San Francisco - Los Angeles via Las Vegas

[dearingpete]

Hi Guys,

Firstly many thanks for the great threads already on the site. Hopefully my questions aren't repeating questions already asked although judging by the number of threads I probably am and apologize in advance.

Me and my wife are planning a road trip (end of July/beginning of August). We have put together a rough plan below. Our flight and car are already booked. Picking a car up in SF on day 3 dropping it off in LA Day 14.

A rough plan is:

Day 1 - 3 San Francisco
Day 4 Napa valley area
Day 5 Lake Tahoe (1 or 2 nights)
Day 6 ?
Day 7 - 8 Yosemite
Day 9 Mammoth lakes area
Day 10 Death valley
Day 11 - 13 las vegas
Day 14 LA drop off car
Day 15 LA
Day 16 Fly home

Does this look ok. My main questions are as follows

1) Would people stay in The napa valley area for a night or just do a day trip there and stop somewhere else?

2) Is lake Tahoe worth 2 days or should we do this day somewhere else?

3) Is mammoth lakes a good place to say on route to Death valley, i have seen a lot of posts recommending Bishop?

4) We plan on using the car for a day trip while in Vegas and were wondering about ideas. We have already ruled out The grand Canyon as this is not feasible anyway if we did that on this trip we would not have an excuse to return.

5) Any suggestions for things to do or see on the drive from Las Vegas to LA to break the drive up.

Many thanks in advance

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Your basic route looks ok, except that you should know that your current plan has you crossing the Sierra mountains 3 times, since Tahoe and Yosemite are on opposite sides. It may make more sense to visit Yosemite first.

I'm also curious about your plan to drop off your car when you get to LA. How are you planning to get around this massive area without a car? I would really think about keeping the car unless you've got a solid plan already in mind.

Here is an entire article about Las Vegas daytrip ideas.

[spilledsugar]

To break up your trip between Las Vegas and Los Angeles I would definitely recommend stopping in the Mojave Desert as well as San Bernardino and Pasadena which are charming towns.

[dearingpete]

spilledsugar, many thanks, the Mojave Dessert is an good suggestion, is there a particular part along interstate 15(or off it) we should visit?

Midwest Michael, thanks for the suggestion re Yosemite first. Lake Tahoe has definitely caused us a lot of debate (to the point we thought about crossing it off our list). I was wondering about doing California 88 to California 49 and somewhere like Jamestown on the way to break up the Journey to avoid crossing the Sierra mountains too many times, whoever a lot of people have commented on . If we do Yosemite first then Tahoe to Mammouth lakes I think we will end up doubling back on ourselves unless I have miss understood your advice.

Many Thanks