mcqueeney449

My husband and I are taking a trip to CA and Vegas. Leaving Wed May 26th and returning Sunday June 6th. I would appreciate any comments. I do have lots of maps and guide books but I always learn new stuff from all of you. I tend to do very detailed plans but once on vacation happily go "off memo" when the mood strikes! Sorry in advance for anything strange the cut and paste from wordperfect does!

Wed May 26th: Fly to San Diego (Southwest from Hartford, CT) Why San Diego? I got a great deal on the flight and rental cars were cheaper from San Diego and I was having trouble finding a convertible rental from LA that we could drop off in Vegas. Pick up convertible (Hertz) & drive to Hollywood - need fast food here so may try an IN & Out Burger .. where on the way to Hollywood? Plane arrives 12:30 ... any commments on early afternoon wednesday drive from San Diego to Hollywood? Staying at the Magic Castle in Hollywood for 1 night and have dinner reservations at the Magic Castle for dinner & magic show. I know this will be a really long day but it is the only night we could do Magic Castle (b/c of relatives & friends schedules) so we will give it a shot. If too tired we will just skip it. We do sleep pretty well on planes.


Thurs 27th: Morning walking around Hollywood (good breakfast?). Drive to Ventura Beach for lunch and walking around.
Head for Torrance to be there around 4ish. My Uncle & Aunt live in Torrance.


Fri 28th: Spend w/ Aunt & Uncle in Torrance. We want to offer to take them out to dinner ... any suggestions for casual (no jacket required) dining in or near Torrance.

Sat. 29th: Leave about 8 am and drive up Coast on 1. We decided not to include a lot of time on the coast this trip, we just want to get a taste of the area and plan to do a San Fran / Coast trip in the future. Still ... we will stop at a few turn outs for pictures and we would like to see some redwoods, see some seals or other wildlife, maybe a short beachwalk. Any suggestions for short stops to maximize what we see on this day (which is a saturday on a holiday weekend). Any sections we should skip on 1 to shorten the trip w/o missing any really special scenery? We are ending the day at the Residence Inn Marriott Salinas b/c it had to be a Marriott and the Monterey Marriott was full.

Sun. 30th: Morning walking around Monterey. Lunch suggestions? Driving to visit friends (and their new baby) in San Jose ... any suggestions for best scenic route? Want to be in San Jose around 4ish. Spending the night with our friends.

Mon. 31st: Driving from San Jose to Vegas. We know this is not ideal but could not arrange the trip to drive from LA to Vegas. So, that said, we just want to get there ... what is the fastest route that time of year? We will save Death Valley and other scenic spots for another trip unless driving through them is the best route anyway or adds no more than an hour to the drive.

Spending Monday & Tuesday at the Bellagio. Have Lakeview reservations but thinking of upgrading to Bellagio Suite ... bathrooms sound amazing ... any comments? We really want the view of the fountains, any idea what the chances are of getting a bellagio suite with that view? Maybe we should wait and upgrade at check in only if fountain view bellagio suite available?

Tues. June 1st: Explore Strip South of Bellagio. Possible do the Excalibur Tournament of Kings Dinner Show? Seems cheesy but in a fun way and I think I will like the riding and sword play skills. Comments?

Wed. 2nd: Explore Strip North of Bellagio;
Possibly check out Freemont Street Experience; relocate to JW Marriott.

REALLY wanted to do Binions Steak place at some point, sounded like our kind of steak place. Any recommendations for a similar experience on or off strip? Any chance Binions will re-open?

Staying at JW Marriott (Lake Las Vegas for 4 nights) with rewards points.

Thur. 3rd: Relax at Marriott; Dinner - Mon Ami Gabi (need reservations? best way to get outside seating?); see O at Bellaggio (I will get tickets the minute they go on sale on the Bellagio website ... shooting for balcony center front row).

Fri. 4th: Hoover Dam (on our own, not the tour); Red Rock Canyon (one of the shorter easy walks, any recommendations?); Freshen up at Marriott; Dinner at Bamboleo Mexican Restaurant in Rio; Penn & Teller @ Rio 9:00 pm

Sat. 5th: Relax at Marriott; Dinner at Marriott (maybe the Irish Pub?)

Sun. 6th: Pack up & Check out; brunch buffet on Strip, maybe Bellagio; if time try to get DH to go to cheesy Elvis or Liberace museum; Drop off car and get to airport (Southwest flight @ 3:30)

jv827

I'll try to reply more in detail later when I'm back at the computer, but I had one immediate question regarding your plans for the 27th. You mentioned driving to Ventura Beach before heading to Torrance??? I assume you're not actually talking about going to Ventura, so were meaning to say Venice Beach?

J_Correa

Is it possible for you to turn in the car in SJ and fly to LV rather than driving? Southwest has many flights between those 2 airports. If you fly, you will save a lot of time and a lot of boring driving, which would leave you a little time at the beginning of your trip to spend in San Diego. It would be a shame to fly into SD and not spend at least a little time there. I see that you are trying to work around other people's schedules though, so this might not work anyway. Still, I would fly from SJ to LV if at all possible.

