West Coast Road Trip

[TankEngine]

Intro
Myself, Craig, likes a holiday where you do as much as possible in the short time you are away. Doesn’t understand just lying on a beach for two weeks! Moaned at for getting up out on the road at 7 am!

Better half, Denise, likes to do the planning of the finer details for the holiday. Likes to have an itinerary locked and loaded before we go!

Daughter, Meghan, (12 at the time of travel). Doesn’t care what she does as long as it involves shopping, theme parks, Krispy Kreme doughnuts and more shopping!

When & Where

17th July 2011 to 2nd August 2011
Flying Virgin Upper Class from Heathrow to San Francisco (SFO) and back.

On arrival at SFO, collect Premium size SUV and tootle down the highway to Monterey.

2 nights at the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa. Want to visit the Monterey Aquarium again. Would like to do a whale watching trip, but this will depend on time and Jetlag! Up early on the 3rd day for drive down the scenic Highway 1 to Santa Monica. Stopping en-route at a few places with shopping trip at Camarillo Premium Outlets. Most important stop is to recreate a food stop we had a few years ago. The best hog dog we have had.

2 nights at the Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica. Using this as a base for North LA. Going to try and squeeze in a couple of studio tours, especially Warner Bro Tour for a “Friends” mad 12 year old! I would like to go to the Griffith Observatory. Shopping trips will be to The Grove with lunch at our usual stall in the Farmers Market. Santa Monica Pier at night! Pop down to The Queen Mary for a wee tour.

5 nights at the Candy Cane Inn down in Anaheim. Having stayed here the last time in LA, the location next to Disneyland is excellent. Just a 5 minute walk to the parks. So, Disneyland will be hit hard again, with California Screamin to be ridden for the first time by Meg! Obviously, the obligatory trip for dinner to Knott’s Berry Farm for the fabulous chicken and a burger from “train” McDonalds. The only McDonalds in the world that doesn’t have the normal set-up. Might pop down to San Diego Zoo Safari Park for a day, wow just seen the zip line there, with shopping at Carlsbad Premium Outlets on the way there or back. Slip in a couple of games of crazy golf over in Riverside too!

2 nights Staybridge Suites Las Vegas. Driving to Vegas with a stop at the Calico Ghost Town on the way. Try to slip in a bit of the original “Route 66”. Hoover Dam tour is on our list of things to do in Vegas along with shopping, touring the strip at night.

1 Night at Mammoth Lakes. Leaving Las Vegas early in the morning for the drive up to Mammoth Lakes via Death Valley. This is the part of the trip I’m looking forward to the most. Stopping to get the obligatory photos of Death Valley, then head up the road to our hotel.

4 nights at the Donatello Hotel in San Francisco. Again an early start to the day. Yosemite National Park. Driving the Tioga Pass Road to Yosemite Valley, then onto San Francisco. We fancy doing a “Duck” tour of the city. Will also pop over to Sausalito and Muir Woods. Then just strolling round the city we love. A visit to the California Academy Of Science is due as it was being constructed in it's new home the last time we were here.

Sadly will all come to an end on the 2nd August for our flight back to the UK. Never mind, Virgin have changed the flight times, so we get nearly the whole day in SF!

[Cyclospora]

Ohhh! Great trip! Looking forward to your trippy!

We are also flying UC to SFO soon, and at the end of the trip we are staying in the Donatello for 2 nights!

[MrsBC]

I'll look forward to your trip report - we've never been to the west coast and we're planning a road trip next year, so we're open to tips about good hotels, restaurants etc.

[parisdisneyfan]

Sounds great! We have had to postpone our trip for a year so will be reading your trippies for ideas .

[bella9]

Hey Craig

Great pre-trippy. I'll be looking forward to reading more as we're thinking of LA ourselves for next year - don't even know where to start so I'll be catching up on everyone that's been on this forum so that I can get a food feel of the place.

Looks like you're going to have a great time.

[Aims]

Wow, sounds like an amazing trip! Looking forward to following along on your trippie. I've done the zip line at the Safari Park, it's quite a rush. You'll love it.

[KarenG]

This looks great!

We are doing something similar, but have not yet filled in the blanks completely. We are starting with four nights in San Francisco at the Wyndham Parc 55, the two in Yosemite, then who knows for eleven nights (!) follow by final four in Disneyland.

We will be a week behind you, but flying BA, and not upper, sadly

[WileyCoyote]

looks amazing - looking forward to your trippie ! We too are hoping to do SF and LA next year before hopping over to Orlando

[chrisxal]

wow sounds great, we are doing another road trip this year starting in Denver and ending in Phoenix via Alburqueque and Las Vegas plus a couple of other stops along the way. Look forward to your trippies.

[Guest]

Just to say we love Monterey and that aquarium is the best in the world. It's such a lovely setting in that bay.
And, yes, do the Warner Bros tour. It's way better than the Universal one. at least you see real production studios and you'll get to see the Friends set - they let you take a photo in Central Perk.
You can see the set here:

google/imgres?imgur...ed=0CDUQ9QEwAQ