San Francisco > Grand Canyon

[hokboy]

Hello there!

Can someone please suggest the best route from SFO to Grand Canyon in 2-3days road trip? we're planning to stay one full day in Grand Canyon and that would be on the 25th of November. This is our first time going in this route... so I hope I can get enough advice from you guys...

Also, can you please suggest the best inn or motel along the way to stop in the evening... I would appreciate if you can please paste a link here if you know any...and the road map too... please... thanks!

By the way... We were in Las Vegas last year and we drove from LV to Grand Canyon... so this time, from Grand Canyon, I think we can still manage our way back to Las Vegas...

Many thanks for you help!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Can someone please suggest the best route from SFO to Grand Canyon in 2-3days road trip?

Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum -- "best" is a relative concept -- fastest, shortest or scenic I could hazard a guess at -- but best always stumps me. Determing a route selection for driving from San San Francisco to the Grand Canyon in late November depends 100% on the weather. If snow has begun to fall at the higher elevations, the passes will close and your choices grow limited. But there is no route that can safely be driven in a day. Is this a three day trip back to San Francisco? If so, it can not be done in two days (allowing one full day at the Grand) and only barely in three -- but you will not have time to stop at Las Vegas.

Please clarify the actual time you have and then we can make some recommendations.

Mark

[hokboy]

Hi Mark... thanks for replying so soon... what ever information I get from here will definetely affect our itenerary...hence, your help is very much appreciated.

Just to be more specific... there will be 3 of us in the trip, and we're all to end up in Las vegas on the 26th of November to attend a conference...

From Hong Kong, my friend will go to San Francisco, and my wife and I will go to Los Angeles, we will stay there for 2 nights then go to San Francisco to stay there for 1 night, then from there, we are going to meet my friend and drive to Grand Canyon which hopefully, we can get there by 25th morning or afternoon... so that we can spend some time driving around the Grand Canyon and stay there for a night before finally heading to Las Vegas.

my wife and I can leave Hong Kong as early as 20 Nov... but this entirely depends on how this road trip plan will turn out.

lastly....would you please suggest the shortest but scenic route? :-)

Many thanks!

[Midwest Michael]

I'm sorry to say I think I'm even more confused than I think I was before you explained your trip. However, I am pretty confident that you are really underestimating the distances involved in traveling the American West.

Let me see if I've got this straight.

You're planning to fly from Hong Kong to LA on the 20th
Then you are planning to drive up to San Francisco on the 22nd
Then you're planning to drive back to the Grand Canyon on the 23rd
And you need to be in Vegas by the 26th?

On a technical level, this is all possible, I guess, but you're going to be exhausted trying to do it. Your time in LA will likely be spent just trying to get adjusted to the time difference. Then you'll need a full day to get to SF, then you'll need another full 2 days to get from SF to the Grand Canyon, and yet another 1/2 day to drive to Vegas. That's going to be a whole lot of driving, with not much time for anything else.

I'd say your first step would be to reduce some of your driving, and the easiest place to do that is by eliminating the drive to San Francisco. You're not going to have any time to enjoy the city, and you're going to basically add a full days worth of backtracking to get to the Grand Canyon. If your friend can't drive to you in LA, you should have him catch a flight, meet him at an LA airport, and start your drive from there.

[hokboy]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for the quick reply...very much appreciated!

It's not that we're underestimating the distance..this is only our tentative plan if it is possible to do it...and obviously, we don't know anything about it...which is why I'm here to ask for your advice because this is our first time...

The way you breakdown the dates is pretty much correct, except, I'm sorry if I didn't mention that my wife and I will be going to LA from Hong Kong and from LA we will fly to San Francisco to meet my friend before driving to Grand Canyon...(although it's embarrasing to say.... but I cannot drive)... it is my friend who will be doing all the driving from San Francisco to Grand Canyon and eventually, to Las Vegas.

My impression on your reply is, it is going to be a tedious journey if we try to squeeze the trip to 2-3 days.... I guess we have to see where in our plan we can make some adjustment... or don't do it at all...

Maybe, if I may ask... if you would do it... what is the appropriate number of days will you allow for the road trip from San Francisco to Grand Canyon while trying to take the shortest route, but not rushing...and still enjoy the scenic and driving experience? This may tell us the reality and make the decision base from it.

Thank you so much for your time answering my queries...it's a big help.

[AZBuck]

The drive from San Francisco to the Grand Canyon covers nearly 800 miles, so it will take two days at least. The return from Las Vegas could be done in a longish day of driving, but setting aside two days for the drive from San Francisco to the Canyon, a day at the Canyon, a day to get to Las Vegas, a day in Las Vegas and a day back to San Francisco, you would need 6 days for this trek.

AZBuck

[hokboy]

Thank you AZBuck!

No Sir... we are not going back to San Francisco. After attending the conference in LV, we are flying to LA, then back to Hong Kong...

You mentioned that it will take at least 2 days to drive from San Francisco to Grand Canyon... does it mean 3 days is comfortable enough to take a scenic route without a rush? if yes, would you please suggest a preferrable route, what to see and expect along the way...and place to stop to spend the night... also if not too much to ask, do you know a link where I can print or download a good map to follow the route?

Guys... you've been very helpful... bless you all for being so kind...

Many Thanks!

[Mark Sedenquist]

You mentioned that it will take at least 2 days to drive from San Francisco to Grand Canyon... does it mean 3 days is comfortable enough to take a scenic route without a rush?

A very long day would be San Francisco to Kingman, Arizona (about 620 miles or ~ 11 hours of driving) and then a second night at the Grand Canyon and then a return to Las Vegas following old Route 66 and then US-93 over the dam to Las Vegas.

do you know a link where I can print or download a good map to follow the route?

There are dozens of online mapping programs and trip planning utilities. Here is a link to our review of the major ones.

If you wanted to take a slightly more relaxed trip between SF and the Grand Canyon, I would stay overnight at Barstow and do the drive to Oatman on the way to the Grand Canyon.

Mark

[hokboy]

Thank you so much for this information and for all the help I gathered from here... based on this... we're also formulating our plan B :-)

Bless you all!