On your trip up the coast, you are going on Memorial Day weekend, so expect it to take longer than it normally would. There are some nice redwoods at Pfiffer Big Sur State Park as well as several other parks in Big Sur. You should probably stick to the coast route all the way up. Once you get north of San Luis Obispo, your choices are Hwy 1 for the coast and Hwy 101 for a fast, inland route. The best scenery is on Hwy 1.

From Monterey to SJ, the most scenic route will be Hwy 1 up to Santa Cruz and then Hwy 17 over to San Jose. Expect a lot of traffic. The alternative is Hwy 156 to Hwy 101 to SJ. This will have quite a bit of traffic as well. Just count on the drive taking 2 hours and relax.

mcqueeney449

oops ... yes jv, I did mean Venice Beach. Thanks for catching that and I look forward to your comments.

mcqueeney449

J_Correa: I appreciate the comments on flying over driving and I will check out dropping off the car in San Jose and getting a flight to vegas. However, we do want a car for our stay at the JW Marriott so I will have to check rates for that as well (it will 2 less days of rental overall though). Also drop off at San Jose (rather than popular Vegas) may mean a higher rate. I'll have to see how it all works out money wise but I suspect we will end up making the drive so any comments on that would be great.

Can't do justice to San Diego this trip b/c of everyone's schedule but it is defintely on the list for the future.

Do you think Pfieffer is the best stop for redwoods given the time frame?

Thanks! ... I really need to stop lurking for responses and get back to work but this is way more fun!

clarkgriswold

There's an $80 one-way deal from SJ to Vegas, I'd say thats the way to go since it's a holiday and driving would be nightmarish.

ChristieP

The Tournament of Kings at Excalibur is OK for kids, but as adults, you probably will find the food awful! My family made a Vegas trip last summer for a wedding, and my parents got stuck taking the grandkids there. The kids loved it, but my parents didn't!

easytraveler

Woohoo! It's stopped raining - for now anyhow! At the moment, it's pretty soggy here in California!

Just a few comments: For where to dine at an In and Out Burger, why not check their website and see which one of their many many locations would be suitable for you?

Try and do the Magic Castle dinner if you possibly can. It's a fun experience and you'll probably regret having missed it.

You mean "Venice Beach", right? Not Ventura Beach.

Leaving at 8am to drive from Torrance to Carmel might be considered a "late" start. I'd suggest leaving as early as possible. Unless, of course, you don't plan to stop at all along the way. In which case, you don't need to go along the coastal route. If you take the coastal route, part of your plan should include a number of stops. Stops take time.

Once committed to the coastal route, there aren't too many places where you try and cut the journey short. You COULD just drive straight up on Highway 101 - but then you miss all the coastal scenery. And if you are going to go 101, then you might as well skip the entire coastal idea and just shoot straight up Interstate 5 - which will make it a fast 6 or 7 hour drive Torrance to San Jose.

If I might be so bold as to comment here, you have two cross purposes in mind: one is to enjoy the coast and the other is to speed right straight through. The coastal route is not designed for someone in a hurry.

Generally speaking, you have slotted way too much time for sitting still in Las Vegas (7 days) and not enough for California (5 days), driving around like a bat out of hell. Even an extra day would help. Two extra days would allow you to spend the first day in San Diego, which I personally believe to be much more interesting than Las Vegas.

One day drive - San Jose to Las Vegas. Whoa! Can't you pace it out one more day? Stop along the way in Kings Canyon or some other good stop off point midway?

Las Vegas is all manmade attractions in the middle of nowhere, that is, the desert. After a couple of days in Las Vegas I get bored with the fakiness of it all and even the wide expanse of "nothingness", the natural desert, is much more appealing in contrast.

If you reverse the number of days, 7 for California and 5 for Las Vegas, that would be a bit better.

On the other hand, you may be inveterate gamblers and can't wait to "hit the tables".

Anything is "doable" within reason. It's just that having travelled so far and driving so much, I would give myself a bit more time to enjoy California, IMHO.

Have fun, whichever way you go!

easytraveler

I see others have posted since I started writing my response!

Yes, flying betwen San Jose and Las Vegas would be the best solution.

There are several car rental companies - Avis and Budget among them - that allow one way travel without a drop off fee.

Now, I really got to go. We have one neighbor from New England who refuses to trim anything - trees, bushes, anything - and I think I just heard a branch crack! In this rainstorm...lo!

Curious

mcqueeney449,

"Also drop off at San Jose (rather than popular Vegas) may mean a higher rate."

I'm not a San Jose lover by any means, but the car rental situation at San Jose Airport (Mineta) is one of the busiest in the United States. Silicon Valley business travelers and all.

Believe, me, the flight from San Jose to Las Vegas is more than worth any extra dollars. The drive is....shall we say "the pits"!!

For your itenerary, you really don't have that much extra time.

Curious

dwooddon

I agree with the posts about spending more time in Calif than LV if possible. I also strongly agree about not driving from San Jose to LV unless you absolutely have to. There is no good way to go from one to the other at that time of the year. A little later, once the snow melts, you could drive through Yosemite to Hwy 395 but you are right on the cusp of when it opens and may or may not be able to.

