Road Trip - LA/San Francisco/Vegas

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

With 2 weeks you have the time to visit those places on your 'wish list' but if it's an option it might be one of those trips where a complete loop might work better and start and finish in the same City, whether it be Vegas, LA or SF. Starting in LA it would look something like this; LA > Joshua tree NP > Grand canyon > Vegas >Yosemite [via Death valley and Tioga pass?] > San Fran and down the coast back to LA.

Get the kids interested in the planning stages and let them make some choices along the way and everyone should be happy.

You can use sites like Expedia and Tripadvisor to get a feel of lodging types and costs and what is best suited to your budget and requirements. Most Hotels are geared towards 4 guests to a room which is awkward for a family of 5 but I understand that some are willing to put a fold away bed in a room for an extra small fee, so you might have to do some calling around.

The National park lodgings are generally costlier than that of the surrounding towns but in the summer Months do get booked up early.

[rod1510]

Hey Plomma, nice to meet you!!

Yeah, you can post your doubts here, no problem.... I see we have almost the same plans, and this is a good way of sharing informations and tips about lodging, places to visit,.... hehehe!!!! I will say what i was searching these days, maybe can be useful to answer some of your doubts (people here can correct me if i am saying something wrong hehehe...).
If you really want to go to Grand Canyon, you will have to reserve at least one day for this route... in my plans i have separated almost one day to travel LA/Las Vegas and to rest, so i think you can perfectly fit your visit using this time (because you wont do the LA/Las Vegas trip hehehe)... here it is a possible schedule for the first days of your trip:

1º Las Vegas airport - Vegas night - rest
2º Going to the theatres and Vegas casinos, shopping
3º Going to Grand Canyon
4º Travel back to Vegas - lunch at a good Vegas restaurant - and travel to Death Valley (Furnace Creek)
.....

In the 4º day, go to Death Valley by my Route (a) - Pahrump, Death Valley junction -... it seems faster, what will turn your day of traveling less exhausting!!!

Lodges in Yosemite are more expensive and are always full of people (for example, for the next July some lodges have only 2 free days!!!!!)... glc has given me 3 useful options of lodging on the east side of Tioga Pass (Lee Vining, June Lake or Mammoth Lakes)... if you want the cheapest ones among this 3 cities, i would choose to stay at Lee Vining...

Visiting Joshua Tree i think it is a little more complicated... if you really wanna pass sometime there, i think you will have to be faster in the route San Francisco/ LA (what would be too bad!!! hehehe)...

People here said that the roads are not dangerous and the landscapes are marvelous... i really think your family will love it!!

Thanks everybody!!

[Plomma]

Thank You both very much for the warm welcome and Your useful insight!

Today I have purchased our plane tickets! We fly to Miami, and plan to spend four days on the road in south Florida, before we stay at a rented apartment for a 10-day park-bonanza for the kids in Orlando. We then fly from Orlando to Las Vegas for our road trip!

The coming week we're going to book lodging, so I need to determine our travel route this weekend! I think rod1510 has come up with a very interesting route, but I would very much like to go to Grand Canyon. A friend of mine speaks very highly of San Fransisco and advise us to stay there for several days, so I'll give up Grand Canyon if we really need more days in San Fransisco. Do we? I have also decided that we won't go to Joshua Tree this time.

This is the route that I have borrowed from rod1510 and modified a bit:

1. Late arrival at Las Vegas airport, go to hotel in Vegas
2. Las Vegas, shopping, go to the circus and casinos, stay over in Vegas
3. Travel to Grand Canyon in the morning, lodge somewhere in Grand Canyon, where?
4. Grand Canyon in the morning, then travel to Death Valley in the afternoon (stay at Furnace Creek?)
5. Death Valley, travel to east side of Tioga Pass (stay in Lee Vining?)
6. Tioga Pass across Sierra Nevada mountains, Mariposa Grove (where to stay?)
7. Yosemite, Glacier Point, valley floor (where to stay?)
8. Travel to San Francisco - Union Square, Coit tower, Pier 39
9. San Fransisco - Alcatraz and cable cars, SF at night
10. Travel to Santa Cruz (stay in Santa Cruz?)
11. Travel to Big Sur and San Simeon (Hearst Castle) (Stay in San Simeon?)
12. Travel to Santa Barbara, Malibu and Santa Monica (where to stay?)
13. Travel to LA – see Hollywood, Beverly Hills, shopping, LA at night
14. Shopping and going to the LA airport in late evening

My question number one is concerning day 4, can we go up to Grand Canyon on the morning of day 3 and to Death Valley in the afternoon of day 4, or do we need to stay two nights in Grand Canyon to spend a full day there? If we need an entire day and two nights up there, where on the route could we "save" this time, and not lose time in San Fransisco?

