Nervous Ozzies LA to San Francisco and Vegas

[Colin Nervous Ozzie]

thats great. i had planned to go straight from vegas to san diego and not back thru LA - is that a crazy idea.
the plan was to follow your advice and go clockwise LA - SAN FRAN - VEGAS- SAN DIEGO?

Will that work?

whats the best bet for an overnight stopover between LA and San Fran and then again between Vegas and San Diego. I plan to break both those trips into two.

colin.

[Midwest Michael]

Vegas to San Diego via I-15 should take you less than 6 hours. Its a pretty easy drive to do in one day. If you feel you need to break it up for some reason, I'd say Barstow, San Bernardino/Riverside, or Temecula would be your best bets.

[Mark Sedenquist]

thats great. i had planned to go straight from vegas to san diego and not back thru LA - is that a crazy idea.

The fastest route is using I-15 between Las Vegas and San Diego as Midwest Michael wrote above. However, it is going to look like you are driving through LA, because I-15 routes through the greater LA metroplex. If you were wanting to avoid any semblance of LA, you would drive down US-95 and then either take CA-78 (which is a pretty drive in the mountains) or one of the other north/south routes to I-8 and over to San Diego. These routes will add about five hours to the journey.

then again between Vegas and San Diego. I plan to break both those trips into two.

Once you determine which route you are going to drive, we can give a better idea of fun places to stop and explore on the way.

Mark

[The Taco Monster]

whats the best bet for an overnight stopover between LA and San Fran

Colin,

There's many options for overnights between LA and SF. But if you want to limit your driving then Solvang is an interesting town to stay in, paying tribute to Hans Christen Anderson of children's stories. WIneries there, per the website.

For the second day, I really enjoy the drive up Calif-1, very scenic, two-lane road. Plenty of places to stop and take pictures. I'd do it on the second day, allowing two or more hours if you'd enjoy poking along and taking it all in. Just remember to keep the steering wheel towards the middle of the road, and you'll not be alarmed by those drivers coming down the left-hand side in the opposite direction :-) San Simeon is also home to Hearst Castle. If you stop there, allow at least two hours for one tour. Ususally its best to book in advance, but you may be ok to just walk-in, in December. Between San Simeon and Carmel, there are few commercial establishments to distract from the view. Wineries just N. of that past / around Monterrey, or you may want to continue on to SF.

On the other hand, the next day, you may be more ready for speed, such as US-101 from Solvang, to give you more time to settle in in SF. Tis up to you.

TTM

[W. Larrison]

Hmm. your original route sounds good, *laughing* (at myself) we're all just trying to add options for you to stop at I think..

Interesting place to stay between Las Vegas and San Diego?

As has been pointed out, its a reasonable day's drive from LV to SD -- and there are in my opinion, more interesting things to do near SD than the middle of the Mojave. (More interesting things by number.. not that there aren't interesting things to do in the Mojave... ) So its you're choice on how you want to do the route.

But 3 places come to mind --

First, there's Death Valley. Its a bit out of the way (a couple of hours), but you can make it from Death Valley to San Diego in a day. And going Las Vegas to Death Valley to San Diego over 2 days of driving is very doable.

Secondly, you can cut due south from Vegas along the Colorado down to Blythe and then go south via Amboy, 29 Palms, Joshua Tree National Park, and spend the night in the Palm Springs area. From there it's about a 3-4 hour drive to San Diego, particularly if you go south to Anza Borrego, and then up over the mountains to Julian (old mining town in the mountains, known for its Apple Pies) and then to San Diego. The State-22 route up the mountains from Anza Borrego/ Borrego Springs is quite incredible.

Lastly, on more of a direct route I'd recommend staying at the Mission Inn in Riverside California. That's slightly east of the direct route south on I-15, but is only a few minutes out of your way. The Mission Inn is a historic old hotel dating from the late 1800's and has been recently restored. It's a very funky hotel, and a wonderful example of Mission architecture, and stuffed with art and antiques from all over the world. I mean, there's Napoleanic cannon in the gardens, world class California landscapes on the walls, a 20' long reclining gold buddha behind one of the bars, Medieval stained glass in the hallways, etc. There's even catcombs under the building -- and a very good restaurant (several actually..). It's one of those funky places you'll only find in California.. www.MissionInn.com

Places between LA and San Francisco.

