california: We are planning a 2 to 3 week holiday to California (2 adults, 3 kids) and want to visit San Francisco, Yosemite, San Diego, LA and the Grand Canyon. We are happy to drive, but would also like to use trains (but NOT coach tours) and maybe planes. Any ideas, suggestions appreciated.|||For the Grand Canyon and Yosemite you will probably have to drive. For Yosemite, you can take a train to Merced but would have to take a bus into the park. For the Grand Canyon I don't believe there is any rail service nearby so rental car or bus tour would be the only option there. For the SF Bay Area a car really isn't necessary, especially for travel and sight seeing within the city of SF; it's a very dense city and has lots of public transit. Other parts of the Bay Area are accessible by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) or ferry for areas along the bay. To get to Southern CA you can either drive or fly. Driving down I-5 would be fastest but also the most mind numbingly boring option since it's all flat farmland for most of the drive. Highway 101 down the coast is more scenic but slower. Highway 1 is the most scenic since it runs along the water's edge but is also the slowest by far. Amtrak's Coast Starlight train would get you from the Bay Area to LA by train from the Bay Area and is a very nice, scenic train ride. It takes about 14-16 hours though to travel that route but it's nicer than driving and you'll see more than flying. You can also stop along the route and spend a night in places like Monterey or Santa Barbara. But since there is only one daily train in each direction you will have to spend the night if you decide to get off the train and sight see then take the train the next day. You can also take Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner for travel between Downtown LA and San Diego, it's about as fast as driving and even fast when there is heavy traffic. It's the 2nd busiest rail route in the nation and there are numerous trains all day running between the two cities so it's convenient. But if you want to do sight seeing for places in between LA and SD like Disneyland, Orange County, ect.. a rental car might be the better option. And Disneyland is only about 90 minutes from SD. Although Amtrak does have a stop near Disneyland too if you would rather stick with the train. For travel between SF to LA to SD I would look at Amtrak's website and see if those trains work for you. Yosemite and the Grand Canyon would have to be done by car. Although you might want to fly to Phoenix or Las Vegas then drive to the Grand Canyon b/c it might be a really long drive from Southern CA.|||You might want to fly to each of your main areas and then rent cars to explore the area. It would be difficult to tour California without a car. I would also suggest an Amtrak train ride from San Francisco to Reno/Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is a large, clear lake with a beautiful setting in the Sierra Nevadas. It's a 3-4 hour car ride from San Francisco to Yosemite, but it is absolutely gorgeous. The huge granite mountains with waterfalls are truly awesome. If you enjoy wine tasting, there are wineries located throughout California that have wine tasting rooms where you can sample wine. In some areas this is free while other areas will charge a tasting fee. For more info on wineries, California accommodations and restaurants, go to: http://www.cheers2wine.com