Road Tripping in the USA!
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You guys mean do Palm Springs on the way to San Diego?
Yes, Santa B between PCH and Santa Monica. Sound ok?
Palm Springs is definitely worth a visit, cool place. I would recommend Palm Mountain Resort & Spa if the rates are decent as it's right in the center of Palm Springs and you can walk to everything. Otherwise try the Royal Sun Inn and ask for a room which looks on the mountains, cheap as chips place, fairly close to the town centre and has cool view of the mountain.
Do you intend to stop in Santa Barbara? One of the nicest places in the whole of California if not the entire US but pretty expensive, if you can get there mid-week though it might be more tolerable.
Yes, Santa B between PCH and Santa Monica. Sound ok?
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Santa B is awesome, Santa Monica I found fairly crap really.
What time does your flight arrive in LAX?
If it's between 3pm and 7pm on a weekday I would pick up your rental, drive down to Santa Monica pier, go and have dinner and a beer out in the sunshine and then set off down to San Diego after 7pm - the traffic is absolutely horrendous in that direction at rush hour and it'll make what could be a great 2 hour drive at sunset into a miserable 5 hour drive in traffic and you'll probably get there at the same time
SB is very do-able as a last place to visit before LAX, leave about 2.5 hours to get there if you intend to take PCH (which you absolutely should!). Alternatively leave about 3.5 hours and briefly stop in Santa Monica for an hour at the pier just so you can say you went to Santa Monica pier.
If it's between 3pm and 7pm on a weekday I would pick up your rental, drive down to Santa Monica pier, go and have dinner and a beer out in the sunshine and then set off down to San Diego after 7pm - the traffic is absolutely horrendous in that direction at rush hour and it'll make what could be a great 2 hour drive at sunset into a miserable 5 hour drive in traffic and you'll probably get there at the same time
SB is very do-able as a last place to visit before LAX, leave about 2.5 hours to get there if you intend to take PCH (which you absolutely should!). Alternatively leave about 3.5 hours and briefly stop in Santa Monica for an hour at the pier just so you can say you went to Santa Monica pier.
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Alcatraz worth it? The wife seems keen
I'd say it was. If you're into reading information boards like the mate I went with is then it's awesome... We were there on quite a misty and rainy day so although you could see the mainland it was quite atmospheric and the history of the place aside from the prison is fascinating too.
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Let's see if I can help - I live in LA, but from the UK originally and do this kind of trip 3/4 times a year for various bits of work and when friends come to visit from the UK. Here would be my advice and musings:
LA - I personally love LA, but I know many don't. You can hit up most of the tourist bits in a few hours, and they get dull pretty quickly. LA really gets exciting when you have time to explore and get out of the tourist hotspots. If you get a chance, just head to downtown LA - A bunch of great bars, restaurants and hidden gems. Always my favourite place to be in LA.
SD - I'm not a fan of San diego. I'm there every couple of weeks as the misses family live there. I would spend a couple of hours there and then hop the border to Tijuana. It's really not nearly as bad as people would have you believe and is far more exciting that SD. If you have a chance hit the zoo in SD, but it will take a good part of the day. Aside from this, 2 days is too long - you'll just spend your time in crab shacks watching the beach.
LV - You could hit Palm Springs on the way to LV as others have suggested, but I really wouldn't bother. Palm Springs is a great place to go and relax, and 95% of the people you will meet there have come from LA to real for a couple of days. If it helps put it in to perspective - We have a house in Palm springs, and we still barely go. For Las Vegas, 3 nights is about the limit for most people. I would suggest cutting it down to two nights, you'll get everything you want in as a tourist (try and do this during the week to save cash on hotels). Use the extra day elsewhere.
DV and YNP - Yosemite, is by far the most beautiful place you can visit in California. I would recommend spending as many of your days here as possible. If you can, money saved form the extra night in Vegas, put towards renting a tent a try to camp there for a couple of days. Get some hikes in, and enjoy not driving for a couple of days. As mentioned, hotels around here are few and far between, and the ones that are charge a fortune. On the way as well, you might as well hit Mammoth Lakes, gorgeous views.
