West Coast USA Road trip, any recommendations?

[ThePoshUns]

DH and I are doing a 2 week US road trip in September.
This is our itinerary
3 nights LA
3 nights Vegas
1 night Death Valley
2 nights Mammoth Lakes
1 night Yosemite
1 night Napa Valley
3 nights San Francisco

I want to make sure I don't miss anything!
Do I need to buy park tickets in advance?
So excited 😬

That’s quite a lot of driving.

I’d have a couple of days in LA before picking up a car to give you some time to get over jet lag.

3 nights in Vegas would give you time to do a flight over the Grand Canyon and a trip to the Hoover Dam (we did it with a 2 night stay, depends on how much you like Vegas type stuff as to whether you feel the need for a 3rd night).

Accommodation in Yosemite gets booked up months in advance. You could stay on the western side of Yosemite to see Kings Canyon and Sequoia and drive through to stay in Mammoth.

You can buy an America The Beautiful pass at the first national park you cone to for $80.

https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm#america-the-beautiful-passes

You’ll need to book Alcatraz several weeks in advance.

Bodie Ghost Town is close to Mammoth Lakes and is worth a look.

Thank you, the hotels are part of the package so we don't need to worry about that.

Think about the time of the actual drives between stopovers, including rest and lunch breaks. In particular to/from the one night places. You need to work out how long you'll actually have in the place between getting there and leaving again - how many hours of daylight will be left once you arrive?

Is that the itinerary in order?
Yosemite to Napa is a very long way! You'd see almost nothing of Napa before leaving to get to San Fran!

Buy a national parks pass if going into multiple pay locations, their website tells you current entry

That's a lot of travel time!

Be careful of where the hotels are. LA downtown is really quite a shithole. The beach or Beverly Hills areas are nicer.

There’s an awful lot of driving there and you could end up seeing more of the steering wheel than the places visited. Distances are vast and less is indeed more here. I would certainly revise these 1 night destinations because you’re not spending enough time there.

You don’t need three nights in Vegas - two is plenty.

Thanks but the itinerary is set for us as part of a package

If your route is already fixed then get a guide book / trawl the internet and work out what’s on the way that you want to stop off at.

I use Google maps to work out driving distances, and be aware that city driving can be slow and other drivers can be maniacs.

Yes I've already used Google mas to work out distance and routes between hotels. Our longest drive is about 4 hrs in one day but is through national parks so am hoping that's all part of the adventure.
I've ordered a road map and guide book.
My plan is to put an itinerary together from that.