West Coast USA - Tour Advice

blairw

blairw

blairw

Soldato
Joined
19 Mar 2006
Posts
3,855
Location
Scotland, UK
Hi All,

I know there are a few threads on this but just wanted to get everything in one place!

We are currently planning our trip to the USA for next May and have come up with the following itinerary based on flight prices being cheaper to San Fran than LAX at the moment.

We will be renting a Mustang which we intend to drop off on arrival at Vegas.

I am looking for some advice on the following:

Tour of Grand Canyon
Tour of Hoover Dam
Best way to do Yosemite from San Fran? Drive or Tour?
Best way to visit San Diego Zoo (Drive from Long Beach or Train from LA?)
Hotels in the Long Beach / Malibu Area?


Our Current itinerary

Date Headline Location
14th May Travel / Check In Edinburgh to San Francisco

15th May Tourist Events San Francisco

16th May Yosemite San Francisco / Yosemite National Park

17th May Transfer to Long Beach / Malibu (Drive) San Francisco to Long Beach

18th May Main Town LA (Touristy Stuff) Long Beach / Malibu

19th May Pool Day / Relaxing Day / Explore Long Beach / Malibu

20th May San Diego Zoo (Drive) San Diego

21st May Pool Day / Relaxing Day / Explore Long Beach / Malibu

22nd May Knott's Berry Farm Long Beach / Malibu

23rd May Transfer to Vegas Long Beach / Malibu to Las Vegas

24th May Grand Canyon Las Vegas

25th May Pool Day / Relaxing Day / Explore Las Vegas

26th May Hoover Dam Tour Las Vegas

27th May Pool Day / Relaxing Day / Fly Home Las Vegas to Edinburgh


Many Thanks for any input to the above :)
 
I'll throw my knowledge in, don't have much mind.

I did the Hoover Dam tour when I visited Vegas, was really interesting, I don't know whether you can book in advance, I think we just rocked up at the visitor centre and paid to join a tour, I think there was a bit of a wait though.

I know you're dropping the car off on arrival in Vegas but I'd consider driving to the Hoover dam. It's a shortish drive, very easy, and if you get the urge you can drop into Boulder or some of the outlying casinos. We stopped for breakfast in a tiny diner in Boulder, it was really nice.

As for the Canyon, I've not done it myself. There are two rims, one of which is about an hour away, but the one that people consider the "true" canyon is about 3-4 hours drive (I'm told that some of the roads are pretty bumpy and that due to classification your hire car insurance may not like it). Bus trips a plenty, but if you fancy it I've heard good things about the helicopter tours, can't advise anymore than that though.
 
I drove to Yosemite from SF last year and it took around a leisurely 6 hours or so to do it. The drive was quite picturesque in a something of a barren way. Obviously if you are tanking it, it can be done quicker. I found it quite a tiring drive

I would strongly recommend spending more than 1 night in Yosemite. I thought it was by far the best part of my hols and regretted arriving 4:30 in the afternoon and leaving the next morning...the word awesome gets used a lot, but it really fits it

I can't see that a tour from SF would offer any benefits against driving yourself. You get lots more flexibility - going up to Glacier Point for sunset was a highpoint (literally!)

BTW if you do drive there, put the gearbox into 'sport' mode as soon as you reach the foothills - or else all you'll hear is the constant changing. The moment you hit an incline it drops 3 gears, after trying each of them out for 10 seconds

Oh yes - if you do stay in Yosemite, you need to book as early as possible. I left it until 4 months beforehand and really struggled to find anything in the park - in the end I paid through the nose

One more point...I think your itinerary is very ambitious and that you may regret skimming some of the attractions eg. you could cut Yosemite entirely and use that time to 'do' SF in more depth
 
I think you're spending way too much time at Long Beach/LA, and not nearly enough time in Monterey/Big Sur, etc. Long Beach and LA as a whole is a 2 day thing at most to be honest. We did a 1 day bus tour of LA and then disliked it that much that the next day we didn't want to go exploring LA so went to watch the Dodgers baseball instead.

The drive down the coast from SF to Long Beach should be done over a good few days to fully appreciate it. Hearst Castle in San Simeon is worth going to

We really enjoyed the USS Midway in San Diego too, we were the 3rd and 4th people on the ship in the morning and the very last off at the end of the day. :o Was fascinating!

The other thing you might have not taken into account, Tioga Pass through Yosemite is almost definitely shut in May when you're going. It only opens in June/July depending on how long it takes them to clear the snowfall. That makes it more difficult to go in and out, potentially needing snow chains and the like. We didn't bother although I'd love to go back to California just for there.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the input so far - will perhaps look at reshaping the strart of the holiday in that case!
 
Having done a similar trip before, Monterey and Santa Barbara are worthwhile stopping off points from San Fran to LA.
 
I must add we are actually doing this as a group of 6 - so it's not quite as flexible as your standard couples tour.

We will be able to split up and do our own thing due to having multiple cars, but we are looking to base the middle part of the trip just outside of LA (Thinking Huntington beach at the moment)

Hotel wise I think we are going to book them, then keep checking back every month to see if anything has changed price wise - but for now we have got the following lined up

San Fran - Sofitel San Francisco Bay Hotel - 3 Nights - 490 Per Couple
Huntington Beach - The Waterfront Beach Resort - 6 Nights - 960 Per Couple
Las Vegas - Luxor Hotel - 4 nights - 188 Per Couple plus 110 USD Fees each

Hoping to possibly bring down the Huntington beach and San Fran hotel costs
 
Huge thread in the motors section found here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18227057

Initial thoughts on the above, less time in LA, more time everywere else! I highly recommend rethinking so much time in LA, though that depends on which holiday you're after. Even then, LA is a dump! Get out of that place ASAP! :D

- Yosemite is at least 2 hours from San Fran, if you're planing a day return trip work out what you want to do there. If you fancy a hike then you will have to set out early...Yosemite is great, I highly recommend doing some walking.

