USA west Coast Road Trip

HHarry

Just back from SF to LA last month. An absolutely fantatsic trip.

Some great advice already. SF is lovely, I'd also recommend travelling over the bridge (by bike, or on the hop-on bus) to Sausalito and getting the ferry back. It's a really pretty town, with a nice feel.

Allow longer than you think for the drive down the Pacific Coast Highway. We planned to do around 120 miles a day, which doesn't seem to bad, but took around 3-4 hours driving, possibly 5-6 hours with stops. By the time we arrived in town it was getting late, and then we were up and away in the morning so not a load of time to explore.
We had a night in Carmel and Morro Bay, and 2 nights in Santa Barbara. All were lovely places to stay, but I'd have 2 nights in each if I did it again.

Hearst Castle is plain weird - if you run out of time then I'd skip it.

Finished up in LA for 2 nights. I can see why some people say to give it a miss, but it was good to see the sights. If you don't do LA city, then give Santa Monica a go.

Our trip was 2 weeks, so trying to squeeze in SD and LV in another week might be a bit of a rush. Friends of ours did a loop through the Parks and back to SF and were disappointed by the amount of driving they had to do.

Perhaps a 4 week holiday, or 2 trips?!

blindman

n0785 wrote: »

Thanks everyone, will take all onboard

Look at the
South West and West coast USA thread

sjw64

blindman wrote: »

Look at the
South West and West coast USA thread

Some people might just want to open their own induvidual threads without having to wade through everyone elses questions.

cubegame

3 weeks is plenty of time to do the whole west coast (Seattle to San Diego).

Definitely don't waste time going to LA. Leave the coast at some point to head to Vegas and then head to San Diego which is a much nicer city.

And to be honest it's even worth missing the coast south of San Francisco to head through the Sierra Nevada instead. It is a lovely drive but it's not the most amazing piece of coastline on earth that some would have you believe.

jackieblack

sjw64 wrote: »

Some people might just want to open their own induvidual threads without having to wade through everyone elses questions.

True
But some people don't want to be answering the same questions over and over again when the answers are already there to be found in a convenient, readily available thread on this precise topic

John259

cubegame wrote: »

And to be honest it's even worth missing the coast south of San Francisco to head through the Sierra Nevada instead. It is a lovely drive but it's not the most amazing piece of coastline on earth that some would have you believe.

I've driven that road twice. The first time it was overcast, rainy, cool and a bit windy. I thought the drive was very mediocre. The second time the weather was perfect, sunny and warm and I thought it was beautiful.

However, if it came down to having to make a choice then I'd opt for Yosemite, Sequoia or (much further east) all the wonderful parks on the Grand Circle instead of the coast road.

But it's all opinions of course.

Crispy_Ambulance

We did a 3 week South West USA trip in August this year, flying into Phoenix and out of San Diego with plenty in between! I posted our itinerary in the South West thread that has already been referred to, so that might be helpful: have a look.

Personally, I'd skip LA. Also, I'd keep the car in San Diego - there is public transport but we didn't find it as easy to use as in San Francisco and having the car was helpful. Plus you'll probably find the car hire cheaper as one long hire rather than 2 shorter hires.

If you want to stay in Yosemite (and I would recommend taking your time there, it's beautiful) then book now. You can always cancel or amend nearer the time but accommodation books up a year in advance.

joebob

We did a 3 week trip last year in September we stayed in new york for 4 nights, then flew to san francisco for 3 nights staying at the SW hotel on the edge of chinatown lots of things to do Alcatraz trolley bus pier 39 golden gate bridge, we were lucky the Americas cup was on while we were there, if we did alcatraz again would try for the night trip but you have to book early. We picked the hire car up on day of departure and drove 3 hours to santa cruz on highway 1 great scenic route. We stayed there 1 night small town with a big funfair on the front worth a visit. Next we drove to carmel and stayed 2 nights found a great little place to stay the green lantern, cosy little cottage type with afternoon tea had a day in carmel on the beech and a day in Monterey. Very upmarket and trendy, had a couple of good meals in la dolce vita and oyster barlovely walk on the front in Monterey seals and pelicans all over. Next we headed to morro bay for 1 night not much there bur a good cheap hotel comfort inn did the 17 mile drive but not that impressed. Next stop was santa monica for 3 nights at the travelodge went to venice beech stopped off at the kings head english pub for a pint of boddingtons and a cornish pastie, mmmm.went to universal studios worth a visit.next stop San diego stopped off at newport beech for a sunbathe, stayed at , h holiday inn express for 3 nights near old mexican town and not far from airport, went into old town on saturday night really good mexican band on and street market there well worth a visit, went to the san Diego padres baseball stadium and did the tour $11 each I think great tour. Did the gaslight area one night and went to san Diego zoo, the one thing we missed was the aircraft carrier as it stopped at 16.00 we dropped the car off when we arrived in san diego. Next stop Vegas for 4 nights we flew there just over an hour, stayed in the flamingo loud busy in your face but loved it would do it again but miss out morro bay,

John259

I'm hoping for some suggestions, especially with recommended budget hotels/motels

It depends what you mean by budget, but the least expensive chains are Motel 6, Super 8 and Red Roof Inns. Some people regard them as too basic, some people think they're perfectly ok for overnight stops on a road trip in small to medium sized towns and on the outskirts of major cities.

Suggestions for Plan B would be welcome

Yosemite > Bakersfield > Tehachapi Pass > Death Valley > Las Vegas (but it's far less scenic)

Plan C:
Yosemite > Lake Tahoe > Lee Vining/Mammoth Lakes/Bishop/Lone Pine > Death Valley > Las Vegas (but it's much further and would require at least one more overnight stay)

jackieblack

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Consider going the other way round to be on the coast side of the PCH.

Seconded, north to south is much better IMO