Please help!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America forum.

Actually, if you just go point to point to the three cities you've mentioned, your route looks more like the letter "Y" than it does a loop, and you'd do each arm of the Y twice. You can do better than that and show your friends more of America if you really do a loop. One such loop would go like this. Head down the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1) through Monterey, and Big Sur (LOTS of posts on the forums, try the Search function on the toolbar). Spend a day or two in Los Angeles. Be sure to visit Balboa Park in San Diego, maybe take a tour of the Harbor. You could spend a week in San Diego alone (I have) but a couple of days will give you a chance to get a good taste. Cross southern California on I-8, CA-111 and CA-78 (with a possible side trip to the Salton Sea, America's version of the Dead Sea) to enter Arizona on I-10. Then take US-60 and US-89 to Prescott, and AZ-89A through the towns of Jerome and Cottonwood to Sedona. All of these towns are worth at least a day, Sedona is worth several, but you'll have to keep it moving. From Sedona, head up to the Grand Canyon. (What, you were going to bring your friends 7000 miles and miss it by a couple of hundred?) After at least a day hiking the rim or even getting a bit down into the canyon, head on up to Las Vegas. When you get done with Las Vegas, take a few days and return to San Francisco by way of US-95, NV-374, through Death Valley to US-395 north then take CA-120 through Yosemite National Park and on back in to the Bay Area. Anyway, that's just one possibility. Hopefully it might trigger some more ideas of your own.

Now, for the not so good news. Three weeks of 5 or 6 guys in a VW camper is far more togetherness than I even want to think about. To be honest, I think that such a specialty vehicle will rent for such a premium that you might be better off renting two sedans and having a bit more room and the opportunity to switch off who's travelling with whom.

AZBuck