Road Trip recommendations

Hey EB friends,

My wife, mini-Ram, and myself will be going flying to San Francisco, CA early November. We'll be driving from there, along the coast, to Long Beach, CA. Do you have any recommendations? Things we absolutely must see, must do, places we must eat at?

Thanks!

Playboy mansion

Alcatraz.

My wife had a business trip there recently and our son drove up from Lancaster for a mini reunion.

She rented a bicycle and crossed the Golden Gate, which she really loved.

We walked from our hotel on the waterfront up to the Coit Tower http://sfrecpark.org/destination/telegraph-hill-pioneer-park/coit-tower/ , then down to Chinatown and then took the cable car back. It was a pretty sweet tour.

The next day we drove to Stinson Beach and hiked up into the Redwoods. It was really neat and uncrowded.

http://www.bahiker.com/northbayhikes/stinson.html

If you make it to the Outer Sunset neighborhood to see the Pacific while in SF, you must stop at the Devil's Teeth Baking Company.

Alcatraz is awesome.

Almonds in the valley (Manteca and such) are cheap and pronounced a-mands.

Crystal Cove State Park near Newport Beach is pretty chill. It's near LA.

Hugo's in Studio City is a fantastic restaurant. If you drive down the street a little, you can also see the house that was Steve Carell's for The 40-Year-Old Virgin and the old hospital where all of Scrubs was filmed. I mean both are just blocks away.

Oh, and hIke Muir Woods!

Plus, a national parks pass may pay off if you go to a lot of those sites.

I was thinking about starting a travel thread, so I'll just glom on here.

I'm going to be going to San Fran for a day next month as well; any advice on whether the San Fran zoo or the Oakland zoo is better? Cement, were the redwoods impressive? I might consider trying to do that hike you linked.

We'll also be spending a couple days in Sacramento, any recommendations there?

Finally, we'll be spending 3-4 days at Lake Tahoe, which I'm really looking forward to. Plan to do a cruise on the lake, and taking the gondola up at Heavenly to see the sights and maybe do one of the ropes courses. Anyone spend time around there?

I would budget time to spend at least half a day driving the pacific coast highway. Preload some beach boys music(depending how far south your are going)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! We're landing in San Francisco and will be driving down to Monterey. There's one more stop scheduled (can't remember right now) before we get to Long Beach. I know we also plan on driving down to San Diego so it'll be quite the road trip. Alcatraz is definitely on the list. We'll definitely add Crystal Cove (we're down in Long Beach for 4 days). Coit Tower got added as well. I know my wife planned on doing the cable car ride and seeing the bridge so looks like it'll fit in nicely.

I'll let you guys know how it goes!

Feel free to add recommendations if you remember anything.

Sequoia National Forest. The lodge there is a pretty good place to spend the night.

Pink's Hot Dog Stand. LA.

The Getty.

Santa Monica Pier.

THUMS Islands. Long Beach.

In-N-Out Burger

NJmike PE said:

In-N-Out Burger

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Looking forward to the McDonald's also!

csb said:

Almonds in the valley (Manteca and such) are cheap and pronounced a-mands.

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I'd be careful of asking for "a-mands" nuts in the San Fran area...just sayin!

envirotex said:

Sequoia National Forest. The lodge there is a pretty good place to spend the night.

Pink's Hot Dog Stand. LA.

The Getty.

Santa Monica Pier.

THUMS Islands. Long Beach.

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We did LA back in December and basiclly did Hollywood Blvd, Santa Monica Pier, and Knott's Berry Farm

Did you also think that santa monica pier could use some napalm?

Road Guy said:

Did you also think that santa monica pier could use some napalm?

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Honestly, we parked down the street, walked to the end, took a few photos, had a meal at the big resturant then walked back to the car. I don't think I experienced enough to determine such an opinion, lol.