my trip ,14/12/2012to 5/01/2013 ,opinions and advice

[Lance Claasen]

sf,monterey,los angeles,san diago,gcanyon,vegas,any opinions of time spent per city.
hav to get to vegas by 28/12 and leve for cruise in miami on 5/01/2013
car hire and hotel advice,
persons 2adults,boy 21,girl 14
goals..play round golf pebble beach,watch sunrise at gc,

tks bottles
ps from south africa..* all by 8

[DonnaR57]

It sounds like a wonderful trip! Welcome to RTA!

Opinions of time spent in each city ... well, that would be up to you. What do you want to see, what do you want to do in each city? All of those places have a ton of things to do and see. In order to help you figure it out, we would need some more information.

If I am reading your post correctly, you are arriving in San Francisco on Dec. 14th and have until Jan. 5th to get to Las Vegas. Are you planning to drive from Las Vegas to Miami, or just use a car from SF to Las Vegas, and then fly to Miami (which is what I would do to maximize my time)?

For car rentals, you should first check to see if there are any consolidators in your home country that will deal with USA car rentals. Often, they can get you a better deal and wave certain fees that the USA car rental places won't do it. If those don't work for you, you can check the "big rentals" like Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, and others.

Hotels ... you will probably want to have definite reservations at your arrival city and in Miami, and if you plan to stay at the Grand Canyon at one of the hotels on the South Rim (the only rim open in December). Otherwise you could go with drive ups in Monterey, LA, San Diego. Las Vegas ... well, I'll let others chime in there. In San Diego, you'll probably find the best deals in Mission Valley/Hotel Circle area. There are a bunch of motels and hotels along both sides of I-8 and they all have competitive rates. Most are hotel chains.


Donna

[CAnative]

It appears that you have at least 14 days for your San Francisco to Las Vegas portion of your trip which is sufficient. In Dec there may be lovely days when you would want to be outside, even at the beach, and cold, rainy days when most people would not want to be outdoors. You might want to consider some time outside the cities for snow (Sierras) and/ or desert. And of course your kids are old enough to express some preferences and help with planning.