August west coast trip including New York
 

Just having the January blues so thought I would start planning a trip that will be August 2021 at the earliest but more likely 2022

Yes planning early but no harm is thinking of summer times 😀

So we might have 18 or 19 days - I prefer to work in days rather than nights so was kind of thinking something like

Day 1 - fly to New York
Day 2-5 - explore New York
Day 6 - fly to Vegas
Day 7 - Explore Vegas
Day 8 - Drive Vegas to Bishop via Death Valley
Day 9 - Drive to Yosemite via tioga pass and explore
Day 10-11 Yosemite
Day 12 - Drive to San Fran and explore
Day 13-14 Explore San Fran
Day 15-17 Drive Pacific coast highway
Day 18 Fly home from LA

What do you all reckon ?

Where too much time / where would you spend longer if we could add a day or two ?
I am kind of thinking depending on flight times to have one less day in New York and one more in San Fran

Would you do a different route ?
We have been to Vegas and LA before so no need to spend much time there

Thanks for any advice

You're kind of doing a reverse of what we did. We LOVED California.

We also stayed in Bishop and stayed in a gorgeous hotel there (if you want to know what's it was, let me know and I'll find it).

I would highly recommend a stay in Monterey (actually we stayed in Pacific Grove) which I fell in love with.

We also enjoyed a stay near Santa Barbara.

Hi great ideas but you’re nearly trying to do to much . We would almost say don’t do New York or cut it by 2 days and add some time to PCh , especially Monterey and defiantly go whale watching.

So did you do New York as well or just the California bit, but the other way round to us ?
If you did New York , did you do at end or start of holiday ?

I know what you are saying . My first trip 5 years ago we intentionally gave up on trying to do ‘ everything ‘ so intentionally did just socal inc Vegas, leaving Yosemite , San Fran and PCH to a second trip

But we were tired by when we got to Vegas and I am concerned about lack of downtime on this trip

Dropping New York is not an option- it’s my DDs dream - and to be fair heard such good reports I am now looking forward to it

I think I need to maybe find an extra day or two to make it 18 or 19 nights rather than 17

An extra night would be great , and if you dropped 1 night from NY then it could be a more rounded trip.

Hi there
Anyone else got any more thoughts on my plan ?

I like the plan, as like you, I push extremely hard on vacation (see trip reports on my signature). My only thought is that most of the PCH from Monterey that people want to see (17 mile, Big Sur, Pfeiffer,Bixby Bridge, Hearst Castle, San Simeon) are less than halfway between Monterey and LA. The drive between, say San Simeon and LAX is nowhere near as good, going round Vandenburg etc.. and a very long way. As you said, you have already visited LA in any case.
It is 53 miles drive from San Simeon to San Luis Obispo/Pismo
It is 153 miles drive from Monterey to San Luis Obispo/Pismo.
It is 194 miles drive from San Luis Obispo/Pismo to LAX.

I would be tempted to go no further than Pismo Beach at most and then look at flying out of San Luis Obispo to either San Francisco or Los Angeles in order to direct connect home. The Madonna Inn at SL Obispo is an interesting option if you went with this! That is something that you will never forget.

Here, in my opinion is a better and more radical plan...

1. You do everything in order to get to Las Vegas.
2. You catch the direct flight to San Luis Obispo (Contour Airlines)
3. You go N on the PCH for reasons already stated and take in all of the above on your way to San Francisco.
4. You fly out of SFO Int.

Or alternatively, you do the whole vacation the other way round!

Or alternatively, you scrub NY and fly straight in to Vegas. I would agree with 400IXL below, that you haven't enough time to do it justice. (Maybe your next adventure after should be Boston, NY, Washington DC, Philedelphia by AMTRAC).

Or any combination of the above!


You asked for a viewpoint and it is simply a thought (or two).

I wouldn't remove time from NY as there is a lot to do there. We did NY on the way back from Vegas as it helps reduce jet lag for the return.

You are doing a lot of places with little time to explore them. I would want at least another full day in San Fran.