Pls comment on california/vegas iternery
 

Hi
After alot of readng i decided to post first time.
We are planning our second trip to california this august.We are 4 adult traveling together from abroad (Denmark) so please bare with my language/spelling errors.
General info.
2 are mid thirtees and 2 are mid fifthees.Our plan is seeing alot but having time to enjoy and relax.We decided to plan 1 "event" a day maks,so we have some fleksibility.
Trip will be aprox 16 days so we are focusing on picking "highlight" only.
We have decided to seek budget accomodations (aprox 100$ night a room)and focus our speding on the fun stuff :)).

We are flying to SFO and starting with a few days i San Francisco.

1. day
Arrive in airport at 1900 (after aprox 18 hours in the sky.).Reservation at Nob hill motor inn.
2.day
Get over jetlag and just hang around in the town.
3.Alcatraz
4.talked about walking tours in chinatown or similar.nothing planned.
5-6-7..Pick up car and drive down hwy1.
Where to stop is not exatly planned,but we wanna do whale watching,hearst castle and maybe a short lunch stop in solvang.
8.LA
Rooms at Travellodge pico boulevard.Santa monica.
Getty center ,Six flags,warner brothers.Have anybody done the deluxe tour in WB ?is it worth it ?
12.driving to Grand canyon.
booked bright angel lodge one night.
13-16.
Las vegas.Thinking of splurging a bit and booking rooms at Venetian.

Any thoughts or suggestions ?
Comments are very velcome.

If you can plan the dates so that Vegas is Sun Mon Tues Wed or Thurs, it will be easier to get rooms at a decent price. Fri & Sat can be double.

If the Nob Hill Inn includes free parking, you should pick up the rental car at the airport. 2 full weeks (14 days) will be the same price as 10 or 11 days...and you will have the car while in San Fran to visit Napa Valley and the northern coast/Muir woods etc.

Check the car rates. One way San Francisco to Las Vegas might be $200 higher than if you book one week San Francisco to Los Angeles, then pick up a different car one way Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

I personally prefer visiting Zion National Park to the Grand Canyon but most people would disagree. You might be able to do both.

Depending pon the season, whale watching might not be an option. But you should be able to find out in Monterey where the whale watching tours are located. Here are some things you should see:

Monterey Aquarium

The Carmel Mission

Point Lobos

Hearst Castle (just before getting there you will see cars parked next to the highway; that's where you can see elephant seals lying on the beach and in the fields when there are many)

Stop for lunch at Nepenthe on the Big Sur coast

La Purisima Mission State Park (near Solvang) which was rebuilt in the 30's but gives a good sense of how isolated the missions originally were and how they functioned.

I would skip Solvang unless as Danes you want to have a good laugh.

Santa Barbara

If you were not spending that much time in the cities, I would suggest camping if you have done tent camping in Europe. You can pick up camping equipment for a relatively low price (I estimate $300 would set you up with cheap tents, sleeing bags, air matresses and basic cooking stuff) which would pay for itself in a very short time. The one big problem is that the campgrounds on the coast generally require reservations.

Hi, BDE!

Sounds like you are in for a wonderful adventure! Here are a few comments on your itinerary:

Day 1: The Nob Hill Inn is perfect as far as price and location are concerned. They have free parking. You will also be on Polk Street which is a wonderful neighborhood street. One block over is Van Ness which is a major thoroughfare in SF. You'll probably be able to find a nice, inexpensive place nearby to dine and then you can go back to the hotel and rest.

Once you are in the hotel, ask them how to get a public transportation map for SF. You will be situated near some very good bus/trolley choices.

Day 2 - Get the transportation map. AND get a three-day pass for each of you. Even though SF is a city for walking, you will want to take public transportation. It doesn't take very long for you to be walking either up or down a hill. I would suggest that you move the Chinatown tour to this day.

Walk around Union Square, go over to the Asian Art Museum or go to the Metreon and just gaze over at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (depending on what the special shows are, I can't always recommend going to this museum for visitors). Other touristy places are the Ferry Building, Fisherman's Wharf, and Coit Tower.

