Road Tripping in the USA!

Just returned from a 14 trip flying into San Francisco and leaving from LA.

I was unable to find any convertibles on the Alamo uk website listed for the dates i was flying but found 'Ford Mustang Cabriolet (or Similar)' Listed 'from' Alamo via Rentalcars.com for £641 for the 2 weeks.

When i got to San Francisco i was pleasantly surprised that not only did they have plenty of Ford Mustang Cabriolets and Camaro's for my to choose from but Also at least 7 Camaro SS's on the lot which i happily took.
 
Alamo let me take the Surburban (“Premium SUV” - a class up from the “Full Size SUV” Tahoe that I paid for) without any quibbles. It was absolutely enormous and I loved driving it around Florida for two weeks but boy does my Mondeo feel like a sports car now :D
 
Slowly working my way though this whole threat, page 16 but already read lots of great information.

The other half an I are planning a road trip next year. Already book dates off work from 20th Aug to 9th Sept so 21 days in total. Ideally i'd like to get home with a day or two to spare so we're not straight back to work. Just going on the assumption for now of around 3 nights per place / stage. LA doesn't massively appeal to me so tempted to take a night off and use it elsewhere. We are both quite into outdorsey stuff and wouldn't mind doing some hiking or big trails so i'm assuming Yosemite would be our best bet for things like that? Possibly stay longer there. Again Vegas isn't a big draw for us but both agree we want to see it and do a Canyon Tour. Both really want to see SF and quite a few things on our to do list as well as possibly taking in 6 Flags, looks like there is one outside SF and LA

Fly into LAX

21st - 23rd - LA

23rd - 26th - San Diego

26th - 29th Vegas & Canyon

29th - 1st DV / Yosemite

1st - 4th San Fran

4th - 7th PCH - fly home

Does that look OK? Any suggestion?

Cheers,

Richy.
 
I think that's pretty much the exact trip we did.

LA - 3 nights
San Diego - 4 nights
Vegas - 4 nights
Mammoth Lakes (via DV) - 1 night
Yosemite - 2 nights
San Fran - 3 nights
PCH (Monterey) - 1 night
PCH (San Luis Obispo) - 1 night
PCH (Santa Barbara) - 2 nights

Couldn't really fault the route or number of nights anywhere. We've since been back to San Diego (for another 5 nights, our favourite place in the US), Vegas (for another 4 nights for cool hotels) and LA (for another 3 nights to do non-tourist stuff) on a different trip. We eventually want to go back to San Fran but the right trip hasn't popped up yet.

3 nights in LA is fine as your first day and night will be landing, getting through US customs (yay!), getting the car, getting to the hotel and then maybe dinner and do 1 thing. Which then actually only leaves you with 2 days in LA which you can easily fill with all the touristy stuff.

Neither of us really drink massive amounts, are not into clubbing and don't gamble at all but we still enjoyed Vegas for the other sides (nice hotels, the weather, the restaurants with great food, the crazy buzz of the place - there really isn't anywhere else like it).
 
richyfingers said:
Slowly working my way though this whole threat, page 16 but already read lots of great information.

The other half an I are planning a road trip next year. Already book dates off work from 20th Aug to 9th Sept so 21 days in total. Ideally i'd like to get home with a day or two to spare so we're not straight back to work. Just going on the assumption for now of around 3 nights per place / stage. LA doesn't massively appeal to me so tempted to take a night off and use it elsewhere. We are both quite into outdorsey stuff and wouldn't mind doing some hiking or big trails so i'm assuming Yosemite would be our best bet for things like that? Possibly stay longer there. Again Vegas isn't a big draw for us but both agree we want to see it and do a Canyon Tour. Both really want to see SF and quite a few things on our to do list as well as possibly taking in 6 Flags, looks like there is one outside SF and LA

Fly into LAX

21st - 23rd - LA

23rd - 26th - San Diego

26th - 29th Vegas & Canyon

29th - 1st DV / Yosemite

1st - 4th San Fran

4th - 7th PCH - fly home

Does that look OK? Any suggestion?

Cheers,

Richy.
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How are you planning on doing the Grand Canyon? I assume a flight of some kind as it's really out of the way to get to from Vegas and certainly not something you'd want to do in a day. If you enjoy hiking then I'd drop a day from Vegas and have an extra day in Yosemite. It really is absolutely stunning and there's so many hikes to do.

Are you going to be driving all the way to Yosemite from LV in one day? It's a real long drive and you'd miss a lot of cool stuff in Death Valley. When we did it we stopped off for the night in Lone Pine and then went to see some really cool rock formations out in the hills there (it's where they shoot a lot of movies that feature 'alien' type landscapes).

Also I'd say 4 days to get down the PCH is way too much. 3 is plenty. We stopped in Cambria and Monterey and didn't feel too rushed.
 
