Give some consideration to reversing your route, starting in Las Vegas and ending in San Francisco. My reason for suggesting this is that Las Vegas is the ideal place to work off your jetlag and 8 hour time change in that it's a 24 hour city, so if your body clock says noon but the bedside clock says 4 AM, there's plenty going on. Maybe watch the sunrise over the desert. LV is also an easier place to start a road trip compared to SF or most other big cities, and often car rental costs are lower in LV too.

Just a suggestion for you to investigate.

Bookmarking

With any trip it is a temptation to say "but we came this far so we must…" and I think you have avoided that. Now I risk making that mistake, though. Las Vegas is so close to the Grand Canyon, which is incredible. You could trim a day off Los Angeles and perhaps fly to Las Vegas rather than drive (it is not that great a drive) and fit in an overnight at the Grand Canyon. I am wondering if there are overnight bus trips to Grand Canyon (not the helicopter or day trips - they go to a not worth it part of the Canyon).

But the trip also sounds good as is.

One other thought about car rental - if you decide to reverse the trip and rent car in Las Vegas, make sure you tell them ahead of time you will be taking car to California. California has different car emission regulations and they can not rent a car in California that does not meet this. So your one-way rental would have to be in a "California car". We had a delay getting a rental in Las Vegas until they found a California-compliant car.

Thank you Janisj the reason for booking the cedar lodge was the price, to keep the cost down but I will look into the others you recommended. stuDudley great link thank you have given us loads of ideas for our time in SF the only down side is it seems 4 days won't be enough. Gail we have been thinking about adding a night in LV to fit in a trip to the Grand Canyon but were trying to avoid that " well we came this far " ... Could be an idea to take a day off LA as that's were most of our time is planned just now.

Thank you

Sounds like a good trip. Note that in October there will be little to no water in the falls in Yosemite, but that is NOT a reason not to go (October is a gorgeous time in the park)--just that if you do stay at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, you won't be seeing any water falling outside your window. You could also consider Wawona Hotel, also in Yosemite, which is a charming place to stay and more affordable if you get a room with a shared bathroom down the (outside) hall. (Though the nearby Mariposa Grove of big trees will likely be closed all year for infrastructure changes.)

If you stick with your plan to fly into San Francisco, I agree with your plan not to rent a car until you leave the city--plenty to do via walking and public transportation (you might benefit from a 3-day pass), and you'll save on parking/car rental. If you want to visit locations out of the city, perhaps rent the car for your final day and plan those activities for that day. Be sure to check both city locations and the airport for car rental rates, which often differ by a wide margin.

I've read all the posts and have a few comments.

First, LA doesn't have the equivalent of a Stu Dudley to promote it on these boards. So I suggest you read the following City Guide, which you will perceive from the initial paragraphs tries to "tell it like it is".

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/l...city-guide.htm

If you had gone back to basics and decided what you wanted to see before selecting a hotel location, you probably would have ended up close to where you decided, because that's pretty much central to the major LA attractions. Congratulations! Stick to it even though someone may come along and suggest Santa Monica, which unfortunately frequently happens on these boards.

Is it feasible to cycle across the golden gate bridge in the morning followed by a visit to Alcatraz at night ? Also is the night trip to Alcatraz a better experience than during the day ?

Yes - it is feasible - but not advisable to cycle in the AM. There are fabulous views back to the City from the GG bridge - but in the AM the sun will be in your face, which will not make the views great. Also, I believe you have to ride on the west side of the bridge (no SF views) on weekends, but on weekdays you can ride on the east side.

Stu Dudley

Just returned from Vegas, and I am retracting my advice to keep the car there. For your trip, it will be easier and less stressful to stay somewhere on the monorail, preferably center strip. For a short visit, Vegas is crazy enough without dealing with traffic.

I would probably cut out las Vegas as that will add too much driving. The rest sounds great. You could add the las Vegas days to southern California.