RV trip: San Francisco - Yosemite - Great Canyon - Las Vegas

Apart from Cruiseamerica and El Monte RV, there are lots of companies that rents RV.
Our plan is to pick up in San Francisco and drop in Las Vegas 10 days later. (Peak season, last days of july).

On the peak season, prices are high everywhere... for one-way rental RV up to 5 people we are facing... (aprox quotes, aprox 2000 miles, and all fees included)
- El monte RV: 4000$
- Cruiseamerica: >3000$

Some other companies offer lower prices, although I can hadly find anything about them in these forums:
- Camper Rentals USA: 2500-3000$
- Through familymotorhomes.com, you can find quotes for companies like "Cheapa Campa RV USA" or "Real Value RV Rent": that are simmilar for a 25ft RV with around 2000 miles and fees included: 3000$.

The fact is, ¿anyone knows about thesese companies?
Thanks a lot!

Regretfully, we have not been able to rent an RV for our trip (on peak season most of the companies have very high rental rates or have no availability). So we finally have rented a minivan for our trip (5 in our group). One one hand, we can make more miles, but on the other, we now depend on motels most of the time. Now we've planned a new route, I would like to know what you think about it, I would be grateful for any advice or comments about our plans.

We start on San Francisco, and 10 days later, we drop the minivan into Las Vegas.

The map of the aprox route is here, aprox 2250 miles... (4-4h30 hours a day driving)

Day 1.- We leave SF northwards, and head to South Late Tahoe (3h). We arrive there by the afternoon, with time enought for a trip, take a look at the lake, and enyoy the village.
Day 2.- From South Lake Tahoe we can easily reach Hwy 395 and head south to Yosemite. Halfway, we visit Bodie (2h from Tahoe), and then enter the park through Tioga Pass (surely open by mid-July). From this point we can see most of the spots of Yosemite and enjoy a beautiful drive from East to West (Tolummne meadows, views from Olmsted Point), and then head to the Yosemite Village area to see the "must see spots". By the evening we head south to Mariposa groove, to see the giant seqouias. We plan to camp around there.
Day 3.- From Yosemite we turn back again to the Pacific coast. Monterrey is 3h30 drive away. In this day we visit Monterrey, if we have time we can make the "17-miles drive" from Pacific groove and Carmel, ending the day near San Simeon in a motel by the area.
Day 4.- We visit Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, Hearst Castle, and slow-going through Hwy-1 we reach Santa Barbara by the afternoon, overnight there.
Day 5.- All the day spent in LA, only time for some spots (Santa Monica, Hollywood).
Day 6.- We leave LA driving southwards, maybe we should stop by Laguna Beach, and continue to San Diego, where we pass most of the day, sleeping there.
Day 7.- On this day we plan to reach the Death Valley by the afternoon, we have 5h of drive, plus stops and meals, and anyway, I believe is not a good idea to visit the park at noon by late July. We have some hours for some spots, and we plan to camp there, arround Furnace Creek if possible. (I believe that Death Valley is one of the best places on Earth for stargazing, and specially during Perseids meteor shower by late July)
Day 8.- Going out of the national park, maybe with a time to visit another spot (Badwater), we head to route 66. We can go directly to Kingman (almost 4h), or take a little detour and hit route 66 via Hwy 95, instead of Hwy 93. In this case we can see Oatman, AZ. This will take us about +1h of drive to reach Kingman. Do you think is worth to see Oatman? Any other interesting place this way? Then, I'm not sure which point will be the best for overnight, but I think there are plenty of motels from Kingman to Flagstaff, and we could improvise (Wednesday night, hope we will find vacancy).
Day 9.- In this day we can visit either Meteor crater or Wutkapi/Sunset crater or both, depending where do we wake up. By the evening we should enter Grand Canyon Village, from Hwy89 and "Desert view drive" AZ-64.
Day 10.- Hike around the Grand Canyon. When finished, we take AZ-64 down and get on I-40 again to return to Las Vegas. We sleep halfway, around Kingman.
Day 11.- We have to drop in LV by noon. But we still have time to visit Hoover Dam on the way. We spend the next 3 nights in LV before flying back home.

Here is the map for the route

Just let me know any recommendations for our trip. Maybe we have a day with too many things to see or vice-versa.

Thaks a lot!

You can cover the ground in the time you have but I think you are underestimating the time you could spend in places and the driving times on any mapping program are wildly optimistic, you generally need to add at least 20% to those drive times and more when sightseeing.

Day 2 for instance, you want to cover 250 miles and see Bodie and "see most of the spots of Yosemite". Bodie could easily take up half a day and is on an unpaved road for a few miles, which in actual fact could breach the terms of your rental. You could then quite easily spend 3 or 4 hours sight seeing over the Tioga pass into Yosemite and then you still have the Valley floor, Glacier point and the Giant Sequoia's to visit to see just a few of the spots.

The rest of your trip is going to be very busy as well and you probably won't have as much free time as you might think, but if you are happy keeping on the move and getting an overview of these places it should work out. Personally I think you would have more fun cutting back a little [like in your earlier map] and enjoy the place you visit.