If you can, and are interested, see a baseball game at the SF ball park. If you get the really cheap seats way up high, you will get a spectacular view of the Bay. A baseball game is pure Americana. It can be a lot of fun.

Day 3: The NIGHT tour of Alcatraz is reputedly the best of their tours, but book early, whichever tour you want to take. They get filled up fast.

During the day, I'd suggest driving around Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, along the Embarcadero, see Twin Peaks, etc. - in other words, drive around San Francisco. If you go directly westward, you will come to the ocean; at the Cliff House the view of the beach is spectacular.

Day 4: Drive north of SF to Sonoma County and do some wine tasting. It's a beautiful area. On the way back to SF, stop off in Sausalito, walk around, have a drink/dinner at the Spinnaker Restaurant.

Day 5: Drive south to Monterey/Carmel. Spend the night there. You cannot go along Highway 1, as part of the road is closed due to a rockslide. Inland, go on Interstate 280 to Highway 101 to Highway 152 to Highway 1, which takes you into Monterey. You could visit the Monterey Aquarium or just walk around Carmel. Plenty to do in this area.

Day 6: Drive south to Cambria, spend the night here. This is near Hearst Castle.

You should probably start out on this leg relatively late in the morning and wait for the fog to clear. You will be driving the Big Sur coastline and this is one of the most beautiful stretches of road in the world. Stop for an easy hike at Pt Lobos. Have lunch at Nepenthe. Stop at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and do another easy hike to McWay Falls, the only waterfall in California to empty into the Pacific Ocean.

You might arrive in Cambria in the early afternoon for a tour of Hearst Castle or you can do Hearst Castle the next day.

Day 7: Do Hearst Castle or start on the way to Los Angeles. On Highway 101, near the town of Lompoc is Mission La Purisma. I always recommend this mission as the best one to get a feeling for how the Spanish missions were in the old days. If you do visit Solvang, please come back and tell us how authentic it is!

Day 8: Getty Center is really worthwhile. I have not done any of the Hollywood tours for a long time, so can't comment on this aspect. Six Flags is quite a drive from Santa Monica and IMHO not really worth it for adults. You might as well head for Disneyland if you are going to be driving that distance from Santa Monica.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and can't believe how I could have been passing this gem for years and never gone in! It can easily occupy a whole day. Of course, if you are going to the Getty, you don't have to go to the Norton Simon - this is just to say that there are plenty of good art museums in Los Angeles where you can while away a whole day.

Downtown Santa Monica is a great place to walk around and have dinner and watch the street performers.

Day 12: LA to Grand Canyon. This is a looong drive and mostly over desert. Start out early (6am would be late, LOL), bring lots of water, sunscreen, hats, and make certain to check the water level and air pressure on your car.

As for Las Vegas, I can only tolerate it for a day, but to each his own. If you get bored with the gambling, just drive north to Zion National Park. It's a gorgeous park.

Have fun planning! And welcome to California! :)

I can only say one thing.WOW thx for the great responses.
I should be mad .You guys have given me even more home work :))
Some of your suggestions are actually almost planned and others sound really interesting.Have to dig in some more.
Solvang is ONLY a hilarius lunch stop nothing else.
I know some of our choises are not really first choise to "locals" but they have an American feel for us danes so thats why they are on the list.Especially six flags is so crasy that we just have to try it.I have reasearched quite a lot so i know about the long drives.The baseball game suggestion sounds really fun ,but i am not sure whole group will feel that way.Must discuss it .
How long time is a game ?
A few other questions.is pre-booking hotels/motels on the hwy1 section a must ?
Comment about rental car is noted.I checked it .we will change it to 2 weeks.

Again thx alot..

Keep it comming :))

BDE

NB! I am really curios to hear about experiences on the WB deluxe tour.There is quite a big price difference.

easytraveler has given you an excellent itinerary.

In the Monterey area it may be a little difficult to stay within your lodging budget. You definitely must book ahead. Try these websites -

www.montereyinns.com
www.pacificgrove.org

and then do some googling for the visitor's bureaus in Monterey, Carmel, Pacific Grove. We especially like Pacific Grove because it has a small town feeling. There are charming bed and breakfast places here, but they can be expensive. Carmel and Monterey, though, are definitely tourist venues. However, the three are so near each other, it really doesn't matter, in my opinion.

