31 day trip around Western USA
 

Hi everyone! Our family of 4 (including 2 teenagers) will be visiting the US in Sept/Oct and would appreciate your comments on our proposed itinerary.
Day 1 & 2 in LA, checking out Hollywood and Universal Studios. Day 3 to 5 - Disneyland. Day 6 - hire a car from LAX and drive along the coast to San Luis Obispo. Day 7 - Hearst Castle, Carmel and stay in Santa Cruz area. Day 8 & 9 - San Francisco including an Alcatraz night tour. Day 10, 11 &12 - Yosemite NP (is it worth driving out to Bodie and Mono Lake before heading down through Death Valley)? Day 13 - Death Valley NP. Days 14 & 15 - Las Vegas. Day 16 - Hoover Dam, then on to the Grand Canyon. Day 17 - down to Sedona. Day 18 - on to Phoenix (is there much to see there besides the Rawhide Western Town, and what type of sporting events might be happening in late Sept)? Day 19 - head across to San Diego. Days 20 to 28 in San Diego (is the public transport good in SD or should we keep the hire car)? Will be seeing the Air Show, USS Midway, zoo, wildlife park, seaworld, harbor cruise, Air & Space museum, Balboa Park, Gaslamp Qtr. Days 29 to 31 - back to LA to see the Queen Mary, do some shopping and check out the beaches.
Any ideas would be appreciated, thankyou!

San Diego is a great city, but over a week there? You could expand your San Francisco days a bit by going up to Muir Woods and a bit north of SF.
You're gonna see a LOT of desert on your trip!!

classic.mapquest.com directions and distances

carrentals.com rent a car out of LAX Fox usually cheapest

best for me...lasightseeing.net down to San Diego for

Sea World Balboa Park etc over to Tucson visitsedona.com

up the Mogollon Rim to Grand Canyon South Rim

El Tovar my fav there then antelopecanyon.com to Vegas

tripres.com things will be lots cheaper on a weekday.

then through death valley to lonepinechamber.org

over the Tioga Pass to yosemite.com Ahwanee or Wawona

lodges best there to San Francisco then carmelcalifornia.com

nepenthebigsur.com Hearst Castle Santabarbara LA

betterbidding.com otel.com for cheap nice hotels en route

Havew fun,

I REALLY like the idea of the reverse direction and would have given a bad stab at it--qwo did it so much better.

IMHO, too much Disney and San Diego, too little Death Valley; you're just going to blow through it, not stay overnight and take any little canyon hikes (Gold Canyon at sunset, Mosaic Canyon the following sunrise) or see the crater? Wonderful time of year to be there, and the mineral swimming pools are fabulous at the end of a day.
Sounds like a lot of driving, and very little enjoying some unique nature.
Some things might be more difficult to schedule/arrange in advance (Antelope Canyon requires a native guide); but whatever you choose to do, have a wonderful time sightseeing!

Thankyou both. The websites you've listed are helpful - especially tripres. Is there a reason for reversing the direction?

In all honesty, especially with teenagers, you do not need three days at Disneyland (Disneyworld yes) but not at Disneyland. You can easily do it in one full day.

Your routing to go from, LAX upon arrival I assume, up to Hollywood, then down to Anaheim and then back up through LA doesn't make sense. You are doing a lot of backtracking and the freeway traffic is horrendous.

The Queen Mary is in Long Beach which you will pass on your way back to LA, so make sure to stop there on your way and not travel back down to it from LA.

You could save a lot of desert driving if you flew on Allegiant airline from Long Beach to Las Vegas. They also have deals on rental cars, shows, hotels and tours. http://www.allegiantair.com/aaIndex.php
The rental cars are cheaper in Las Vegas than at LAX.
1 day at Disneyland should be enough. If they want to go back, do it the day before you fly home.