Anyone done a tour of the Grand Canyon / Yosemite / Vegas region??

[Milliways]

IF we get our act (and funds) together, would love to do a Fly-drive around this area.

Was considering adding in the Hollywood & LA Disney bit, but that would just completely kill any budget as I guess you could do a whole week or 2 there!

Does a day trip to the Canyon do it justice, or should you try & spend 2 nights? Also, how many night would give a realistic experience of Yosemite?

My ideal would be 2 or 3 nights Vegas, 1 night Zion, 1 night Bryce Canyon, i night Grand Canyon, 1 Night Death Valley, Yosemite (? nights) & a few nights in somewher like San Diego. Would that be do-able??

WOuld REALLY appreciate any input as would cost a bomb & don't want to waste it or think "Could have skipped that & stayed longer there" etc. Have only done Florida in the US before, and that was 7 years ago!

TIA

Can't answer for the Grand Canyon, but we've been to Yosemite. We spent 4 nights there camping, but could easily have spent more. We did real camping though, i.e. cooking over an open fire, no showers, etc. Fantastic. Some of the sites have lodge type of affairs...If you look at the pic on my profile you can see me standing on top of Sentinel Dome overlooking Half Dome!
Yosemite's only about 4 hours drive from San Francisco, so you could always go there afterwards. I've been there loads, so let me know if you want any info...

It is a Long way from Vagas to the canyon, through very hot country which is very dull to look at. It was also very hot in the ar, even with air con

I did it with dh before we had the kids. TBH, I don't think that my kids would get enough out of it for the hassle of the drive, and the time spent in the car.

Zion is also fab, but also a long drive.

San diego is wonderful , but is another long drive, and that one is south of LA

You will spend a vast proprotion of your holiday in the car, if you go to all the things you list.

Just checked, it is 270 miles from vagas to the canyon.

Not as far as I thought. It seemed much longer!

That car was very hot!

we went to US and spent 2 days in Vegas and also made a daytrip to Grand Canion. Friend's children were fine with it (but are about 12 and 14 y old). I thought it was really worth the long drive. Other friend has just done a 3 week trip, including San fran, San diego and Las Vegas. Spent about 3-4 days in Vegas and loved it (dc 3 and 7 y old).

o, and I actually liked the surroundings...

Also, if you're going to do Yosemite and SF, then Napa Valley is well worth a visit.

Yes, loved Napa. Loved SF as well, much more fun than LA IMHO

Did similar trip pre children. We went LA, San Diego, Arizona, Yuma (for Grand Canyon), Las Vegas (via Hoover Dam), Palm Springs, LA. Spent 1 day at Grand Canyon - was enough. Las Vegas 2 days but could easily fill another one. Did Disney and Hollywood as well. Excellent holiday and didn't feel we spent all the time in the car.

Northern California is incredibly interesting geologically etc. Yosemite is actually a giant caldera...Although the desert can be beautiful too, e.g. Mojave.

I love the Bay Area....I have a certain affinity with the place, as I was conceived there (my parents lived in Berkeley).
Sigh..

My late FIL lived in half moon bay

Wow - Great pic DrDaddy!

We have been looking at the Virgin Drive Yourself pre-bookable hotels rtc routes to try & make a route up.

MB, is there lots for kids to see/do in SF?

My kids will be 16 & 11 and are used to long journeys (to s.France etc) but don't suppose they would want hours EVERY day.

San Diego or San Francisco - which has most to keep kids & DH who is anti sitting in hotels/on beaches happy??

Yosemite looks great as we all like walking/exploring.

Polgara - how many days did you spend at each place? Would you change those if doing it again?

Lots to see in SF.

Alcatraz, there is a ww2 sub in the bay, chinatown is great fun, golden gate park. It is a short drive up to the redwoods and napa valley, chocolate factory. Museums, great places to eat out.

San diego has a great zoo and sea life centre, but I prefered SF

If your kids are of that age, then the travelling is obviously easier. But 1 days stops would really take it out of you all, I think.

We did a trip like that a couple of years ago. It was fantastic. We started in Santa Fe, drove to Mesa Verde national park in Colorado, the through Four Corners and Monument Valley to the south rim of the Canyon, then up to Zion (about 5 hours from south rim), then a day trip to Bryce (2.5 hours) then from Zion to Vegas (4 hours?).