- San Fran, you may want more time here but that's opnion related.

- If you fancy doing both hoover dam and Grand Canyon without staying a night in the GC, a coach tour might be worth it. If you fancy a night in the GC, to actually see it, drive it! :) Not sure where the bumpy road comment comes from...it's all tarmac.

Some of my family recently did the flight from LV, with the skywalk, helicopter tour and lunch at the bottom by the river, they really enjoyed it.

I'm sure Fox will pop in here and add some further thoughts.
 
Last edited:
rossk26 said:
San Fran advice is to stay just outside and drive in, significant savings to be made
Click to expand...

Disagree with this one I'm afraid, parking will be $10-$20 a day if you're lucky.

Stay in a suitably priced place, for example I stayed in the Club Quarters, excellent location and excellent price.

P.S. If you're doing it, book Alcatraz early, night tours go pretty quickly.
 
I can give advice on this as it's pretty much where I went 2 years ago. Less time in LA and more time in Yosemite. It really is superb! LA sucks. Grand Canyon is pretty epic, but because of it's vastness, leaves you a bit perplexed!
Monterey is a quiet fishing town, but really cool. Only had 1 night but would've liked 1 more. Santa Cruz is really cool too. We stopped on the drive from San Fran to Monterey. It's another place I could easily have stayed for a few days.

If I could do it again, i'd forget LA and Vegas, they're trash in my opinion. Those 5 days could've been put to better use.
 
tlrBeta said:
P.S. If you're doing it, book Alcatraz early, night tours go pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Agreed, tickets go on sale 90 days before and get snapped up pretty quickly (by ticket touts I believe). They don't sell a very small number of tickets which they sell on the day but you have to be at the ticket booth very early to get them.

Instead, do what I did and set a reminder on your phone/write it on the calendar and just go online and buy them on the morning they go on sale.

We did the evening tour which includes a longer, and narrated, boat tour around the bay and also the hospital wing of Alcatraz was open which I believe isn't the case in the day...it was creepy!
 
blairw said:
We are currently planning our trip to the USA for next May and have come up with the following itinerary based on flight prices being cheaper to San Fran than LAX at the moment.
Click to expand...

This is an incredibly rare situation, the reverse is almost always the case by some margin. I would be planning the trip out of and back to LAX because I'd be amazed if it genuinely did end up cheaper to start/finish at SFO. The open-jaw into SFO and out of LAS will also increase cost and ensure you miss some great sights, too.

You can fly to LAX for as little as £400 return direct - I have never seen flights to SFO even within £100 of that. Typically car rental is cheaper out of LAX as well. You are currently looking at flights too far out so you won't be likely to pick up great deals this far in advance. May isn't a busy time and you will easily score sub £500 return flights. Do not book until they pop up or you are overpaying.

So, assuming you go into and out of LAX a better route would look like this:

Los Angeles > San Diego > Las Vegas/Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam > Death Valley > Yosemite National Park > San Francisco > Highway 1/Pacific Coast > Los Angeles.

This gives you more to see, puts you driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in the right direction so your view isn't spoiled by oncoming traffic and will cost you less money as well.

LA itself isn't the highlight of the trip - tick the boxes and move on quickly because the rest of California is stunning and time spent in LA is time you can't spend outside of it :D Spending 6 nights in LA represents a really big wasted opportunity IMHO. 13 days is cutting it fine for being enough time as it is without spending almost half of it in the LA area.
 
Last edited:
tlrBeta said:
Disagree with this one I'm afraid, parking will be $10-$20 a day if you're lucky.
Click to expand...

I stayed in a Courtyard Marriott a 15 minute drive from San Francisco. The room was half the price of a similar hotel in downtown and parking was free on Sundays.

Most central Hotels will charge you that $20+ a day to park in the hotel carpark if you stay centrally anyway.
 
Way too much driving for the itme, and no where near ling enough in Yosemite, and way too long in malibu.


Given the time frame I would stick with hanging arund San Francisco, Yosemite and lake tahoe. There is so much to see on the coast north and south of San Francisco . Yosemite itself you will want 4 or 5 days there. I dont even understand your itinerary inf act, SF to Yosemite is 4-5 hours of driving. I would allocate 1 day to drive there, 3 days miniuk staying in or near the park and 1 day to go from Yosemite to lake Tahoe on route 295 stopping off at Boldie Ghost town on the way. Stay at south lake Tahoe, you can gamble and do the casino jazz in the nevada aside.
 
fenderbass86 said:
I can give advice on this as it's pretty much where I went 2 years ago. Less time in LA and more time in Yosemite. It really is superb! LA sucks. Grand Canyon is pretty epic, but because of it's vastness, leaves you a bit perplexed!
Monterey is a quiet fishing town, but really cool. Only had 1 night but would've liked 1 more. Santa Cruz is really cool too. We stopped on the drive from San Fran to Monterey. It's another place I could easily have stayed for a few days.

If I could do it again, i'd forget LA and Vegas, they're trash in my opinion. Those 5 days could've been put to better use.
Click to expand...

This man speak the truth.

Even the Grand Canyon is really not that special IMO. It is cool, but as you say perplexing because of the size and you just aren't used to it. to do the Grand Canyon properly you have to go in spring or fall , hike down to the bottom, spend 1 or 2 day hiking along the bottom and then climb back out. Poking your head over the viewpoints doesn't give ay idea of the place and makes for a disappointing experience It is my least favorite major attraction in the US by far. Most of utah, Wyoming, California, Oregon, washington, Montana are far more interesting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom