trip to Portland and back from San Diego by car

We are planning to make a trip by car from San Diego to Portland in 8.5 days. What would be an interesting route to take? We would like to see as much as possible. We have two 11 year old girls with us - some kid friendly ideas as well. Thanks so much!

trip to Portland and back from San Diego by car

Is that 8 1/2 days one way or roundtrip? Have you ever spent time in San Francisco? Have you ever been to the redwoods? Have you ever been to Oregon?

Your answers to these questions will help us immensely.

You could easily spend a couple of days in SF.

You have to figure a full day to SF (or Sacramento), longer if you go up 101 and take time to enjoy Santa Barbara; even longer if you take Hwy. #1 via Hearst Castle at San Simeon, Big Sur, Monterey/Carmel.

It can take 6-8 hours from SF to the Oregon border, depending on your route and stops.

So....how much time will you have for Oregon? That will determine our suggestins.

trip to Portland and back from San Diego by car

Not sure of your objective. Since you posted to oreg board are you mostly interested in what to do here? Or do you want ideas in Cal? Do you have reason to be in Portland?

We just spent 10 days touring from Portland to Cal and back. Redwoods, Monterey, Yosemite. All worth seeing if you have not.

You could take nice trip up Cal coast and into parts of oreg like coast and Crater lake and return to San Diego via mountiansd, lassen, Yosemite

Sorry for the unclear post. We live in California so our objective is to explore Oregon. We have 8 days total-drive to Portland from San Diego and back. We can drive straight to Portland (2 days) spend some time there = visit Mnt Hood and surroundings and return home through Oregon Coass and SF. We are just afraid that it will be a lot of driving and not enough seeing.

It will be far too much driving and not enough ';seeing';, in my opinion!

Working backwards, via the coast it will take you 2 days between SF and San Diego ... and ... 3 days to drive the Oregon coast and northern CA to SF.

So add that to the 2 days of *hard* driving (roughly 20 hours!) to get to Portland ...

Now you are at *7* days without seeing anything around Portland.

And these estimates are basically for driving only plus a few quick food-n-fuel stops.