Road Tripping in the USA!

[Buffman]

Why the 3 days in Florida? That's 3 weeks on its own.

To answer your actual question, 14 days but depends how long you want to stay in SF, LA and SD, also how many stops in between. £5k should be fine.

Monitor flights on sky scanner via email alert, buy when it drops. Early does not equal cheap, prices vary wildly right up until boarding. Though fling to SD or SF is more expensive than LA so I am note sure what you should be aiming for there and its also complicated by you not doing a direct return.

Yeah would probably bin off the seperate trip to florida and do that as a holiday in itself. Thanks for tips I'll considering setting up skyscanner notifications

 

[Peerzy]

If I'd like to go San Francisco to LA to san Diego (West Coast cali) or the other way round how many days should I give it for each place (driving in between)?

Considering doing this, then possibly a couple (say 3) days in florida. Reckon circa 5k will cover it for two people? (nearer 10k?)

Considering going next year mid may, is there deals from booking the flights etc very early?? (say 6months in advance?)

San Fran (3 days)
Drive San Fran to LA (2 days)
LA (3 days)
Drive LA to San Diego (0 days)
San Diego (3 days)
Total - 11 days

Those are minimums to make it worthwhile (assuming you've not visited any of the places before). Ideally I would do the following;

San Fran (4 days)
Drive San Fran to LA (3 days)
LA (3 days)
Drive LA to San Diego (0 days)
San Diego (4 days)
Total - 14 days

£5k would be fine for 2 people for 14 nights assuming you don't want to stay in The Ritz at every location, £125-£150 per night will get you a really decent hotel, £500~ for a Mustang, flights at around £500-£750 each so that leaves you with £1k-£1.5k spending money.

 

[Buffman]

San Fran (3 days)
Drive San Fran to LA (2 days)
LA (3 days)
Drive LA to San Diego (0 days)
San Diego (3 days)
Total - 11 days

Those are minimums to make it worthwhile (assuming you've not visited any of the places before). Ideally I would do the following;

San Fran (4 days)
Drive San Fran to LA (3 days)
LA (3 days)
Drive LA to San Diego (0 days)
San Diego (4 days)
Total - 14 days

£5k would be fine for 2 people for 14 nights assuming you don't want to stay in The Ritz at every location, £125-£150 per night will get you a really decent hotel, £500~ for a Mustang, flights at around £500-£750 each so that leaves you with £1k-£1.5k spending money.

Thanks, tbh 5k between us is less than I guessed (had no idea), no don't have particularly lavish requirements.

I think the 14day trip you've suggest sounds good. Why have you suggested 2 days to drive between between San Francisco and LA? (looks like a 6hour drive?)

Also are all cars there automatic? Never driven abroad before, but over 25 so is the Mrs.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I think the 14day trip you've suggest sounds good. Why have you suggested 2 days to drive between between San Francisco and LA? (looks like a 6hour drive?)

Because between the two is the Pacific Coast Highway which takes 2 days at least to enjoy properly.

 

[Buffman]

Because between the two is the Pacific Coast Highway which takes 2 days at least to enjoy properly.

Any recommended off takes on the route, and places to stay/visit?

 

[Peerzy]

San Fran to LA has many wonderful places to stay (Santa Barbara, Monterey, SLO etc....) so 2 days to slowly enjoy the drive and visit a few smaller SoCal beaches and towns.

Take highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) the whole way from San Fran to LA (assuming it's open - it's currently closed due to some damage to a bridge which results in a 3 hour detour). LA to San Diego you can either do highway 1 or the 5 but I'd recommend a stop in La Jolla on your way. When in San Diego check our Coronado Island and aim to stay within walking distance of Seaport Village, Gaslamp Quarter and Little Italy.

I would probably say £5k-£6k for that trip would be comfortable but I'm also use to going in school holidays when things are more expensive. Any car you rent will be automatic (but not stick shift like the old US movies - so just slam it into D and off you go). Both being over 25 makes it much easier as you won't pay any young driver surcharges. One way rentals are usually very expensive in the US but they are not allowed to charge them in California so renting from San Fran to San Diego is actually going to be really cheap compared with any other US road trip with a 1 way rental.

 

[timmeh]

I second Santa Barbara and Monterey (Monterey has one of the world's largest aquariums (they based Finding Dory on it) if you're into that sort of thing). Carmel is really nice place too. We only spent the night there but just about everyone I know who's stayed there, including LA locals, has absolutely loved it.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

If anything I echo what Peerzy said but I would be inclined to drop a day from LA and spend it on the PCH. Lots of nice places to go and explore but that is much more my preference.

LA isn't particularly 'nice' overall, especially outside the very up market areas but there are lots of things to do.

Out of SD, SF and LA I found SD to be by far the best.