Hmm.. my usual stopping place heading up on a 2 day trip is around San Luis Obispo/ San Simeon/ Cambria. There are lots of places to stay near here. I pick this area because its very convenient to Hearst Castle (at San Simeon, which is about 30 minutes drive from San Luis Obispo), or the wineries at Paso Robles, and the last real set of towns before you start up Coast 1 to the Big Sur area. I've stayed at a number of places in the area, some good, some average. The most memorable was in San Simeon where the hotel backed up onto the beach, and was about a 10 minute drive from the Hearst Castle visitors center, where the tours leave from.

Another place you always hear about is the Madronna Inn near San Luis Obispo. Very unique architecture.... particularly if you get one of their "theme" rooms.

[Colin Nervous Ozzie]

I want to buy a good driving map so that I can sit and study it now so I can try and plan my stops and hotel / motel bookings in advance.



Can you recommend a map source that would post a map to me and which map should I go for. I want something that really just covers my planned trip which is LA – SAN FRAN- LAS VEGAS – LA/SAN DIEGO. I understand Larrisons point by the way that driving from LAS VEGAS to San Diego the quickest way will look as though you are coming back to LA – that’s ok.


I want to chose stop over points that will have some interest to them. Hearst castle looks interesting but a little touristy if you ask me.


In truth the reality is that I don’t know what I am looking for in stop over venues really because I don’t know whats out there so feel free to suggest anything that you think may be of interest.

I am not mad about the idea of making long detours (more than one hour) of the intended routing.



Once again thanks to everyone who has responded to my thread - the helpfulness of this forum impresses me so much.

colin

[Midwest Michael]

RTA has a whole section dedicated to Map Recommendations. Personally, I use a regular US atlas and it would probably work just fine for you, but there are also several more detailed options that only cover California and Nevada.

[PNW Judy]

Don't nix Hearst Castle because you think it appears "touristy", imho. Really. I have gone to Europe twice, Asia once, and am fairly well-traveled in the US, Canada, and Mexico. And while I have seen some amazing things on these trips, Hearst Castle remains one of my favorites. Granted, the tours they do today aren't as cool as the first visit I made there when you could do a tour or just opt to walk around the grounds at will. Now THAT was an amazing day. But it's still very worth a stop. When you look at the architectural and historic things brought to one place, mixed together in a visual orgy that is quite stunning, and realize that this was all done by the hubris of one man....well, it's awe-inspiring. If you have any appreciation of art and architecture, you will definitely enjoy a visit there.

As for maps, I don't recall when you're visiting the US. If you have a bit of time, maybe 2 months or so, I would encourage you to visit the California tourism website. You can request free maps and travel brochures. And you can see a lot of maps and other helpful information over the web. If you goodle "name-of-state tourism", it will take you to the tourism websites of other states. These are usual treasure troves of info and they will all send you free maps, books, and other things to help you plan your trip.

If you don't have time to wait for their freebies, and they usually do take several week, at least, to arrive, then check out the information here at RTA. At the top of the page are some yellow tabs. Go to the one that says "RoadTrip Books" and "Maps" for some helpful information and recommendations.

[Colin Nervous Ozzie]

i am still a little undecided on a couple of things and seem to get more confused as i research the other threads. i am all sorted (in my mind) for the LA - SF leg.

its from there that it gets hazy

i know the tioga pass will be closed when we drive from SF to Las vegas as we leave SF on 19 Dec.

i would like to see yosemite but dont really want to start a hiking/camping side trip so please suggest a good over night place which will at least give us the yosemite flavour and also specify the roads/highways to use to get there from san fran.

next please guide me from that place in yosemite to las vegas possibly with another one night stop over again recommending roads and highways to vegas.

thanks

colin nervous ozzie

[RoadDog]

I was in Australia and New Zealand in 2004 and the British Isles and Ireland this past summer. I was on a bus so didn't have to worry about which side of the road I was on. I did not want to deal with it, especially around the traffic circles in the Isles. It wouldn't have been a pretty sight.

A word of caution though. Going from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on I-15 be prepared to drive VERY fast. The speed limit is 75 and you need to go much faster than that if you don't want to get run over. This stretch is like a community onto itself with its own radio stations.

I was clipping along at 8o and being passed regularly. It is a whole lot of fun when sub 75 (70 and under, even some foolhardy folks at 65) vehicles are encountered and you have to drop from 80 to 45 in a few seconds. Now I know how the NASCAR drivers feel, but I sure don't get a rush from it.

I should mention, however, we were on it on a Friday right before a three day weekend, so it most likely was a bit busier than usual.

Keep on Down that Two Lane Highway. --RoadDog