First Road Trip to the West Coast

[Lolly90]

Originally Posted by abiknox

I was only saying to a friend earlier how incredible the trip was. You will have the most amazing time. San Fran is great, Yosemite & the PCH are stunning, LA is interesting & Vegas is the most surreal place imaginable

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We really are so excited for this trip, it seems to have come around much quicker than our holiday last year I've read through your trip report a couple of times, you got some amazing pictures The 'reviews' on LA are really mixed, we've got lots planned so hopefully we'll enjoy it!

Originally Posted by sweetemotion

What a great trip you've got planned! You'll love the Yosemite View Lodge. I stayed in one of the rooms with a view of the river, the room and balcony are very spacious too lots of room.

I stayed at the MGM last December, not the signature though. The room and hotel were really lovely

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The reviews on Trip Advisor aren't always great for Yosemite View Lodge but everyone seems positive about it on here so that's great!

The rooms are what sold The Signature to me, they do look really nice

Originally Posted by lovedisney89

Great Pre-trip so far.

Your trip is very similar to one I did last September but we went Vegas-LA-Pismo-Monterey-SF. We didn't fit in Yosemite as we did Disney instead. You will have such an amazing time, very jealous! The drive up/down Highway 1 is soooo beautiful.

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There's always something that you can't fit in isn't there!? We've had to leave out Disney and San Diego, just not enough time

Highway 1 looks amazing, I know I'm going to be stopping every 5 minutes for photos

[Lolly90]

What We've Booked (Part 2) -

Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood

I'm a huge fan of a lot of American TV Shows, like Pretty Little Liars, Hart of Dixie, Friends, Gilmore Girls, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to love this. I'm hoping they're not filming so we don't miss anything. Tickets were £78 for the 2 of us.

Universal Studios Hollywood

We couldn't go to the US and not visit at least 1 theme park, so this is our choice. I'm not sure how it's going to compare to the ones in Florida but I'm especially looking forward to the studio tour. We booked our tickets with Attraction Tickets Direct and the total was £112.

Britney Spears in Las Vegas

I've heard mixed reviews about the Britney concert but I never got to see her when I was younger so now is my chance. I think it will be a fun night! Tickets were £48 each.

Cirque du Soleil - KA

We were originally going to use our MyVegas coins to get tickets for this but then I received an email from MGM and as we are staying at their hotel we could get 2 free tickets. I was pretty pleased with that I just need to figure out what to spend our MyVegas coins on now!

Scoot City

I really wanted to do this after seeing it in a couple of trip reports. We've decided to go for the Red Rock Canyon tour and I think it'll be such a fun and unique experience We booked through Groupon and the total cost was £133.

Grand Celebration Helicopter Tour

This is definitely one of the things I'm looking forward to the most. We've booked with Papillon, which includes 70 minutes flying time and 30 minutes at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with breakfast. We've also requested the front seats, so fingers crossed we get them. I think this will be the perfect way to finish off our holiday Tickets were quite expensive, at £255 each, but worth it (I hope).

And that's everything we have booked. I don't think there is anything else we want to book in advance, so it's nice to have everything in place and paid off

Next up will be our planned itinerary!

[abiknox]

Incredible plans, Ka is amazing! Well done for getting free tickets

Scoot city was one of the best parts of our 2012 Vegas trip, sooo much fun. We would have done it again this year if we didn't have my MIL with us.

WB tour was great & so was Universal (although a lto smaller than the FL one). The backlot tour is great.

[Lolly90]

What We've Got Planned (Days 1 to 4) -

Day 1

We'll be waking up in the Premier Inn, not too early as our flight isn't till midday. We'll probably leave around 8:30am and get the shuttle bus over to the airport. I like to be here for as long as possible, one of my favourite things is to wander around Duty Free and enjoy a nice breakfast. Hopefully our flight we'll be on time and should land in San Francisco around 3pm. I think we're just going to get a taxi over to our hotel. We don't have too much planned for the rest of the day, probably have a wander into Union Square and finish in the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

Day 2

I'm guessing we'll be up early this morning, so we'll head straight to Hollywood Café, as I've heard it gets busy. After breakfast we'll pick up our hire bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, down into Sausalito to explore. If we're hungry at this point we'll have lunch in Fred's Coffee Shop, if not we'll just stop for a drink and then an ice cream from Lappert's. Then we’ll get the ferry back over.

Next up is the Hop on Hop Off bus tour, which should give us a good overview of the city. We might go back to the hotel first and get the bus from here. We'll complete a full loop, possibly getting off somewhere like Golden Gate Park if we fancy it. This should take around 2 and half hours, if we don't stop.

We don't have any specific dinner plans tonight, hopefully we will have spotted somewhere we like the look of. If anyone has any recommendations please let me know

Day 3

This morning we'll grab something small from the hotel breakfast, which serves pastries and coffee. Then we'll take the bus over to Coit Tower and head to the top. From here we'll either walk or take the bus to Pier 39, mainly to see the Sea lions. We'll have a little explore of the area before heading to Boudin Bakery for some early lunch.

