California dreamin': why San Francisco to Los Angeles should be your next fly drive holiday with kids
“Daddy, can we visit California for our holiday this year?” our children asked. They are obsessed with the Golden State after watching hours of videos made by streamers and vloggers.
Fortunately for us — and our budget — our two boys had two weeks off for autumn half-term thanks to a quirk of the state schools they both attend. So we decided to skip the traditional two weeks abroad in the summer, and began planning and saving for our Californian adventure in the cooler months.
We booked our long-haul flights (which were much more reasonable than during the summer holidays) and headed Stateside to prove there’s more to life than YouTube videos. Our plan was set - fly directly to San Francisco then spend the next two weeks driving along the coast down to San Diego before flying home from Los Angeles.
My wife and I had visited California before so had a fair idea of what to expect and what we wanted to see. But the boys — both young teenagers — had never crossed the Atlantic before so this was all new for them.
San Francisco
Where to stay
After a ten-hour flight and no sleep due to holiday excitement, we picked up a rental car (which was pain-free) at San Francisco airport. We entered the first hotel’s address into Waze and set off.
We arrived at the award-winning Argonaut Hotel () wrestling with our jetlag to a warm welcome from the hotel’s concierge, who parked the car and whipped away the
