San Francisco/Los Angeles/Las Vegas this summer

[ThroughThickandThin]

So excited, just booked flights and hotels for two weeks in the summer. Dh and I and two teen Dses. Staying at San Luis Obispo on drive between San Fran and Los Angeles. Then driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

We have a few things on our to-do, must be seen list, but getting a bit bogged down and confused trawling the guide books etc. So would love some help .

So far have Alcatraz, cycling across Golden Gate Bridge, Hearst Castle. DSes want to do theme parks and water parks as well. Hoover Dam??

What is unmissable? (decided there's no time - very sadly for me - to get to Grand Canyon). Thinking of sports events, shows, as well.

Would love some advice.

SteveBruces would love to see the Grand Canyon, it was the original point of the whole trip but seems to have been sidelined by other things taking priority, mainly staying with friends in New York. I don't think I could do the helicopter trip; our really good friend died in a helicopter crash and I'm a nervous flyer at the best of times. Illogical, I know, so unlikely to happen to us. Already trying to put strategies in place for the long flight over.

Gibble thanks so much for your detailed post. Would you give Calico a miss? I was looking forward to seeing it. We are staying for 5 nights in Santa Monica just back from the beach. Huntley Hotel, I think it's called. I was just reading it's the biggest homeless area, does it feel safe?

We plan to stop at Carmel NoArmani. I need to work out more accurate timings of driving down the coast line and pinpoint a few areas to take in the sights. We've allowed 2 nights/3days to drive from SAn Fran to LA.

Does anyone know if I can save this thread somehow?

We never felt threatened at any point by the homeless people. We did give them food if we had a large pack of muffins for example and we all had one, we gave the left over ones to whichever homeless person we saw first.
Calico was lovely, but it certainly didn't fill an entire day and it was way too warm for us to do anything there. There was an American family walking around complaining about the heat and saying "who comes somewhere like this in the middle of summer anyway?" They then looked embarrassed when I sniggered and laughed when I said "We're English, we don't know any better!". If there is something else you want to do in the area, I would prioritise that but that's my personal opinion and perhaps shaped by the fact that we have seen many similar types of things elsewhere.
If you plan on doing a few national parks, it's worthwhile getting the parks pass but not if not.
We were on the go the whole 18 days from early til late but planned it in fine detail from home first. We had planned our route around San Francisco prior to leaving the uk and only deviated slightly when we were walking and saw the civic centre parallel to the boring road we were going to walk down.
If you are driving, buy a sat nav, it's cheaper than hiring with the car. Do buy an atlas too though. My family were laughing at me giving a running commentary on what was around us from the atlas but you don't get that from the sat nav, it just shows the road you are on. It was $25 for an atlas though and it only covered California and a small amount of Nevada. No Arizona. Walmart usually have atlases but had no maps at all when I asked. Most places didn't even know what they were il I said "GPS on paper...."

Great posts Gibble. I will steal some of your itinerary. Thanks.

OP Pfeiffer Park is basically where Big Sur is. I was there just a few months ago. Nice drive between LA and SF.