San Francisco / Las Vegas extended trip - advice please...

SaverDave

I'm planning a trip to Las Vegas and San Francisco in April. I will be travelling alone, and plan to spend between 3 and 4 weeks in the US.

I'd like some advice as this is my first time in this part of the US and since I'll be travelling alone I want to plan everything well!


Basically the trip will consist of two parts:


1. Approximatley a week or longer in Las Vegas, with the intention of using Vegas as a base to explore places like Grand Canyon, Zion NP, Death Valley, ect...
2. Fly to San Francisco and spend maybe 10 days there, spend a while just chilling out and getting to know the city - however I'd also like to take some sort of tour down the west coast (pacific coast highway) while I'm there, maybe for 3 days or so.


My questions (in order of importance!) are as follows:


1. Where would you recommend staying in San Francisco? I'm not sure whether San Fran is as prohibitively expensive as somewhere like New York....I was in Manhattan last year and managed to find a great AirBnb room in the Inwood neighborhood right at the top of Manhattan. I loved staying there as it was about a third of the price of a hotel in the 'expensive' parts of Manhatten but was easy to access because of the subway and was safe - are there any equivalent, safe, neighborhoods that I should be considering when staying in San Francisco that are more residential than tourist areas, but still have reasonable access to the tourist areas?


2. I would like to see the West Coast....to drive the Pacific Highway...but I can't drive. So if I can't hire a car what are my options? Is the only option to go with a professional tour company that will have say a 3 or 5 day tour from San Fran, or are there other ways to meet like minded people who want to take this sort of trip? Does anyone have any recommendations for tour companies that do the Pacific Coast over a few days and stop off in a few key locations across the way?


3. Similarly, if anyone can recommend companies that will take me on a tour from Vegas to the surrounding national parks such as Grand Canyon, Zion, Monument Valley, Moab?


Thanks, any help is appreciated!

John259

SaverDave wrote: »

but I can't drive

That's going to be an enormous problem.

There are bus trips from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and you should be able to find some with Google. Make sure you go to the real Grand Canyon, the south rim of the national park. Many trips go to Grand Canyon West, also called the West Rim, which is closer to Las Vegas but generally considered to be vastly inferior. Most of the trips to the national park are day trips but with a distance of 275 miles each way that's a lot of time on the road and not long in the park. I think here might be some overnight trips. There are free shuttle buses around the park but in April not all services are operational. Accommodation in the park is extremely expensive and books up long in advance. There's less expensive accommodation in Tusayan, just outside the south entrance. In summer there's a free shuttle bus service between Tusayan and the park, but not in April. Details:
http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/shuttle-buses.htm
There are also day trips by small fixed wing aircraft from Las Vegas to Tusayan airstrip, then the company runs you the short distance into the park in their bus. Those trips are expensive though. The helicopter trips from Las Vegas all go to Grand Canyon West so I wouldn't recommend them.
There's much less expensive accommodation in Williams and Flagstaff but without a car they aren't options for you.

If you can find a method of getting to Springdale (the little town next to Zion), there are free shuttle buses from the village to the park's visitor centre, and from the visitor centre to the main part of the park. Those services start at the beginning of April. Details (dates are in US format, MM/DD):
http://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/upload/ShuttleSchedule2014.pdf
Accommodation in Springdale is expensive but not horrendous. Lees expensive options are Hurricane and St George but without transport they aren't viable.

It's irrelevant if you're flying between Las Vegas and San Francisco but extremely important if you're driving so probably worth mentioning: in April the Tioga Pass (California State Highway 120 between US395 near Lee Vining, and Yosemite Valley) will still be closed for the winter, and so will all the other passes in that area. Drivers have to take a southerly less scenic route via the Tehachapi Pass and Bakersfield, or a northerly and much longer route via Lake Tahoe where snow and ice might be a problem even in April.

There's a Amtrak railway station in Merced, then you can use the YARTS bus service to Yosemite. Alternatively you can book the whole way through Amtrak.
http://www.yarts.com
http://www.amtrak.com/take-train-to-yosemite-park
Having got to Yosemite Valley, once again there's a free shuttle bus around that area. Most of the other areas of the park such as Glacier Point will still be closed for the winter so the lack of a car won't matter. Because of the lack of transport you'll be constrained to expensive accommodation in the park. You might want to explore the heated tents in Curry Village which I think are the least expensive option.
There's less expensive accommodation in El Portal, Oakhurst and Mariposa, and far less expensive in Merced, but yet again you'd need a car for all of these.

For San Francisco you could check the motels near the airport which provide free courtesy buses to and from the airport, and use the BART service to get into the city. Alternatively anywhere near a BART or CalTrain station provided it's walkable. With a car it's possible to stay somewhere north of the Golden Gate Bridge and use the passenger ferry from Tiburon or Sausalito. Where you stay also depends on how late into the evening you want to stay in the city.

Green Tortoise runs bus trips to various parts of the USA and might be worth investigating but I've no more knowledge about them:
http://www.greentortoise.com

Would it be possible for you to find a companion for the trip who can drive? I think that would make it vastly more enjoyable. What you could save by not having to take tours and being able to use less expensive accommodation would go some way towards the cost of a second person.

BlueWorldOrder

Probably not much use but I took the train from the beautiful Union Station in LA down the picturesque coast to San Diego (and it was really cheap). You could do the West Coast quite easily on the train if you can't drive. San Francisco is a great city but for me not somewhere you could spend more than a few days in....I'd say the same with LA.
I'd suggest doing Vegas last because in my experience everything else is a comedown after that


Have fun, regardless you'll have a great trip :j

iltisman

I would suggest flying to San Diego then rail up the West coast with a few stops to San Francisco then fly to Vegas preferably on a Sunday to avoid higher hotel costs. I would not know how to visit the National Parks without a car as even the smaller ones are quite vast.

John259

These aren't recommendations, just some things I found online.

A company which does tours to Zion and Bryce Canyon from Las Vegas:
http://www.ziontours.com

And this one which does trips to Monument Valley and other places:
http://www.monumentvalleytour.com

agrinnall

Not having a car in San Francisco is a big advantage, as I understand parking charges are very high. I spent 10 days there without any access to a car and it was fine using buses, trams, BART, ferries and walking. I stayed in and around Chinatown, a bit noisy when the garbage trucks arrive at 5 a.m. to collect but there are some relatively inexpensive hotels (although my information dates from 1988, so costs have probably gone up a bit since then).