Short tour of the US west coast next year

[SucculentChinese]

We are looking at booking to go to the US next year for 11 days. We will be going over the October half term to minimise the time DS will be off school (they will have 10 days off in total).

We are planning on 3 days San Francisco, 3 days LA, 3 nights somewhere else and 2 nights in Las Vegas (we want to drive out to the Grand Canyon). I have priced it up with a travel agent and it’s coming in at just over £4000 for flights and hotels. We can’t really afford to go for longer plus the only times ds is off school for longer is august school holidays and it’ll be way too hot then.

So I suppose my questions are
A) is £4000 a ridiculous amount to spend for 11 days (we’d pay it off over 16 months)
B) are we crazy to think we won’t be knackered for the whole 11 days

If anyone has any tips then that’d be great

It's a matter of personal tatse but I would give Las Vegas a miss and go to San Diego instead.

I don’t know about the money, but San Francisco in October is likely to be bleak. You could always head south of LA and visit Disneyland or San Diego. There really is a significant difference in temperatures between northern and Southern California.

San Francisco won't be bleak in October! September, October and the first part of November are our warmest and nicest months of the year.

Taste
D'oh!

What makes you think San Francisco will be too hot in August?

I was thinking more Las Vegas will be too hot in August

Have you calculated your travel times? Have you then added a multiplier to account for potential traffic because it can be unpredictable even between cities where it should be fairly open? Basically, it’s a lot of driving. Be sure you have actually written out how much time you will be spending in a car, packing up suitcases, checking into hotels, etc and how much time you will actually get to see the sights.

Not trying to put you off, it sounds like a great trip, just worth the exercise.

Vegas is not somewhere I'd want to go back to.
Most stuff is indoors / aircon

I think 11 days would be fine, though factor in jet lag at first. I'll also put in a recommendation to visit the Monterey area. Really gorgeous part of the world. I lived there for several years and still miss it like mad.

If you can add it in, I’d really recommend staying one night in the Grand Canyon national park. The part of the Grand Canyon nearest Vegas isn’t the best, and it was amazing to be in the park for the sunset / sun rise.

i done vegas/LA/San fran a few years ago end of august beginning of sept and the weather was brilliant for the most part
mid 30s in vegas
mid to high 20s in LA
then 15 degrees in San fran - it was warmer at home in scotland

depending on what you want to do, i personally dont think you have enough time
vegas to the grand canyon is a long drive - even if you just go to the skywalk your looking at a 4hr drive
its a 4ish hour drive from vegas to LA as well and if your flying then its a lot of time wasted at airports
there wont be much to do in vegas for your DC

LA area is massive and again you will waste LOTS of time sitting in a car driving around or sitting in traffic

we done 4 nights in vegas, a week in LA and 3 days in San Fran and i was exhausted but worth it

i think you need to plan what you want to do and look at travelling times - especially for LA as you could be over an hour to get from hollywood to santa monica

Am I naive in thinking we could drive to the Grand Canyon and back to Vegas in one day?

The flights aren’t actually out yet. Basically we book the hotels and flights with the travel agents (Hays travel) but then once the flights times have come out we choose what flights we want and it’s all included in the price we’ve paid .

@SucculentChinese

Am I naive in thinking we could drive to the Grand Canyon and back to Vegas in one day?

you can do the skywalk area from vegas and back in a day but its not technically part of the grand canyon national park - its a native indian reservation and it is pretty good but by all accounts the actual national park is amazing

vegas in august is hot - mid to high 30s but unless your outside a lot you wont really notice how hot it is as everywhere inside has air con

We’ve done similar.

Three days in San Francisco sounds great. We spent a day up in St Helena which was beautiful and then drove down to LA. I wouldn't bother with LA either but that’s me. The small places on the way down were more lovely.

What will you do in Vegas with a child?
I’d just do one (or no) nights there and spend longer elsewhere.
Grand Canyon definitely worth two nights so you can do a good walk down.

@noodlezoodle

San Francisco won't be bleak in October! September, October and the first part of November are our warmest and nicest months of the year.

Lol. No, it’s really not. Unless the weather has changed in the past decade.

We did a similar road trip over 3 weeks! I think what you're planning to do in 10 days is unreasonable.
Our basic itinerary:
Fly into SF, spend 2 nights in SF - visit Alcatraz, Golden Gate, Chinatown,
Drive to Yosemite on day 3 (took best part of a day). 3 nights there (could have cut it to 2).
Drive to Grand Canyon (best part of a day) spent 3 nights on South Rim in cabin - need to book well in advance here!
Drive to Vegas - about 6 hours drive - spent 2 nights in MGM hotel. DH hated Vegas, me and DD loved it!! Drive to LA - overnight stop on the way. Spent 2 nights in St Louis Opisbo. DD had surf lessons!!! Drive back up to SF, 2 night stop on the way. Spend 3 more nights in SF.
It’s surprising how the driving, whilst easy, is exhausting as the distances between places is so vast.
We went in August - weather was fine. Vegas was hot, it is a desert after all, but bearable.
Have you factored in the cost of car hire and meals? Eating out is as expensive in US as in UK - we spent about £1k on this alone and we didnt splurge much.

@SucculentChinese

Am I naive in thinking we could drive to the Grand Canyon and back to Vegas in one day?

Very! Yes, you can get near the GC from Vegas, but to get to the actual tourist areas, ie South rim, its much further.

Also, I’d just book the hotel at the start and end, plus car hire with the travel agent then choose your own accommodation in between. Some of ours was really cheap as we booked last minute as the Americans do. We used Hotwire to book whilst in the US.
Out room at MGM in Vegas actually only cost £50 a night using Hotwire!

How old is your DS? It doesn’t sound like an ideal trip with a young child, but that might just be me.

All travel is included in the price so all we’d need to pay is for food/ excursions.

I’ve researched what to do in Vegas with DS and it seems there’s quite a lot to do but the main reason we’re going is to go to the Grand Canyon and it’s a good base but I might be totally wrong in that 😂

He’ll be 10

When we did it we did 3 nights in West Hollywood, did Griffith park, universal studios, Hollywood, rodeo drive
Drove to Las Vegas - FYI there’s a great outlet mall on the way called Barstow.

Vegas - think we did 3 nights and loads to do! Aquarium, shows, the big wheel, casinos.

Grand Canyon - stayed in the park which was amazing, drove back to Vegas taking in the hoover damn.

Vegas - 1 night. Just chilled.

Malibu - 5 nights. Chilled at the beach, Santa Monica, Venice beach, a wine safari thing.

Didn’t do San Fran so can’t advise but it was fab! Also the drives are amazing and part of the fun.

^ the above worked as we got return flights from LaX and was cheaper with the car hire to drop off at the same place we hired.

Maybe we shouldn’t book through an agent and just arrange it ourselves?