west coast road trip

[MeL19]

Hey everyone!
Right now I'm an Au Pair in New York and I'm starting to plan my travel month. Two of my friends from Austria are coming to travel with me. We wanna make a west coast roadtrip...but I don't know really where we should start and end our trip.
We have 25 days and I would like to see San Francisico, Yosemite, LAs Vegas & Gran Canyon, Santa Barabara, L.A., Santa Cruz, Monterey and San diego. Maybe one of you guys have an idea where it'd be the best to start and to end our trip ....I was thinking to start in San Francicso...but I'm not sure...which round would be the most beautiful to drive?
Hope to get some help :)
thanks
Melanie

[glc]

You can encompass all those sights with a "loop" trip - I'd let the price of airfares and car rental dictate what city you start and end in. Check SF, LA, San Diego, and LV.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

This is a very popular area and much discussed on the forums so by looking around you will find lots of info to help you with your planning. To get you started these are some of our favorites. With 25 days you have a nice amount of time and could consider visiting some of the wonderful landscapes and National parks of Southern Utah such as Zion and Bryce canyon.

Wherever you start and finish your trip a popular choice would be to create your loop so that you travel South from SF down the coast so that the ocean is on your side of the road making for better views and easier to use the pull outs. When you have got a better idea of what you want to do we can help you to "fine tune" your trip so keep asking questions as you go through the planning process.

[Stone Fox]

If you make it up to Oregon & Washington, I highly recommend seeing the Columbia Gorge – it’s breathtaking. A few specifics:

The Columbia Gorge Hotel, Hood River, OR (a beautiful old hotel from the 20's overlooking the Columbia Gorge)
The Maryhill Museum of Art, Maryhill, WA (Just down from Hood River on the WA side, this museum is in a huge historic mansion with stunning views of the Gorge. The grounds are lush and inhabited by peacocks. The whole place is magical to me!)
Stonehenge Replica, Maryhill, WA (a full-size reproduction, also overlooking the Gorge. Nearby is an old civil war cemetery as well - both are worth stopping by to see if you’re nearby)

Also in OR & WA:

Leavenworth, WA (a really cool little bavarian town in the mountains)
Wallowa Lake, OR (a gorgeous alpine lake, it's described as "The Little Switzerland of America)

[MeL19]

hey guys!

Thanks for the replies :)
Now I think I know the "loop" we gonna take...wes tarti n San Francisco driving down to San Diego (maybe Tijuana) then up to Las Vegas and back to SF.
The next few weeks I'll start planning everything more specific and I'm sure I'll have some questions ;)
I'm glad I found you....I love this site it'll help us a lot!

Mel

[MeL19]

Hi guys!

Me and my two friends from Austria and Germany are planning the famous west coast road trip in August this summer for 22 days.
We are going to start our trip in San Francisco from where we are heading down to San Diego with stops in Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara, LA...

From San Diego our next destinations will be Monument Valley, Grand Canyon National Park, Las Vegas.
We were wondering if it's a long way round to get there via Phoenix since we would like to see it.
Where do you think we should go first and last to make the most out of it?
Also, do you think it's worth it to go to Monument Valley?
In the end we are going to do Las Vegas- Death Valley National Park- Yosemite National Park- San Francisco.

The next question is the timing. Since this is our first road trip ever, we don't know how to calculate our time.
We were thinking about spending two weeks on the west coast and one week on the second part of our trip as we are more interested in beaches and partying. Do you think this is going to work out?

We would really appreciate your help.
Thanks,

Melanie :)

[Southwest Dave]

Phoenix is right on track between SD and MV so that wouldn't be a problem at all. You can get there quite comfortably same day as you can MV the next day before heading to the Grand canyon and on to Vegas. I would say at least 4 days to get to Vegas, and to enjoy some of the sights, plus any time you might want to stay in Vegas. I would recommend the same for the next part of your trip back to SF to enjoy the fantastic scenery, a couple of days in Vegas would make that 10 days.

You can speed things up if you want to on the second half of your trip, to max your time partying and on the beach, but I think it would be better to split your days 12/10, but using the extra 2 days you have in the first half of your hol at the end of your trip in SF. [if that makes sense Lol] After all, there is no bigger party than Las Vegas which tips the scales further towards the "partying" aspect of your trip.

If you want to stick to your original thoughts I would forget Phoenix and MV [I think MV is worth it, you may not] and drive from SD to GC in one long day, spend a couple of nights before heading to Vegas and back to SF.