Our California Fly Drive

tingtong

Not sure where to start really other than to echo what others have said and say that you are trying to drive too far and see too many places in a relatively short time frame - you simply won't do them any justice and you won't enjoy it as much as you should do.

Now, assuming your in/out flights (LAS/SAN) are fixed and accommodation refundable, here's what I would consider:

Fly into Vegas, stay 4 nights, with a helicopter trip to the GC west rim. Drive to Death Valley, stay 1 night then onto Yosemite for 3 nights. Drive to San Francisco, drop the car off, stay 3 nights, then FLY to San Diego for the last 3 nights. You won't really need a car in San Diego for 3 days, it costs $5 each for a transport All Day Pass (or $12 for 3 days) - just make sure your hotel is fairly central.

I would not drive to the Grand Canyon South Rim just to have a quick look around for a couple of hours, have a kip then drive back. I know others who have but I think it should be done as part of a 'loop' taking in Zion, Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley etc.

I also think that to try and drive from SF to SD in a few days is not really the way to do it - maybe leave this out for another trip. We've literally (this week) just got back from California and went from SF to SD - our trip was 18 nights, without even thinking about Yosemite, Vegas, DV & GC.

Hope this has helped rather than hindered, feel free to PM me if you'd like a bit more detail as I don't want to ramble on too much !!

stphnstevey

I understand peoples opinions that we won't do things justice in such a short time - but we want to go other places in the coming years (Austrailia, safari etc) and don't know when we will be able to go back.

We want a taster of everything and of course there will be bits we will miss, but all the more reason to go back.

We have scrapped the GC trip and now just doing the helicoptor

We are spending
1 day LV and GC
1 day Death valley
2 days Yosemite
1 day SF
2 days for Pacific Coast highway between SF and LA
1 day Six Flags Magic Mountain
2 days LA - Universal and sightseeing
2 days San diego - Zoo and Seaworld

Time is tight and there are alot of miles to cover, but were never doing more than 5hrs driving a day and averaging about 3hrs, which is more than comfortable as I do that in my normal job at home!

So overall certainly doable, we will still get to see the highlights and can always go back once we have worked out which bits we did and didn't like or bits we felt we needed more time

jackieblack

stphnstevey wrote: »

I understand peoples opinions that we won't do things justice in such a short time - but we want to go other places in the coming years (Austrailia, safari etc) and don't know when we will be able to go back.

We want a taster of everything and of course there will be bits we will miss, but all the more reason to go back.

We have scrapped the GC trip and now just doing the helicoptor

We are spending
1 day LV and GC
1 day Death valley
2 days Yosemite
1 day SF
2 days for Pacific Coast highway between SF and LA
1 day Six Flags Magic Mountain
2 days LA - Universal and sightseeing
2 days San diego - Zoo and Seaworld

Time is tight and there are alot of miles to cover, but were never doing more than 5hrs driving a day and averaging about 3hrs, which is more than comfortable as I do that in my normal job at home!

So overall certainly doable, we will still get to see the highlights and can always go back once we have worked out which bits we did and didn't like or bits we felt we needed more time

I totally understand, our trips are the same, we always want to see as much as possible in case we never get the chance to go back (we have other trips planned for the next few years too).
It's a question of prioritising. We often wish we'd had more time in a particular place, but never that it wasn't worth going to for the short time we had. Like you, the driving doesn't bother us, it's all part of the experience!
FWIW, I think, for what you want to do, you've got it about right now.

I always get to a point where I say we could carry on tweaking the itinerary forever but it's a good plan for us and I have to just get on and start getting stuff booked and stop worrying that there might be something we're missing.

jackieblack

Going back to LA, still don't know which attractions you're interested in but, if it's the Hollywood stuff, we stayed here, it is part of the same complex with the Kodak Theatre and you walk down the staircase that the Oscar attendees go up and walk right out onto Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk Of Fame. The red city sightseeing buses leave from outside Graumanns Chinese Theatre (where the hand/footprints in the concrete are) and it is close to the metro which runs to Universal. It's not cheap, but we got a good deal and as we only had 2 nights and one full day we didn't want to waste time travelling across the city (LA traffic is a nightmare) so this was our 'treat' hotel and we booked a couple of cheaper ones other places to balance it out.

