Arguably one of the most beautiful road trips in the country, here’s where we stayed, what we did, and what we would change during our 8 day road trip to Northern California.

If you have been dreaming of the perfect family road trip full of stunning natural landscapes and views that will take your breath away then look no further, I’ve got you covered. My family made this trip in only 8 days at a pretty modest budget. My kids were 9 and 7 at the time and our family packs a LOT into a vacation. We also didn’t mind doing quite a bit of driving in the dark. Feel free to modify the trip into more days to adjust to your family’s needs and time constraints.

Our Road Trip Overview

Begin your trip by flying into Oakland Airport.

Day 1: Explore San Francisco, Palace of Fine Art, San Francisco Bridge

Day 2: Lombard Street, 16th Avenue Tile Steps, Painted Ladies, Muir Woods, Mt. Tamalpais, Point Reyes Ship Wreck, Cypress Tree Tunnel

Day 3: Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt Redwood State Park, Rockefeller Loop, Founders Grove

Day 4: Trinidad Harbor, Fern Canyon, Trees of Mystery

Day 5: Castle Lake Trail, McCloud Falls, Burney Falls, Lassen Volcanic National Park

Day 6: Reno and Lake Tahoe

Day 7: Pheiffer Beach

Day 8: Monterrey, Fisherman’s Wharf, Whale Watching cruise, Jack’s Peak Park, Davenport Landing Beach

Day 9: Google Campus, Palo Alto, Depart from Oakland Airport

Day One: San Francisco

Travel and Supplies

We flew from O’Hare Airport to Oakland International Airport and arrived at 3 pm because we gained 2 hours flying to California. We chose to fly through Spirit Airlines to Oakland because it was absolutely the best deal we could find. If you have never flown through Spirit Airlines, keep in mind that it is BAREBONES flying experience. We were okay with that because of the savings. It’s also usually the cheapest to fly to Oakland verses the San Francisco Airport or the San Jose Airport.

We arrived on time and picked up our rental car by the airport. We were able to get an SUV with t.v.s to keep the kids busy during the long drive. Then we headed to Walmart in San Leandro to buy snacks for the drive, 2 dollar beach towels, and 6 dollar lawn chairs for the times we would spend at the beach. You can’t beat a 6 dollar lawn chair and we used them during our trip and left them with the hotel staff once we left to fly back to Chicago. Traveling with snacks, towels and lawn chairs would have been impossible so that was the most feasible, affordable way to do things.

Palace of Fine Art

The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art. This place is a photographers dream! You could easily spend an hour here but longer if you’d like to sit and have a picnic and soak up the beauty. We enjoyed walking around admiring the perfect landscaping and gorgeous architecture. There were ducks and swans, frogs, fish, turtles and beautiful birds that kept my children occupied for a long period of time. The place is a MUST SEE.

Hotel

Next we checked in at our Hotel which was the Coventry Inn on Lombard Street. This was a no frills hotel with good service and no parking fee. We paid around 95 dollars for the night however this was mid pandemic and things were unusually cheap.

Golden Gate Bridge

Next we drove over to Golden Gate Bridge and parked at Battery East Park. Then we followed Battery E Trail to viewpoint at Golden Gate Bridge where we walked through a really neat fort to get to the Golden Gate Bridge . We walked along the bridge for a bit but the weather in July was to our surprise very chilly so make sure to bring long pants and jackets for the evening! It was 54 degrees and windy when we went! We spent about an hour and a half walking along the bridge, admiring scenery, and taking pictures.

Dinner: We grabbed dinner at In n’ Out Burger on 333 Jefferson Street and headed back to the hotel by 10 pm.

Day 2: San Francisco, Muir Woods, Pt. Reyes

San Francisco

After a delicious breakfast at Noah’s New York Bagels, we REALLY Wanted to go see Alcatraz, but were disappointed to hear they still were not doing tours due to Covid. If Alcatraz is something you are interested in, I recommend making reservations ahead of time.

San Francisco Stop 1: Lombard Street

We headed to Lombard Street. We parked at the top and walked down to take in the view of the gorgeous houses and flowers.

San Francisco Stop 2: 16th Avenue Tiled Steps

The mosaic steps feature a flowing sea to stars design up a 163-step stairway. Its a tiring walk but worth it for the view!

San Francisco Stop 3: Painted Ladies

We walked past the Painted Ladies and loved seeing the famous Full House street. The Painted Ladies are symbolic of the famous California Gold Rush. With so much money coming into the city, San Francisco builders wanted to show off their newfound wealth with these grand homes.

Muir Woods

Stop 4: Muir Woods

We Drove 30 mins to Muir Woods (you need to book tickets ahead). Tickets were 15 dollars per person. We absolutely loved walking through Muir Woods. The trees were spectacular and it was perfect paved walking trails with lots of shade.

Mt Tamalpais St Park

Stop 5: Mt Tamalpais St Park

After Muir Woods, we drove another 30 minutes to Mt Tamalpais St Park and enjoyed the beautiful views.

Tip 1 : Have a map and be familiar with your drive. Cell service goes in and out the entire time during this drive
Tip 2: Eat Something by San Rafael (no restaurants for a while)
Tip 3: FILL UP WITH GAS by San Rafael (no gas stations for a while)

Pt. Reyes Ship Wreck

Stop 6: Pt. Reyes Ship Wreck

Next we drove one hour to Pt Reyes Ship Wreck. Point Reyes Shipwreck: One of the Area’s Most Iconic Photography Spots

After getting to the town of Inverness on Sir Francis Drake Blvd, keep your eyes peeled for Inverness Store on the right hand side. Pull into the parking lot, and the boat is out back behind the store in the water. This is a beautiful site and great for 10 to 15 minute stop. After taking some pictures we took a 10 minute drive to Cypress Tree Tunnel.

Cypress tree tunnel

Stop 8: Cypress Tree Tunnel

We arrived at the Cypress Tree Tunnel at sunset which was just plain lucky because it was drenched in golden light just like out of a fairytale. You need to park on the street because the gates are closed so you can’t drive in, but if you walk up to the fence you can easily walk under to go inside and take photos.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY: We WANTED to go to the Lighthouse visitor center and the Leaning Tree, but access was closed to both, so we sidetracked and went to Drakes Beach instead.

Drakes Beach

Stop 9: Drakes Beach

The sun was setting when we arrived and the moon came out, and it was beautiful. I wished we had more time to spend there to soak in the scenery but it got dark and we had to get to a hotel.

HOTEL: Options for hotels were limited at this point, we drove an hour and 20 minutes to Quality Inn in Petaluma, this area was PITCH BLACK with no reception and no gas stations, keep this in mind.

Quality Inn was 110 and your basic standard hotel room.

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The Best Family Road Trip to Northern California