San Francisco to New York

[Bryan Garrick]

Me and my partner are currently planning a road trip for September. We arrive in San Francisco on the 4th of September and fly back to London on the 30th of September from New York. We are planning on spending the 1st 2 nights in San Francisco and have also chosen to spend 3 nights in New York.
Our plan is to travel from San Francisco-Yosemite National Park-Vegas for probably 2 nights-Grand Canyon-Monument Valley-Santa Fe-Carlsbad Caverns-Amarillo-Ohio-Niagra Falls-New York
Does this route seem a bit ambitious or do you think it could be easily done in the timescale with enough time to spend sightseeing? Or can anyone recommend a better route to take?

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

With a week accounted for in SF,LV and NY you still have a nice amount of time to complete your journey and do some sight seeing along the way. Your route is going to be around 4000 miles plus the driving around your destinations and little detours which adds up to approx 8 full days dedicated to driving.

The 'best' route is the one that has the most appeal to you and that's the joy and freedom the Roadtrip brings. I would urge you to look around at the various threads in the forums, you can use the search function and scroll to the bottom of this page where you will find 'Similar threads' click on one of those and repeat as necessary. You can also use the map centre and other planning tools above to help you find what you are looking for.

Of a personal opinion, I would recommend that from Monument valley, you look at some of the great National parks and scenic drives in Southern Utah and Colorado. Zion, Bryce canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Black canyon, Rocky mountain NP are just a few of the major highlights you could enjoy in this area.

Do a little digging around [I find the planning half the fun] and when you have other questions just ask away, Enjoy !

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Having nearly a month is a very nice time to make a one way trip across country. There is no "best route" other than one that covers the places you want to see. If you've done that, then you've got the best route.

I will note that Amarillo to anywhere in Ohio is at least a 2 day drive, but there are lots of places you could fit in between. Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, or Nashville would be a few cities with plenty of more nature based options in there as well.

[Bryan Garrick]

Hi there after doing a bit more research and advice from our travel agent we have decided to do the following.

2 nights in San Francisco
1 Night in Furnace Creek
2 Nights in Vegas
2 Nights at The Grand Canyon

The above is already booked and we leave the Grand Canyon on The 13th of September.
We have arranged tickets to see The Foo Fighters in Cleveland on the 20th. We are also keen to see Chicago, Detroit and maybe Niagra Falls then after the gig in Cleveland we were thinking to maybe head to the east coast and visit Washington, Boston and possibly New Jersey before we end our adventure in New York on The 27th!
Does this seem a bit unrealistic? Also do you have any advice on possible routes to get us to this places in the timescale.
Thanks!

[glc]

If you are planning on driving from SF to Furnace Creek in 1 day, you will not have time to see Yosemite.

[Southwest Dave]

Furnace creek is pretty close to Vegas which means a day of rushing from San Fran through incredible scenery [via Tioga pass] followed by a short trek to Vegas where you have 2 nights. I would reconsider and perhaps stop around Bishop for the night giving you a little time in Yosemite and time to cross DV next day.

[Bryan Garrick]

Sorry My mistake, its 2 nights in San Francisco followed by 2 nights in Yosemite then onto Furncace Creek

[Bryan Garrick]

What would be the best route to take from The Grand Canyon to Cleveland via Chicago? We have a full 7 days to get to Cleveland & we would like to stay maybe 2 nights in Chicago

[DonnaR57]

There is no "best" route except the one that you'd like to take. Do you have a good highway map of the United States? There are so many routes to Chicago and on to Cleveland. At Chicago you might pick up I-80/90 (turnpike/toll road) which takes you into Cleveland.

Between GC and Chicago, though, you could go through Colorado, or any number of other ways. Are you looking for scenery, museums, or (fill in the blank)?


Donna

[Bryan Garrick]

Probably the scenic route as we will probably be spending a lot of our time driving due to our timescale.