Trip to the US - Advice

huddy1

Hi

So I'm planning a trip on my own to the US it's something I've always wanted todo and have decided todo it and I've got a rough trip in mind and wondered what peoples thoughts and advice might be such as suggestions for places to visit or stay anything I should look out for etc just general advice.

Current plan is to fly over for 14 days and rent a mustang or similar nice car - I'll probably fly into LA and stay over for a night or so then start to drive down the west cost and visit a few places staying at motels and over 2 or 3 days end up at san francisco for 2 days or so and then go to Yosemite National Park then down to Las vegas.

As you can probably tell I need a few more ideas as to where I can go visit.

Basically I don't mind what order I do things but I want to see san francisco and las vegas other than I'm up for suggestions.

I have some questions like:

How much are decent hotels in places like LA, San francisco and las vegas? How much are motels likely to cost and how much spending money each day for lunches/drinks/snacks/evening meal/entry fees etc?

Also how much is fuel?

Thanks for any advice

Billy

ferf1223

hopefully you won't drive down the west coast from LA for 2-3 days and end up in San Francisco.:)

This is a good source of tons and tons of info

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3248860

motel and hotel prices will vary quite a bit depending on where you are.

Spending money is really a personal thing - some could get by on very little, others would not enjoy that...you can easily make it on a relatively small amount each day if you want or need to.

petrol prices

https://www.gasbuddy.com/

pelirocco

ferf1223 wrote: »

hopefully you won't drive down the west coast from LA for 2-3 days and end up in San Francisco.:)

This is a good source of tons and tons of info

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3248860

motel and hotel prices will vary quite a bit depending on where you are.

Spending money is really a personal thing - some could get by on very little, others would not enjoy that...you can easily make it on a relatively small amount each day if you want or need to.

petrol prices

https://www.gasbuddy.com/

Much better idea to fly into san Francisco and drive down to L.A. lol, tho personally I'd bye pass L.A. and carry on to san Diego

pelirocco

You won't want to drive in san Francisco parking is difficult and expensive . Fly to san francisco stay a few days pick up car drive down the coast then back up .depends how long you plan to stay if you want to do las Vegas as well . One way car hire is expensive in the US. We have just had to pay $1750 for a week one way car hire in Alaska !!

Murphy_The_Cat

pelirocco wrote: »

You won't want to drive in san Francisco parking is difficult and expensive . Fly to san francisco stay a few days pick up car drive down the coast then back up .depends how long you plan to stay if you want to do las Vegas as well . One way car hire is expensive in the US. We have just had to pay $1750 for a week one way car hire in Alaska !!

Most rentals within California & Nevada won't incur a one way charge, but its well worth confirming.

wondercollie

Parking a car in a SF hotel lot is stupidly expensive. Get the car after seeing Frisco.

shaun_from_Africa

My suggestion would be as follows.

Fly into San Francisco and after arriving, get one of the shuttle services into town. (Around $20). As others have stated, a car is expensive & unneeded whilst in SF.
Depending on what you like doing, anything from a few days to a week + will be needed there.

Then collect a car (either from one of the car hire places in the town or get another shuttle back to the airport and get it there).
Then drive East to Yosemite where another few days can easily be spent.
From Yosemite, drive to Las Vegas via Death Valley. When you've done there, either fly out of LV (which will probably incur an out of state car hire charge) or drive to Los Angeles and fly from there.(not normally any extra for dropping off hire car in different city but same state.)

JonathanA

We are in SF now, almost at the end of our trip. We've been once before, a long time ago, but hopefully some of the following might help.
- if you fly into LA, the public transport system isn't too bad and whilst it is easy to drive around , parking charges at hotels were expensive (we stayed in Beverly Hills).

Driving long distances isn't a problem as the roads are easy to drive, but I'd agree with other posters, you don't really want a car in San Francisco, it is a lot of hassle and one way systems!

We stayed at Yosemite View Lodge and whilst it was good, the restaurant queues were quite long, so you may want to take food with you , the rooms are self catering, and you must book in advance there if you want to guarantee a room. Probably also true at the Grand Canyon and Death Valley, but certainly not the case in Vegas where you could just turn up and be virtually guaranteed a room.

Prices vary considerably, Las Vegas is more expensive than it was, but still relatively cheap accommodation. Allow longer than you plan for the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, especially if you want to go walking. We also went to Bryce Canyon, which is definitely worth a trip.

We're not doing the LA to SF Coast road this time around, but again would recommend it. We've covered 2,000 miles in approx 12 days, but petrol is only $3.70 or so per gallon, so not expensive, even in a car that only does 25mpg. But shop around for fuel! we saw it as low as $3.50/gallon and as high as $4.98/gallon at Yosemite!

Death Valley is also worthwhile, but if you do stay there and it is a clear night, drive out to one of the viewpoints as you'll get a great view of the stars and the Milky Way.

I'd say it is a trip well worth doing, enjoy yourself!

REDDDRAGGON

We went about 3 years ago.

Flew into SF, was there during Fleet Week so there was lots going on, went to a 49ers game, Alcatraz etc.

Drove down to Santa Cruz, stayed there the night, going to one of the Parks, and doing stuff around SC.

Then Monterey, went to the excellent and massive aquarium there.

Drove down to San Luis Obispo, just stopped the night there, got there late, ate, left early in the Morning.

Drove down to Santa Barbara, quite a nice town centre, then carried on to LA.

Spent about 2.5 days in LA, doing Universal Studios, Venice beach and Hollywood. LA is a bit of a dump to be honest.

Drove LA to Las Vegas, spent 3 days or so there, doing all the normal stuff, nicer place than I expected - maybe because of the LA experience.

Then drove through Death Valley towards the Sierra Nevadas, stayed in Bishop for the night, next day carried onto Yosemite and then back to San Fransisco, where we stayed the night before getting an early flight back the next morning.

TLDR - Don't waste too much time on LA, other places like Monterey, Death Valley, Yosemite are far more interesting.

silvercar

We flew into LA, then drove up the coast Cambria, Monteray to SF then down through yosemite, death valley and ended in Vegas.

No extra charge for giving the car back in Nevada and hiring in California automatically entitles you to 2 drivers for no extra charge by law.

John259

There's been some great advice in this thread, so I've not much to add except to repeat that the San Francisco > Yosemite > Owens Valley > Death Valley > Las Vegas > Los Angeles > Pacific Coast Highway > San Francisco loop allows you to see a large number of very diverse and wonderful places. Obviously you could do the loop in either direction, and start and finish at any of the big cities, but the point about not needing a car in San Francisco is very valid.

Personally I'd travel between the San Louis Obispo area and Las Vegas via Bakersfield and the Tehachipi Pass, thereby completely avoiding Los Angeles, but as with everything it's totally a matter of personal opinion.

IMHO you'll need two weeks to do that loop. With a third week you could consider adding Lake Tahoe, or Sequoia/Kings Canyon, or San Diego, or the Grand Canyon, or Zion and Bryce Canyon - but not with only two weeks unless you want to just drive every day and do hardly any sightseeing.

Google Maps is a superb way of planning a route.

The National Park Service web site http://www.nps.gov has detailed information about Yosemite at http://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm

There are a lot of good videos on YouTube which cover trips to this part of the USA (and plenty of totally rubbish ones as well). This is a playlist of excellent (IMHO) videos made by a small British family who did the loop clockwise, starting and finishing in Los Angeles. You might like to sample some episodes. Disclaimer: I've no connection with them or YouTube except as a viewer.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb-8Gy55ZLXaVGaWY3_O_KUo2H5cgmb7P