The South Rim of the Canyon is stunning but tourity. If you do not get a room in the very hard to book National Park accom then you are stuck in the tourist hell that is Tusayon (a faceless, overpriced horror). Or you can treck down into the Canyon and stay overnight at the bottom. We just trecked the rim and once we escaped the crowds that was great.

We stayed in a lovely town called Springdale on the edge of Zion. In Vegas we did a themed hotel to get the full effect.

I also used to live in California. San Fran has much more to it that San Diego (which has better beaches). Your kids can do a tour of Alcatraz prison on the island in the bay. Great tour. Loads more to do there that I can tell you about if you want.

We did Yosemite and Napa a couple of years ago - both gorgeous, particularly Yosemite. Stayed in the Foresta area of Yosemite which is inside the park and very peaceful. 3 or 4 nights would be good.

Did a daytrip to the Canyon the previous year when we were in Sedona (which is also lovely incidentally). Well worth seeing but personally don't think you need any more than a day/night there.

Maybe San Fran to Yosemite to Canyon to Vegas? longer drives, less stops, but Yosemite & Canyon probably gives enough Scenery??

What do you think of these Packages?

Virgin Tour by Air

As above but driving

Possibly too much driving??

ArtichokeTagine: Do you think Zion & Bryce are worth it (with kids) if also doing the Canyon & Yosemite?

Dh and I did this holdiay years ago before dc's.
I found Vegas depressing - how can people spend all day at a slot machine. Is is much better at night so it depends on the ages of the kids. If you go to Vegas - the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead are great.
We did it over a fortnight without Yosemite.

If I remember rightly we spent two nights in the Grand Canyon as it was a reasonble drive to get to and we wanted to be able to down into the Canyon a bit and see the sunset. (Some tours do it two hours though!)

Yosemite is wonderful.
Universal Studio tours (LA) is good as well, although some of the other studio tours give you a more realistic behind the scenes tour.
Sorry for the ramble.
I think that whatever you choose to do you would have great time and wish you could have seen more. I lived out there for eighteen months in the Mojave desert and still want to go back to see more.

we did 3 weeks, started in LA, up to SF in about 4 days, across to vegas, down to GC then across to san diego and back up to disneyland and LA. we stopped at all the major sights along the way, usually moved each day to a motel further along the path but did stay in vegas for a few days and by anaheim (disney) for 3 nights, one day at didney, one at universal.

death valley is INSANELy hot. it was still 35 degrees in the middle of the night and during the day we topped 50 deg.

you can see most places in a day tbh, there's very few places it would be worth spending too long at or you'll miss out on stopping somewhere else

oh, we spent a few days in sandiego and popped down to tiajuana for the day as well as a day at the zoo (and my dad and i went back for the evening opening) and a day at seaworld

You have to see the Grand Canyon - it is stunning BUT it is touristy. Bryce is also an amazing sight. It is like nothing else of earth (well it reminded me of Cappadocia in Turkey which also has the strangest rock formations). Unlike the Canyon or Bryce, Zion is great for exploring little paths that feel private and lead to gorgeous views or waterfalls etc. Kids love that side of it. Neither the Canyon or Bryce give that feeling of exploring or privacy.

I am not sure what I would recommend. Maybe if you see Yosemite and the Canyon then your kids will have had enough of parks and you could save on car time. I did love Zion and Bryce though.

We did this pre kids.

Would include Highway 1, the road that links LA and SF. Stunning. Big Sur Hurst CAstle etc.

SF is a wonderful city.

G Canyon was worth the drive but only because we went up in a plane, fantastic.

Les Vagas is again mind changing (parking lot by day, neon palace by night)

Yosemite was the highlight of my trip.

I would perhaps miss out the trip to San Diego.. the zoo is great but your children are perhaps a bit past that now.

I found the driving great, so many radio stations to listen to, and its all so big!

Sorry - just to add. I think the Canyon can be done in a day, you could not go down to the bottom in that time though. But Yosemite deserves time to explore. At least two nights but I would say four ideally. I do not imagine you would want more than 48 hours in Vegas - more than that and it gets too much.