US Roadtrip Itinerary Advice

[Bluebird23]

Hi,

Hoping for some advice suggestion on West Coast US Roadtrip. This will be a special family trip to celebrate our daughter finishing her GCSE's. Travelling will be 2 adults and 2 teens (age 16 & 14).

Current Itinerary is:
San Francisco 3 Nights
Yosemite 3 Nights
Sequoia 1 Night
Las Vegas 3 Nights
Grand Canyon 2 Nights
California Coast 9 Nights

I wondered if anyone could offer any advice on the above itinery and also recommend things to do. We're quite an active family and enjoy hiking, body boarding etc. We're also hoping to book white water rafting.

Most of our holidays have been European road trips from the North of England so the we're used to covering many miles in the car but also want to ensure we don't lose too many days in the car.

Many thanks in advance.

Teens might really enjoy Santa Cruz and Stinson Beach. Sausalito and Monterey as well.

Monterey and Palm Springs - were two of my favourite places when we did similar road trip.

There was an evening market in Palm Springs when we went and it was really lovely.

Didn't enjoy San Francisco at all. Was ok by the piers/Alcatraz.

I love, love, love Las Vegas

I love the shopping- each resort has its own shopping area.

I love the pools
I love the variety of restaurants- from high end to cheap eats
I also love to gamble - we only do it un Vegas and take a strict budget that we are prepared to lose. However, we've been very lucky on most trips and have either come home with more money than we took and/or I've come home with handbags/sunglasses I'd never consider buying at home!

BUT I wouldn't do three nights there with under 21s as you are restricted in where you can go

Things I would do in Vegas with under 21s-
-Bellagio fountains (its a different show every 15/30 mins)

• Bellagio conservatory
• Venetian hotel is stunning inside and out
• Black tap at the Venetian has the most amazing milkshakes
• Wynn hotel is beautiful to walk through and the shops are amazing
• Wynn has something called the Lake of Dreams which is a "free" show. It's brilliant and the best views are from Aft bar. I'm not sure if under 21s can go in there in the evening. But there's another balcony bar that kids can def sit in that you can see the Lake of Dreams from
• The Link area had great places to eat and there's the High Roller wheel at the end and a zipwire
• If you want an outlet shopping village, the north outlets are the best

' Don't go to Fremont street with them!

I enjoyed San Fran- there's a village at the other end of the Golden Gate bridge which is worth an afternoon on your itinerary

I'd also recommend Monterey and taking a whale watching excursion from somewhere along the coast between there and San Diego

On Youtube there's a vlogger called Nicky Furmage who did a California road trip from San Fran to Vegas in 2019.
I used his vlogs to plan some of our trips.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrCXLlcjYJDHg5tr9ZYDnrpcAhT1O--Pl

@Siddalee Sausalito?

OP there are loads of places in SF that will rent you bikes to cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge.

You end up in Sausalito and can take the bikes back to SF on the ferry.

Great views of Alcatraz too.

We loved Yosemite but did a back country trek there. It was a highlight. Camping and walking with a group. Swam in lakes and waterfalls. Loved Sequoia too. SF was fine for Alcatraz and the bridge (cycle over) so 3 nights would be good to get over the jet lag. We did Monterey/Paradise Cove. Do a kayaking trip, it was amazing. We also drive down the Big Sur and stayed at a campsite there. We didn’t do LV or the GC as it just seemed to much to fit in.

Book Alcatraz waaay in advance.

And Muir Woods / sequoia needs to be booked as well.

We did a great little tram ride in SF just to buy a donut that's as big as your head which the teanagers loved

That's the one!

I don't know why San Fran gets such a bad press. We did three nights there and loved it.

The Ghirardelli factory shop with cafe was well worth a visit too

Zion national park, which is about an hour and half from Vegas is stunning. One of my favourite stops on a similar trip. If you go that way round from vegas to south rim of the Grand Canyon you could also take one of the horse-shoe bend raft trips from Page. We also loved Sedona, which is south of the Grand Canyon.
Another one saying stay at furnace creek in Death Valley. The pool is naturally heated and was a lovely finish to the day.

Another thought about minimising the time 'wasted' in Las Vegas is to stay there 2 nights and book a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon for the middle day. Wish we had done that. That cuts the 5 nights allocated to those locations to 2 and leaves 3 more to use elsewhere!

I also agree with the cycling to Sausalito, lunch there and then and ferry back with the bikes recommendation. That was amazing! The ferries have a whole bike park deck!

