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Help with itinerary for 7 day trip in California

Question — Itinerary

Day 1: fly into LA
- Stay 1 night (either near LAX or spend the day in LA doing a couple of things and stay in Calabasas, our flight lands early)

Day 2: drive to Solvang
- stay the night in Solvang

Day 3: drive from Solvang to Monterey
- stay in Monterey

Day 4: carmel/big sur
- stay in Monterey

Day 5: drive to San Francisco
- Might stay outside of San Francisco (Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, or in SF?)

Day 6: San Francisco
spend night in same place as night before unless we stayed in Santa Cruz, then stay in SF this night

Day 7: fly home

My main questions are:

Is San Francisco worth 2 nights? We want to see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge but other than that, not sure.

If we only did 1 night in SF, where would you recommend the other night be spent from LA to SF? We only have the rental car and flight booked so our days are still flexible right now

Posted Jul 6, 2026, 1:22 PM UTC

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