West Coast USA

Georgie4

northwest1965 wrote: »

We are outdoors people, live very close to peak District and walk quite a bit so we'll make Yosemite a must.

Thanks for the advice about SFO, we'll shorten that down.

While in LA I want to visit Disneyland

I'm going to join in and say I would spend 3 nights in SFO as it is a really cool , chilled out city and I would cut down on LA. Have stayed in Annaheim and done Disney , Universal and the usual Hollywood type things in 3 nights - really couldn't have faced much longer there

Georgie4

Should have added as well depending on what you like Las Vegas is a VERY different place on weekdays to the weekend - we stayed on a Wed - Sat - the Wednesday & Thursday were quite laid back , come Friday evening it seemed that the whole of America descended on the place for the weekend - it was truly bonkers

tingtong

trets77 wrote: »

SF= 3 nights ( this includes the night you fly in )
Yosemite = 2 nights
Death Valley = 1 night
LV = 3 nights ( although if you are 1st time visitor you might want a extra night if you can swing it )
LA = 2/3nights
SD = 2/3 nights

This looks like the best plan to me. Probably the only changes I would make is by sacrificing LA and staying longer in Vegas and/or San Diego (although I must admit we've never been to LA as it does not really appeal to us). Went to San Diego 2 months ago and it's easily the nicest city we've been to in USA. (stayed on Shelter Island for just £44 a night including free parking and Wifi).

C_Mababejive

For info,and with regard to driving times, when i travelled this route i flew MAN/Chicago/SFO

Stayed in SFO for a few nights,
picked up hire car,headed south on Pacific coast highway sightseeing at various points along the way.

Overnighted half way at Pismo Beach

Next day,continued on to Santa Monica.

Stayed in SM a few days and did a long daytrip tour into LA,saw all the sights..didnt feel we had missed out by not staying in LA

Then drove from Santa monica to Williams AZ on I40 doing sightseeing along the way

stayed in Williams as used as base to visit Grand Canyon and Flagstaff (the trains...!)

Next we drove to Page AZ and overnighted Glen Canyon Dam

Next drove over to Rubys Inn,Bryce Canyon,Utah

Next drove SW to Vegas stayed a few days (Bellagio)
Used Vegas as base to visit Hoover dam and other stuff


Due to time of year and possible snow on eastern entrance to yosemite,we skipped death valley and drove via I15>I5 and drove from Vegas to Fishcamp CA at the entrance to yosemite in one day.

Next drove from Yosemite North to redding CA (visiting family) 1 day

Next drove S to wine country and stayed in Napa using this as a base for a few days

Next drove Napa>Sausalito>SFO to return hire car entering SFO via GG bridge.
On the South side of the GG bridge is the Presidio and cemetery ..well worth a visit especially if you catch it on memorial day as we did.

You can cover a lot of miles on US roads once out of the big cities.

A good sat nav eg tomtom is recommended.

Mrs_Moore_To_Be

blindman wrote: »

I hope you're not driving !
You are not alowing for the time to get from one place to another.

San Fran to Yosemite is not far but it takes time.

You need at least 2 nights in the park IMHO and that's with arriving on day one at 09:00!

Yosemite to Vegas is a long way!

Vegas to GC is a 5 hours drive (IIRC) They may have finished the new Interstate bypass so it may be quicker.

1 day at the GC means driving and stopping at the various laybys for the view. Not enough time to get into it.

And its very expensive to stay there:eek:

Stay at Williams instead.;)

LA is a dump with horrendous traffic.:cool: Only worht 2 days at most and that's if your return flight is from LAX

We are driving it

the days/stop overs I said are a loose iteniery all are flexible in case we get tired, or want to stay longer in some places, and are well aware about LA so we have allowed that much time at the end so we have those spare days 'banked' if we want. (our return flight is from LAX)

we figured from Vegas we could drive to flagstaff region and stay over night and get up v.early to watch the sunrise over the canyon then start the srive down to Pheonix.

Am I still underestimating timings?

Considering how much we love driving? x

Mrs_Moore_To_Be

We have got a direct flight to San Fran from Heathrow with BA..

northwest1965

Mrs Moore to be - I think I've really overplanned:rotfl:I am going to sit down and prioritise:D

Mrs_Moore_To_Be

northwest1965 wrote: »

Mrs Moore to be - I think I've really overplanned:rotfl:I am going to sit down and prioritise:D

Lol, well we booked it today - flights and some of the hotels/car hire! :j

wdyw

Mrs_Moore_To_Be wrote: »

We are driving it

the days/stop overs I said are a loose iteniery all are flexible in case we get tired, or want to stay longer in some places, and are well aware about LA so we have allowed that much time at the end so we have those spare days 'banked' if we want. (our return flight is from LAX)

we figured from Vegas we could drive to flagstaff region and stay over night and get up v.early to watch the sunrise over the canyon then start the srive down to Pheonix.

Am I still underestimating timings?

Considering how much we love driving? x

Phoenix???? Have you got a good reason to go there? Unless you desperately need to go there for some reason I'd give it a wide berth. It's not on a natural driving loop back to LA and IMHO not worth the hassle (we once drove from Palm springs to Phoenix, watched Randy Johnson pitch and then drove back to PS - something like 560miles in a day - it was worth it for us, if you have a good reason then keep it in the itinary).

To "perfect" your itinary you really need to decide whether you are likely to be back in the general area in the next couple of years. Are you going to rush and fit in all the "biggies" in one trip, or take your time, doing half of them now and the others next time.

For example, GC, to us it's a big hole in the ground that is still the most overwhelming disappointment we've had in SW USA. Next time we will hike it for a day or two. Messing around at the rim and hiking for 1-2 hours did absolutely nothing for us. Bryce Canyon on the other hand was jaw-dropping to us from the first 5 minutes hike.

Bryce fits in nicely with the Zion NP, Bryce, Page/Moab Monument Valley loop that is extemely popular. (Moab has Canyonlands and Arches NP, Page has Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and the Navajo reservation).

What I'm finally getting to, if you skipped Phoenix, would you head north of GC and stop in Page (doing the usual tings for that area), or take more time elsewhere such as an extra night in Yosemite.

Mrs_Moore_To_Be

Well we havent picked Phoenix for any particular reason other than it seems to break the journey up, we wanted to drop down to San Diego but on the way park up and walk accross the border at mexico just to 'say we had done it' and that seemed like a good route.

We are open to suggestions, from Flagstaff/GC we want to head to San Diego, what is the best route to take and what is on the way thats worth a look?