June/July roadtrip from NYC to LA

[cromoglic]

Hey,

Going on a road trip from New York City to Los Angeles in mid-June, and we don't have too much tim (20 days). We've hired an RV (it's already reserved and all that), and we are to hand it over in LA on July 3rd. We're three guys in our mid twenties. It's our first road trip in the US (two of us haven't been to the US before). We're aware that it would be optimal with more time, but that's just how it is.

We are kind of unsure what our optimal route would be. What would be most fun; an off-the-highway trip through the more scenic parts of the US or a city based trip? Both appeal to our interests, so it kind of depends on what will give us most out of our trip given our time limitations and the fact that we use an RV.

We have set a few places that we definately want to stop in, and the most important two are Las Vegas and Santa Fe. Based on some tips and some googling, we've come up with these two alternatives. Other alternatives are appreciated:

Route 1:https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=E...,15,16&t=m&z=6

Route 2: http://goo.gl/maps/ofxWF

Note that the blips do not neccessarily represent actual stops. On the second route, we have yet to change the route between the cities to get more scenic drives and so on.

What do you think? We'd prefer to get a mixture of both scenic, beautiful places and some big cities (some partying, big city attractions and so on would also be fun). We're not sure if the cities we've added are worth stopping at, such as Denver, so input on that would be great. We would like to have time to stop for a day or two every now and then. The Grand Canyon would be interesting to visit, and we are considering a helicopter tour over the canyon from Las Vegas.

Thanks! :-)

Edit: should mention that we have a few days in NYC before we get the RV, so we'll go straight from NYC on the first day.