We'll spend the rest of our time around Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square before making our way to Lombard Street. If we have time we'll head to Westfield and do some shopping before going back to the hotel.

Dinner choice for tonight is Bubba Gump, we'll aim to be here between 4 and half 4 as we have the night tour of Alcatraz planned for tonight and need to be there around half 5.

Day 4

Our last morning in San Fran will be spent having breakfast in IHOP, followed by any last minute shopping or doing anything we feel we've missed. Then we'll pick up the hire car at 11am and head down to Twin Peaks. The views from here look amazing. We'll pick up a sandwich from Ike's Place nearby for the journey to Yosemite.

We're going to stop at the Walmart in Manteca, to pick up breakfast and snacks for our time in Yosemite. We'll then continue our drive to Yosemite View Lodge. I'd like to try and head into the national park this afternoon, taking in Tunnel View and Valley View. We'll get a pizza from Parkside Pizza and eat this on the balcony to finish off the day.

[CrispyA]

Your trip sounds great! From memory, Golden Gate Park is really nice. We did the night tour of Alcatraz and it was great - very atmospheric.

[Lolly90]

What We've Got Planned (Days 5 to 8) -

Day 5

We have a lot planned for our time in Yosemite, as we only have 1 full day. We may not get everything done; we’ll make a good go of it. First up is a hike up to Glacier Point followed by either Sentinel Dome or Taft Point (or both ).

For lunch we’ll head to Degnan’s Deli in Yosemite Village before walking round Cook’s Meadow Loop and catching El Capitan on our way out the park.

Dinner will again be something from Parkside Pizza.

Day 6

This morning we’ll hike Mist Trail to Vernal Falls & Emerald Pools. We’d originally wanted to go to Mariposa Grove, but it’s closed for restoration


We’ll then be making our way to Monterey, stopping in Merced for some lunch. We’d like to do 17 Mile Drive before checking in to Hotel Abrego. I'd like to have a wander round the bay area this afternoon too.

Dinner will either be at Monterey's Fish House or Hula’s Island Grill, depending on what we feel like that night.

Day 7

An early morning breakfast will either be at Crepes of Brittany of Paris Bakery Cafe. Then we’ll be heading off for our whale watching cruise at 9am. We might get a sandwich from Ike’s Place for lunch, to eat on the drive to Pismo Beach. On our way down Highway 1, I’d like to at least stop near Bixby Bridge, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park & Elephant Seal Beach.

Once we’ve arrived to the Sandcastle Inn Hotel in Pismo Beach, we’ll head down to the pier before having dinner in Giuseppe’s Cucina Italian. The evening will be finished with some drinks in Pismo Brewing Company.

Day 8

Another early morning for us to make the most of our time driving along the coast. We might head to Penny’s Cafe for breakfast then the Pismo Outlet Mall if we have time. We’d like to make 2 stops today, one for an hour or two in the lovely Santa Barbara.

The other will be Malibu.

We’ll then be on our way to our apartment in West Hollywood, stopping in Target on the way. For dinner we’re going to hopefully find something in The Grove and finish the evening with a little shopping.

[lovedisney89]

Great plans, we did the Scoot City Tour - so much fun and also the exact same Helicopter trip, it really is amazing

[smedley]

Oooh it all sounds fab so far And is kind of similar to what we have planned for next year, so I will be reading along with interest, especially as the Signature MGM is the hotel I am looking at for Vegas

[Lolly90]

Originally Posted by lovedisney89

Great plans, we did the Scoot City Tour - so much fun and also the exact same Helicopter trip, it really is amazing

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Oh good, glad you enjoyed them both

Originally Posted by smedley

Oooh it all sounds fab so far And is kind of similar to what we have planned for next year, so I will be reading along with interest, especially as the Signature MGM is the hotel I am looking at for Vegas

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Thanks for reading along, hopefully you'll get some ideas for next year

[abiknox]

Oh wow, what an amazing plan you have there!

Cheesecake factory, Hollywood Cafe, Biking the Bridge & Boudin Bakery... all incredible, we had such an amazing day in San Fran when we did the later three of those. Loved it! Here's hoping you egt good weather for you GG bridge ride.

Ikes was amazing, although we did only manage to get to the Monterey one. If you do miss out on the San Fran one, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in Manteca was really good!

Hula's in Monterey really was lovely and their cocktails are to die for! There were places on the pier doing happy hour cocktails too if you want a pit stop non your walk to wherever you decide to eat.

Pismo Beach sunsets are incredible so if you can make sure you get there in time. The outlets are small but definitely worth a quick pop in, we got a steal in Oakleys for some sunglasses.

Santa Barbara is beautiful too!

Im so envious of your trip! I would love to do it all over again one day.