As a guy who was born and brought up in a busy city like San Francisco in California, who else can guide better than me for a week California Road Trip? California holds many natural parks starting from a camping spot to Adrenaline rushing steep mountain climbing spots. If you are a person who has no idea about how to make the best time of one week in California, here is the best plan that works. You need not worry about staying because the state is full of national parks where you can tent and camp. If you are not a Tent or camping guy, there are rooms available that require pre-booking before months ahead of your travel.
Trip Start
When you plan to visit California, the best road trips are around San Francisco. From San Francisco, you can rent a vehicle and load it with essentials and start the most memorable road trip.
The best road trips are around San Francisco, but flight costs from any other city in the USA to SFO will cost more. It is better to opt for Oakland or San Jose as a destination flight, which takes almost the same time as SFO from any other city.
San Francisco – Day 1
San Francisco is a city near Oakland, from where you can load some essential stuff for the following six days. The City also has exceptional tourist spots like
- Golden Gate Bridge – It is an iconic bridge connecting the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. A drive in a car is just enough to take a stunning pic at the backdrop.
- From there, reach the stores like Walmart in the city outskirts, and if you wish, you can cover up many spots like Fisherman Wharf, Pier 39, Alcatraz Island, or just a Boat trip in the Pier 39.
- There are lots of foods to try in San Francisco if you are a seafood lover. Cioppino (a stew made of seafood like crab, shrimps, Scallops, and Squid), California pizza, French Dip Sandwich, Cobb Salad, Mission Burrito, Cheese Burger, Avocado Toast, and Burrito. You can spend a day at SFO for enjoying the feast and city view for a day and charge up for the road trip. You can stay in San Francisco for the Day 1
Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park or Big Sur – Day 2
From San Francisco, it takes two and a half an hour of a road trip to reach Big Sur, State Park. You can spend a day to two here to enjoy the ride over the coastal bay of the Pacific Ocean. Enjoy the stunning natural views along the Pacific Ocean in the west and Santa Lucia Mountains in the east.
The views are stunning with Pfeiffer Big Sur Camp Ground, 17 Mile Drive,
Bixby Creek Bridge, McWay Falls, Pfeiffer Bridge, and Angel Falls. Places to Fishing, hiking, camping, and Beachcombing are available. Hotels are available based on pre-booking.
Sequoia National Park – Day 3
You can reach the Sequoia National park after enjoying the Big Sur. Sequoia National park has the Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world. It is a forested Mountain Terrain. It connects to the Kings Canyon National Park.
Kings Canyon National Park – Day 4
Sequoia-Kings Canyon is a Biosphere Reserve. Kings Canyon features more than 200 varieties of species starting from fishes to birds. Take a dip into the Roaring River falls of the Kings Canyon National park and enjoy watching and capturing images of birds and creatures.
Death Valley – Day 5
From Kings Canyon to Death Valley, it takes more than five hours of a road trip. It is a driest, hottest, and lowest part of the United States. A road trip after green lush in eyes takes to a twist of dry land, which has dunes, salt flats, Bad water basin, and a designated wilderness area.
From there, either planning to Las Vegas or Yosemite Valley both take the same hour of driving. I prefer to stick with Yosemite as I just turned 22 and not addicted to booze. Gotcha! I will plan the next trip exclusively for Vegas.
Yosemite National Park – Day 6 & Day 7
I suggest spending two days in Yosemite Park because it has breathtaking views from hiking in all types of fitness levels. It gained popularity beholding Tunnel View, the iconic sight of towering Bridalveil Fall, and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome, giant, ancient sequoia trees. Lodging, camping sites, restaurants, horseback riding, rafting, and museum are available here. Beware of wild animals like black bears and wolves.
Things to Remember
- Download areas in Google Maps for offline use – do not rely on the Mobile network for finding routes!
- As it is a 1-week trip, keep your food ready with you, searching for a restaurant inside the National parks is a waste of time instead of enjoying the natural sceneries.
- Pre-book, if you are planning to lodge inside National Parks.
