Roadtrip September 2010 Starting in Las Vegs

[Kopite Kev]

Hi All,

My Fiancee and I are planning a road trip to celebrate our honeymoon in September 2010 and would appreciate any advice and whether what we wanna do (in terms of time) is realistic or not. I'm well aware that distances in America can easily catch out the English! To us, a drive of about 250 miles is absolutely HUGE!!!!!

We plan to leave Las Vegas and travel to Los Angeles without stopping for the night. We wanna drive in one go, of course, we'll make restroom stops! After spending 4 nights in LA, we then plan to drive to San Francisco. Once again, we'd like to do this in one day. Or, is this too ambitious? Should we be looking at staying someplace for the night? If so, does anyone have suggestions for a nice town we can stay in?

After 3 days in San Francisco, we then plan to drive to Yosemite for the night before leaving the next day for Death Valley. After spending the night in Death Valley we'll then drive to Las Vegas. Once again with only restroom stops.

I'd be really grateful for any advice on the above. We'll be travelling in an SUV, so will be driving to the speed limit.

Many thanks in advance,

Kev

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I think the trip you've outlined is mostly fine, but I'd make a few changes.

First, if you want to drive along the scenic coastal highway, you really need at least 2 days to make the trip from LA to San Francisco. If you want to make it in one day, you're pretty much stuck sticking to either I-5 (about a 7 hour drive +traffic) or maybe going up US-101 (more scenic than I-5, but not nearly as nice as the Coast, and about 10 hours of driving). With all there is to see along the coast, you might even think about adding more time.

Second, you might want to think about reversing your trip, going from LV to SF to LA, that would allow you to drive on the ocean side of the coast highway, which makes for easier access to pull outs and scenic stops. Its not essential, but it could be helpful for you.

Finally, instead of stopping in Death Valley, you might want to stop at some place along US-395, like Bishop or Lone Pine. Tioga Pass through Yosemite is fairly slow going and there is a lot to see, and it can easily take up the better part of a day, if you want it too. Death Valley is just a 2 hour drive from Vegas, so even if you stop short (or just past if you reverse your direction) of DV, you could still see it, and make it to Vegas that evening.

This is far and away the most popular route outline on this forum, with thousands of posts on the subject - so if you spend some time looking around, you'll find lots more information and ideas.