There is an In 'n Out Burger about midway in your trip from SD to the LA area. It's just off I-5 in Laguna Niguel. Coming north on I-5, take the Avery Avenue exit. At the bottom of the ramp, turn left under the freeway then turn left at Camino Capistrano (only a couple of hundred feet from the freeway exit). The In 'n Out is on the left side of Camino Capistrano a couple of hundred yards from Avery Ave.

Have a great trip.

J_Correa

With the trip as you have planned, Big Sur will be your best bet for seeing the redwoods. If you had an extra day before driving or flying to LV, I would suggest the Santa Cruz mountains.

Check out this site for Big Sur info. If you click on camping, you will find information about several parks in the area.

www.bigsurcalifornia.org

clarkgriswold

If you belong to AAA, you can rent a convertible from Hertz for under $300 a week for pickup San Diego and dropoff San Jose.

mcqueeney449

I really appreciate all the advice so far and please do keep it coming! I will be printing out all suggestions for places stop, things to see, where to eat etc. After doing some searching & pricing and discussing it with my DH we have decided a few things.

The time in CA is really to see my Uncle and my friends and has to work with their schedule at the only time we could get out there. We will DEFINTELY plan another trip to really do the coast justice and maybe San Fran (where we have been once - loved it) and/or San Diego. That said we want to make the best use of the 1 1/2 days we will spend between Torrance and San Jose and welcome all suggestions for doing that.

San Jose to Vegas ... there are really cheap flights and we were tempted by the flying idea but have decided to drive for several reasons. We want a car in Vegas since, after the first 2 nights we will be at the Marriott at Lake Las Vegas and prefer the freedom of a car to taxis or shuttles. Pricing a car for the first leg and a car for the second leg and the flights it just doesn't add up for us. Right now I have a great rate of just over 500 for the entire trip for a convertible AND I can pay a good chunk of that w/ AmEx Rewards Certificates. We do make long drives fairly regularly and I don't think it will be totally horrible even though you guys make a great case for flying. Maybe it also makes a difference that neither of us has a real commute to work so spending time in the car isn't a daily hassle for us. We already factored in a few splurges for this trip so I think we will do the drive. Hey we may come home and say wow wish we listened to those fodorites but.. live and learn. Any more route advice? ... Maybe alternate routes depending on the pass being open or not?

We think our time in Vegas won't be too much b/c it includes a good chunk of relax by the pool time at the JW Marriott which, by most reviews I've read, is great ... if we end up spending less time on the strip and more time at the Marriott relaxing that will be fine. This will be my first time in Vegas and my DH hasn't been since the late 80s.

Anyway ... sorry for another really long post but I didn't want you guys to think I'm not considering and appreciating your advice even when deciding to go another way.

janis

IMHO you will need all that lounging around the pool time in LV because that drive from san Jose (right after driving up the coast no less) will kill you.

San Jose to I-5 to Bakersfield to Barstow and over to Las Vegas is an absolutely mind numbing, horrible drive. I definitely would not do it to save a few $ on a rental car . . . . . .

Treck

I agree with the others here who say to fly yo Las Vegas from San Jose. It will probably be the most exhausting and boring 8 hours on the road you have ever spent. There are good deals to be had on Southwest from San Jose. You may also want to check out American Airlines as well as they sometimes have sales fares to Las Vegas as well. I would just rent a car when you get to Las Vegas. One thisg you also have to factor in is that if you drive to Las Vegas the gas is $2.00 a gallon right now, and will probably be higher than that in May. You can find cheap reates for cars on priceline.com or by going ot the individual car rental websites. i have been able to find good deals with Thrifty and Dollar.

Have a great vacation.

mcqueeney449

OK OK - DH and I have seen the light. LOL! We will fly from San Jose to Vegas and pick up a 2nd car there. So many of you believe the drive will be miserable and I can't ignore good advice from so many fodorites!

Now ... do we want to pick up car #2 at the airport when we land OR at the Bellagio when we check out on June 2nd? Do we need for those first days at the Bellagio? Do we want a convertible?

Any more comments on the rest of the plan?

jv827

A tip regarding "O" -- even though you won't be staying at the Bellagio on that Thursday in LV, you might want to check with the concierge either first or if you have problems getting good tix via the website. I had the same thing happen -- stayed at Bellagio on dark days -- but the concierge gladly got me the tickets and seating I wanted in advance for my only other available night.

ChristieP

I'd pick up the car when you leave Bellagio. If you stick with your plan of exploring the strip for two days, you won't need it, and there's no use paying for it to sit in the lot! It's a lot easier to explore on foot or take the monorail or CAT for long stretches.

I don't like convertibles because my husband and I both sunburn easily. In Vegas summers, get whatever car has the best AIR CONDITIONING because you'll need it!

Cricket

Hi mcqueeney, re: Las Vegas, You were saying you wanted to hit the Steakhouse at Binion's, but I think they shut the whole casino down a couple of months ago. Anyone know the status of the steakhouse? Wonderful food!