cottyh24

If you are looking to do Universal and some sightseeing then I second Hollywood as a good place to stay. You can get the metro to Universal from the Hollywood and Highland station (one stop) and the sightseeing bus stops outside the chinese theater. You won't need to drive if you don't want to. There are quite a few hotels in the area, from cheaper options like Hollywood Orchid Suites and Celebrity Suites up to more expensive places like the Magic Castle, the Renaissance etc.

ferf1223

remember that parking in LA is expensive (I recall $25/night most of the hotels we were looking at - though we got a place with loads of free parking as it was next to a small shopping centre)...so if you will have your car while in LA, worth checking on parking costs before booking your hotel - you'll have to park it even if you don't drive it while in LA....so you'll need to factor in that additional cost.

stphnstevey

ferf1223 wrote: »

remember that parking in LA is expensive (I recall $25/night most of the hotels we were looking at - though we got a place with loads of free parking as it was next to a small shopping centre)...so if you will have your car while in LA, worth checking on parking costs before booking your hotel - you'll have to park it even if you don't drive it while in LA....so you'll need to factor in that additional cost.

Yes parking has been a problem with most hotels only having a small parking lot - yours sounds good with pleanty of parking - where was that?

tingtong

stphnstevey wrote: »

I understand peoples opinions that we won't do things justice in such a short time - but we want to go other places in the coming years (Austrailia, safari etc) and don't know when we will be able to go back.

We want a taster of everything and of course there will be bits we will miss, but all the more reason to go back.

We have scrapped the GC trip and now just doing the helicoptor

We are spending
1 day LV and GC
1 day Death valley
2 days Yosemite
1 day SF
2 days for Pacific Coast highway between SF and LA
1 day Six Flags Magic Mountain
2 days LA - Universal and sightseeing
2 days San diego - Zoo and Seaworld

Time is tight and there are alot of miles to cover, but were never doing more than 5hrs driving a day and averaging about 3hrs, which is more than comfortable as I do that in my normal job at home!

So overall certainly doable, we will still get to see the highlights and can always go back once we have worked out which bits we did and didn't like or bits we felt we needed more time

As long as you are are comfortable with what you are doing then that is all that really matters. I'd be surprised if you get from Death Valley to Yosemite (presuming you are staying at the West entrance) in 5 hours, probably nearer to 7 hours.

ferf1223

stphnstevey wrote: »

Yes parking has been a problem with most hotels only having a small parking lot - yours sounds good with pleanty of parking - where was that?

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g32684-d78165-Reviews-Courtyard_by_Marriott_Los_Angeles_Marina_del_Rey-Marina_del_Rey_California.html

Got it via priceline though - so didn't pay full whack for it...we only needed one night, knew approx where we wanted to be (we were visiting a friend), narrowed down the area to the corresponding Priceline zone (Santa Monica - Marina Del Rey) ...looked at all the hotels on the list on betterbidding.com...decided we would be OK with any of the 3 star options and got this...we were happy with it - it suited our purposes perfectly and was much less expensive than some of those we were looking at...so we were happy enough with it. Not sure if the location is one that suits you or not - my LA geography is limited, have been twice, but cannot even remember where we stayed the first time.

stphnstevey

ferf1223 wrote: »

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g32684-d78165-Reviews-Courtyard_by_Marriott_Los_Angeles_Marina_del_Rey-Marina_del_Rey_California.html

Got it via priceline though - so didn't pay full whack for it...we only needed one night, knew approx where we wanted to be (we were visiting a friend), narrowed down the area to the corresponding Priceline zone (Santa Monica - Marina Del Rey) ...looked at all the hotels on the list on betterbidding.com...decided we would be OK with any of the 3 star options and got this...we were happy with it - it suited our purposes perfectly and was much less expensive than some of those we were looking at...so we were happy enough with it. Not sure if the location is one that suits you or not - my LA geography is limited, have been twice, but cannot even remember where we stayed the first time.

Thanks for that - does Priceline let you select properties with parking?