FishFluff said:
How are you planning on doing the Grand Canyon? I assume a flight of some kind as it's really out of the way to get to from Vegas and certainly not something you'd want to do in a day. If you enjoy hiking then I'd drop a day from Vegas and have an extra day in Yosemite. It really is absolutely stunning and there's so many hikes to do.

Are you going to be driving all the way to Yosemite from LV in one day? It's a real long drive and you'd miss a lot of cool stuff in Death Valley. When we did it we stopped off for the night in Lone Pine and then went to see some really cool rock formations out in the hills there (it's where they shoot a lot of movies that feature 'alien' type landscapes).

Also I'd say 4 days to get down the PCH is way too much. 3 is plenty. We stopped in Cambria and Monterey and didn't feel too rushed.
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Thanks for the reply. Yeah going to go the flight for GC to save some unecesary faffing about. Think we will drop a day from Vegas and will likely drop a day from PCH to use elsewhere.. LV Yosemite leg will involve stop overs. Considering camping if we can and will definitely take in some hikes.
 
richyfingers said:
Thanks for the reply. Yeah going to go the flight for GC to save some unecesary faffing about. Think we will drop a day from Vegas and will likely drop a day from PCH to use elsewhere.. LV Yosemite leg will involve stop overs. Considering camping if we can and will definitely take in some hikes.
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Also, whilst you won't have time on the trip you've got planned, if you like walking and outdoorsy stuff there are some other really good national parks on the West side if America. Bryce Canyon and Zion are both absolutely stunning. My wife and I are already planning to go back and spend a week in each, as we barely scratched the surface in the time we had there.
 
Fly into LAX

21st - 23rd - LA

23rd - 26th - San Diego

26th - 29th Vegas & Canyon

29th - 1st DV / Yosemite

1st - 4th San Fran

4th - 7th PCH - fly home

Does that look OK? Any suggestion?

Cheers,

Richy.
Click to expand...

Try and see the Donner Party Museum at Truckee then drive the old highway over the Donner Pass.
The ghost town at Bodie is also worth a visit.
If you've not seen Monument Valley it's worth a detour on your way to the Grand Canyon.
In LA do the Mulholland Drive leisurely cruise and stop at the overlook onto The Hollywood Bowl.
 
Yup, it's an extra 6 hour round trip of really rubbish roads with nothing to see. You'll arrive and wish you'd just spent more time at the Grand Canyon.
 
Peerzy said:
Yup, it's an extra 6 hour round trip of really rubbish roads with nothing to see. You'll arrive and wish you'd just spent more time at the Grand Canyon.
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I thought it's epic vastness was magnificent, I must be easily pleased.
636419637063386769-Monument-Valley-12.jpg
 
Pretty much the same route as I did for my honeymoon last year.

Personally I'd drop a day in SF, I didn't enjoy my time there at all. LA and SD were miles better. LV is a 3/4 day job, it broke our trip up nicely and prepared us for the lengthy drive through Death Valley and Yosemite. The mistake we made going from SD to LV was checking out Palm Springs on the way. Waste of time, there was nothing there, however the roads from Palm Springs to LV were empty and pretty cool to be honest.

I wish I spent more time in Yosemite, if I did it again, I'd drop SF altogether, maybe just pass it by in a day, not stop over, and spend more time in Yosemite. We stopped at Mammoth Lakes on our way from LV to Yosemite and it was beautiful there, again I wish we spent more time there, it was used merely as an overnight stop.

On the PCH we had 2 nights at Monterey, which I would recommend as you can do a really good whale tour from here, and there's also the 17 mile drive, and Carmel isn't too far away either. Next stops were Pismo and Oxnard, these were just overnight stops to get to LA. I enjoyed Pismo, we had a lovely balcony overlooking the Pacific, and could watch the whales playing at nighttime.
 
Obviously the PCH was open all the way from Monterey to LA ?

In early May this year all my road trip schedules went belly up with the landslides south of Bixby Creek Bridge
and the roads into Yosemite still closed with snow.
 
Never considered monument valley. That’s now on the list of places to go if we head down to that area. It looks like it’s worth a couple of days.
 
Amp34 said:
Never considered monument valley. That’s now on the list of places to go if we head down to that area. It looks like it’s worth a couple of days.
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The thing is it looks good but everywhere else around it is more than good - infact its next level epic. So in comparison to that it's somewhat underwhelming.
 
I’ve already done a SW US trip, with places like Death Valley (spent a few days there), Vegas etc., so other places to see in the area is always a good option. I’m drawn to places with less people and more vastness as well, so towns interest me less than hiking/climbing/camping in places like that. It also looks like a great location for photography as well.
 
Amp34 said:
I’ve already done a SW US trip, with places like Death Valley (spent a few days there), Vegas etc., so other places to see in the area is always a good option. I’m drawn to places with less people and more vastness as well, so towns interest me less than hiking/climbing/camping in places like that. It also looks like a great location for photography as well.
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I'm talking about places like Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon, Zion etc etc.

Lots of people in Monument Valley!
 
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