.

San Diego and Palm Springs will be great weather wise for sure! And nothing’s on fire in April.

Still plenty to see in San Francisco (bridge, bay, Alcatraz, steep hills, sports). I didn’t think it was any worse than London from a have/have not perspective. It’s gotten worse in recent years but so have many places.

Been many times to stay outside San Fran with relatives and  done various road trips into Utah, Nevada and Arizona.

Utah was amazing for NP, Bryce, Zion, Arches and a cool little one called Goblin Valey we found on the way back from the Slickrock trail at Moab

With two weeks I’d suggest picking 2 or 3 doing them. Lots of biking around SF including the cheesy but fun ride across the bridge and get the ferry back ( had 1st married argument on honeymoon there as I was lost but enjoying cycling amongst the trees while my other half apparently was not!)

On our last trip my highlights were Monument Valley ( too far maybe if you don’t want to spend time driving on 2 weeks as we had longer) but place I want to go back to is Death Valley. Amazing place to explore and would be much nicer if if was cooler than when we were there in July/August

Palm Springs was much nicer than I expected too and easy striking distance for Joshua Tree if all the roads are open

Las Vegas has become very expensive in the last couple of years, so I’d check prices before booking. Food was very cheap a while back but it seems that they are trying to take the town up market.

that said, everything in the US has gotten very expensive.

and like people above have said, check that the weather will be like at times that you plan to be there.

I love California. Our corporate HQ is in Aliso Vejo and so I used to spend a couple of weeks out there once a year. OC is mad but Laguna Beach and the strip of coastline south of there towards San Diego are really nice. Santa Cruz is also beautiful & this hills around there a generally accessible year round.

That said, my wife and her travelling mate are just back from a “budget” week in the San Diego area (payback for two bike trips I managed to wangle in the last year). Her  mate’s mum works for BA so travel & accomodation were proper cheap. EVERYTHING ELSE wasn’t.  They were blown away by how stupendously expensive the US has become.  Like $100 for an average meal in somewhere like Outback (think harvester that only does steak).

Going through the credit card bad news was eye watering. Normally for this sort of trip she packs an extra duffle bag to bring back goodies. It came back empty as the usual bargains just didn’t exist. This is across the board expense, tied into the huge drug problem that’s appeared in the cities it’s created a perfect storm: so in shops like Target they’ve taken to putting security locks on things like underwear, baby clothes, basic toiletries (you ask a store assistant to come and get them out of the locked cabinet!)  The reports of issues in downtown areas of SF and San Diego are correct – homelessness and drug addiction has moved out of the background and is now in your face in areas that tourists would frequent. We’ve friends in Livermore and they now completely avoid downtown SF. It’s really sad.

I live in SV, about 30m south of SF. what has been said is accurate, STWHannah has nailed most of it.

-SF has seen a downturn, but it still has plenty of nice area’s. Downtown / Market St / Tenderloin is where most the homelessness is, it feels a bit sketch and you wouldn’t want to walk around there after dark with your kids (I would avoid Tenderloin anytime of day with kids – its just not pleasant to see)  Most (all?) he people are high . I rode thru downtown SF a couple of weeks ago after dark and although it wasn’t pleasant, I didn’t have any issues.

Biking – biking in Tahoe in April isn’t likely (unless they’re having a sh1t season) – this year they had the heaviest dump of the year in March – lorries were snowed in for 36hrs. Easter is late in 2025 so that makes it somewhat difficult to plan – resorts will try and stay open if they have the snow/staff (neither guaranteed) – but you could be at the end of the snow season and before the summer season – worst of both worlds, imo.

There is some great MTB around Santa Cruz (obv) and SC is a cool town (I prefer it to Monterey – I find Monterey  itself meh, although the coast is nice. Carmel is nice, but v touristy)  Demo forest is the most accessible for MTB as a visitor, but the ‘real’ stuff is unmarked around UC-SC and best accessed with a local (it can get gnar very quickly). Depends what type of riding you like – Gravel, Road and MTB are all of a very high calibre here!