I also would appreciate further input on where it would be wise to stay along the route?
Obviously we already know we want to stay in Las Vegas, San Fransisco and LA, but where to stay for Grand Canyon? And where to stay for night 6 and 7? On the coast from SF to LA, where to stay on nights 10-12? Santa Cruz -> San Simeon -> Santa Monica? Other good tips for places to stay?

Finally, what about Road 1 south of LA to San Diego?

Thank You very much in advance for any input!
Regards, Plomma

[Midwest Michael]

Your Grand Canyon stay will depend on your budget. There are places to stay right on the rim, or just outside the park, but they will cost over $100 a night. Otherwise, you can drive about an hour south to Williams or Flagstaff and find rooms for $50.

The only problem with your route that I see is your plan to drive from Grand Canyon to Death Valley in an afternoon. That's a drive that's going to take you about 8 hours, so its basically a full day trip there.

There is no CA-1 south to San Diego. The road ends at I-5 in Orange County, and from there you start going through Military Base area, so there's really no access to the coast until you start getting closer to San Diego again.

[rod1510]

Yeah Plomma, I think the best way to visit Grand Canyon without losing onde day in San Francisco is like i said in my last post, spending one day to drive along Grand Canyon to Furnace Creek...
About some lodges, i think these links can help you (they are in portuguese, but i think its easy to you find the names of the hotels and hostel ehehhe):

Santa Cruz - http://viagem.uol.com.br/guia/cidade...ondeficar.jhtm
Santa Monica - http://viagem.uol.com.br/guia/cidade...nde-ficar.jhtm

Mammoth Lakes (if you wanna spend one night there) has a great and cheap lodge that a lot of people recommend: The Village Lodge (http://www.mammothmountain.com/Lodging/TheVillageLodge/)...

Man, I think you gonna travel before me this time, so i would be very grateful if you post here your trip experience doing this route (including the lodges)... it would be awesome!

For everybody here, i have a doubt about one thing: Im planning to get a convertible car to do this trip (its gonna be outstanding driving along Tioga Pass and Highway 1 in this type of car!!!), but we are in a group of 4 people and im really concerned about the baggages (usually covertibles have limited trunk space)... can i pay some enterprise to do the baggage traveling or are there some places that i pay some fee to keep safe some bags???

Thanks for the helping!!!

[Midwest Michael]

Even with zero bags, a convertible is going to be a really poor choice for 4 people. The back seat is miserably small for anyone who isn't a small child. I would strongly recommend you go with a full sized car. Having the top down isn't going to provide enough enjoyment to overcome just how uncomfortable the 2 people in the back will be.

If you still try, you are right, there will be almost zero room for your bags. I know of no service that will ship your bags to another destination, although if you are leaving a place for a couple of days and then returning, you can usually store your extra luggage at your hotel, even after you check out.

[rod1510]

Thanks Michael, you are right... the space for the passengers are too small in the most of the convertible cars, I agree with you about the uncomfortable situation of the 2 people in the back... this made me think about other alternative: rent a car that has a really good space and a great sunroof... is it easy to find this kind of car to rent in LA aiport?
The idea of storing the extra luggage at the hotel is really interesting, but only if the hotel agree to store the baggages for 2 weeks hehehe... i dont know if they will do this if i try so hard, but it would be nice because my trip starts and ends in LA...

Thanks!!!

[Southwest Dave]

You won't have any problem finding a good size and well equipped car, not sure about a 'great' sunroof though but you will get Air Con. If you search the Internet you can compare prices and car 'types' available. When selecting a 'type' of car you will notice it states 'or similar' so you are guaranteed a car in that class but not necessarily the exact same model.

[glc]

Minor point, but you are guaranteed a car "at least" in that class - if they are out, you will get a free upgrade.