San Francisco to Las Vegas

[nrob71]

Hi all,

We are visiting the USA from Sydney Australia in late August 2006. We have noticed how helpful this site seems to be, with good advice on offer.

We would like to drive from San Francisco to Las Vegas via the coast but would prefer to avoid Los Angeles.

Can anyone suggest an itinerary and a few stopovers on the way. We were thinking to do this trip at a relaxed pace over three days (is this reasonable?).

Thankyou for all your help

Nat & Barry

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America forum.

We have noticed how helpful this site seems to be, with good advice on offer.

Well, thank you. Most of us have found that you do meet the nicest people on the road, and we're just returning the favor.

As to your San Francisco to Las Vegas jaunt, three days and the coast route is a great way to make the journey. Try this for starters. Use the freeways and US-101 to get out of the Bay Area down to south of Gilroy and then use CA-152 to cut over to CA-1, the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH)), south. Spend some time in the Monterey-Carmel area, seeing things like Monterey Bay Aquarium, the 17-mile Drive, and some of the historic missions. Then head on down the coast on the PCH, enjoying the views, hiking in some of the state parks, and taking in W.R. Hearst's San Simeon, the inspiration for Xanadu in "Citizen Kane".

When you get to San Luis Obispo, take a short jog back northward on US-101, CA-46 east and CA-99 south to Bakersfield. This lets you avoid LA entirely. From there, CA-58 east takes you to I-15 north to Las Vegas. On the way, consider stops at Edwards Air Force Base where our latest planes are tested and the shuttle sometimes returns from space, and at the Mojave National Preserve.

How you split your time up is your choice, but one good option would be to spend the first day getting to and exploring Monterey and staying overnight there, spend the second day working your way down the cost and spending the night at San Luis Obispo, and finally taking the third day to head on in to Las Vegas.

AZBuck

[Mark Sedenquist]

We would like to drive from San Francisco to Las Vegas via the coast but would prefer to avoid Los Angeles.

Nat & Berry, this is probably the most requested road trip route on this forum. If you look at the bottom of this page you will see five threads that closely match your query.

Enjoy the planning!

Mark