I spent the last year and a bit in Colorado and did a fair bit of road tripping/travelling. It's totally depends on what you feel like doing, are you planning on being active and hiking in parks and stuff like that or do you want to do more of a chilled out kind of thing? Some people find the big cities boring and would just want a holiday off regular tourist routes. One of the biggest surprises for me in the USA is how amazing Utah is. Anyway, I suppose I'm just asking for you to narrow it down a bit, id be happy to tell you of some great spots if I know more of what you are after.

I foolishly went out wearing a shorts and t-shirt (cocky English person abroad attitude), walked around Fishermans Wharf in the sunshine etc, 30 minutes later its absolutely bucketing down, so we had to go into Jack's for a pint. After 2 beers, we went out to catch the cable car (still raining), the queue was absolutely massive, people stood there absolutely drowning. So we went back to Jack's, later flagged down a taxi, which was much faster, must cheaper and far more comfortable.

The area at the end of Pier 39 where the sealions hang out did stink a few years ago but most of them have disappeared now. There were probably no more than 10 there in November.

Laguna is a real gem - one of the nicest places in the country.

The sea lions are only there in numbers at certain times of the year - there's never many there when I visit in July but when I visited in April one year there were loads of them. And yes - it does honk a bit when all the platforms are full.