Our Trip possibly... HELP REQUIRED

[Guest]

Hi all,

Hope everybodys well, we are just back from florida and need to plan for next year where we thought we may do something a bit diffrent! We are looking at doing a west coast trip, and was wondering if anybody had done one recently! We are looking at:

3x nights in Vegas
Drive to LA
7 nights in LA
Drive to San Francisco
4 nights in San Fran
Fly home.

From google maps it says drive time is roughly 4 hours from LV to LA and 6 hours from LA to SF.

Would you reccomend this trip? Is it feasable or will it be too much driving leaving us little time for anything else! We have priced this up at £1000 roughly including car hire so i think thats fair enough! Just need some hlep guys.

Cheers in advance! Dan

[Ems!]

Hi, west coast is fab - we are total converts!

The trip you describe defo isn't too much driving - tho - depending what you want to do (eg disney/universal etc) - you might not need a week in LA. Could add on san diego maybe, or a couple of nights somewhere along coast between LA & san fran?

Although there isn't too much driving, from my recollection - I do think both those estimates are on the low side - esp the LA - san fran leg - would defo recommend an overnighter on that trip along the coast - there are some lovely scenic drives (big sur coast, 17 mile drive etc).

Ask me any specific quns you have - I've been to all those places you mention a few weeks ago!


oh - thought of something else - vegas at the start after a long light and an 8 hour time difference - may not get to make the most of it ( we were exhausted by 8pm the first few days!)

You could fly into san fran, then LA then vegas (this is also a better drive along the coast from north - south from LA to san fran as you are on the "right" side of the road). Just cos more day time type activities in san fran, and more night time stuff in vegas! You could even add a night onto SF to counteract the fact you will be tireder at the start- tho we only did 3 at the start of our trip and we got most things done - 4 would've been better tho.

[Guest]

To be honest, id think we would want to do the Disney parks etc, so thats why we had 7 days in LA. The original plan was 7 days in la 5 days in san fran with 2 days inbetween, so vegas is kind of what we thought maybe rest days. But its so much cheaper to fly to vegas, and neither of us have been, so thought wed best go and see what the fuss is about.

Is a car definately required in all 3, as i didnt mind driving in florida, but wouldnt even dream of it in NYC. Are all 3 places ok for driving?

[Ems!]

So would you be planning on flying in and out of vegas - if so you would also have to drive from san fran - vegas at the end of the trip? (this would be a very long solid day driving I think - better to break up overnight)

You don't need a car in san fran, (parking at hotels is very expensive, roads are busy, parking expensive etc) what a lot of ppl (and us) do is fly in, have your time in san fran then pick up car on your last day to move on to next location. Public transport is very good( and a lot of places are walkable).

For LA, you will definitely need the car - eg. anaheim (disney) is I think about an hour drive from Hollywood (we didn't do disney so not 100% sure on that- but it isn't close.)

Again, in vegas, you could defo do without the car, but it might be handy. If you are driving to vegas anyway, may as well keep it for convenience.

Driving was fine everywhere - even in LA (tho I believe you definately 100% need a sat nav - we could not have been without ours)

[Guest]

Well the plan was to fly to vegas and out of san fran, but you have shown me the error or my ways, so we would definately fly from London to san fran then from vegas to london!

id have thought we would need a sat nav as the mrs is useless at directions as am i, and also we would save on the cost of a hire car for the San Fran leg of our trip!

I presume theirs loads to do in LA?

(BY THE WAY THANKS FOR YOUR HELP ITS INVALUABLE!)

[Ems!]

yeah , that flight plan sounds like a good idea (any extra flight cost might be balanced out by a few days less car hire)

I would still recommend a night on the coast between SF and LA - I think it'd be a long drive and there is some really nice scenery - you may wish to dawdle (we did! ) lol. But obv its ur hol!

Yeah, if you are doing disney (2- 3 days), universl, (1 day) , defo enough to fill your extra 3-4 days, there are other parks and waterparks in driving distance if you fancy that, or plenty of shopping , Hollywood (but of a dive but good to see chinease theatre, walk of fame etc), then there is griffiths observatory etc, film studio tours, various beaches etc.
As I say, we didn't do Disney,but due to the distances and rush hour traffic etc, I think quite a few ppl choose to split stay between anaheim and LA itself (say 3 anaheim, 4 LA), to cut down on the travel.

No prob for the help - I love talking about hols!

[Ems!]

oh - also - we bought a reconditioned tom tom from ebay with american maps for £100, and I've seen ones on there (not tom tom )for £50 with the US maps. That was cheaper for hiring for us (though we were hiring for nearly 3 weeks - I think they wanted about £120 ) - I was also put off hiring the sat nav by the fact you can't insure against loss/damage and they wanted a $700 deposit! We planned to use ours then sell on when we got back but it was so good and we have other trips planned we've kept it for use in UK too!

[Aims]

Emma is right- the drive between L.A. and San Fran is longer than six hours- closer to 8 hours if traffic flows smoothly everywhere. If you decide to break up the drive and stay one night along the way, you could consider staying in San Luis Obispo and spend a day to visit Hearst Castle in San Simeon, which isn't far from there.

If you do Las Vegas at the end of your stay and drive out there from L.A., I recommend NOT leaving for Vegas on a Friday- that's when everyone from L.A. and San Diego drive out for their weekend trips there. I've seen the 15 freeway at a standstill on Friday afternoons with all the Vegas travelers.

And yes, you definitely need a car to get around L.A. Everything is too spread out there and public transportation still isn't the greatest yet.

Amy

[Tetrarch]

Personally I think that Vegas deserves a little more than 3 days and 7 in LA is a little overkill.

There is SO much to see and do in Vegas. There is a ton of free stuff (strip hotels, fremont street, Hoover Dam etc) plus the helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon is one of the most amazing things I have ever done. We took the girls (16 and 14) for a week and just about did everything we wanted.

If you want something a little different in LA, go visit the crystal cathedral - a stunning glass church but with some really cheesy statues in the grounds ! We stayed in a great motel just a ten minute walk from Disneyland. We were able to see the fireworks from our balcony or from the hotel spa.

Highlight in San Fran was hiring bikes and cycling across to Sausolito

The above advice about driving is good, you don't need a car in San Fran so hiring in downtown SF and dropping off in LV sounds like a great idea.

Regards

Gary

[Guest]

you cannot go to Vegas and not go to the Grand Canyon as well, the word awesome was probably invented for this alone