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

All of your trips sound so good though and just make me more excited and eager to book it right this second 😂

I've done the west coast a few times, and your plan seems a little too much at the moment. PPs have given some good advice but here's what I would do

• Skip San Francisco - my DC didn't really enjoy it there, and LA was much more fun for DC. It's a great city but somewhere I would visit by myself!
• There are tonnes of activities in the beaches north and south of LA, it's great fun to drive the 101 and possibly go down all the way to San Diego. Or even north to Santa Barbara.
• Grand Canyon definitely definitely needs more time! You wont be able to do it in one day.

We are planning to go next year to LA during Oct half term as well! It's a lovely time to go as all the parks are quieter then!

I would second San Diego! The climate is perfect and there’s lots for kids to do there.

We did this in 2019 over 3 weeks but drive down pacific highway. You are trying to do too much. We flew Las Vegas to Ed as ran out of time. Our favourite place was Santa Barbara. We got a helicopter from Vegas to the Grand Canyon(sold a kidney pretty much), driving sounds horrific. We spent almost all our time in Vegas in the business lounge in our hotel. I’m glad I’ve been and the kids liked the free snacks in the hotel but nothing really appealed to them. We liked San Diego and Santa Barbara and did Disney and universal in la (otherwise wouldn’t have gone).

@SucculentChinese

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

Yes! Just book some hotels in advance or as you go

@SucculentChinese

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

just book it yourself, you will have so much more flexibility

- Skip San Francisco

No, don't do that.

San Francisco is brilliant. The only negatives we had was the weather was rather chilly (in August) and we couldn't get on any of the trams because they were too crowded. I think a 10 year old would love visiting Alcatraz. We also visited Golden Gate Park, ate a dim sum lunch in Chinatown, enjoyed visiting all the piers, and generally enjoyed walking around.

Vegas can be great with children, I would definitely have a few nights there. There's loads to do! We've stayed at The Mirage (really central) & Mandalay Bay, both great stays with children. Vegas to The South Rim is definitely more than a day though if driving, but there are options of flights with various companies which may be worth looking into (from Vegas).

All the places am you mentioned are worth visiting but honestly, you need to relook at your distances.. the Grand Canyon is another 4.5 hours drive east from Las Vegas for example! How old are the kids and what do you and they like to do? Legoland is 1/2 hour to San Diego, la Jolla is a beautiful so -cal beach town. If you like theme parks universal studios is great for older kids/teens but my 7 year old loved it to. If you want scenery though it doesn’t get better than the Grand Canyon. So I would honestly split it into 3 options 1) San Francisco 3 days Yosemite 3 days then sequoia (it would be gorgeous scenery) 2) la theme parks, lovely beach town between la-san Diego or head out to Monterrey and fly back with a connection from there) or 3) fly into Vegas, personally
I don’t like the place but you will likely arrive at night, stay 2 nights get over jet lag by the pool and drive out to red rock canyon (hot but not insanely so that time of year) drive to hoover dam (amazing) on the way to the Grand Canyon, stay, hike, head up to Bryce and Zion (about 6 amazing hours drive) then back to Vegas ) about 3 hrs. We stayed in some wonderful not too expensive hotels which were really family friendly so let me know if you want the details.

(((((( The Big Sur and Monterey ))))))))

That's a loooooooooot of driving, especially with a child.

Maybe do a bit of double checking on distances and driving times.

Seems way too much to pack into 11 days. You'll spend the whole time in the car.

Agree with pps that you should just book flights yourselves and then book hotels/airbnbs. You don't have to arrive and leave from the same airport, even if you are hiring a car.

If you're worried about timings you could do a helicopter trip from Vegas to Grand Canyon. We did 3 nights in San Fran but would have happily done 2 but if that's your first stop I'd factor in time for jet lag. LA we did 2 nights - 1 day exploring and then 1 day universal which was enough for what we wanted to do. As others have said San Diego is amazing. We stayed at paradise point resort and spa which has plenty of activities for children (we don't have children but if you wanted a place to chill a little before coming home it's a good base) and the zoo is amazing. That's a day out in itself. However, due to timings I'd be thinking whether it's worth internal flights over driving it all just to maximise the time you have.

Ok so I’m thinking maybe go in august instead (last 2 weeks heading into September depending on what date schools start back)
-San Francisco 2 nights
-San Diego 3 nights
-Vegas 2 nights
-Yosemite 2 nights
-LA 2 nights
-Grand Canyon 1 night
-somewhere close to Disney for 2 nights?

