Road Trip From Las Vegas to San Francisco
 

I will be traveling to Las Vegas in mid April and I'm planning to do a road trip to San Francisco afterwards. I have around 5 to 6 days for this road trip and will be traveling back to Puerto Rico (from where I'm from) from San Francisco. I want to know if going to Los Angeles and then San Francisco is worth it since I hear that Highway #1 is a most but I dont know if I will have enough time to do since I would like to spend at lest a night in each of the big cities during the road trip. I thought at first to take the Yosemite route from Vegas to San Francisco but I've rad that in April the Tioga pass will probably be close. Any advised on this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Yes, the Tioga Pass will surely be closed, but from Las Vegas go to LA then up 1 to San Francisco. I'm confused about you time. With 5 to 6 nights can't you spend two or three nights each in LA and SF?

Yeah I was thinking about that right now... After we are done with Vegas, we only have about 6 nights before we haveo to catch the flight back home...So I was wondering what would be a real scenario in terms of sightseeing in that route... how much time would it take me to get to San Francisco by way of Highway #1? and should and were I should stay over night during the road trip... I've heard that San Francisco is a much better trip than LA so I can sacrifice time in LA... but not sure how many days would I have left in San Francisco after I arrive there... since I'm not sure how much time will it take to get there from Vegas... Thanks for your reply!

You don't need to go over Tioga Pass to get to Yosemite but you probably don't have enough time for both Yosemite and driving up Highway 1. If you did Yosemite then I'd leave off Los Angeles.

Las Vegas to Fresno is about 400 miles. It's not your most exciting drive but that puts you very close to Yosemite. Second day it's only 90 miles to beautiful Yosemite Valley. By April the water falls in Yosemite valley should be going pretty good. If you can get lodging in the park, then try for two nights in Yosemite Valley. The day you leave take Hwy 140 out of the park and head to Monterey. Then it's only about 125 miles up the coast to San Francisco.

Utahtea

When all is said and done, I'd probably fly from Las Vegas to San Francisco, get the car there, and spend the whole 6 days driving in that area -- down to Carmel and Big Sur, north to Napa and/or Pt. Reyes. Losing two full days of driving to and from Yosemite seems like a big sacrifice out of only 6 days total.

LV to LA is 5 hrs, 1 night

LA to Yosemite is 6 hrs, 1 night

Yosemite to SF is 5 hrs, 1 night

SF to Monterey is 2 -3 hrs depending on traffic

Roundtrip to Big Sur and back from SF is a long day trip but spend a night in Carmel or Santa Cruz. 1 night

1 night left to allocate if you have it.

Yes, but take away all those driving hours from each day (add in parking, stops along the way, and possibly getting a little lost), and what you're really talking about is driving the better part of every day for a new place to sleep each night.

Jeeze - don't follow mlgb's plan - especially in April when the weather can be "iffy". That's WWWAAAYYY to much time in the car, and not much time "being there", as my good friend Patrick has noted. What can you do in LA with only a late afternoon to do it??? Only a few late afternoon hrs in SF???????? Come on....

Rent a Calif travel video instead, and save hundreds of dollars.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...mendations.cfm

Stu Dudley

Amen, StuDudley!

I like a good road trip as much as anyone, but this is not a good opportunity for one. If anything that one night each place thing makes more sense if you avoid LA and SF all together and simply make it a trip of countryside and small towns. But why do that when you have LA and SF sitting there all the time?

I sure hope mlgb was joking or being sarcastic (can't tell on-line).

If not, that is a horrible itinerary. First of all most of those drive times are VERY dependent on commute traffic - so unless you can time your drives to avoid mornings or afternoons they could taker longer.

and second -- driving 5+hrs to net a few hours in LA or Yosemite - crazy.

"I sure hope mlgb was joking or being sarcastic . . ."

Ah that might explain it. I never thought of that.

I am simply providing the drive times (in my experience) and leaving it up to the OP to decide.

It is a feasible itinerary. Whether it's desirable is up to them.

Wow thanks all so much for the valuable information. I'm so glad I decided to post to the forum. Here's the deal of how I got to this plan. My girlfriend and I (we are in our mid 30's) decided to go to Las Vegas since it has been a dreamed of her. Vegas is something you can do in 3 or 4 days from what I've heard, even if you include a one day trip to the Grand Canyon. So since we could take a 10 day vacation... A friend of mine recommended we take advantage of the proximity of San Francisco and go there. He also said we should go to Yosemite, Napa Valley, Hgw 1 etc etc etc... I just want to do something that I would remember for ever... and that I could combine with the Vegas trip... Within the 10 day vacation.... So what would you thing the most efficient thing to do given this... Oh... One last thing... My girlfriend is not very into planes and thats why I thought of eliminating the extra plane ride from Vegas to either SF or LA!!

If you want to stay on the ground, Amtrak has a bus from Las Vegas to Bakersfield where you get a San Joaquin train to Fresno.
Rent a car from the Fresno airport to go to Yosemite (south entrance). Return the car and take the San Joaquin to Emeryville with a connecting bus into San Francisco.
Allegiant also has several flights per week from Las Vegas to Fresno.

There is also Boltbus, although tickets are not sold this far out.

However none of these drives are difficult, especially with two people driving. You just need to decide how much time to spend traveling vs sightseeing.

Btw flging can use up as much time as driving, by the time you allow for travel to the airport, checking in at least an hour ahead, waiting for luggage, getting a new rental car, and getting out of the airport you have wasted 4 hours right there.

So we decided to rent a car from Vegas on the 20th of April and do one day road trip to get to San Francisco...Staying overnight in kind of the middle ground. We have decided that wera not paying attention to LA ... And we will be staying in SF for four nights leaving SF on a very late flight on the 5th day. So we could either do the road trip to San Francisco by way of I 395 (which I've read is very scenic) or take the rout that takes us through Death Valley ( its kind of a detour but I've read ia very nice), LA, I #1 and end up in San Francisco... We can arrive late on the 21 since the las day we depart SF we have a very late flight and still can do stuff in SF. Which of this routes will be better?

If you use 395 you'll have to go all the way to Carson City or Reno and then west to SF. That is a looooong haul.

I'd head west to the coast (still a long haul) and think about stopping 2 nights enroute to SF.

We went from Bryce Canyon, through Las Vegas, Death Valley (stayed 2 nights), and then 395/206/207 to South Lake Tahoe (stayed one night). We did this in April 2011 - which was a very snowy year (last one we had). Most of the passes heading west were closed, but 50 was open (barely). Then we spent 1 night in the gold country, before heading home to the SF area. It was a long drive - even in 3 segments. This year there isn't much snow, so far. Hwy 50 should be open if things don't change.

Stu Dudley

You will probably not be able to get through over the Sierras, ie Tioga Pass.

I would recommend driving through the Mojave to Death Valley, though. You may be luck to get wildflowers. It's about 3.5 hours from LV to the DV visitor center by the most scenic route through the center of the park. Print out the "Routes from Las Vegas" on the National Park service website

http://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/directions.htm

If you can't get a room in Death Valley or they are too expensive, try Ridgecrest. Or Lone Pine, if you don't mind a longer drive the next day, then you can see the east side of the Sierra Nevada. There are fewer hotels in Lone Pine, so book ahead for that location.

From Lone Pine it will take 7 or 8 hours to SF, from Ridgecrest it will take about 6 hours. So the second day will be quite long.

From Ridgecrest you can