If you go to Vegas, the Neon museum is great.
I'd recommend Sacramento too - there's a brilliant portrait of Arnie from when he was Governor which makes the State Capitol worth a visit (and the tour is great!)

I'm going against the grain as my kids loved Vegas on our road trip. The buffets, the shows, great pools (and factory outlet malls). There's more than just the casinos.

I'd get booking your national park accommodation. Forget the one we stayed in at Yosemite but it wasn't that nice (a log cabin) and there was a nicer one up the road.

We also exited from the canyon on the east side (to see Bryce and Zion NPs) and went to Antelope Canyon. It's a slot canyon and, if you like taking scenic photos, it's amazing.

Alcatraz will be great for your age of kids. Also riding on the cable cars, Golden Gate Bridge etc.

If you can, hiking down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and camping down there (think they also have accommodation) was an unbelievable experience. Also doing the half dome hike in Yosemite.

Death Valley is amazing but one night only. Wouldn't bother with Vegas personally but it is very marmite!

Whilst we loved Las Vegas (which took us completely by surprise) you may think about swapping it for Sedona. Sedona is breathtakingly beautiful and not far from Grand Canyon. Seeing the GC for the first time is one of the best memories in my life.
you can take a helicopter ride from just outside the Grand Canyon and you are not wasting air time travelling to it.
And book the Back Stage tour for Alcatraz. Twice the price, 10 times the experience. You really do go to some epic places within the facility that the standard tour doesn’t go to but book early as it sells out as places are very limited.

Sequoia NP
grand canyon
zion NP
valley of fire is hot
death valley- check your car rental will allow you to go. Our camp van company didn’t.
if doing a few NP get the year pass - it’s cheaper.
Las Vegas is ok I guess. We stayed out of town at a Hilton with a cooled pool and lake. The hoover dam is interesting
California and coast is great - Monterey bay and kayak with the sea otters. Not been to SF recently- the reports of violence and homeless don’t sound great. I was very shocked at Central Denver CO. So many drug users and using park as a public toilet. It was disgusting.
Big Sur is beautiful - Ventura or deejins inn are a must.
The best app/ website we used to plan our trips was Roadtrippers. Helpful to plan on the site and find places to eat and do along route.
The road journeys can be long and boring.
but it is an amazing country. Enjoy.

Just to add, the helicopter rides from LV are to the West Rim, not the main Grand Canyon proper. Unless you go for the ones that fly to the GC in a plane then transfer to a helicopter.

@Bluebird23 SOmething to consider when trying to decide are YouTube Walking Tours of the place you're thinking of. There's ones of the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas and San Fransico and basically everywhere. I use them to run with on my treadmill, but they've been a great way of seeing the world (I started doing them during lockdown).

I'm taking screen shots of all your post so I can go through them properly. Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your experiences and advice.

We planto fly in to San Fran and out of Lax as it seems more achieveable but this does discount the Big Sur drive, which we may regret. Our absolute must do's for the trip are Yosemite, Sequoia & the Grand Canyon.

The Back Country Trek & camping in Yosemite sounds incredible and camping in the Grand Canyon would be a dream for us. I'll look into the availability & cost but I suspect it maybe out of reach unfortunately.

In terms of budget I've estimated £13000 and wondered if this is realistic? Flights haven't been released yet but based on this year's prices I've estimated:
Flights £3000
Accomodation £5000
Car Hire £1000
Spending money (inc fuel, National Park fees & rafting trip) £4000

Thanks again

It's probably worth buying an annual pass for the national parks - I did one trip and it saved us a bomb! Check out the NPS website to see

We did the opposite to you - we flew in to LA and out of SF, covering LA, Yosemite and SF over two weeks. My main advice would be to plan the drive times very carefully as there are some huge distances and if possible leave one or two flexi days later in the trip where you can just rest for a day if needs be. After the first week you’ll be glad for a break from driving.
Also book Alcatraz asap.
Most hotels have laundary and you can check on the websites.
Hire as big a car as you can, ideally a SUV.

Also book Alcatraz asap.

This was the only thing I left to my husband. Predictably he forgot. We had to queue up and sit on a wee-smelling pavement from 3am. All of us, no sending one for four tickets. Then spend the afternoon in bed as everyone was so knackered. Happy memories, hmmmm....

We also ate here watching the sunset after going round the botanical gardens which are lovely
www.beachchalet.com/

Skip Vegas, add Lake Tahoe - the absolute best place in California and great if you're outdoorsy.

I'd also maybe lose some of the coast and add in 2 nights in LA. Although appreciate you want some more relaxing time.

There's one of those in San Bernardino, north east of LA. We stayed at the Wigwam Motel.