Please help us plan a busy 10 days in California!!!!

[d.williams]

This is a follow up thread from my previous 'please help me plan my 10 day action packed road trip.'

Please may I have your honest views on how this itinerary would work out, as well as possible stay over places for the nights. We are on a tight budget and would much appreciate cheap accomodation ideas (we do have the car to stay in if advised??!!??)

Day 1: Travel up the PCH to stay at Big Sur over night.
Day 2: Travel early to SF and stay over night.
Day 3: Leave early to Yosemite and stay over night.
Day 4: Spend another day at Yosemite and leave for Death Valley early evening.
Day 5: Spend the day at Death Valley then leave for Barstow for evening.
Day 6: Leave Barstow early morning and spend day and night at Joshua Tree.
Day 7: Leave Joshua Tree early and spend the day and night at San Diego.
Day 8: Spend the day and night at San Diego (surfing).
Day 9: Arranged Excursion to Mexico. Leave for long beach early evening and stay.
Day 10: Spend the day and night at surrounding beaches.
Day 11: Travel back to LAX for flight to Maui!!

Thanks guys, would welcome any feedback possible!!

Dan and Sarah

[Midwest Michael]

You could probably do this trip, but it seems like a really exhausting pace.

The only spot that stands out as needing to be reworked is your plan to leave Yosemite in the early evening and drive to death valley. First, you've got to drive over Tioga Pass which is an amazing drive that you'll want to do in full daylight. You're also looking at a drive thats going to take at least 5-6 hours, which means you wouldn't be getting to your destination until early morning.

Actually, I'd also say your day 9 doesn't sound very feasable either. Trying to go to long beach from San Diego (2 hours plus traffic, and there is always traffic) after a full day in Mexico is going to make for an extremely long day. If you just want more beach time, I'd just stay in the San Diego area a little longer.

If it were me, I would at the very least cut out Joshua Tree so you can spend a full day in San Francisco. And it looks like you've got a day at the end that you might want to play around with so you have more time somewhere else along your trip, but if you work out those issues, you should be in good shape.

[d.williams]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your quick advice!!!!

We didnt realise that the distance from Yosemite to DV would be so long (I am so glad we found this site for these exact reasons!!!). Its hard to know how long to spend at all these places to balance an amazing experience but see as much as possible. Would travelling from yosemite with an very early start to DV, and spend the remainder of that day and night at DV be enough or do we need 2 days to take in the variety on offer?

Also you mentioned taking out Joshua tree to maybe save time. Do we not need to pass through or near Joshua Tree to get to San Diego?

Everything past DV is flexible. We are very keen to go to San Diego and beaches on the way back to LAX, but not really at the expense of seeing the beauty of the national parks. We are VERY active, and not afraid to get stuck in.

Thanks again Michael, much appreciated!!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Also you mentioned taking out Joshua tree to maybe save time. Do we not need to pass through or near Joshua Tree to get to San Diego?

You can select a route that goes that way, but it's neither the most direct nor the fastest. The fastest route from DV to San Diego is I-15 and it bypasses Joshua Tree National Park. If you follow the two lane roads that would connect DV with SD and Joshua Tree, you need to allow an extra three hours at least and perhaps as much as 8 more hours. (If you spend any time at all looking at Joshua Tree...)

And I just looked again at your route -- If you stayed overnight in Barstow, you'd have backtrack to even reach Joshua Tree -- I agree with Michael, you need to cut this part out and go directly to San Diego if you are going to have a "beach" experience.

Using I-15 to I-5, (the most direct route -- and there are some nice side-trips available) it's about 175 miles between Barstow and San Diego -- with traffic slowdowns you can expect this to take about 3 to 3.5 hours. If you use one of the interior routes -- and they are worth it -- except for your time crunch -- you need to allow 6-8 hours to cover essentially the same distance.

Mark

[glc]

You do not need to go all the way to I-5 to get from Barstow to SD, just stay on I-15. Mapping programs are going to want to send you down I-215 through San Bernardino, but staying on I-15 is a bit faster and less hassles.

I must say this is one of the very few itineraries I've seen here for that area of the country that doesn't include Las Vegas!

[d.williams]

Guys, can I say thank you for your advice first of all. This will really make the trip a real pleasure!! Thank you for your road suggestions also! We havent really thought about the specific roads!!! (stupidly)

GLC: We are doing a Trek America trip before we continue on our own that visits Vegas.

So, if I have got this right, the adjustments to the trip will be as follows:

Day 1: Travel up the PCH to stay at Big Sur over night.
Day 2: Travel early to SF and stay over night.
Day 3: Leave early to Yosemite and stay over night.
Day 4: Spend additional day at Yosemite, stay over night.
Day 5: Early drive to Death Valley. Overnight stay at Death Valley.
Day 6: Additional day at Death Valley. Do you think we leave for Barstow that evening or stay at Death Valley and leave the next morning? Is there somewhere other than Barstow to stay, it just looked like a midway point?
Day 7: Leave Death Valley\ Barstow early morning and drive to San Diego??? If we stayed at Death Valley, is there anywhere else worth stopping during the drive to San Diego?
Day 8: Spend the day and night at San Diego (surfing).
Day 9: Arranged Excursion to Mexico. Stay overnight in San Diego.
Day 10: Leave SD early and spend the day an at Huntington beach etc. Stay at Long Beach.
Day 11: Travel back to LAX for flight to Maui at 2.30!!

Thanks again guys.

[glc]

Barstow is pretty much the most logical place to stay. It's certainly less expensive than Death Valley. Allow about 3 hours to get there from Death Valley, depending on your exit route.

[Midwest Michael]

Barstow would be a logical point to stop after your day in Death Valley, setting you up to be in San Diego pretty early the next day.

The only other point that still seems like a small problem is that other than spending the night in San Francisco, you don't seem like you've given yourself any time to actually see it. I don't know how much of a priority that is to you, but its something to think about and you might save quite a bit of money staying someplace farther way from the city itself.