San Francisco - Yosemite - Death Valley - Las Vegas

Walter_Sobchak

Fly to San Fran(stay 2/3 days)- Drive Yosemite(2 days) - Drive Furnace Creek, Death Valley (1 day) - Drive Las Vegas (4 day) - Fly home

Thinking of doing the above sometime this year(may prob/was thinking Sep until I saw the temps in DV ) with the missus, been considering swapping Yosemite for San Deigo. Fancy hiring a Converible Mustang

Budget is £4k.

Anyone here done anything similar? Does anyone have any tips on where to stay what to see etc?

Cheers

sophieschoice

We did an almost identical journey in early September and temperature wasn't a problem as our rented car had aircon!
I did notice it was a constant 100 degrees whilst driving through Death Valley though.
Flew into SF and did all the touristy things, City Tour from the Wharf, Alcatraz, Muir Park, Sausalito etc. Absolutely adored the place.
After 3 days we drove to Napa Valley and stayed for two nights and took in Mondavi's vineyard.
Drove to Yosemite and spent two nights in a very basic wooden cabin although the food/bar/entertainment was great.
Then drove through Death Valley to Vegas for the last 5 nights and flew home from there.

If I did something similar again I'd spend longer in SF and Napa and maybe 2 nights (if any because it isn't my kind of place) in Vegas.

tarkytarks

Have a read of the thread "West coast USA" https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2989030 as we've been discussing pretty much the same trip there. There is loads of info in there at the moment
We did pretty much the same trip last year and I have posted about it in that other thread.

vanilla8

I did something similar a couple of years ago, September too. Amazing trip!
4 Nights San Fran
2 Nights in Yosemite (Booking the lodges early as they sell out quick)
Death Valley - stopping in Lone Pine for one night - Dow Villa Motel
Vegas - 4 Nights
Grand Canyon 1 Night - on the ridge - this needed to be booked early too
Lake Havasu 1 Night
Disney LA 2 Nights
San Diego- Coronado- 4 Nights
Flew Home from LA.

With Air Con Death Valley is manageable

Enterprise_1701C

We did more or less the same trip a few years ago in August and it was great. What tickled me was the signs in Death Valley telling you to turn your aircon off to preserve water - think we would have cooked if we had done that! They have plenty of water containers around the roads anyway.

We stayed in one of the tents in Yosemite, which was fantastic, and we also stayed in San Diego - the zoo and park is a must.

Have to say, we took 3 weeks over our trip and still found it was rushed, but we included things like Grand Canyon etc.

One thing I will never forget, we stopped off at one point in Death Valley, can't quite recall the place, but we could see it was raining - but it was not making it all the way down to our level because it was so HOT!!

Gloomendoom

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

We did more or less the same trip a few years ago in August and it was great. What tickled me was the signs in Death Valley telling you to turn your aircon off to preserve water - think we would have cooked if we had done that!

Wimps!!! Roof down and no aircon for the true Death Valley experience. IIRC it was 49°C that day.

Spursman180

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Wimps!!! Roof down and no aircon for the true Death Valley experience. IIRC it was 49°C that day.

How did you prepare yourself? head.....oven......insert?

I've seen the signs and barriers in the road where they warn you that if you go into the area and breakdown they don't come and get you until after dark...how hot was that?

KimmyCustard

We did this trip last September! We did a week in Vegas first, we had already hired the car (a convertible Mustang!) via Netflights who booked our car through Dollar in the USA. When we arrived at the Bellagio to collect the car, they said there wasnt any convertibles left anywhere in the city :mad::mad: . To cut a very long story short, we had to take a Ford Explorer (like driving a bus!) and drove through Death Valley to a tiny town called Beatty. It was 107 degrees and we were glad of the aircon! We had a disposable ice crate filled with ice, drinks etc in the boot plus we took extra water for the car.

We stayed there overnight ($60) then drove to Yosemite, took all day and stayed in Mariposa (an old mining town) for a night. Then drove to SF and stayed there for 4 nights. From there, we drove to Carmel (Clint country!) and stayed there a night. Drove from there along the Pacific Coast Highway to LA where we stayed for 4 nights. Drove from there back to Vegas.

