My boyfriend and I are planning on taking a road trip from our home in Victoria, British Columbia to Anaheim, California this coming May. We are going to Disneyland and will probably get 3 day park hopper passes. We don't want to rush our way down there and back, we will be taking close to 2 weeks to do our whole trip. We'd like to take a somewhat scenic route down the Oregon Coast and spend around 3ish days driving down. We think we will start the trip by taking a ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles in the morning and then doing some driving until we find a good place to stop/stay (any ideas?). We like camping but do you think it would still be way too cold? Maybe we could camp when we get to California?

Just looking for any advice or general ideas or places to stay while we are down there and while we are on our way.

This is pretty early in the planning phase and we have a lot of time but I thought I'd try to get some ideas going.

Also, my Mom and step-Dad will most likely be with us some of the way in their own car. They want to go to Disneyland as well but we both understand we'll be wanting to do our own things as couples.

Gosh girl- CA has it all. I am from CA just so you know. Camping wise- we have a ton of places (literally). Yosemite is very popular and not that busy around May. There is also the Sequoia National Forest, Big Sur. Los Angeles is a pretty cool place to visit as well because there are places like Hollywood, Universal Studios, Malibu, etc. You should also try going to San Francisco as well.

Po

Ooooh! I've done this trip twice now, and the Oregon Coast is literally my favourite drive in the entire world.

If you're happy taking your time, I'd suggest taking the 101 all the way down. The drive down the coast is literally the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced. Here's a link to my Facebook album during that trip: www.facebook.com . . .

I would definitely pick the 101 or the I5 for the trip - it'll take a fair amount of time to transfer from one to the other. It might be worth it to take one down, and the other back. I'd recommend the I5 back - it'll be shorter for when you're a little bit more tired. The 101 goes right through the Redwood National Park, but if you want to do the Sequoia National Park, it's a little bit further east of the I5 and out of the way.

The really cool thing is that once you're in California, the 101 will take you right into San Fran via the Golden Gate Bridge. Definitely worth it! If you can, spend some time in San Fran. The last time I was there, we rented bikes and did our own tour of the city including the bridge. A little busy, but it was in the middle of August - I'm sure that had something to do with it. Also, if you want to do Alcatraz, which I've heard is amazing (never got to actually do it) I would recommend buying your tickets in advance. That's what stopped us from being able to go.

As I said, we travelled in late August, but we camped the entire way down and back up. Over a week, we spent about $20 in accommodations and that was for one night in San Fran. That being said, we were sneaky and just camped out at rest stops and at the side of the road - technically illegal and we definitely had a California State trooper wake us up one morning. So it completely depends how adventurous you're feeling. Made for a good story, though!

The first time I did the trip, it was in May and it definitely got a little chilly, even down in LA/Anaheim.

Have fun! I'm jealous - if I could, I would honestly do this trip once a year!

^It been over 30 years since I've been in California so I'm not up to date at all on the LA area theme parks. When I was last there Disneyland only had the Magic Kingdom but Disney World in Florida had multiple parks e.g Epcot, Animal Kingdom, the Movie Studio area ABC Wide World of Sport and various water parks.

What is at Disneyland now besides the Magic Kingdom? It's probably time to go back there. I get to Disney World practically every year now as my mom lives nearby and I have a timeshare right across the highway (close enough to see the fireworks each night) which we use when visiting my mom.

Jon

I live in San Francisco, so I can give you all the cool local spots. What kind of things are you looking to do? Do you want to try different types of foods, visit local landmarks, museums, bars?

Remember that the spring/summer months are pretty cold down here by the coast. I am usually in a long sleeve+sweater in May.

You could stay at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. You can camp there or get a lodge. Or, take a risk and sleep on the beach - I've done that, but it was a long time ago.

I did a little bit of California last December, mostly just Disneyland, but we also did Santa Barbara and I LOVED it!

But that's all I can contribute, sorry

Well here are ALL the things as of right now that i will be seeing when i go down to California in June to visit friends, first off i'm very blessed that i will get to stay with my bestie and her family, so there goes having to worry about hotel.

As for places to go here is the list so far of what were going to do: Disneyland, Universal Studios, Griffith Observatory, The Queen Mary, Oceanside, Solvang, THE BEACH!!!

That's really so far only what we've come up with, Now some you may not have heard of like Oceanside, we are going to spend sometime with my besties writing group that meets on Wendesday's but i reccomend going cause of the beach's and the gorgoues sight seeing along the way. The Queen Mary, if your into the whole Ghost thing (like we both are), Universal i reccomend as well if your into movies it's a wonderful place to go to and SO much fun and the beauty of it it costs about 60-70 bucks, oviously Disneyland i don't need to explain that. And if you want take a day to enjoy the beach!!!!!

So far this is all that WE got planned but if you want me to i will keep you informed about any ideas we have and i'll forward them to you on this post.

^ Hehe, you sound super excited about the beach. It never really occured to me to go there...we'll see.

We've laid out some plans now. My boyfriend and I will probably leave Victoria on the 2nd of May and take 3 nights to get to San Franciso to meet my Mom and step-Dad there. We'll spend 2 nights there and do some sight seeing and then we'll drive to Anaheim and check in at our hotel. We'll be there for 5 nights before we head home.

You HAVE to go to this place

www.bourbonandbranch.com . . .

You need reservations so you can get a password to enter. You really have to "search" for the place because there is no sign. Just a wooden door with a intercom. This location was the actual location of an illegal bar during the prohibition. Totally great for a history junky.

^ I think San Francisco got removed from our itinerary . Things were getting too planned out for my liking and we weren't really too excited about spending 7 out of 14ish nights of our trip either sharing a hotel room with my parents or sight-seeing with them all day. Originally the trip was just supposed to be us so when I told them that we are going to skip San Fran and spend more time on the road trip part of our vacation they were worried they had encroached too much on our trip. I'm so glad they understood! We're now planning on visiting Yosemite National Park since we have more freedom on our trip!

No meet up for us, YYD.