First time travellers to USA

Hi There,
We will be travelling from Australia, Feb 2011, and want to do a self drive tour after a Mexican cruise - Is this route reasonable - or are there better alternatives?

Hire car from cruise terminal at Long Beach - drive down to Newport Beach - Balboa Island, across to OC county - Anaheim, across to Palm Springs, sight see and stay the night. Next day drive up to San Bernadino, Pasadena (sight see?) , maybe then up to San Fernando, then come down San Diego Freeway to LAX - ready to leave at 10.00pm

Pre cruise we would have seen LA and Hollywood over two days.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated - Thanks

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the itinerary you've described, and you can certainly cover it in two days, but I'd hardly call it a RoadTrip or a self drive tour. You'd never get out of the Los Angeles basin and never get out of serious urban traffic. Since you'll have already spent a couple of days in L.A. sightseeing, why not get out of town for the last two days and see some of the countryside. Take a look at maybe just making a quick stop somewhere on the coast south of L.A. such as Balboa Island, maybe even taking the little ferry across the harbor to the Balboa Beach, and then returning to the mainland and continuing down the coast to the old mission at San Juan Capistrano. Then your 'self drive tour' can really begin by taking I-5 down to Oceanside and CA-78 inland to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, then county road S22 to the Salton Sea and CA-86/CA-114 to Palm Springs. You could then take your time getting to LAX and seeing any last minute sights you had missed. Such a loop is around 400 miles, and can be a nice relaxing drive over two days. And I think it would be much more memorable than just fighting freeway traffic for two days in L.A.

AZBuck

thanks AZBuck

We obviously dont realise how hectic the freeways are! May now drive down to Oceanside, take CA-79, CA -371, CA-74 up to Palm Springs. Would that be an o.k. drive? Thanks

While I've never driven those specific roads, I have driven in that general area and the route you've listed should generally be scenic and enjoyable. You will be going through hilly and dry terrain on two lane roads. Just a note: my mapping software also shows "US"-371 but there's no way a US highway with that number belongs in this section of the country or disconnected from the rest of that system. My guess is that this is really a state highway that is mislabeled. That shouldn't really make a difference since the 'US' highway system does not consist of federal highways in any event. Just an oddity.

AZBuck