It was a great trip, but wish we had booked the hotels before we went. There was a convention in SF before we arrived and the hotel cost us £800!!! Lesson learnt there. Its a great experience but I wouldnt do it again, is an expensive way of doing things and we are still waiting for compensation for the non appearance of the Mustang!

Gloomendoom

Spursman180 wrote: »

How did you prepare yourself? head.....oven......insert?

I've seen the signs and barriers in the road where they warn you that if you go into the area and breakdown they don't come and get you until after dark...how hot was that?

Ha ha! I usually hire an open car whenever I go anywhere hot. I like to stop often to take photographs and I've found that getting in and out of the car is a lot less stressful if I get acclimatised to the ambient temperature. I can't do that in an air conditioned car. On that trip the roof only went up twice... during a rain storm near the Grand Canyon and while stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway out of LA.

A bit further along the road...

merlinormartin

Hi Walter,

We done exactly that trip!! ..brief outline follows, but if you have any specific questions about prices/locations ..feel free to ask

Flights
Manc -> Heathrow (BMI)
Heathrow -> San Fransisco (Virgin) ... great flight new plane
Vegas -> Gatwick (Virgin) .. awful flight on their old fleet
Gatwick -> Manc (BA)

Car Hire
We booked with Dollar using Netflights.. parking is very very expensive at San Francisco hotels so we decided to collect the car on day we left .. dollar just so happened to have a base next to our hotel .. result!


Arrived in SFO paid $15 each for transfare to hotel using GOLorries .. Stayed at Tuscan Inn (Done typical tourist things including Alcatraz)... plan was to drive to Yosemite Valley within a few hours and stay 1 night at House Keeping Camp but due to forest fires the drive turned into a 7 hour drive and the following day also turned into a 7 hour drive! Yosemite was AMAZING
The free Yosemite shuttle stopped outside our camp ... the shuttle stops at all the major sites. Not sure about your budget.. but accommodation can be exensive .. we stayed at Housekeeping Camp ,, we enjoyed it and would stay again but its very basic ..camp set us back around £60pn




... from here we drove along toga pass to Bishop stayed 1 night at Creekside Inn .. then 1 night at Death Valley staying at Furnace Creek Ranch i loved DV especially Dantes Peak .. the view was stunning. Then to Vegas via DV Junction and Red rock (visited Amargosa Opera House) ...once at Vegas we stayed at MGM (Loved The Signature)...Mandalay Bay (Hated this hotel.. apart from the food choices )...The drive was "easy" due to Cruise control and amazing scenery.

** we visited Grand Canyon South Rim we booked with a company called Grand Canyon Tours the whole day took around 14 hours but was worth every second... Amazing.

My favourite sites to find discounted hotels..
Hotels.com
Booking.com
Travelzoo

merlinormartin

*** Found this old thread with some prices on ***

We paid both £ and $ all prices include tax/fees unless specified.

10 days Car hire £205 (dodge caliber) .. this inc One Full Pre-Paid Tank Of Fuel and all other fee's/insurance things. .. we probably spent about $80 on fuel.

Tuscan inn at Fishermans Wharf we booked through Hotels.com total price per night was £90.00 this included breakfast/wireless internet.

House keeping camp at Yosemite we booked direct $88.69 per night.

Creekside inn at Bishop we booked direct using AA membership discount, although they never did ask to see the membership card .. $156 per night .. We loved this hotel,, especially the amazing breakfast!

Furnace Creek Ranch at death Valley we booked direct .. $124 per night.

MGM we booked direct using a promo code found on the MSE vegas thread..the offer included unlimited access to the buffet, free slot play, free inner tube rental and discount on spa treatments.
Wed - Fri = $89pn
Friday night = $155 *Labour day weekend

We booked MGM Signature through booking.com $119 per night. *Labour day weekend

Mandalay Bay we booked direct using a promo code .. $79 per night included breakfast.

Sites i used ..
Moneysaving Holiday Forum
Trip Advisor
Travelzoo (the usa version to book vegas tickets/hotels)
Flyertalk hotel thread

Oh one more thing .. you must and repeat must purchase food vouchers from Restaurant.com .. you get a discount code online (upto 90% off) ,, and can buy $10 worth of food for a $1.