Itinerary Help - Oct 19 Newbie

[mulv2222]

Hi all

Nothing booked yet so any input very welcome! Me, dh, ds 16, dd 13 this October...14 nights

1 fly into Sf
2 Sf
3 Yosemite
4 Yosemite
5 Yosemite
6 Monteray
7 Monteray
8 Santa Barbara
9 Santa Barbara
10 Malibu/LA
11 LA
12 Anaheim
13 Las Vegas
14 Las Vegas

Not sure whether to scrap Las Vegas as too rushed? Swap to San Diego instead? Ds wants to get a feel for the Californian beach lifestyle, I want to see whales, Yosemite and Grand Canyon, dd Star Wars... Dh fits in with whatever 😉

[Northtim]

Where do you fly home from?

[400ixl]

If you are only looking to do the sights and maybe something like the Warner Bros Studio Tour then you could do that in a day leaving Malibu in the morning and ending up in Anaheim ready to do a day at Disney the next day.

So maybe spend a day in Malibu and going down through Santa Monica, Venice Beach etc, then a day doing LA.

Unless you plan to drive to Vegas straight from Disney, I'd swap it for San Diego personally. Its 4-6 hours to Vegas vs a couple of hours to San Diego.

[Lell]

If you want to do Grand Canyon, I would drop a day from either Yosemite, Monterey or Santa Barbara. 2nights is not enough in Vegas to see there and do Grand Canyon.

[mulv2222]

Thank you. No flights booked yet so can fly out of anywhere but prices are better for LAX.

Everyone raves about San Diego but Im struggling to see the draw - though obvs haven't been so can't comment!

Dh thinks Vegas is a no no with children? But I think seeing the grand canyon would be amazing - he's already done that so I understand he's not as keen..

[daytonababe]

My kids have been to Vegas many times and love it , I took them to the canyon when they were younger but they’ve never expressed any interest in going back

Also which rim ? The west is a 2.5 hr drive each way the south 4 hrs each way so that’s a full day gone

Imo you’re trying to do too much and are going to spend a lot of time travelling , one day Anaheim, are you stopping the night there ? If not it’s about a 2 hrs drive from LA most days due to traffic

[jdouds]

Hi overall your plan is good, if you could add 2 days it would make a huge difference and make the hole trip that little bit less rushed.

[fiona88]

I think it's too much, you aren't getting a full day in LA, Anaheim etc as you'll be travelling for part of it, especially Anaheim to Vegas which is a long drive, it wouldn't be worth your Disney entry cost to visit, especially considering Star Wars will mean you need to be there for morning entry and the queues will be manic, then doing a 4/5h drive after a full Disney day. Even LA-Anaheim can supposedly take 3+ hours in bad traffic.
I'd say everywhere you want to see you need at least a full day, so 2 nights.
We recently did Vegas - Grand Canyon(south) and google says 4.5 hours but each way took at least 6 due to traffic, gas stops (I find cars have far worse MPG there than here) and looking at interesting places we passed on the way. So if we'd planned 1 night at the canyon we wouldn't have seen anything. Incidentally we actually extended our 2 night stay to 3 while we were there!
In your case, if you want to see the Grand Canyon from above you can do the helicopter tour from Vegas, or visit the west rim as above, or you can do a coach trip which is 6am-10pm or so, meaning you need the night either side and won't see much of Vegas.

How about scrap Vegas/San Diego and add the extra nights to Coast/LA and Anaheim, then you can fly back from LAX

[minniemam]

You'll only have 1 full day in San Francisco, have you been before? I agree if you are paying for Disney tickets you need to stay in Anaheim a bit longer. Good Luck planning ...