Planning a west coast USA trip - any advice/help?

[Unlight]

Hi all,

I'm planning on doing the USA west coast road trip next August, I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on the logistics/how long to stay in each place?

At the moment I'm looking at flying into San Diego, with the following stops :

San Diego
Los Angeles
Santa Barbara
San Francisco
Yosemite
Death Valley
Las Vegas

Would this be too much for 14 nights away? Any advice appreciated! If anyone knows of any good online resources for this sort of thing I'd love to hear about them.

[davepoth]

There's always this thread:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Which covered a lot of the same ground.

The Pacific Coast Highway is more fun southbound as you are on the ocean side of the road.

[Unlight]

Had a look at that thread, thanks. Was wondering if I'm trying to fit too much into the trip, or whether it would be worth adding on a few extra days.

[Matt..]

There is loads of info on this trip on the forum . It's a very common route.

Always check distances though. Eg Santa Barbara to San Francisco and Yosemite to Death Valley are long trips!

[bad company]

Buying petrol or 'gas' is a pain. It is all self service so enter your zip code and credit card for fuel. The problems come as most of us do not have a zip code. You have to go in and give the attendant a deposit then he will turn on the pump.

Does anybody know a better way?

[Unlight]

Right, need to get this trip booked asap - any thoughts on the following plan?

Flying into LAX :


1 night Anaheim Hills

1 night Palm Springs

3 nights Vegas

1 night Death Valley

2 nights Yosemite

3 nights San Francisco

2 nights Monterey

1 night Morro Bay

3 nights LA


Sound ok for a first time road tripper?

[steveo3002]

bad company said:

Buying petrol or 'gas' is a pain. It is all self service so enter your zip code and credit card for fuel. The problems come as most of us do not have a zip code. You have to go in and give the attendant a deposit then he will turn on the pump.

Does anybody know a better way?

walk in .."please put $xx dollars on pump number x " walk out and fill car then drive away or return to the kiosk for change , after a fill up you should get an idea of what it takes so give em the right money

[Matt..]

Unlight said:

Right, need to get this trip booked asap - any thoughts on the following plan?

Flying into LAX :


1 night Anaheim Hills

1 night Palm Springs

3 nights Vegas

1 night Death Valley

2 nights Yosemite

3 nights San Francisco

2 nights Monterey

1 night Morro Bay

3 nights LA


Sound ok for a first time road tripper?

Put it all into Google maps and check distances. Death Valley to Yosemite is ~7hrs without stopping (you will stop... a lot!). If you had another day, it would be good to stop half way (maybe take one of the LA/Monterey days or palm springs/anaheim hills). You could stay in somewhere like Mammoth Lakes.

I'm sure you know, but DV will be in the 40c+ in August. You can drive to everything though, so it shouldn't be too bad.

It's also worth booking national park accommodation now. Especially Yosemite.

Edited by Matt.. on Wednesday 9th January 18:10

[Mr E]

You may also struggle to stay anywhere near Yosemite for sensible money.

[davepoth]

Matt.. said:

Put it all into Google maps and check distances. Death Valley to Yosemite is ~7hrs without stopping (you will stop... a lot!). If you had another day, it would be good to stop half way (maybe take one of the LA/Monterey days or palm springs/anaheim hills). You could stay in somewhere like Mammoth Lakes.

I'm sure you know, but DV will be in the 40c+ in August. You can drive to everything though, so it shouldn't be too bad.

It's also worth booking national park accommodation now. Especially Yosemite.

Edited by Matt.. on Wednesday 9th January 18:10

DV to Yosemite is 5 hours if you don't stop at all. As has been said, you won't want to drive non-stop, you are on holiday after all. Taking a day less at Monterrey is probably a good idea, it's not a big town.

The last US road trip I did involved two consecutive eleven hour driving days. Not fun.

[fiatpower]

davepoth said:

Taking a day less at Monterrey is probably a good idea, it's not a big town.

I disagree I stayed there for one night and it wasn't enough time for me. I regret not staying for a day longer. I'd also spend less time in SF but then again I may be biased because I didn't really enjoy it there.

I'd recommend staying the night in a place called Bishop. Basically if you leave Vegas, drive through death valley and Bishop is on the other side. Bishop is also about an hours drive from the entrance to Yosemite. Quite liked it there. Single main road with some restaurants, houses and a tri county fair when I was there. Went to a really nice chinese restaurant there, 5 courses for a very reasonable price and it was good food.

Edited by fiatpower on Wednesday 9th January 18:39

[rs4kev]

SF is a marmite place, we didn't like it. I'd drop a day for that and go to Sonoma or napa and have a wine tour

Santa Cruz was interesting for a visit, Monterrey was just grey when we went in June. You can do San Diego in a couple of hours from Anaheim and we did the zoo & sea world & back in one day. (Not on coast road though!!) Went back to SD last year again, nice part of coast.