Is it worth driving to san diego from las vegas - how long would it take approximately and is there anything worth seeing scenically on the way. Anywhere nice to stay overnight on the way. Or should we just hop a flight?

The drive time is about 6 hours. With all the driving you are doing on the rest of your itinerary, you aren't going to see anything unique from your other excursions. Take the flight and enjoy more time in San Diego.

If you are committed to driving, Palm Springs is a possible overnight, but it's not directly en route. Probably adds an hour to and from.

I agree - FLY. You won't be missing a thing.

FLY! The traffic on I-15 is horrible and that's on a good day. You won't miss a thing besides a few hundred miles of desert.

There is a back way through Mojave National Monument to Palm Springs. Its a 3 hour drive and another 2-3 hours from Palm Springs to San Diego.

It really depends when you are planning on going. This time of year Palm Springs has much nicer weather than San Diego and it is a worthwhile stop. In the summer it's too hot there and I wouldn't.

The Mojave back route sounds interesting. We will be traveliing in April so I guess temperature wise that's a good time to travel. Looking on my AAA map it looks like we would take either 95 or 93 south then head west to 29 palms to stay overnight. Then continue on to SD via Anza- Borrego (to see wild flowers) then Julian to SD. Does this sound like a reasonable route?

If your going to 29 Palms then go to the JoshuaTree NP too!
Julian is a nice little town too, worth a stop before going onto SD.
I love the Mohave desert, and would choose to drive through it rather than fighting through airports anytime! It is so different to anthing in Northern Europe, and quite beuatiful in a bleak sort of way.

We're ending a long coast to coast trip, in June, in San Diego and we will be driving from Las Vegas (LV is just an overnight, thank goodness!). We're going via Death Valley and stopping overnight in Lone Pine before driving down to Palm Springs and staying there 3 nights. I think there's plenty to see en route, depending on what you like to see! Yes, I think that Anza- Borrego then Julian to SD, sounds a good idea - that's the one I've got in mind anyway!

Have a great trip!

(PS, we are flying from NYC to Chicago because there really is nothing to see if we drive the route - though others might argue differently!)

coast to coast sounds like an amazing trip! We are in the final stages of planning our trip- booking hotels etc. We finish the trip end of April so if we do drive LV to SD I will post a report on how we got on.

Please be aware that Anza-Borrego is one of the most desolate and sometimes most ugly deserts one could ever drive through.

The only time to be there is February through early march for the wild flowers.

This is not the beauty of Death Valley or even the drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. This is not the gorgeous beauty of the New Mexico deserts.

A-B can be downright ugly. Just my HO.

I'd suggest bypassing A-B and plan on a better route.

The experience I've had with airports suggests that you might want to drive. The Las Vegas airport security was so disorganized that we spent nearly 2 hours in line. When you consider the time driving to the rental car drop off, the security lines, the uncomfortable plane seats, getting your luggage at the other end and renting a different car, you have stood in line for 2 to 3 hours and have seen nothing but the back of the person in line ahead of you as opposed to seeing the stark beauty of an American desert, the sere beauty of the barren mountains, the towns and cities along the way.