Road trip from New Orleans to San Francisco

[cabsa85]

Hi there,
First of all, my name is Angel and this is my first post in this forum! I'm from Spain.
I'm planning with some friends a road trip to USA this November. (I know is far away from now...)
We want to go from NO to San Francisco in about 18 days. Our initial route is as follows:

1st day Madrid- NO (flight)
2nd day New Orleans
3rd day New Orleans (Louisiana) –Houston (Texas):
4th day: Houston (Texas) – Fort Worth (Texas):
5th day: Fort Worth (Texas) – Amarillo (Texas):
6th day: Amarillo (Texas) – Albuquerque (Nuevo México):
7th day: Albuquerque (Nuevo México) – Monument Valley (Arizona):
8th day: Monument Valley (Arizona) – Grand Canyon (Arizona):
9th day: Grand Canyon (Arizona)
10th day: Grand Canyon (Arizona) – Las Vegas (Nevada):
11th day: Las vegas
12th day: Las vegas (Nevada) – Sequoia National Forest (California):
13th day: Sequoia National Forest (California) –Yosemite (California):
14th day: Yosemite (California)
15th day: Yosemite (California)- Sacramento (California):
16th day: Sacramento (California) – San Francisco (California):
17th day: San Francisco (California)
18th day: San Francisco (California)
19th day: San Francisco (California) – Madrid

What do you think? Is it possible? We are quite worried about the lenght of the stages. We may consider to reduce some of them. And what do you think about this trip in november? Could we visit properly every single place? Will you add or remove any of the places?
We are looking forwards to do this asewome trip!
Thanks! (and apologize for my english if I have made some mistakes...:p)

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

First of all, your English is just fine ! You have obviously done your research and have come up with a nice plan that is doable. From LV you should consider driving across Death valley towards Sequoia as it is an amazing landscape and November is a great time to enjoy it, away from the summer heat. Now you say Sequoia National forest, but do you mean Sequoia National park where the main groves of giant trees are ? The forest is north of Kernville and has a nice grove of trees called 'The Trail of 100 giants' but the NP that you can enter via Three rivers CA is the main spot for visitors.

You will need to pack some nice warm layered clothing as it is quite possible you could see some ice and snow in the Sequoia's and Yosemite, but it's also a lovely time to visit.

Do you realise that dropping your car rental to a different location could mean a significant one way fee ? It's worth checking.

[cabsa85]

Hi again, thanks for the quick answer!
Yes, I mean Sequoia National park. We will think about death valley, it sound great.
Yes, I have seen that the price of dropping our rental car in different location is high, but, but we don't have too many options, do we? any rental company you recommend me?
Anyhow, you think that our stages are factibles?

[Southwest Dave]

You don't have options with the time you have and if you want to start in New Orleans and end in SF really. What I mean by that is that you could do a loop trip if New Orleans and Texas was not a definite and you saw a little more of the west, or chose more to the east and didn't go all the way to California.

As for rental companies I would shop around on-line and see what deals are available but we have had good deals with rentalcars.com. Are all the drivers over 25 years of age, as that is usually another 'extra' for young drivers.

[cabsa85]

We'll think about the round trip, but I think, despite the price of the car, we'll do our NO-SF!
We are a little worried about the lenght of our stages, and due to in that time of the year we have fewer hours of sun light.. And also , the stage Las vegas-Sequoia I think is a bit long, with more than 6 hours driving, so when we arrive there we are going to have few hours before dark. Maybe we'll think a intermediate stop but no clue where.

[Southwest Dave]

Breaking the journey between LV and Sequoia is exactly what you would want to do if you decided to go via Death valley, perhaps stopping in Ridgecrest or Lake Isabella.

[cabsa85]

Hi again,
We are still thinking in our route from N.Orleans to San Francisco and we have foung an alternative of the first route and we don't really know which one is better or most interesting.
Our new route:

1 day N.Orleans
2 day: N.Orleans
3 day:N.Orleans-Houston 560 km
4 day Houston-Austin-San Antonio (395 km)
5 day San Antonio – Carlsband (726 km)
6 Carlsband –Santa Fe 439 km
8 Santa Fe- Durango (colorado) 342 km
9 Durango-Monument Valley (Utah) 267 km
10: Monument Valley (Arizona) – Grand Canyon (Arizona)
11: Grand Canyon (Arizona)
12: Grand Canyon (Arizona) – Las Vegas (Nevada)
13: Las vegas
14 : Las Vegas- Death Valley-Searles Valley
15: Searles Valley– Sequoia National Forest (California)
16: Sequoia National Forest (California) –Yosemite (California)
17: Yosemite (California)
18: Yosemite (California)- San Francisco
19:San Francisco (California)
20: San Francisco (California)
21 : San Francisco (California) – Madrid

The other alternative is different in the first stages:

1st day Madrid- NO (flight)
2nd day New Orleans
3rd day New Orleans (Louisiana) –Houston (Texas):
4th day: Houston (Texas) – Fort Worth (Texas):
5th day: Fort Worth (Texas) – Amarillo (Texas):
6th day: Amarillo (Texas) – Albuquerque (Nuevo México):
7th day: Albuquerque (Nuevo México) – Monument Valley (Arizona)

After that is the same route. What do you think? Which one could be most interesting?
Thanks!