Short but sweet road trip in two weeks late planning

Due to some bad news in the family we have had to cut short our road trip, it now is only 10 full days, and am slightly concered we will not have much time. PLease help, this is our first time to america and we are a young married couple. I am now trying to come up with a new plan.

The plan
Wed 25th May 2011 flight gets into Las Vegas pm
Thurs 26th Helicopter to Grand cannon
Fri: Decision
Flight to San Fran or
Drive to San Fran via Yosemite national park? Tioga pass not open at mo so won’t be as good a drive? How long will this take?
Sat: San Fran
Sun: San Fran (Book Alcatraz before we go)
Mon: If have flown to san fran go to Yosemite, ( or is this a waste of time)
Tue: Coast road just drive and stop where we like monetary, caramel, Santa Barbra, Malibu
Wed
Thursday
Fri: arrive La ( what must we do in such a short space of time)
Sat: La to Vegas, stay last night in vegas, Any points of interest on way? Would love to go to death valley but again time issue here.
Sun: 5th of June lunch time flight to Gatwick from Las Vegas

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I certainly wouldn't bother with flying to SF if you want to see Yosemite and Death Valley. Tioga Pass is only a small part of Yosemite, and the Valley is open year round, and this is a great time to go. Simply hit both parks while driving to SF, although you'll need to plan for at least 2 days for a quick tour.

The other big thing that impacts your plans is that landslides have closed the Coast Highway near Big Sur. Here's a thread with information on that, but it may not be reopened by the time you travel.

One other thing I would strongly consider is driving to the Grand Canyon, perhaps doing this instead of visiting LA. A Helicopter tour, while nice, isn't going to give you nearly the perspective as actually standing on the rim at the national park. This is especially true because most helicopter tours from Vegas go to the West Rim, and miss out on the world famous views from the national park.

Planning my road trip, which starts next wed!!!!!!!!!!!!, i'm all done apart from fours days.


Start, Vegas then san fran,
Tue: leave San fran........................stay at montery booked
Wed: ? any must sees,
Thurs: ? Possibly stay in santa barbra, but hotels don't seem great
Fri: ? If time check out la must see's an not really bothered to much with la. stay in santa Monica ?
Sat: Leave La, drive to death valley, stay in death valley
Sun death valley to vegas airport for flight home.

So am really stuck on highway one section, i don't want to have driven past all the good stuff to be staying somewhere that we dislike.

So only booked is tue night and sat night, other than that am open to suggestions.

Please help as leaving in less than a week.

Mod Note: Please don't create multiple threads about the same trip.

how are you planning on getting from vegas to SF? this is not a quick trip!

if driving, you may skip SF alltogether and drive directly from vegas to monterey. as far as monterey to LA- the central coast is beautiful, I recommend stopping and/or staying in the Avila Beach/San Luis Obispo/Morro Bay area. Santa barbara is beautiful, and it is where the weather turns much more "Southern CA" as you round point conception and are really driving east along hwy 1 rather than south, as the coast changes directions.

Highway 1 is closed by a landslide between Big Sur and San Simeon. You will have to plan around that!