san francisco to las vegas

[Marianita]

Hi. I will be doing a road trip with a friend in 2 weeks. we arrive in Portland for few days and then we take a plane to San francisco where we rent a car (any suggestion about the millions of companies ? ) our road trip start on May 17 we go to Yosemite national park and we have already reservation in a hostel for 2 nights the place is very close to the park on the 19 we are going to move to sequoia national park, my question is: if we are going to drive from park to park for almost 4 hours and we are not planning to wake up very early its possible to visit sequoia in just these afternnon? where we can stay not inside the park or can we sleep in thee car inside the sequoia? after that we go to las vegas our reservation in the hotel is 22.
we have almost 6 day to visit the parks and see them with peace, many of the web pages that i visited say that from sequoia to vegas is 6 hours but another almost 9 hours. what is the best option to do these.
thanks a lot.
Mariana

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

Renting a car - - you're right, lots of companies, all of them competitive. Are you flying in from overseas? You might get a better deal from a consolidator in your home country. Otherwise, poke around Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, and others. (We usually find the best prices through Enterprise, but you may find different.)

Yosemite and Sequoia on the same day? No, not if you actually want to stop and get out at the scenic overlooks, as most people do. I'll let someone else go into detail -- haven't been to either since my kids were little (and they're both adults now).

Sleep in the car? Not with 2 people and not if you expect to get decent sleep. There are hotels just outside of both parks, within a few miles. I would try one of those. May weather can be easily changeable -- one year, we went up to Yosemite and got snowed out in May!


Donna

[Yeehaw]

You could try this:
17. Drive to Yosemite
18. Yosemite
19. Drive to Seki
20: Seki to Ridgecrest (see some of seki, 198 is a very winding stretch, take 178 between Bakersfield and Ridgecrest)
21.To Death Valley NP (stay Furnace Creek Ranch)
22. To Las Vegas
Tons of places to visit in Death Valley NP.

[Marianita]

Thanks a lot for your help. I really not going to consider renting the car in Mexico, the prices here are more expencive than in USA.
Yeehaw thanks for your intinerary I will check these with my friend. You know how long from Death Valley to las vegas?

[glc]

I think you may have missed the point - don't rent the car *IN* Mexico - check with agencies in Mexico for quotes for renting it HERE.

[Midwest Michael]

I think you misunderstood Donna's advice.

She wasn't suggesting that you rent the car in Mexico, she was suggesting that you do some shopping with Travel Agencies/Booking companies who then contract with rental companies in the US. Its often a good way to save money, especially if you are coming from the UK/Europe. I don't know if you'll find the same offers/companies in Mexico, but it doesn't hurt to look.

I'd a agree with Donna that 2 people sleeping in a car is not a good idea, and doing it within a national park is likely to result in a tap on the window from a park ranger.

I do think you could leave Yosemite in the AM and spend the day touring Sequoia, and then spend the night around Three Rivers or Exeter. It would be about a full day drive from there to Death Valley. You can get from DV to Vegas in roughly 2 hours.

[Yeehaw]

Depends on where you are staying in DV. From Stovepipe Wells it is 3 hours to Las Vegas and 2.5 hours from Furnace Creek. That's without stops.