January trip 2013

[liparigrl]

Am planning to gofrom Seattle to Palm Desert in January with a side trip to Las Vegas before or after Palm Desert. Then on to Tucson and back to Seattle in March. Which is best routing" SEA to Palm Desert then Vegas then on to Tucson or Sea to Vegas then onto Palm Desert then Tucson? Am conceerned about weather and availability of places to stay and eat.

[DonnaR57]

Welcome aboard RTA!

The best route for you is the one you'd like to be on. If you aren't in a race to get from Seattle down to Palm Desert, you'd have time to take the coastal road (US-101 to PCH-1 in CA), detour inland to see anything you'd like, stop and stay somewhere. If you are in a hurry, I-5 is the way to go as far as Buttonwillow. There you could catch CA-58 over to Barstow and take I-15 up to Las Vegas.

From Palm Desert, there are several routes to use to get over to Tucson. You could use CA-86 from Indio down to I-8 East. That would dump you off on I-10 East near Casa Grande, AZ, and another 60 miles down the road and you're in Tucson.

Weather-wise. Well, we're not really good weather guessers here at RTA (grin). Generally, on I-5 you might have trouble on a couple of passes, but you know about them in plenty of time to hole up someplace for a few hours or even a day or so. Or even re-route yourself. Generally, weather in Las Vegas, Palm Desert and Tucson is delightful in Jan/Feb/Mar. That's why those are good cities for snowbirds!

I'd also look out for taking I-40 during those three months, in the northern Arizona region, if you're worried about weather. That's why I suggested the CA86/I-8/I-10 routing above.

As for places to stay and eat, many areas are open year-round. You might find a few swimming pools closed for the winter months in the northern regions. But hotels and restaurants shouldn't be a problem.




Donna