Road Trip, West Coast/Central/South of USA, **ADVICE NEEDED**

Hi guys, I need some (a lot!) of travel advice! My husband and I want to travel mainly the west/south/central of US, and basically have no idea where to start. We would really appreciate some help, especially as we're from the UK so don't really have a great deal of knowledge of travelling the US.
Ideally, we want to do it as cheap as possible without hindering our experience, but will be happy to pay out if it's something that will make our trip memorable, so for example we will be happy to pay for a luxury hotel in Vegas because of the experience, or water sports on Lake Tahoe etc.
I adore picturesque locations for photography, my husband is quite the fitness buff so loves hiking (I’m not THAT into it, but I’m not totally unfit), and I love cities, so we would like to visit a mix of cities, pretty landscapes, nature walks and physical activities and adventures (canoeing, hiking, cave-dwelling etc).

So far this is what we have in mind;
- Around 3 weeks (not long, I know, but my husband is in the Royal Air Force so can't get any longer)

We would like to be over for Fourth of July, I'd like to either be in Houston or Addison TX or Lake Tahoe as I've heard they have awesome fireworks, but it's not essential we have to be at those places.

We are open to either hiring a camper van, or a normal car and staying in motels, what would you recommend? The cheaper the better preferably. (My husband will be 25 at the time of travel, 2018, and I'll be 24) If it is cheaper to drive some of the way, train, coach or fly we are happy to do a mixture.

I have done some research and found a bunch of places that we would like to visit, however there is no way we will be able to visit them all, so I'll list the main places we would like to see and if you have any advice as to whether we should or shouldn't visit, if it will take up too much time, how long to spend there, any other places I've missed out etc. I'll put (D) next to the places we would definitely like to visit, but again feel free to suggest otherwise, we really value personal suggestions! (some of the places I've put, I've put as being a quick stop as we drive through if its on the route to the next location)
My original plan was to fly into Seattle, and fly home from Texas, but again that was a quick search, if you suggest avoiding Seattle or Texas then we will reconsider.

Here goes;

Seattle, WA (Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, Kerry Park, Space Needle etc)

Portland, OR (Oneonta Gorge, Mt Hood National Forest) ((I'd like to, but my Husbands not fussed))
Newport, OR
Crater Lake National Park, OR

Lake Tahoe, CA/NV (D)
San Fransisco, CA (Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, AT&T Park as I’d LOVE to see a baseball game) (D)
Yosemite National Park (D)
Redwood National Park (D)
General Sherman, Sequoia National Park
Death Valley (D)
The Big Sur Coastline
Los Angeles (Venice Beach, Griffith Observatory, Hollywood Sign etc) ((I'd like to, but my Husbands not fussed))

Monument Valley, AZ
Sedona, AZ (D)
Lake Mead National Recreation Area, AZ
Antelope Canyon, AZ
Saguaro National Park, AZ
Petrified Forest National Park, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ (D)
Hoover Dam, AZ
Havusa Falls, AZ
Meteor Crater, AZ

Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe, NV (already mentioned)
The Valley of Fire, NV
Area 51, NV ((I'd like to, but my Husbands not fussed))
Fly Geyser, NV (seen from State Route 34, north of the town Gerlach)
Seven Magic Mountains, NV
Sedan Crater, NV
Las Vegas, NV (we are happy to only do 2/3 days here)(D)

Monument Valley, UT
Zion National Park, UT (D)
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
Salt Lake City, UT (only for the movie ‘The Sandlot’ locations, my favourite childhood movie, but I’m aware its completely out the way so prepared to avoid)

Yellowstone National Park, WY (D)
Grand Teton National Park, WY
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, WY
Devils Tower National Monument, WY

Rocky Mountain National Park, CO (D)
Mesa Verde National Park, CO
Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, CO
Garden of the Gods, CO

Space Station, Houston, TX (D)
San Antonio’s Riverwalk, TX
Natural Bridge Caverns, TX
A Texas Rodeo, TX
Fourth of July fireworks, TX (either Addison or Houston) (D)
Big Bend National Park, TX
Congress Bridge, TX

Okay so I totally understand I will NEVER visit probably even half of these places in 3 weeks, but these are just the places I have found doing a quick internet search of top places in these states.
Again, I’ve put (D) next to the places we would defo like to go, but are open to suggestions.
We’ve put a lot of national parks on there, so if you think that a lot of them are just repetitive of another, then we are happy to cut out some.

