elizabethtwrs

Hi,

We are planning a honeymoon for about 3 weeks in May next year, right after Labor Day. We will be flying in from Singapore and plan to do 5 nights in Hawaii, and the rest in the West Coast.

We would do only one island in Hawaii, probably either Kauai or Maui but are open to suggestions. The schedule/itininerary is very flexible, we are looking to optimise travel time, flight and accommodation costs and weather and can shuffle things around to optimise all factors.

Would it be better to do Hawaii on our way from Singapore to the West Coast, or on the way back? This is bearing in mind any cost and/or weather considerations if it would be better to do Hawaii at the beginning of May or at the end. As there are no direct flights to/from Hawaii from Singapore, we would probably add a Tokyo connection. Besides Hawaii, we would also do Los Angeles and San Francisco, probably Vegas as well. Everything else is open to suggestions! However we are only flying Singapore Airlines, so we can only arrive/depart from either San Francisco or Los Angeles. Thanks in advance for looking at this!

elizabethtwrs

Just to add that we can do open-jaw, so we can fly in/out of SFO or LAX without needing both inbound and outbound flights to be at the same airport.

clarkgriswold

Are you planning to do the west coast as a road trip/renting a car for two weeks...or did you plan to fly from place to place?

Yes the open-jaw usually works best.

Labor Day is in September.

elizabethtwrs

Sorry just realized that Labor Day in the states is different from Asia. I was referring to Labor Day as 1 May. We could fly or drive. Perhaps drive would be more economical, and also depending on the itinerary?

jamie99

May is beautiful in Kauai but you will need a rental car to get around, same for Maui.
You could fly to SF stay for 3-4 nights, drive Highway 1 over 2 nights at least, then 3-4 nights in LA (might also have time to visit San Diego) then fly to Hawaii. Are you planning on visiting Disneyland while in Southern California? It is not in LA but an hours drive south in Anaheim.

clarkgriswold

First week of May brings an influx of Japanese tourists to Hawaii as it is their "Golden Week". So accomodations might be a bit lower the 3rd week of May.

I would suggest flying into San Francisco & staying 3 or 4 nights, and early May is a nice time to be driving down the California Coast so I would plan on a night or two in the Monterey/Carmel area and a night or two in Santa Barbara. Cambria, Paso Robles or San Luis Obispo are also nice overnight stops. (There is also Amtrak train service down the coast if you don't wish to drive, and you could make overnight stops in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and then onward into Los Angeles).

From Los Angeles you can fly easily to Las Vegas from LAX airport or Hollywood/Burbank airport (the latter may be more convenient to your hotel depending on where in Los Angeles you decide to stay). Southwest.com has the most flights in and out of Las Vegas and they do not charge for the first 2 checked bags per person.

From Las Vegas you can fly to Hawaii. Note that lodging in Las Vegas is much more expensive on Friday and Saturday nights so you might want to plan for weeknights in Las Vegas. Flights to Kauai or Maui will require a connection in LAX or SFO, however.

Patty

Labor Day (the one that occurs on May 1st) does bring a bump in Hawaii tourist numbers not just from Japan but also China and other Asian countries. This is more pronounced on Oahu than the other islands. Otherwise, May tends to be a quiet month in Hawaii. I would want a car on either Kauai or Maui.

May starts to get busy in California so visiting CA first does make sense. You don't need a car in San Francisco but I would rent one for the rest of your time in CA. The train that runs down the coast bypasses the most scenic stretch of coastline and is delay prone. I've taken it 3 times (and been delayed 3 times) and while it can be a nice experience, train service in the US (except in the Northeast corridor) is a less reliable form of transportation.

elizabethtwrs

Thanks all for the useful info. Clarkgriswold, thanks very much for the comprehensive info and the tip on Japan Golden Week - would definitely try to avoid clashing into that. The tip on weeknight Vegas accommodation costs was great too.

I think we are getting a better ides of what to do. It seems like perhaps we could drive a loop from SF through Nevada, down into South California and head back up towards San Francisco and fly into Hawaii from there.

How does this itinerary look? This might be pushing it a little on the time budget though, should we cut out something, like San Diego or the drive back from LA to SF?

- Fly into SFO
- Drive to San Francisco: 3-4 days
- Napa Valley: 1-2 days
- Lake Tahoe: 3-4 days
- Yosemite National Park: 1-2 days
- Las Vegas: 3-4 days
- San Diego: 1-2 days
- Anaheim Disneyland: 1 day
- Los Angeles: 3-4 days
- Drive to SFO through scenic coastal route
- Hawaii: 4-6 days

Patty

I would allocate a few days just for the drive up the coast back to SFO.

jamie99

I agree with Patty, spend at least two nights driving Highway 1, maybe Cambria and Monterey.
If you are from overseas you can rent a car from an overseas broker like rentalcars.com who will include all the insurance and waive the dropoff (usually except July and August).
Skip Napa (expensive) and instead visit vineyards either north of Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez valley (they filmed the movie "Sideways" here) or in Paso Robles inland from Cambria.

suze

I count 30 days in that itinerary? I think it's a bit over ambitious and would suggest either more time or less places. Skipping Las Vegas would be my first suggestion, unless that means a lot to both of you.

I also agree with the post above to add time to your drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco. That can be done in 10 hours on the freeway, but then you would miss some of the most beautiful scenery of all your trip!

elizabethtwrs

Great thanks, we will look into spending more time and stopping over the coastal highway. How about skipping Lake Tahoe instead, since mid May would neither be the ski season nor warm enough for summer activities? I think we will skip San diego as well.

We don't have any particular attachment to Vegas, but thought it just seemed a little odd not to include it in a West Coast holiday. After all, it's Vegas, baby!

suze

Sure skipping Lake Tahoe and San Diego both, would give you more time for the other places you are visiting.

I don't see the attraction of Las Vegas myself, but hey if it's something you really want to do, why not? It is geographically a bit out of the way.

The places that are my personal favorites on your itinerary are LA, Disneyland, the Pacific Coast highway, San Francisco, and Hawaii.

Patty

I don't like Vegas either but many visitors (particularly from overseas) consider it a must do.

As jamie99 already alluded to, there are many wine regions all over CA of which Napa is the most famous so unless you're really tied to Napa, you may find that another region works better as you refine your itinerary.

I might add another day to Yosemite too.