SF - SF is also one of the greatest parts of California. I would try and increase this to 3 days if you can. So much to see and do, and just a great city to get lost in.
M and PCH - Monterey is a great place to spend a few hours. Have a look to see if anything is going on at Laguna Seca. One the way down, visit Carmel for a quick stop (beautiful little town vibe - Clint Eastwood used to be mayor there - his claim to fame as mayor there, was that they were trying to pass a law there to ban ice cream, as all the ice cream drips from the cones were staining the pavements there. Clint Eastwood laughed, ripped it up and enjoyed an ice cream. So go have an ice cream in his honor. Is you do one thing on the way back - Visit Big Sur. Another one of the most amazing places in California. You will hit it on the way down the PCH - but don't rush through it. visit some of the beaches, eat there (A restaurant called Nepenthe is an absolute must for the views). Also on the way back down, don't rush to get back to SM. Visit San Luis Obispo on the way back, hit santa barabara.
SM - Sack this idea off. Santa Monica gets old in about 5 minutes. I opened an office in SM, very quickly relocated it. Go to Malibu on the way down instead (the beaches are far nicer, less crowded - and almost every time I go there, we see Whales and Dolphins meters out in the ocean, pretty awesome), and if you have time - skipped past Santa Monica and go 5 minutes down the road to Venice. Or if that doesn't appeal, go to Manhatten Beach (Don't get in the water - A swimmer was bit by a great white shark last week!), or head down to Long Beach.
There are a LOT of fun little towns and places to visit in between, but for a two week trip, you won't be able to get them all in. Once you have a solid plan in place, email me or something, and I will go in to much more detail for you.
Also - with regards to Hotels. My advice would be to book nothing. Over here, we all use an all called Hotel Tonight. Whenever we go away, we use the app on the day of, and get most of our hotels around 40-50% off. I wouldn't use anything else.
This seems like really poor advice - he's using LV as base to visit the Grand Canyon on one of the days so your advice would essentially lead to zero days in Las Vegas versus his current 1. 3 days is absolutely fine. 2 days isn't enough.
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[TW]Fox;26607360 said:
on a 16 day trip, I personally would feel 2 days is plenty - but were all different. Instead of using LV as a base for the GC, I would visit the Grand Canyon in the morning before heading to Vegas. Its about a 4 hour drive, but this way you avoid most of the crazy heat this time of the year buy seeing it early in the morning - and then driving to Vegas. If you arrive in Vegas by around 5-6pm, which is a couple of hours after check in - you can spend the first afternoon checking out your hotel, as well as walking either the north or south of the strip depending on what hotel you would book. Go gamble, drink have fun.
The next day wake up, head to a pool to escape the insane heat. Around 4pm, go and eat, then go and explore the rest of the strip you didn't hit the night before - walk the shops, buy what you need, go and gamble some more, drink some more go to bed for night 2. Ask for a later check out, get out of town for 1pm and start your trip.
I personally don't see what you couldn't fit in to a third night that you couldn't do in two. I just think there would be more beneficial places to spend that extra night. It just depends on the fella doing the trip and how much Vegas means to him. Most friends who have visited on similar trips, were done with Vegas after 2 nights and moved on - and just from personal experience, I go there around once a month, and I almost never stay more than 2 nights if I can avoid it - However on the flip side, I have friends who have lived there for months at a time and can't get enough. Personal preference really. I just think on a trip like this, 2 nights is plenty, including the GC.
Alamo and National are the same firm and at most major airport locations share the same fleet. There is absolutely no reason to not pick whichever of the two is cheapest. If you can't see the car you want in Alamo just ask if you can take from National, 99% of times the answer is 'Sure'.
I've always wanted to do a road trip in/across America, but I've never actually got round to getting my finger out, planning it and actually doing it. One of the things that's definitely on my bucket list tho, and I know I'll get round to it one day.
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£270 for 17 day rental sounds like a decent price! As fox mentioned, worse case scenario, you can buy a cheap GPS once you get here. Out here, I just use my iPhone completely, and I use an Waze to make sure I get where I need to go in the quickest time!