We would also be so grateful if you could suggest how long we should spend in each location, that would be amazing, I will eventually do some proper research into it, but if you can help now then we will be so thankful.

Really hope you can help, I understand this is a lot of information, we should probably visit a travel company, but sometimes it is best to get advice from locals or those who have in-depth knowledge!

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

There are a few things I would suggest, especially noting your desire to keep your costs down.

First, flying into Seattle and out of Houston is likely to be very expensive, because of high one-way drop fees on car rentals and higher airfare costs. It is generally much cheaper to do a loop trip, flying in and out of the same city.

For transportation, the cheapest way to go is renting a car and staying in hotels. It's better just to rent one vehicle for the entire length of your trip, getting cheaper long-term rates while avoiding those same one-way drop fees. Having said that, if you are planning to spend much of your trip exploring the national parks (and you can never visit too many of them imho) you might consider renting a small rv or campervan. It will generally be more expensive than cars/hotels, but could be a worthwhile expense that adds to your experience.

As far as what to see, you've got a lot of options, but again, I would start thinking in terms of loops. You've got a lot of potential options.
A very popular loop is to go from San Francisco, down the coast to LA, over to the Grand Canyon and southern Utah, through Vegas, and back to SF via Death Valley, Tahoe, Yosemite, etc.
You could go from San Francisco to Seattle, hitting places like Yosemite, Tahoe, Crater Lake, and then coming back down the coast.
You could go from Vegas up through Utah to Yellowstone, then back through Colorado and the Grand Canyon.

Those are just a couple of very rough ideas to get you going. The nice thing about a loop is that you can also compare prices of different starting points, so if for example you did a loop that included stops in San Francisco, LA, and Vegas, you could see where you can get the cheapest airfare and car rental in any of those 3 cities.

Of the places you mentioned, the only ones that don't seem particularly realistic are the places in Texas, just because they are a very long way away from anything else on your list. Rocky Mountain National Park to Houston is more than 1,000 miles - pretty close to the same distance as going from London to Rome.

When travelling from the UK the other thing to consider is just how huge the USA really is. Yellowstone is so big that you need 3 to 4 days there just to experience the highlights and you have a lot of ground to cover just to get to your 'D's. In other words I think you have the makings of 3 nice trips with all you have listed, so you need to decide what will work best for you on this occasion.
I would probably decide between a Denver loop that takes me into Rocky mountain NP to Yellowstone and the Tetons and back through some of Utah's NP's, or a Las Vegas loop choosing from places listed between Lake Tahoe and Bryce canyon on your wish list.

Hi.
I'm also from the UK and have been to probably most of the places you list but not all at once!
The majority of your 'D's seem to fall in the CA/AZ area.
Whilst the tips about one way fees are generally true (Seattle to Houston would cost a minimum $500 drop off fee), these fees are often more relaxed in the AZ/NV/CA areas. So for example you could pick up a car in Phoenix and drop it off in LA and pay no drop off fee :)
So, Phoenix - Sedona - MV - Grand Canyon-Las Vegas-Yosemite (via Death Valley)-San Francisco-Big Sur-LA. This is a very basic framework plan and would need padding out of course, you could add more of your list in it too, but if you plan to drive as well as hubby, plan an extra approx $450 due to being under 25. Otherwise a decent car (mid-full size) would be no more than £500 for 3 weeks.

Big Sur is going to be a no-go this year due to a failed bridge. CA-1 will be closed to through traffic for at least 9 months.