Vancouver Travel Forum

We (2 adults and a 12 years kid) are traveling to west USA/Canada this summer lending at Seattle and departing from LA. We have approx 3 weeks and we want to visit Vancouver (2-3 days), the Canadian Rockies (6-7 days), Yellowstone Park (3-4 days) and then fly to SF (2 days) an take rout 1 (2 days) to LA (2 day). We would like to get suggestions for the best route and the number of days we should dedicate for each location.
Thank you in advance,
MA

Do you want to use buses and trains or are you planning to hire a car?

You might wish to repost your question seperately in the Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles forums. You should get more specific answers for each area that way. For Yellowstone and San Francisco, you will definitely wish to have your lodging reserved as soon as possible. I would consider renting a car in Seattle. You might wish to travel to Yellowstone from there. You could travel northward from the park into Canada. That would keep you in the mountains for a good length of time. You could then travel westward to Vancouver. From Vancouver, you could take a ferry (with the car) back to Seattle. That would add a bit of sea time to your trip, and you would avoid a drop-off fee on a one-way car rental. You could fly to San Francisco. There are usually some pretty nice fares on that route. For San Francisco, you are almost better off without a car. Parking is hard to find, costly, and often is an additional charge above the cost of your lodging. The City has workable public transit options. On the Northern waterfront, you can rent bikes at Pier 43 1/2: (www.blazingsaddles.com). You can visit Pier 39, (restaurants, shopping, and the sea lions), the Maritime Museum, the Hyde Street Pier (old ships), Fort Mason (a WWII Liberty Ship, and a submarine). Further west you might wish to visit the Exploratorium ( a science museum), the Presidio, Fort Point, and the Golden Gate Bridge. You also might wish to visit the Golden Gate Park area. They have the new California Academy of Science Museum (penguins. an indoor rain forest, plus many other exhibits). There are also a butterfly house, botanical garden, Japanese Tea Garden, and the Conservatory of Flowers in that area. You might wish to look at the web site for the "San Francisco Culture Bus" for transport to that area. You might also wish to look at the web sites for the Stern Grove Festival, the North Beach Jazz Festival, and the Fillmore Jazz Festival, to see if you'll be visiting at those times. On the trip down Highway 1, you might wish to visit the Santa Cruz Pier, the Roaring Camp Railroads, and at least the aquarium in Monterey. For the Los Angeles area, (if you aren't doing Disneyland), you might look at staying in the Santa Monica area. It is reasonably close to LAX, on the coast, with lots of restaurants. It also has the Santa Monica Pier. There is workable public transit there. Gary

Another place your child might enjoy visiting in the San Francisco area is the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. You can take a boat from the Wharf area to Vallejo, and a shuttle to and from the park. They have animals, rides and shows. The web site: (www.sixflags.com/discoverykingdom). Gary

We plan to rent a car.