Would you say driving is the best option or internal flights?

Thanks so much for all your help and advice by the way, I’m
Totally clueless

Remember with internal flights you have to pay extra for your luggage, also international flights take precendence over internal flights so you can find yourself sitting about in airports or on the tarmac when you take internal flights.
I think 10 days is insufficient for what you propose and it would be a shame to miss out on Monterrey, and that lovelt coast. I'm sure your DS would appreciate (as you may do) 2 days at Universal Studios when you are in LA.
San Francisco is interesting but if you're driving up to LA it would be a shame to miss out on the lovely coast by rushing it.
Whatever you do have a lovely time I love visiting the US so am quite envious!

-San Francisco 2 nights
-San Diego 3 nights
-Vegas 2 nights
-Yosemite 2 nights
-LA 2 nights
-Grand Canyon 1 night
-somewhere close to Disney for 2 nights?

Please say you don't mean in that order?! Honestly, you need to do a lot of reading as this could be a fabulous trip but easily spoilt by bad planning and naïveté

you dont need 2 days at universal in hollywood to be honest - 1 day is plenty
and you can manage disney in anaheim in a day assuming you ae going for the rides and not bothered about character meetings

what are your main things to do? - you need to work that out first of all

no point throwing in going to places for the sake of it if it means missing out on something you really want to do

What is it you want to see? Why do you want to go to Vegas? Why do you want to go to LA? What are your interests? Have you just thrown San Diego in purely because a pp mentioned it?

Why the West Coast? If money is tight you could do a road trip flying to the east coast

When we went to LA we went to Disneyland and Universal Studios - both well worth visiting. We stayed in Anaheim and used a free shuttle bus to get to Disneyland, and booked a bus tour for Universal Studios, which also took in a lot of Hollywood.

Ok, so I put your itinerary into google maps with the shortest routes.

You'd be non stop driving for a minimum of 1 day and 8 hours....that's seriously way too much. We tend to try and keep a 3 week road trip with kids down to 1 day driving in total

What is it you want from the trip?

On a route planner that distance is approx 1600 miles and would take 27 hours non stop. Driving to 5 different places will take you approx 6 hours each stage.
Flying in and out of SF will add another 500 miles and 5 hours driving time,
The cost of fuel isn’t massive - maybe £200 but the cost of flying in one and out of a different airport plus the car hire charges for a different drop off will be high. Oh, and in SF you really don’t need a car, so don't do an airport pick up when you land. We picked our car up downtown on day 3 after we checked out for our trip to Yosemite, and returned it when we returned to SF for our final couple of nights. Parking costs in SF are extortionate!!!

And that's not driving any of the scenic routes.

I think you would have a better time doing SF to Sam Diego, stopping off along the way. Vegas is a bit ‘meh’ and the Grand Canyon is great but not really in the same part of the country.

A few years ago we did a similar trip and we only went to Vegas because flights there were cheaper to LV than to SF and car hire was cheaper in Nevada with a second driver free of charge.

After two nights in Vegas - the first hideously jet lagged - we went to Hoover Dam then on to Williams from where it was a hour's drive to the Grand Canyon. We hiked the GC for a day, stayed in Williams another night then drove to Lake Havasu City. That was no great shakes, but neither was Williams, it's just conveniently located. Next day we drove to LA and stayed in the Wigwam Motel. Then we headed to wine country.

We drove up the Pacific coast highway, stopping at San Simeon and visiting Hearst Castle then spent 3 nights in SF. Alcatraz is well worth a visit. You'll want to find somewhere with parking in SF if you have a hire car during your stay there.

We spent 8 hours driving from SF back to Vegas for our last night, which although a long day, wasn't horrendous as there's no where like the volume of traffic as in the UK. The freeway around LA is not for the faint hearted though!

I think it's quite a lot of travelling around and not much time settling in and enjoying your time. I think I would at most go 3 places in 11 days. I used to live in SF and when we travel back to visit, it takes dd a good 4 days to really adjust to the time difference (first 2 days are a wash, waking up at 2:30am and then exhausted all day). To fly between cities, the flights are short 1-1.5 hours, but if you think you have to be in the airport 2 hours before and then probably an hour after at baggage claim and waiting for transport, etc. It's pretty much a whole day, so 3 of 11 days would just be travel, say 2 days getting over jet lag and being a bit lazy, and you really don't have many good days left to enjoy yourself.