Whale watching is great if you like nature. I saw Orca’s and it was magical (I like wildlife)

Not sure if the boardwalk in S-C is open in late April – but thats great fun too. Like a posh Blackpool. Could easily be beach weather (without a sweater) in late April.  the ambient temperatures can be low but feel much warmer in direct sunshine, even early in the year.

The road riding on the peninsula (area south of SF) is very good – especially around Palo Alto , Mountain View / Menlo Park. Very accessible and great scenery / climbing. Plenty of redwoods to ride thru. Likewise Marin County – Fairfax as Hannah says is lovely. As an urban area I’d avoid Silicon Valley and San Jose – mostly unremarkable (people are here to work in tech, not live in great towns). The adjacent nature (Santa Cruz hills and coast) are stunning though. The only exception are the towns of Saratoga and Los Gatos – they are nice.

Muirwoods is the closest Redwood state park close to SF. Must be pre-booked. There are plenty of redwoods on the peninsula (including those you dont need to enter a state park to see) but Muirwoods is prob the most impressive in the Bay Area.

2nd Big Sur – I think HWY1 opened after being closed for a year ..and then promptly closed again with another landslide.  Nature’s gonna Nature.

Driving to vegas and back to SF in 2wks is doable – but thats a helluva long way. A 1 way fly drive would make more sense if you’re set on going to Nevada.

Russian River / Guerneville is a lovely little place a lot of Europeans dont get to. Not far north of SF and still maintains some very OG vibes from the counter culture days (much of SF / Ca is heavily gentrified so the old hippy ways are left solely to the northern bits of NoCal)

Palm Springs/ Joshua Tree are very different from NoCal – and has some excellent MTB. a long long way south tho. Lots of great mid century architecture in Palm Springs if you like that sort of thing.

Santa Barbara is lovely – but SoCal will be difficult  to do if you’re doing Bay Area and Nevada. NoCal is better than SoCal anyway 😀

Yosemite – I’d say this is mandatory given you’re coming this far (and en route to Nevada – although snow could be an issue – I’ve never driven to Nevada so can’t comment)

Weed – you’ll smell it everywhere.

Cost – prepare yourself mentally now. It’s insanely expensive. Especially if you’re spending in British Pounds.

Enjoy! I think it’s a very stunning place with lots of great outdoor stuff within close proximity – I’ve mtb’d in Santa Cruz one weekend and Snowboarded in Tahoe the following. Pretty cool!

Napa-Guerneville-Russian River- coast south to Marin was very chilled and nice driving. SF was ok. Time of year/weather should work. We were there September and combined with a ride from Reno/Truckee to Mammoth in Sierra Nevada, with 2 ‘rest days’ which we used to climb  Tioga pass and MTB the Tahoe Rim Trail. That was the best MTB ride I have ever done. Trail open to bikes every other day. MTB hire was easy and we were dropped at the top. Overnight frosts and light snow on the passes. Went back to Yosemite (Evergreens?) which was great.

Otherwise, the trips we have done were May/June – national parks, 2-3 hours drive max starting Santa Fe, ending in Vegas via Colorado, Moab, Monument Valley, GrandCanyon North rim and others. Expensive but not as bad as I feared and fabulous scenery. Las Vegas is everything I hate, I didn’t need to go there to check! Beer scene in Vegas quite good was the only positive, but 40-40 degrees early June.

re weather, if going again I would aim very much at the shoulder seasons and plan 12 months or more ahead.

If you are sticking to your original plan then you can definitely get your couple days (mountain) biking fix around Las Vegas.

Some great trails in the surrounding hills (with cool views back over the town) – rocky, technical, cactus and snakes are our memories.

snakes are our memories

Agree to that- when I was working just inland from Malibu, went riding with some colleagues and they gave me the warning re snakes: don’t stop near bushes, if you drop something into the scrub, have a good look around before trying to retrieve it.  Also was warned about mountain lions!  Bit of a change to riding at home, but was cool to see a rattler on the trail.

As others have said- check distances. I was staying in Agoura Hills  (bonus points if you suss the MTB link with this place) c30miles north of LA and looked to go to San Francisco one weekend but the 8hr drive put me off.

