San Francisco Area In Late November

[BrianD]

Hi Folks, my wife and I are coming to San Francisco from New Zealand in November for 3 weeks. We have plans for the first fortnight, but would like to spend a little over a week seeing something of the rest of the region via rental car. What sort of trip would you recommend in that timeframe? We need to return to SF again to fly out.
Thanks for your help.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Since Yosemite and the rest of the Sierra Nevada will likely already be seeing some serious snow by November, I'd suggest that you stay along the coast. You can go either north or south (or both) depending on the weather. You'd need 2-3 days to explore Monterey, Carmel and the Big Sur coast along CA-1 south of the Bay area, and 3-4 days to head north along the coast to the Redwood parks up around Orick, and visit the wineries of the Napa Valley. A third alternative, taking a couple of days would be to head east to Carson City, Virginia City and Lake Tahoe. Any of those general routes or some combination thereof would let you drive some very scenic roads to some very relaxing and/or historic locations at a relatively relaxed pace.

AZBuck

[BrianD]

Thanks for that. Probably a silly question, but how realistic would it be to do SF to Las Vegas return in approx 8 days at that time of year? We live in New Zealand, so natural scenery is every day for us (although we're still keen to see some of the US great outdoors). Cities like SF and Vegas just don't exist here though.

[Southwest Dave]

It would be possible to get from SF to LV in a long day of travel using a lot of Interstate, so it would be easy to add some of the "great outdoors if you wanted too. A couple of days down the coast around Big Sur to the Cambria area before heading inland would be a possibility, as would a detour through the "other worldly" landscape of Death valley on the way back, or a detour for an overnight stop at the South rim of the Grand canyon amongst others. If Yosemite isn't snowed in, I would certainly consider it as an option, as it is an amazing natural wonder.

[BrianD]

Hi again,
I've been looking through these forums and following some threads and a plan is taking shape. How does this sound:

San Francisco to Yosemeti and then overnight in Fresno.
Day 2 - Death Valley via Bakersfield - where would folks reco
mend for an overnight?
Day 3 - to Vegas for 2 nights.
Day 5 - to LA for 2 nights
Day 7 - up the Pacific Coast to SF

Thoughts?

[Southwest Dave]

Hi Brian,

Your Day 1 would be pushing it under normal conditions when hoping to enjoy Yosemite, but with short days and possible winter driving conditions, I wouldn't try and get further than Oakhurst for the night. You have to keep in mind that there could be snow chain restrictions in place and it will be best to check conditions before travelling.

On Day 2 you could still make it to Death valley for the night, Panamint Springs and Stovepipe Wells both have lodging options on 190. Furnace creek also has lodgings but they come in the order listed and as you will be arriving later in the day, the earlier you stop the more you can see next day without having to double back. It would also be possible to stop in the Lake Isabella area and have a full day driving through Death valley to Vegas.

Days 3 to 6 are fine but there is no way on day 7 that you will be able to drive the coast road from LA to SF, it would require an overnight stop or travel inland.