2011 Road Trip - Four British Guys - One Car - West Coast!

Hi Guys,

Stumbled across this forum and realised this is really the only place i need to go to organise my Roadtrip for 2011.

After deciding with four of my friends, we are going to tackle the west coast over a 10 day period.

i have travelled the west coast before with college, starting in San Francisco, then through to Yosemite national park, onwards to the Grand Valley, through death valley to Vegas and then finish in LA.

This is something i want to replicate over a ten day period. The plan i had in mind was to fly to San Francisco book a nights accomadation and then start from there.

i also want advice on where to stop, where to sleep, sights to visit (i want to do part of route 66 also) and lastly i want to rent a classic convertible or muscle car for the journey.

i know you lot can help me out and advise me on certain things to make the West Coast Trip something special.

Thanks again and greetings from the UK.

Cheers

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

I would recommend you keep searching through the forums and other RTA road trip planning pages and sift through all the info available. You seem to have your main 'targets' mapped out but for places to sleep you will have to work that out in line with your budget. When hitting up the National parks there is no better place to stay, but there are cheaper ones !

When renting a car it is difficult to secure a particular make and model unless it is through a specialist agency for 'exotic' cars and then it costs a fortune. The main rental Co's will offer you a 'type' of vehicle and list 'or similar' without guarantee of what you will get.

I think SF probably deserves more than a night of your time and an extra one will help your body clocks adjust and enjoy the City. An easy drive to Yosemite and a night[or 2] there and it's over the very scenic Tioga pass [CA120] to Death valley, Vegas and Grand canyon. It's possible to make LA in a day but you might want to consider a stop along the way and pick up some of those route 66 towns like Seligman, Kingman and Oatman.

If you 'closed' the full loop you could include the coast road between LA and SF but you would have to keep moving to fit it all in and allow 2 days for the ride. To do that, reverse your route so you head South to LA first and the Ocean is on your side of the road.

Look around and if you have a specific question just ask.

Welcome to the RTA forum!

What area are you talking about when you say "the Grand Valley?" Are you thinking Grand Canyon? If that's the case, you'd want to visit it after Las Vegas and before LA. The best section of old Route 66 that still exists would be between Vegas and the Grand Canyon, otherwise, not much of your trip would easily include it.

A "classic" car really isn't available for rental (unless you are willing to pay thousands of dollars by going to a company that specializes in exotic cars). A convertible will be available, but keep in mind, even those are generally base models, and frankly would be very uncomfortable for 4 adults.

Otherwise, I'll simply say that this basic trip is already the subject of thousands of other threads (its by far the most popular topic here) and you can find tons of general background information just by spending a little time looking around. If you have more specific questions, we'll be glad to help.

The back seat in a Mustang or Sebring convertible (the only models that are generally available for rental from the major companies) is a joke. It is not suitable for use by adults.