California road trip in 2 weeks: itinerary and tips

Two weeks are enough for a California road trip provided you choose: San Francisco, Yosemite, the giant sequoias, Los Angeles and San Diego fit into 14 days, in that order, from north to south. Allow four days for San Francisco and its coast, five for the Sierra Nevada, five for the south. Big Sur and Death Valley do not fit in on top: they take the place of a stop, and the season decides which one.

Which itinerary for 2 weeks in California?

The route below is a suggestion, not a product: Étaperia does not sell a 14-day tour of California. It strings together stops that we have documented in detail in Sierra and San Francisco Bay and Southern California.

Days	Stop	What to see first	Road
1 to 3	San Francisco	Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, Alcatraz, Chinatown, Twin Peaks at sunset	Without a car
4	The coast south of the city	Half Moon Bay, Highway 1, Santa Cruz	An hour of clifftop road between the two
5 to 7	Yosemite	Tunnel View, Mist Trail, Glacier Point, the sequoias of Mariposa Grove	195 miles (314 km) from San Francisco, 4 to 5 hours
8 and 9	Kings Canyon and Sequoia	General Grant Tree, General Sherman Tree, Moro Rock, Crescent Meadow	Around 3 hours from Yosemite
10 to 12	Los Angeles	Getty Center, Downtown, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Griffith Observatory	Around 4 hours from Sequoia
13 and 14	San Diego	La Jolla Cove, Old Town, USS Midway, Balboa Park	Around 2 hours 30 minutes from Los Angeles

The durations are rough figures, excluding stops and traffic jams.

Which direction to do the road trip in: north to south

• A one-way trip. No road driven twice for nothing, provided you return the car in another city: ask the rental company what that one-way drop-off costs.
• The ocean on your side. Heading down the coast, you drive in the lane that runs alongside the Pacific.
• The coolest first. San Francisco stays at 59 or 68 °F (15 or 20 °C) under the fog, even in summer, and the campgrounds of the Sierra are at an altitude of 6,550 ft (2,000 m).

When to go to California: the Sierra in summer, the deserts in winter

The coast can be visited all year round. It is the mountains and the desert that set their own calendar, and they almost rule each other out.

Season	Sierra (Yosemite, Sequoia)	Coast and cities	Deserts
May to July	Yosemite’s waterfalls at their peak, high-altitude roads in the process of reopening	Morning mist on the southern coast in May and June, lifted by noon	Too hot from May
August and September	Everything is open, some waterfalls almost dry	68 to 82 °F (20 to 28 °C) in the south	To be avoided: an average maximum of 109 °F (43 °C) in June in Death Valley
October and November	The high-altitude roads close in November	A very good time	The season begins
December to April	Yosemite Valley accessible, the high ground under snow	Mild winter in the south	The best time, an average maximum of 64 °F (18 °C) in December

Three closures in Yosemite matter for the itinerary, according to the park, at the time of writing this article in October 2026:

• Glacier Point Road: open from around late May to October or November.
• The Mariposa Grove road: closed from November to April or May.
• Tioga Road, which crosses the park towards its eastern entrance: open from late May or June to November. In 2026, it reopened on May 15.

These dates depend on the snow, and the park warns that it cannot predict them. The valley remains accessible all year round via Highways 140 and 41.

Watch out: setting off in May or October calls for a fallback plan on the valley floor, in case the high-altitude roads are still, or already, closed.

Big Sur and Highway 1: check the road before you plot it

The Big Sur coast, between Carmel and Cambria, is the stretch everyone wants to add. It is also the least reliable in California. Highway 1 was cut there by a landslide from February 9, 2024 to January 14, 2026. Once reopened, it was closed again over some forty miles, or 64 km, in late August 2026 because of two wildfires. In early October 2026, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park is closed until further notice, as are the trails east of the road.

• Do not book any non-refundable night on this stretch without having read the state of the road on the website of Caltrans, California’s highways authority.
• Keep the detour in mind: Caltrans sends traffic to US 101, inland.
• If the road is open, Big Sur takes the place of San Diego, and the trip ends in Los Angeles.

Death Valley or Joshua Tree: only from October to April

Joshua Tree is 2 hours 45 minutes from San Diego, and Death Valley a further 4 hours 45 minutes’ drive. In 14 days, these deserts are not an addition: they replace the Sierra, since their good season is the one when Glacier Point and Mariposa Grove are closed. In summer, you only walk there at dawn and in the evening.

A winter trip therefore becomes San Francisco, the coast, Los Angeles, San Diego and Joshua Tree.

Where to stay: campground, lodge or gateway town

In the cities, think in terms of neighborhoods: the center of San Francisco near public transport, so as to leave the car in the parking lot; a central neighborhood of Los Angeles, where traffic is heavy from 7:00 to 10:00 and from 15:00 to 19:00; Little Italy in San Diego so you can walk to dinner.

In the parks, three options:

• The campground inside the park. This is the choice our itinerary makes in Yosemite and in Sequoia: you sleep at the foot of the trails, for around thirty dollars a night in Sequoia. You need the gear and a reservation made the minute booking opens.
• The lodge inside the park. Same location, with no gear to carry. In Sequoia and Kings Canyon, only one operates all year round.
• The gateway town, outside the park. More choice, in exchange for a drive morning and evening to get in.

What gets booked months in advance

What	When to book	Where
Yosemite’s roofed accommodation	Up to 366 days ahead	The park’s concessionaire
Yosemite Valley campgrounds	5 months ahead, on the 15th of the month at 7:00, Pacific time	recreation.gov
Lodgepole Campground, in Sequoia	Up to 6 months ahead	recreation.gov
Alcatraz	Up to 90 days ahead, aim for 1 to 2 months	Alcatraz City Cruises, the only authorized operator
The Broad, in Los Angeles	Before you leave	Free, by reservation

Yosemite’s campgrounds go within minutes, the park points out. In 2026, Yosemite did not require a timed-entry reservation; nothing has been announced for 2027 at the time of writing this article.

How much the parks cost: the $250 pass for non-residents

Here is what the National Park Service publishes, noted in October 2026:

• Entrance per vehicle, valid for 7 days: $35 in Yosemite, $35 in Sequoia and Kings Canyon, $30 in Death Valley, $30 in Joshua Tree.
• Non-resident surcharge: $100 per person aged 16 and over, on top of the entrance fee, in eleven parks including Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon.
• America the Beautiful annual pass: $80 for US citizens and residents, $250 for non-residents. It covers the whole vehicle and waives the surcharge.

For two adults visiting from abroad, a single one of these parks therefore costs $235 without a pass. With Yosemite and Sequoia on the program, the $250 pass is the right sum. US citizens and residents pay no surcharge, and their pass costs $80.

Tip: at Alcatraz, the day tour costs $47.95 per adult, departing from Pier 33. In Los Angeles, the Getty Center, The Broad and the Griffith Observatory are free.

So, which California road trip in 2 weeks?

• From May to October: San Francisco, Yosemite, Sequoia, Los Angeles, San Diego, from north to south.
• From November to April: the coast, the cities and Joshua Tree, without the high ground of the Sierra.
• Big Sur: only if Caltrans announces the road open from end to end, and in place of San Diego.

Fix your nights in Yosemite first, and everything else falls into place around them. Our detailed itineraries of the American West, from the parks of the Sierra to the deserts, are gathered on the United States page.