If you take the advice to make a day trip from San Francisco to Sonoma County for wine tasting, my suggestion would be to go to the *town* of Sonoma, which is built around a pretty 11-acre Plaza, from the Mexican period of the 1830's. The most northern, and last, Franciscan mission was here, and the (restored) mission church still stands. Around the Plaza a lot of the original adobe buildings still survive, housing three hotels, boutiques, restaurants, etc.

Back to wine tasting...if you want that. A mile or so from the Plaza is the Buena Vista Winery, where a Hungarian, Agostin Haraszthy, brought the first European wine grape cuttings to California. It is small and charming and there is a picnic table if you want to stop on the Plaza at the Sonoma Cheese Factory and pick up a deli lunch to eat under the oak tree.

Another winery is Benzinger, in Glen Ellen, just a few miles from Sonoma. They grow their grapes organically and have a really good tour, taking visitor's through the vineyards on a horse drawn cart.

Sonoma is only an hour, or less from San Francisco, so a day trip is nice.

On your day three in San Francisco you will be able to do much more than the Alcatraz tour, so you may have time for the day trip above. And there is a night tour of Alcatraz which some people love.

The rock slide mentioned above is only between San Francisco and Half Moon Bay. To get onto Hwy 1 at the first opportunity you should go out of San Francisco on Hwy 280 and then take Hwy 92 to Half Moon Bay. As an alternative you can stay on Hwy 280 (the most beautiful freeway in the world) to Hwy 85 and then take Hwy 17 over the coast range to Santa Cruz to pick up Hwy 1.

And the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a must. It is world class. In August, I would telephone ahead and buy tickets with your credit card, or do that online. Then you do not have to stand in a long line, just go to the "will call" window and pick up your tickets.

Oh, be aware that it is wise to make reservations ahead for Hearst Castle tours. There are four daytime tours and one evening tour.

It sounds like a lovely trip...

I agree-- skip Magic Mountain unless you are all roller coaster fanatics. It will be overrun with teenagers, and Valencia is HOT in August.

That Travelodge in Santa Monica is in a pretty awful location (not unsafe, just far from everything), but if the price is right, you can do far worse. Southern California hotel rates in the summer are crazy.

You might want to think about a beach day, either up in Malibu or maybe down in very fun Hermosa Beach. Or even farther down in Orange County-- Newport Beach and Laguna Beach are both lovely, especially in August. You're probably too late to get tickets for the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna (world-famous show of tableaux vivants-- sounds dull, but it's truly staggering), but that town is a lot of fun.

I just stumbled over my old thread.
We have been back now for quite some time.
Just wanna thank all for the suggestions and say we had a trip of our lives .Solvang was nice and not so tacky as expected. Actually looked like denmark.... 300 years ago.:)
Even though we did alot of planning we were force to improvise also.
If you have any questions i will be happy to answer..

It would be wonderful if you are willing to post a "trip report" telling us all. Then those of us who made recommendations can have some feedback as to whether they were helpful or not. I know this might be time consuming for you, but any feedback would be great.

