Califonia/Arizona routing

[ianpetchey]

Just bought the american tomtom maps to help with the planning for our american adventure later this year.

We want to do, LA, Las Vegas, Yosemite & San Fransico, driving between the four places.

And to my question, has anyone done Vegas to Yosemite by car. The tomtom extimates 10 and a half hours, considering it estmates Vegas to SanFransisco at only 8 minutes longer, does this sound right?

[dcmax]

we think it sounds right, it is a way and we wouldn't recommend it in one day. I would imagine the SF to vegas is via motorway or a completely diff route

Jackie

[KittyKat]

I agree with Jackie. It would be a very long one day drive. We did it in 1997 driving through Death Valley. We overnighted in a small town call Big Pine.

Kitty

[Maz]

we did just ad Kitty did and went through Death valley, stopping off at the tourist spots which we really enjoyed, and then went on for a few hours to somewhere for the night. We went in to Yosemite from the top 'entrance', from the East.

[ianpetchey]

It's Yosemite that I wanted to do, but with "must do's" piling up for everyone else, I think we may decide to give it a miss, and do it another year. I suspect we will only be scratching the surface of LA/Veags and San Fransisco over 15 nights as it is....

Whats Vegas like in October? Hot/Busy? Should I be avoiding weekends?

Anyone done Magic Mountain in LA? Any good?

[roadkingtrev]

the best way to do this trip is to fly into san fransisco spend 3 days here then go through to Las Vagas via Yosomite stopping at Bishop overnight then onto Las Vagas through Death Valley into Vagas. Best time to arrive in Vagas is monday to thursday as rooms in hotels are cheaper take a trip to grand canyon from vagas. From here then onto Los Angeles.

[KittyKat]

My advice, for what its worth, is don't miss Yosemite. I'd rather miss Las Vegas and do there at another time. See my Gallery (http://www.thedibb.co.uk/photopost/showgallery.php) if you want to see what you'd be missing if you did not go.

Kitty

[bengunn]

Don't miss Yosemite but do check their website on the times of year that the eastern entrance to the park is open, as it is very high up in the mountains. We went to Yosemite from San Francisco in early May 2005 and the eastern entrance was not open then. It looks as though it is usually open from late-May until late-October, see http://www.nps.gov/archive/yose/trip/when.htm. Also, make sure that you book accommodation in Yosemite as we only got our second choice when booking in May.