California Road Trip Adventure

Ten nights from San Francisco to Los Angeles, self-guided, by way of Yosemite and the Pacific Coast Highway, with the flights included.

The route is the classic one and the inland detour is what lifts it: Yosemite early, then back to the coast, which means granite and waterfalls as well as sea cliffs.

San Francisco opens it for three nights, with the cable cars, Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square and the ferry out to Alcatraz. Yosemite follows for two at Bass Lake, where the valley walls rise vertically for a thousand metres and the waterfalls run hardest in late spring. Monterey comes next for two, with the waterfront and the aquarium, then San Simeon for a night beneath Hearst Castle, the hilltop house William Randolph Hearst spent nearly thirty years building and filling with European art. Santa Monica and its pier follow, then two nights in Hollywood to finish.

Flights out to San Francisco and home from Los Angeles, a checked bag each way, ten days of fully inclusive car hire in a four-door automatic picked up at one airport and dropped at the other, and all ten nights at the named hotels, some with breakfast, are included; fuel, resort fees payable locally, most meals and the Alcatraz and aquarium tickets are not. The price shown is per person sharing. Late spring and autumn are the best of it, since the Yosemite high roads close in winter and the coast fogs in during summer mornings. Eleven days at this price, with the flights and the one-way hire included, is the best value in the operator’s range, and Highway 1 closes for landslips often enough to be worth checking before setting out.