Boston to San Francisco! 8 days, 2 people, 1 way

Hello all,

My boyfriend and I will be traveling from Boston to San Francisco during the first week in August. We are both turning 25 during the first few day's of August so figure it is a good birthday present to ourselves! We have rented a one way, mustang convertible from Alamo and plan to drive coast to coast in 8 day's. We have already heard that this sounds a bit ambitious but we can only take a week and a half off from work. After 8 days of driving to CA, we plan to spend 2 nights in San Francisco, then fly back to Boston. All in all, the trip will be August 3rd to August 13th.

As it will be August, we plan to take a northern route. We are really interested in seeing some amazing and diverse scenery. We realize with the time we are spending, we will be driving through a lot.

We would like to go on a hike, camp out for at least one night, and possibly see some cheesy road trip cliché's.

Here are some of the places we are thinking. We know we can't fit it all.

We both would really like to see Chicago- maybe spend a half day there.
Badlands
Denver CO
Yellowstone
Moab UT
Salt Lake City, UT
Drive on part of the Pacific Coast, CA
Napa
Lake Tahoe

What would you recommend? With 8 day's in the car and 3,000-3,500 miles to travel, what are the definite sites to see? We plan to stay at cheaper hotels with AAA discounts along the way.

Thank you in advance for your recommendations!

Ashley

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Even with only eight days for the cross-country drive, you can have some great times and see some amazing sights, but you can't see and do everything, Choices must be made, You really don't have time to do both the northern and central routes, so you'll have to choose between the Badlands/Yellowstone OR Denver/Moab. Since Tahoe and Napa are on your list as well, it would seem that a more central route through Colorado and Utah would work best for you and would require right around 3300 miles of driving. A more northerly route through the Badlands and Yellowstone, but still including Salt Lake City, Lake Tahoe and Napa gets you up to around 3500 miles. Trying to get to every place you've listed would require just over 4200 miles - and that is just too much to try to do in eight days while actually trying to see some of the sites you're spending all that time driving to, let alone doing any hiking.

So your first and most painful choice: Would you rather rush around trying to see everything or would you rather have a relaxed drive, take a few hikes, see some wonders up close, and relax. Once you make that choice, and with it your choice of basic route, we can be of much more help.

AZBuck

Hi AZ Buck,

Great suggestions. I do agree- either a central route or a northern route is a must. Not both

It absolutely will be a painful choice!

Thank you for your response!