Solo California Vacation (San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara: rental car, rental, home)

[uglybanter]

So I'm a single African American coming from Florida to California for vacation. I will only be there for about 3 to 4 days but I will be coming alone. The problem is...I'm not really sure what I should do when I get there since I don't know anyone or even if I should come there in the first place lol. I posted this in the "California" section because I was thinking of just getting a rental car and driving around the whole state and taking in the different sights, terrains, and climates. Anyone have any suggestions for fun things to do by yourself while visiting California? And no I don't want to go to Disneyland lol

Thanks in advance guys!

[TY2012]

I am in the same boat. Im coming from Texas and I dont know a soul in Cali but I need a vacation and need advice about where to go. I think you should go for it. Why not?

[Curmudgeon]

To gain an appreciation for the varied topography and beautiful vistas, drive the coast highway from beginning to end, dipping inland to drive the Avenue of the Giants and making a side trip to Lake Tahoe. If you add another couple of days, don't miss Yosemite.

[Bulldogdad]

California African American Museum - Home Page

[humboldtrat]

With only 4 days, I would concentrate on either the San Francisco Bay Area or the LA area. You won't see it all in 4 days in either place.

[Chava61]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

To gain an appreciation for the varied topography and beautiful vistas, drive the coast highway from beginning to end, dipping inland to drive the Avenue of the Giants and making a side trip to Lake Tahoe. If you add another couple of days, don't miss Yosemite.

Yosemite is a good option if you are the outdoors.

If you are more a city type, I would concentrate as already mentioned on either San Francisco (where you can manage without a car) of the L.A. area (where you will need a car) as 3-4 days isn't really enough time to explore all of California.

[pch1013]

Yep. Stick to one area (LA/SD or the Bay Area) and explore it in depth. For example, in the Bay Area you could visit San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterey and its aquarium, the northern bit of Big Sur, the Napa/Sonoma wine country, and Point Reyes, and never run out of beautiful scenery and interesting sights. You could even drive up to Tahoe (3.5 hours from SF) if you want to see some really spectacular mountains.

In SoCal your trip might consist of Hollywood/West LA/Santa Monica, maybe a cruise to Catalina, an OC beach city or two, and San Diego. Throw in Mt. Palomar, Mt. Wilson, and/or Big Bear for some mountain scenery. Or run out to Joshua Tree and Palm Springs.

[TrueTimbers]

What do you want to do urban.. or country? Big state, pick an area and area of interest and let us know...

[uglybanter]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

To gain an appreciation for the varied topography and beautiful vistas, drive the coast highway from beginning to end

I was basically planning on doing this ^ for one day and then one day exploring LA (I was going to try and go see a live show using that fake looking website called tvtix dot com) and then the last day I was unsure about. I did kind of want to stick to urban areas though, I'm no Bear Grylls by any means lol

Thanks everyone for the input so far, you guys have been pretty helpful

[pch1013]

Well, the coast highway "from beginning to end" (i.e. Highway 101/1 from the Oregon border to San Diego) is 950 miles long, so you'll still need to narrow it down a bit... Sounds like you're more inclined to stay in Southern California, so you could go up as far as Santa Barbara or even Cambria (see Hearst Mansion) and then backtrack to the city. On your way back you could head inland a bit to Solvang (cute Danish town) and/or Ojai (cute artsy town).