I'm very much in agreement with Dave, and I think you've overestimated the difference in extra miles you'll be able to cover by taking a van rather than an RV.

Your "Day 2" stands out as really being the most impossible day of your bunch, but you've got a lot of days where you'll have to hit everything just right for your plan to work. It seems like you've added a lot of extra time in LA/San Diego that you hadn't included before, really without dropping anything else, so you've gone from a very comfortable pace to a pretty frantic one.

I agree with you, I was pretty sure that it was too much.

Concerning "Day 2", now I think that a better option would be to camp around Yosemite Village. If we cannot see the spots around, we leave some of them for the next day. Then we visit Mariposa Groove on day 3, and head to Monterrey by the afternoon. By the end of day 4 we would reach Santa Barbara if we sacrifice some spots around Hwy 1.

On the other hand, If we make a major sacrifice, we can enjoy a more comfortable trip, as you suggest. Now I'm thinking about 3 possible sacrifices, each one of them saves us a complete day (from the previous planning).
- Sacrifice nº1: South Lake Tahoe, Bodie, and Yosemite spots around Tioga pass. This way we would enter Yosemite directly from SF.
- Sacrifice nº2: Pacific coast from LA to San Diego, and the night stay on San Diego. This way we would head to Death Valley from LA.
- Sacrifice nº3: Miss the Death Valley. (Which is a drive away from some other spots)

What you guys think about it? What would you personally recommend?

Thanks again

Of course the wonder of the road trip is the freedom to make your own choices and visit those places that appeal to you as an individual.

As you ask my personal choice would be to "sacrifice" Tahoe, Bodie, [maybe still possible?] LA and San Diego. Instead I would head form SF down the coast to the Morro bay area and then head inland to Yosemite [Possibly Sequoia NP first] over the Tioga pass and through Death valley and to the Grand canyon and back to Vegas.

I am not a City person but love San Fran and Vegas, well you just have too ! The rest is some of the most amazing and diverse scenery to be found anywhere.

I'm really thankful about your great advice Dave, and Michael's too.

All the route from SF to LV is still provisional.

I think that without San Diego, we could spend the day between Yosemite and the pacific coast. I know that LA is maybe not a very atractive city, but it's maybe worth a glance... just one day for some spots.
Then from LA we are closer to Death Valley. I think this way we cut miles and gain 24h for the first time of the trip, which was too ambitious.

Thanks again for opening my eyes!

Now we have decided to drop San Diego, and have more time for Yosemite and the pacific coast between Monterey and LA.

But we are facing a new problem.... on day 2

Day 2.- From South Lake Tahoe we can easily reach Hwy 395 and head south to Yosemite. Halfway, we visit Bodie (2h from Tahoe), and then enter the park through Tioga Pass. From this point we can see most of the spots of Yosemite and enjoy a beautiful drive from East to West (Tolummne meadows, views from Olmsted Point), and then head to the Yosemite Village area to see the "must see spots".

We planned to sleep around Yosemite Village, but unfortunately, there is no camping availability for that date (Thu night). Yosemite has 13 campings, 5 of them arround Yosemite village. Out of the 13 campings, 6 are "comulsory reservation" and they are full probably from the very moment they were available. The other 7, are "first come first served", but they announce that they get full really quick in summer. So even rushing from tahoe, skipping Bodie or other spots, we cant be sure of having place in one of them. (And I would really regret to miss Bodie).

We are probably facing the end of the afternoon around Yosemite Village... but... what would you recomend for us? is really that impossible to camp around yosemite village w/o reservation? I assume that that's it. Do you know any other facility which could let us visit mariposa groove by the next morning?
We can try and see if we get a "first come first served site", but I doubt we are able do it. Even try to get a place from a cancelled trip... but is very risky.

Again, what would you do in my place.
Thanks a lot.

You could have problems all around the Yosemite area but the best you can do is google for campsites around places like Fishcamp, Wawona and Mariposa all close to the South entrance, a little further afield is Oakhurst where we have stayed at this place before.

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Again, what would you do in my place.

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As earlier, I still think you are biting off more than you can chew on day 2, but in your place I would book somewhere as close as I could to the park, and forfeit it if I could get a first come first served site in Yosemite.

Ideally, I would be thinking of camping around Mono lake or on the Tioga pass [if available] and then spending the day going into, and exploring Yosemite before staying just out the other side and continuing next day, but if you haven't the time you haven't the time.

We've been lucky this time and I've been able to book the last tent site on Dry Gulch camp (30 mins away from yosemite village)

I think you are right about day 2. So that's what we should do:
- Day 2: From Tahoe -> Bodie -> Spots around tioga pass -> Some spots around Yosemite Village (if time enough).
- Day 3: From Dry Gulch camp (on CA-40) we have to pass around Yosemite village again get the CA-41 and head south to mariposa groove. We'll have time on day 3, to finish with spots around yosemite village. After Mariposa groove, we head to Monterey, where we pass the night.

thanks again!