August 2010 SF to LA via Nevada

[Martin in England]

Planning a trip for my UK family next summer and finding this site and the many threads on a similar topic very useful.
I wanted to post my travel plans in case there were any specific comments or if I've misjudged any distances.
Day 1 Land in San Francisco
Day 4 Drive to Carmel
Day 5 Drive to Yosemite village
Day 7 Drive to Las Vegas (take a Grand Canyon day trip)
Day 11 Drive to Palm Springs
Day 12 Drive to San Diego
Day14 Drive to Los Angeles
Day 15 Fly back to UK from LA
Thanks for any help/suggestions.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Your basic trip outline is fine, with a couple of exceptions.

First, the Grand Canyon is too far to do from Vegas as a daytrip. Is a good 5 hour drive each way. What would make more sense is to go to the Canyon after you've finished your time in Vegas, and then continue onto Palm Springs instead of backtracking to Vegas. You'll want at least one, but probably 2, nights around the Canyon.

A couple other minor adjustments, I would consider taking the coast all the way down to the Cambria area and then going back up to Yosemite, so you get to see the Big sur section.

I will also note that LA is a very large area and can be tough to see in one day, if there are a lot of things you want to do there. If you just have one or two things you want to see, then you'll be fine.

[Martin in England]

Thanks Michael, The 'day trip' to Grand Canyon that I refer to was going to be an organised tour: either a flight or the 'pink jeep' tour was recommended to me by a friend.
Only 1 day in LA was a compromise as I only had a limited amount of time to take away from work and the family voted LA as our least favourite destination but we could always delay the flight home by a day since it's over a weekend.
I don't know much about the Big Sur section and need to do some research, we were looking to drive down to carmel since the coast drive in that area was recommended to us.
Thanks again.

[Midwest Michael]

I would look carefully at any daytrip tour to the Grand Canyon. Most tours from Vegas fall into one of two categories: Extremely rushed trips where you get up before dawn, get a few hours at most to do a quick look around, and then get back very late. The others - including most vegas-based helicopter tours - go to the "west rim" which is part of tribal lands that are not a part of the national park.

If it were me, I would recommend making the drive yourself where you can tour the park at your own pace. A air tour will certainly be nice, and could be a nice addition to your visit, but to me, there really is nothing quite like being able to stand on - and even walk a little ways in from - the edge.

Your LA plan is probably along the lines of what I would do myself, I just want to make sure you were thinking along the same lines, and weren't forgetting about the size and sprawl of the area.

[Southwest Dave]

Echoing Michael's thoughts I too would recommend taking the time to visit the GC under your own steam and spending at least a night there. You would be using a full day from Vegas for a tour anyway so it's worth it just to soak up the atmosphere at this wonder of the world and witness a sunset.
If you can fly back a day later why not use that extra time during this part of your holiday.

To get from Yosemite village to Vegas is a long day but you could consider driving over Tioga pass [CA120] which is a big part of the Yosemite experience, and stay on the Eastern side of the Sierra's on your second night. Heading South on 395 and going across Death valley on 190 is a great drive and a highly recommended route to Vegas via Pahrump and 160.