I went skiing one weekend to Mammoth (in March) and it took c 7 hours on a Friday pm/eve combination of traffic & 55 or 65mph speed limit.  Roads were clear but you could see how deep the snow was. Check their snow history, colleagues that regularly skied there said that there have been plenty of years when it has still been possible to ski in May.

One tip for trying to figure out if/when high elevation trails or roads are rideable is to look at the history (date range) of segment times on Strava.

Many a time you’ll see segments with times recorded only during June-September or similar. This is usually a good indication of snow cover for higher elevation.

(You may need Strava Premium to see the full leader boards to do this)

I’ve biked a fair bit in all of these places.

The rim trail at Tahoe is magnificent but will be snowy as suggested.  Probably the best views I’ve ever had.

Biking in Vegas is a good shout – think it was Cottonwood I did. Got a lift and got dropped off although in the Summer. My partner is a teacher so I had to go.

I find Vegas interesting to be honest. You can do so much there.  It’s not just shows and casinos.  Although 2/3 days is my limit.

We stayed at village inn in tahoe – was fantastic little place.

Oregon has some good biking places too such as Bend but that might be too far North. Calistoga was a good place to stay in Napa but we did little off road there.

For sure the USA has become hugely expensive  – the last two years we’ve done Florida (both sides at Xmas) and Colorado (amazing summer 23 red hot – Palisade, Fruita , Glenwood Springs, Telluride, Crested Butte) and recently this year New England.

Of my favourites it’s got to be Moab, Utah which is just a few hours from Vegas. Although some of that is at height.

There is nothing else like a tour in America it’s the most fantastic landscape and worth the effort.

We always hire bikes. But they’ve getting really expensive. But we get good bikes – we got Transition Spurs in Kingdom Trails but they were $120 a day each.

Planning on Palm Springs for Christmas if funds allow. That’s not too far from San Diego / LA.

I know the Utah stuff pretty well, had a lot of trips over the years. Loads of fantastic parks and scenery (and biking). We are off there again at the end of the month. Grand Canyon is very impressive and I love visiting SF, bike over GG bridge etc, but it’s always been the odd day or two tacked on to a business trip rather than a full-on holiday.

I’d choose Yellowstone over all the rest though, easily. A world apart.

I don’t recommend doing what I did in 2003/4. It wasn’t really family friendly… it was a bit more Gonzo and involved a 1-week triangle from LA-Vegas-SF-LA.

Drove from LA to Vegas with a bunch of American friends and proceeding to hit various casinos and the OG until breakfast time. Slept for a couple of hours, left most of the friends to fly home and drove across Death Valley, stopping only to buy fireworks. Then camping in the mountains after toking and being ‘slightly’ paranoid about bears. Getting stopped at 6am by an American policewoman for being waaaaay over the speed limit (by mistake) and having no driving licence on me. Rolling on to friends in San Fran (but not via Yosemite because it was shut due to snow at Easter) where we were almost permanently drunk before driving back to LA camping on the beach and letting fireworks off over the sea.

At least that’s all i can remember of it…

I’d choose Yellowstone over all the rest though, easily. A world apart

Yellowstone is great.

We did guided rides around Jackson in the hills  – guide was armed up with bear spray.

Makes you a bit anxious.

Montana next for me.

@bruk

Palm Springs was much nicer than I expected too and easy striking distance for Joshua Tree if all the roads are open

Did you ride in Palm Springs? Did you fly to San Diego or LA?

We’re looking at that for Xmas.

That said, my wife and her travelling mate are just back from a “budget” week in the San Diego area (payback for two bike trips I managed to wangle in the last year). Her  mate’s mum works for BA so travel & accomodation were proper cheap. EVERYTHING ELSE wasn’t.  They were blown away by how stupendously expensive the US has become.  Like $100 for an average meal in somewhere like Outback (think harvester that only does steak)

Totally.

I always set myself up for about 4-5k per trip for 2 weeks-ish. You can do it cheaper but I’m not one for roughing it.

Although premiere economy might be getting trimmed a bit next time.

That said there are still reasonable flights to be had sometimes.