San Francisco to Las Vegas via San Diego

[AJ Turner]

Hi All

I have a few questions in which I'm hoping someone with local knowledge can help fill in for me.

My best friend and I are planning a 12 day trip to the West Coast in August however I'm concerned that we're trying to fit too much into too little time.

We are planning on travelling from San Fran early in the morning (6am) to arrive in San Diego hopefully late afternoon the same day. I've estimated our travel time at around 12 hours based off inexperience of the roads, gas stops and sightseeing stops, etc. Do you think this would be a realistic travel time and/or would you recommend we stop overnight somewhere on the way?

We will then be heading to Vegas from San Diego in which I had projected about 8 hours travel time. Would this be realistic too?

Thanks for your replies in advance :)

AJ

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

If you are just planning to drive from city to city, then nothing you've talked about is a problem.

You can drive from SF to SD in 9-10 hours, although it could easily be 11 or 12 depending upon LA traffic. But that's assuming you are just taking the I-5 freeway the whole way. If you want to see the coast or do any sightseeing, you could need 2 or even 3 days.

SD to Vegas could be done in about 6 hours, again, if you are just taking the direct route via the freeways.

Of course, this loop is the most popular and most discussed route on the forum because there are so many things to see, beyond the cities.

[AJ Turner]

Thanks for the welcome and reply Michael! I plan on doing some more reading of these forums over the next few weeks and hopefully will have some good advice to offer others post trip.

As we plan on doing some sightseeing along the coast, I guess from what you are saying it will be better for us to travel over 2 days and stopover somewhere in-between.

AJ

[Midwest Michael]

Yes, if you are planning to do the coast, you're talking about a minimum of 2 long days, and even that's pushing it a bit. It's generally recommended to take 2 full days just to get from SF to LA via the coast.

[AJ Turner]

Excellent, thanks again Michael.

AJ

[Southwest Dave]

There is so much more to this area, here are some of our favourite threads to help with your planning.

[AJ Turner]

Thanks for the link Dave!