San Fran to Vegas to Santa Monica

[montyblade]

HI guys,

what a great website!

We are planning our honeymoon for June 2010 which doesnt seem too far away now.

We are planning a road trip around california flying into San Francisco and ending up in Santa Monica/LA. We are spending 17 nights in all and will hire the car for the duration.

San Francisco 4 nights
Santa Rosa wine region 2 nights
Yosemite 2 nights
Death Valley 1 night
Las Vegas 4 nights
Santa Monica 4 nights

We are looking for advice as to whether this is a good route, and whether we should maybe visit places en route to our various destinations.

Is Death Valley worth going to after yosemite or should make a detour to somewhere else?

Any help would be much appreciated and look forward to hearing from anyone!

thanks,

montyblade

[glc]

I would recommend you fly in and out of either SF or LA, and add a drive up or down the coast on CA-1 to your trip. Your trip order the way you have it is fine, and Death Valley should not be missed. This will save you on both airfare (same city in and out) and car rental (no different city dropoff fee) and add some spectacular scenery. The coast drive should only take you 2 or 3 days, which you should easily be able to "borrow" from somewhere else - perhaps one day from SF, LV, and/or LA. The best way to drive the coast is from SF to LA, but either way will do.

[Lifemagician]

That was the first thought which went through my mind, and I can only endorse glc's comments, start and end in the same city and incorporate the coast in your trip. Allow at least two days, it is such a magnificent drive. If you possibly can, make it a southward journey, but whatever you do, make sure you include it.

Congratulations on your marriage.

Lifey

[Southwest Dave]

Congratulations for your forth coming wedding, Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

As you may have gathered, the "loop trip" is very popular and recommended for the reasons above. The bonus is that you have plenty of time to do it in.

Death valley is most highly recommended and is a natural path to Las Vegas by taking CA120 [Tioga pass] to Lee vining and 395 to Lone Pine then 190 to Death valley junction, Ash meadows/Bell vista rd to Pahrump and 160 to Vegas. It should be noted that the Tioga pass can still be closed in June due to the winter snow on the high ground but no problem as you can head South from Yosemite and go around the Southern end of the Sierra's via Bakersfield.

By using the search function you will find lots of info available for this part of the world and if you have any further questions just ask.

[montyblade]

hi guys,

thank you for such quick replies to my post.

we have decided based on your help that we will do the loop trip, and maybe cut a day off each stay in san fran, santa monica and vegas?

which way should we do the trip though? where is best to fly into?

sorry for asking so many questions, its just you guys seem to know so much about this kind of trip i want to make it as perfect as possible!

[glc]

I would probably fly in and out of LA, and take the trip counterclockwise - go from LA to LV, DV, Yosemite, SF, and back to LA.

Sorry to add even more to the equation, but if time permits, I'd also try to squeeze a day at the Grand Canyon into the trip - between LA and LV. To fit this in, you could modify your wine tasting plans - either head up to Santa Rosa as a day trip from SF (or cut out one night), or hit the Santa Barbara wine country on the way down from SF to LA.

[Midwest Michael]

Since you are doing a loop trip, I don't see why it would really matter what city you fly in/out of. I'd shop around between LA/LV/SF and see where you can get the best price on flights and rental car and leave from there.

[montyblade]

after advice from everyone here is our revised trip. we will do a loop trip starting in San Fran, down to la etc

please let me know your very helpful thoughts:

San francisco 4 nights
Big Sur 1 night
Santa Monica 4 nights
Las Vegas 4 nights
Death Valley 1 night
Yosemite 2 nights
San Francisco 1 night

total nights 17

Should we spend more time on the coast and stay in say Santa Barbara for example or is it ok to to just stay in Big sur and then have the 5 hour drive to do to santa monica?

[Southwest Dave]

The beauty of the road trip is mainly being able to do your own thing and you have plenty of time to enjoy your trip with the itinerary you have. Only you can decide what works best for you but I would be tempted to take more time enjoying the coastal route and stop somewhere like Morro bay for a night and one less in SF or SM, maybe taking time for a Hearst castle tour on the way.