Soldato
I went in 2012 and it was still really good
I did this last summer, would recommend it as wellCarmel by the Sea is pretty. It's not far from Monterey so the sea life centre there is reachable. Also worth doing '17-mile drive'.
Personally I'd spend a day less in Portland and move it to either Seattle or Vancouver. Portland is good, but the other two are much better.
I'd also drop a day from San Fran and move it to San Diego.
You dont really want a car in San Francisco, so good plan.
I won't fully agree with that, I enjoyed my drive over the bridge and up onto the cliff the other side
Yes it's a pain to park - so great if you can avoid, but not all is lost
It's also fun on the open-top bus.
So.. my thought is start at LAX, that way I can tick it off my bucket list. Even if it is as tacky as I've been told. Aim to fly out from London on Sat 5th May, probably spend three or four nights in LAX, then head up the coast towards San Fran. I am thinking visit Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz in between.
San Fran, love this city, its an interesting place. Plenty to do, we will probably aim to spend another four or five nights there before heading east towards Yosemite. There will be a stop off either in Yosemite or surrounding area before heading through Death Valley toward Las Vegas. Obviously we will visit Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. With the intention of flying back from LAS on Sun 20th.
There is a lot of potential but I probably need some help with regards to LAX and the stretch up towards San Fran. From there I think we will have plenty to do but just need some input from those who have done this before. You will not have a good idea of how bad the snow is until well into April.
Cheers,
Dan
You are complicating your trip a little because you are going in May, there is a chance the Tioga Pass will not be open which means a HUGE detour around. Last year was a bit of a freak year but mid to late May is very normal. I have split my thoughts down below between option A which is the preferred route or b if the Tioga Pass is closed.
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tiogaopen.htm
The rational for choosing the stopping points are:
A)Mammoth Lakes and Bishop are the two standard stopping places, I would argue that Mammoth Lakes is a 'nicer' location but it is further away for the following day. If A is an option then you could just do 1 day in YNP and spend another day somewhere else. You would need to leave SF in late afternoon/early evening and stay in Modesto. Its about half way between SF and Yosmite, you could stay closer to Yosemite but the closer you are the more expensive it gets and the towns are tiny. SF to Yosemite is about a 4 hour drive. You would then get up early and spend the next day in the park before heading to Mammoth Lakes or Bishop.
B) Bakersfield is the last large town before DV, its about 200 miles (4 hours) from Yosemite and 175 Miles (3 hours) from DV. You could explore staying in Ridgecrest but I don't know whats there and it adds a further 113 Miles (2 hours) to an already really long day. This will be a long day so stay in or as close to the park as possible the night before, YNP can be physical if you want to go on a hike plus 4-6 hours driving.