Stops between LA & Vegas

[HelloCheekyCat]

We're planning on driving from LA to Vegas (and back!) next year and there seem to be a lot of recommendations of places to stop on the way, are there any must do/not worth it stops?

If you have time do the 2 hr detour to San Diego for a night! Best trip we ever did!

@UncharteredWaters it's 2 hours from LA to San Diego if you are lucky with LA traffic and then it is nearly 5 hours back up to Las Vegas 🤷‍♀️

We did Joshua Tree.

Sequoia
San Luis Opisbo

I wouldn't spend too much time in LA , I just got back from a road trip and it's a dump. We left LA early and stopped off at Big Bear lake on the way to Vegas. It was a nice little town, we took a boat out on the lake and watched a great band at a bar called the 572 social.
San Francisco is far nicer than LA if you can get there.

I would do Palm Springs and the Joshua Tree National Park then up to Vegas.

Death Valley - Furnace Creek Ranch. Amazing terrain there

Calico is an old Wild West town that is on the way & worth a look. It’s a living just kind of place with the houses done up as they would have been back then. Joshua tree is good as well

And try & do the Grand Canyon while you’re in vegas 👌

We did Palm Springs and Joshua Tree. While we were in Vegas we went to the Grand Canyon but in truth I was more blown away by the Hoover Dam. Stop off in Boulder City and go to the little museum there too - fascinating.

thanks everyone, I'll have a look at the suggestions

@yeesh DH & I have been to the grand cAnyon before and because we're driving there & only staying for 2 nights we didn't fancy more travelling

We had a night there. Fascinating place. Never want to be that hot again though!

We did Joshua Tree and Palm Springs. Also went to Death Valley between Vegas and Yosemite. Would recommend any of these.

We drove the other direction - Las Vegas to LA - and did Death Valley, then up the 395 to Lake Tahoe, down to Yosemite, across to San Francisco, then down the coast to LA. Lake Tahoe is beautiful, as is the mountain scenery on the 395 if you like that kind of thing.

Also agree with PP to go to the Hoover Dam if you can.

The Hoover Dam - blink and you miss it .

Palm Springs is wonderful. Chill by the pool. Take the cable car up the mountain (bring a jumper for the cold!). Great food, architecture and art galleries. Awesome shopping at the huge discount mall just outside. Horse riding in the desert, plus golf. We drove to Joshua Tree afterwards before heading on to Las Vegas. Agree Hoover Dam worth a visit.

I'd recommend Palm Springs, we had an unexpectedly good couple of days there. Cable car up the mountain is magical, found a great bar in town.

Joshua tree is good but I think you need to pick where you stay.

Death Valley is interesting, we stayed at furnace creek. But I wouldn't rush back. I'd go back to Palm Springs happily.

We visited the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Phoenix on a trip from Vegas to LA.

Can you go into La but back to San Francisco?

Honestly if I was going back I'd avoid LA completely. I have never felt so unsafe anywhere in my life as I did there.

We did the drive from Vegas to San Diego this year in August. It was unbelievably hot. You don't say what time of year you're going, but it was 47 degrees out there the day we did it and we did not want to stop and get out anywhere! We did very quickly visit Seven Magic Mountains just outside Vegas and we almost went to Calico, but it was like an oven outside and we decided against it. It was a solid 5-hour drive anyway, which takes most of the day once you've stopped for toilet breaks and lunch, etc. There are large stretches of absolutely nothing - just desert - so tbh there aren't many places to stop anyway.

Check out https://www.instagram.com/katie_ellison/ They did a California roadtrip over the summer with some really great looking stops!

Hmmm I'm not an LA fan but can recommend Palm Springs, San Diego, San Luis O, San Clemente, La Jolla on that coast...Santa Cruz is kind of fun in a grungy way.

In land I would do Sedona for a couple of nights and flagstaff for the beautiful pine summer air plus it's a gorgeous town.

Sedona is in beautiful countryside but I found the town a bit plastic...there are other towns very close by that are nice to stay in . We stayed in Oak Creek.

La Jolla is beautiful.

San Diego is such a lovely city to visit and stay in - much prefer to LA,