If you gave us an idea about what you like and want to get out of it then we can have more of an idea on where you are best spending your time.

If you like being outside and exploring the landscape then more time on the PCH is a must.

If you like city breaks, theme parks, Hollywood and celebrity culture then more time in LA is probably better spent.

 

[Peerzy]

I think there is a fair amount to do in LA for a first timer, we've visited twice (both for 3 nights) and never got bored or felt like we were in the dodgy / seedy bits. You just have to be aware LA is such a big place so you can often spend 45 minutes driving somewhere. Things we've done in LA that were great;

Hollywood sign / Walk of Fame
A walk in Angeles National Forest to a waterfall
Santa Monica beach
LA Dodgers game
Griffith Observatory
Beverly Hills / Rodeo Dr

It has some really top draw restaurants, personally we much prefer San Diego (our favourite place in the US) but LA gets a lot of stick.

 

[st@nners]

So having never been to America before and always wanting to do an American road trip I am finally getting to do it for my honeymoon in June this year.

We are going for 3 weeks Friday to Friday and have a list of places we want to visit and things we hoped to do. I am unsure if this is the best order to do things in and if we are missing out some must see locations so any advice is appreciated. I would like to see Santa Barbara, Monterey etc so I think we should be driving down then across to Las Vegas but so far we have;

Fly to New York, then get internal flight to San Fran arriving 1st June. While in San Francisco - Alcatraz - Napa Valley Wine Train - Yosemite

Hire car on 5th June and drive to Las Vegas. While in Las Vegas - Hoover Dam - Penn & Teller

Drive to Los Angeles on 9th June. While in Los Angeles - Universal studios - California science centre - Disneyland Anaheim

Drive to San Diego on 12th June. While in San Diego - USS Midway - See a sporting event - Museum of Photographic Arts

Fly from San Diego - New York on 17th June. While in New York - Show on Broadway - Central Park - Shopping - Federal Reserve - Ground Zero

Fly back to UK 22nd June

 

[b0rn2sk8]

You need to look at your SF to LV leg, that is one hell of a drive. Also you want to be doing Yosemite on the way to LV and not as a day trip from SF. You can also do Death Valley the day after.

Edit: just thought you said you wanted to go to Monterey and Santa Barbara too in which case you are not really going in that direction as it stands.

 

[FishFluff]

Yeah, st@nners if you want to fit all that stuff in you should probably start in Vegas, then go up to San Francisco (via Death Valley/Lone Pine and Yosemite) and then go down the Pacific Coast Highway. Otherwise you'll be criss-crossing all over California for no real reason!

 

[Joe T]

San Francisco - Las Vegas - Los Angeles - San Diego makes perfect sense (although it misses out much of the PCH), but have a look at a map for the places you want to see en route and check you're doing them in the right order etc.

 

[Peerzy]

It's a real shame as you'll miss out the best parts of the PCH and the drive from Vegas to LA is boring.

Vegas -> San Fran -> LA -> SD would be much better.

 

[Joe T]

The dollar is starting to weaken, which is good news.

 

[VaderDSL]

Anyone done Denver/Rocky Mountain National Park? We're looking at September (after labor day and after some festivals in Estes). Was wondering if anyone has been in September (early/mid)? Would ideally be looking for places to walk, bird watch without too much of a crowd. For comparison, Arizona in early/mid September was really quiet an peaceful (away from the Grand Canyon).

 

[VincentHanna]

Need some help with the middle-end of my Wedding/Honeymoon.

So far we've got:
Fly to New York on August 19th
3x nights New York (Visit Liberty crown, One World Trade Centre, Watch Hamilton on broadway etc)
Fly to Las Vegas on August 22nd
4x nights Las Vegas at 'The Wynn' (Marriage/Helicopter/Shoot guns/Vegas stuff)
Drive to San Diego on August 26th
3x nights San Diego at Manchester Grand Hyatt
Drive to Santa Monica
2x nights Santa Monica at Shore Hotel (Fianceé wants to visit Six Flags)

And we're flying back from San Francisco to London on Friday 7th September.

So I've got 7 nights to fill and I was thinking 1x night in Santa Barbara, and 3 nights in San Francisco at the end of the holiday, but am not sure where to go between there - along/near PCH

Also Monday 3rd September is Labor Day so i'm not sure how bad roads are and if stuff is closed? Though we should be on PCH by then anyway.

 

[signs]

Monterey is nice ,,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey,_California

 

[VincentHanna]

I went 10 years ago with friends. We got there late and nothing was open, I don't remember much that was interesting about it other than some sea otters lounging about on the marina.

 

[signs]

I went 10 years ago with friends. We got there late and nothing was open, I don't remember much that was interesting about it other than some sea otters lounging about on the marina.

this was good , saying that it was 1992 when i went

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/