I don't know where to start!

[Pookle]

We're planning our first West Coast trip for July/August 2018 and I just don't know where to start with the planning. I am a dab hand at Florida but this is just leaving me all confused.

I don't know where to fly to or where to start our adventure. (should I just pick the cheapest option and plan route from there) or where to finish? Different airport? Drive in a big loop?

We're looking at going for two weeks minimum, hopefully three, but that will be cost dependant and we want to go to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Death Valley (in August? Nice ) and Yosemite but no idea where to start or how long we should plan to spend in each place?

Any tips/advice/words of wisdom gratefully accepted!

[jocat]

I think it's perfectly natural to feel a bit daunted - I was the same. Don't worry though, you've got loads of time, and fellow Dibbers will provide plenty of help.

We had to make some snap decisions with our trip, as I was frightened that the bargain flights I'd seen would disappear. We ended up booking flights into LA and home from San Francisco, with no clear plan on what else we'd do. I did briefly look at the flights in reverse, but flying into SF was more expensive for some reason.

I then started reading trip reports, and making notes of places that we'd like to visit. I hadn't considered Yosemite until reading other people's trippies, but soon realised that was a must do for us. Other people's reports can also help you decide a best route to minimise unnecessary travelling, along with looking at a good map of course.

The hardest part was deciding where not to visit - we just couldn't fit everything in. San Diego had to disappear from our initial plans, as we decided we'd rather not spend just one night in a hotel and move on. This obviously reduced the number of places we could fit in. You just have to be prepared to make a compromise that works for you.

You'll be fine, honestly! Everyone is so helpful, so ask as many questions as you like. We haven't been on our trip yet, so I'm still asking questions too.

[daytonababe]

Well what works for us is stopping nowhere for less than 3 nights , and not driving more than 5/6 hours in one go ( traffic permitting ) . So bareing that in mind we do less places but spend longer in each place .
First I would decide how long you can go for and work from there , the places you listed would be too many for me in 2 weeks

Most fly into one airport and out of another , but I like to be different and go in and out of LA .

[jdouds]

Hi if it's any help this what we did last year.
Flew to LA
1 n Santa barbera, worth 2
3 nights Monterey/ Carmel
4 nights San Fran
3 nights yosemite
4 vegas
2 Palm Springs and them back to LA for flight
This is similar to what your thinking and you can add Death Valley and trip to Grand Canyon . Some will advise this but in reverse but either way fantastic . You will also find accommodation more expensive than Florida, and for yosemite you would need to book as early as possible as the favourite places get booked up very early. Enjoy the planning

[Myakka17]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Hi if it's any help this what we did last year.
Flew to LA
1 n Santa barbera, worth 2
3 nights Monterey/ Carmel
4 nights San Fran
3 nights yosemite
4 vegas
2 Palm Springs and them back to LA for flight
This is similar to what your thinking and you can add Death Valley and trip to Grand Canyon . Some will advise this but in reverse but either way fantastic . You will also find accommodation more expensive than Florida, and for yosemite you would need to book as early as possible as the favourite places get booked up very early. Enjoy the planning

See more...

Wow did you drive Yosemite to Vegas? How long did that take?

WE are doing a similar trip but we have a few more stops along the PCH and also btw Yosemite and Vegas. We are there for 23 nights so the amount of time you have will make a difference too. Good luck.

[tonymc]

Originally Posted by daytonababe

Well what works for us is stopping nowhere for less than 3 nights , and not driving more than 5/6 hours in one go ( traffic permitting ) . So bareing that in mind we do less places but spend longer in each place .

See more...

I would agree with this. We find at least three nights in any location gives you sufficient time to get yourself "sorted out", otherwise it feels as if you are living out of a suitcase.

We are visiting the West Coast this year, flying into Los Angeles then the short drive to Marina del Rey for 6 nights (bit of beach timer combined with visits to Hollywood and Warner Bros over the long weekend).

We are then driving over to Las Vegas for 5 nights, and have planned a full day driving to the Grand Canyon whilst there.

Then on a flight up to San Francisco for 4 nights before returning from SFO into Manchester.

On our previous visit to the West Coast, we combined 5 days in NY with 5 nights in San Diego (would definitely recommend SD), then 5 nights in Anaheim with 3 days at Disney, a visit to the beaches, and a trip up to the Ventura County Fair.

As also mentioned, with Califirnia it's what you need to leave out rather than what to pack in!

[Frankie & gang]

We're going this August first time to CA. The good advice I was given was to buy a big map & take several photocopies & armed with highlighter pens & dots mark on the places you think you want to stay. Our route changed quite a lot before we settled on:
Fly into SF - 4 nts
Yosemite 3 nts
Monterey 2 nts
Pismo Beach 2 nts
Internal flight to Phoenix
Grand Canyon 2 nts
Las Vegas 3 nts
Fly home from LV
We also opted for no single nights anywhere, as if you turn up mid late afternoon, with 2 nts you've only got 1 full day if on the road again early after 2nd nt
Happy planning, ask lots of questions & book Yosemite / GC a year in advance. I booked ours before the flights!

[Myakka17]

It depends on the time of year too. Especially if considering Yosemite as the Tioga pass for example this year is closed until June.

[ginger ninja]

We have just done our first west coast trip and we wanted to do so much. Totally understand how overwhelmed you feel. 😣😣we cut out San Francisco as would have cost to much for where we wanted to stay, Yosemite also had to go from our plan also due to cost and time as our trip had to be cut from 3 to 2 weeks😣😣 in the end we did 7 days in Anaheim, 4 in San Diego (would have loved longer) and 3 in north LA. One big thing for us was we would try to avoid flying into LAX as it was a nightmare on arrival, but ok for departure. There is so much to do in California but it's great fun planning it 😁

[daytonababe]

I've flown into LAX 3 times and never had a problem , this year it took about a hour probably to get through immigration but that was mostly down to the kiosks rejecting 3 of our passports as they had less than 6 months left ( we expected that and tried to say we couldn't use them but we're told to anyway )

The other times we've been at the car hire depot within a hour of landing .

Vegas airport has been much slower for us .