3 Days: San Francisco and the Open Road
Three days adds a second, very different landscape to the 2-day base: Yosemite’s granite on day two, the Big Sur coastline on day three, no overnight required for either. For just the Valley, see our 2-day version ; for the full four-landscape loop, jump to 7 days .
Book these before you go:
- Compare rental cars on Discover Cars
- Yosemite day tours from San Francisco on GetYourGuide
- Big Sur day tours from San Francisco on Viator
| Day | Stop | Distance from SF | Drive time | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco | - | - | Basecamp, gear up, early night |
| 2 | Yosemite Valley | 170 miles | 3-4 hrs | Tunnel View, Yosemite Falls, round trip |
| 3 | Big Sur (Bixby Bridge) | 130-140 miles | 2.5 hrs | Bixby Bridge, Highway 1 coast, round trip |
Day 1: San Francisco basecamp, not the trip
Spend your last city night near a 101 or 80 on-ramp, SoMa or the Mission both work, and don’t pick up the rental car yet; you don’t need one in the city and every hour it sits parked here costs $50-75 a day. Our San Francisco guide covers the city itself properly if you want it, but this is a road-trip base, not the destination. Pick up the car first thing tomorrow, fill the tank, and stock up on snacks for two separate drives.
Day 2: Yosemite, rushed and worth it anyway
Yosemite is 170 miles and 3-4 hours via Highway 120 from Groveland, or Highway 140 from Mariposa. There’s no day-use entry reservation for 2026 (confirmed by the park service) , which means uncontrolled crowding instead: 60-plus-minute entrance lines and gridlocked Valley parking by mid-morning. The $35 vehicle fee covers 7 days, plus a $100-per-person surcharge for non-US residents in 2026. Leave by 6-7am, hit Tunnel View, El Capitan Meadow and Yosemite Falls, and accept you’re spending more of the day driving than inside the park.
Day 3: Highway 1 to Bixby Bridge, the day trip with real stakes
Bixby Bridge is about 130-140 miles and 2.5 hours via 101, 156 and Highway 1. The stretch through Big Sur reopened January 14, 2026 after the Regent’s Slide landslide closure, ahead of schedule, and it’s open as of this writing, but winter storms and ongoing slide-repair work still cause intermittent full closures. Check Highway 1 conditions at bigsurcalifornia.org or Caltrans QuickMap the morning you leave, not the week before. Bixby Bridge and McWay Falls are the two stops that justify the drive; Los Angeles is another 5-6 hours south of here, a separate trip entirely, not today’s business.
Best months for this three-day loop are May-June and September-October, when Yosemite is less crowded and the coast fog burns off earlier. If you’re set on the lake instead of the coast, swap day three for the 4-day version , which adds Tahoe instead.