After reading lots of posting on this Forum I have come up with an itinary about which I would like your opinions .
May 11 leave UK arrive San Francisco and stay at York Hotel for 5 nights. Have booked the Blue and Gold Fleet trip to Alcatraz for the 12th. Monday 16th pick up hire car and drive down the coast towards LA. Stay 1 night en-route, possibly Santa Barbara. 17th and 18th staying at the Hollywood Metropolitan Hotel in L.A.19th May leave LA for Grand Canyon stopping for 1 night en-route when we get tired of driving. See as much as we can on the way. 19th and 20th booked in at the Yavapai Lodge, Grand Canyon. On the 21st we leave GC and travel towards Monticello visiting Monument Valley on the way there.After staying 1 night in the Monticello/Moab area we move on up the 191,to the 70 then onto 24 and 12 down towards Bryce Canyon where we will stay the night. Next day hopefully visit Bryce Canyon and Zion and spend one more night in the area before going on to Las Vegas. Spend 25th and 26th May at the Monte Carlo L.V. Leave on 27th to drive through Death Valley and staying in a hotel somewhere handy for Yosemite NP. On 28th drive to and through Yosemite and return to York Hotel for final night in SF. 30th May return to UK.
The three nights after Grand Canyon are flexible ; depending how we feel. One alternative would be to miss out the Moab area and take a shorter route to Bryce Canyon via Page . It is a lot of driving but we may never visit this area again so may as well see as much as we can.

toledo - you will get more responses to your post if you put some of the location names in your title. That way, posters who know about the areas you are visiting will be sure to read your question. Good luck!

Posting with "CA Trip Itinerary Help" in the title would have helped, yeah. I won't comment on the general itinerary (this topic comes up constantly on the board) other than to ask what made you choose the Hollywood Metropolitan Hotel?! *shudder*

From Grand Canyon to Monument Valley, up to Moab, down scenic Hwy 12 to Bryce is a little over 600 miles and only two days to visit, you are not going to have much time to explore Monument Valley, the 3 National Parks and one fantastic State Park that you will be near! If you can't come up with at least one more day...you really need a week...I would skip Moab.

Bryce and Zion really deserve a day each.

Not sure what route you are planning from Death Valley to Yosemite. Hwy 120 over Tioga Pass is closed during the winter. It opens anytime from mid-May to the end of June depending on the snow fall during the winter. We had a lot of snow this year, so it might not be open by the time you need to drive over the pass.

Without Tioga Pass open, you are looking at about 870 miles from Las Vegas though Death Valley and Yosemite to SF. This is not interstate driving so you are looking at two days of JUST driving 10 hours each. This is not going to give you any time for site seeing.

If Tioga Pass is open, that only saves you 230 miles but maybe 4 hour of driving time. Still a lot of miles to travel and also visit 2 national parks.

Utahtea

Thanks for your comments, certainly food for thought. Re the hotel in LA, the reviews I read were pretty good. Three weeks to go and getting excited, it would be a pity to try and cram too much in. I may decide on quality rather than quantity. Where did I put that map?