Thanks for the tips - we plan on driving the PCH down to LA (my daughter wants to go to the Santa Monica Pier, so that's the destination). Is there a particular stretch of it that is better than other parts?
I ask because we may head to Yosemite from San Francisco, and then back to the coast for the drive down.
The drive from SF to Yosemite is only 165 miles / 3.5 hours. The 'fast' route from Yosemite to say Monterey is 4 hours to get back to the coast but we miss all the coastline between SF and Monterey where there seems to be a few places to pull over, explore a beach etc. Of course it looks like there's tons of that south of Monterey as well, with Big Sur etc. along the way to LA.
So perhaps:
Day 1-4 San Fran for 3 full days (arrive day 1, explore 2,3,4, depart day 5)
Day 5 Drive to Yosemite early morning, explore the park, spend the night somewhere close
Day 6 Perhaps the morning in Yosemite / area - drive to Monterey and spend the night
Day 7 Explore Monterey - looks like a nice place
- spend another night
Day 8 Early morning drive south to Big Sur - continue driving to Arroyo Grande or somewhere along there and spend the night
Day 9 Explore a bit and hit the road to Santa Monica
Day 10-11 Santa Monica / LA area for a couple of days - my daughter will want to see the Hollywood sign etc along with the Pier
Day 12 Early morning - head inland - need to see some 'desert' Maybe Joshua Tree National Park?
Day 13 Spend the night somewhere out there
Day 14 morning drive back to LA and fly home
Something along those lines - might strip a day or two out of the trip.
Where do I go to see the giant redwoods?