ok ok ok
U made me feel guilty.:)
It is a big task writing a full review when its a foreign langauge.
We arrived in San francisco after traveling almost 18 hours..went to pick up rental car.had to struggel with hertz .they demanded 324$ for one way fee even though we were informed home that it was "feeless"..Didnt wanna argue after such a long trip.thats the bad news .Good news was that we were upgraded to a Volvo S80.Cars are VERY expensive in Denmark so that was a real joy ( i looked it up here it costs more than 100000$). Went to Nob hill motor inn. OK location but free parking was totally filled and parking spaces were TINY.Did not feel comfotable trying to park in those spaces.So we didnt .We had reservations but they somehow were mixed up so they just had one room available..??They managed to find one other for one night (a suite) ,but we had to change motels.Not fun..but ok because our room was just SOOOO small.Switched to a motel nearby "manor inn" or something. Much better in every way. First full day we went to wrentham shopping outlet because several in our party did not bring a jacket...??? i wondered."we didnt expect it to be so cold"..was answer.took Alcatraz night tour .Entertaning and very educational. Took tourbus also a nice experience but a bit cold since “bus” was open on the side.I really wanna love San francisco but somehow it just doesnt succed in stealing my hart.Took a day trip to the wine country to.
After a few days we went down hwy 1.We went in the morning so view was very foggy ..big mistake on our side.We went to monterey bay aquarium but didnt enter since lines were miles long and we have a date with a whale watching boat. Did the whale watch which was great .took like a millon pictures ,but those bastards are to fast to get really good prictures. Saw humpback whales “mother and kind” which we were told was unusual to get so close to.
Was told that a danes was working on the boat as a whale experts,what a small world.But unfurtunately she was off duty that day.Stayed at a motel 6 miles from monterey can’t remember name .Motel was fine but location was bad..next morning went down hwy 1 again to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle .Very beautifull took the first timer tour which was fine .We discussed to take one more but wanted to see the surrounddings instead BIG mistakes.The place was so boring with NOTHING to do..Only big planning mistake on trip was choosing to stay at motel 6 in San Simoen.Should have stayed somewhere with more to do and see.Like everywhere else..
Went to Solvand as stated .Just as fun lunch stop .It was nice and funny. Had a traditional danish lunch. Not totally authentic but close. Proceeded to Santa barbara.Very nice place should have stayed there 2 nights instead of the San Simeon place.Motel was mediocre ,but town was wonderfull .we all were sorry that we didnt plan more time in the city.Then LA. We booked Travellodge on pico boulevard.Nice hotel but location was a little out of the way.Traveling by car was neccesery all the time .But Ok we were prepared for that. Saw Getty Center ,nice but sine we are not big on art it was a 2 hour stop. So we went to hollywood bouleward .Yeah i know tacky touristy thing but we had to see it ..:)) It was ok and nothing more.Next day we went to Magic mountains .1 from the party was a rollercoaster freak,but i think he got his urge satisfied..Almost tried them all,but he had nigthmares about those coasters all night.A Warner bros studio trip was planned ,but was changed last minute to universal studios in stead dont ask me why ,it was not my first pick since i have been there once.But we had a VERY nice day ,tried all the rides and went home when they had to kick us out. 4 adults going crazy in a theme park..weird but very fun.We found a new favorite place to eat American pizza i suppose was the name.Every dish we had was delicius and inexpensive. So went packed the car and drove to bright angel lodge in grand canyon.Cheap but not a motel i would recomend. 2. trip to Grand Canyon but it was stilll awesome.Saw the IMAX also.Thats worthwhile to.Took the traditional helicopter trip over the South rim ,nice experince .Although i didnt enjoy it SOOO much since i am NOT fond of flying,especially after the very turbulent trip we from Denmark to SFO.Seatbelt sign was lit 90% of the 15 hours trip..NOT FUN when flying is not your favorite in the first place.Then we went to VEGAS stayed at the Venetian.Lovely hotel and a fun city.I was amased how fast vegas is changing.We were there last year to ,but so many new things were happing already..Did the traditional hotel hopping and just relaxed and had fun.We ended the trip with a Celine Dion concert.It was nice and very proffesionally done .She is a great singer .Next morgen up at 4 o’clock to fly home...
Another flying nightmare...dont understand ,i have been flying quite alot .but have never experinced so much turbulence before..

Hope you can understand dispite mispellings and grammer errors.

Feel fre to ask questions

Very good report BDE. You did squeeze a lot into your trip.

&quot;<i>several in our party did not bring a jacket...??? i wondered.&quot;we didnt expect it to be so cold&quot;..&lt;.i&gt;&quot;

Don't worry, this happens not to just your Danish friends. Many American visitors are shocked at how cold/foggy it is in the summer in San Francisco. Most of them end up buying a jacket or sweatshirt on their first day too . . . . :)</i>

Thanks for the kind words.
Yes we did squeze a lot in..We could have squezed more in but ,when everything is new and very exiting it just feels &quot;owerwhelving&quot; spelling..
U just need some time to sink it to..
And actually since u r busy experincing stuff all the time most off the &quot;sinking&quot; is done when we came home..

Oops - just noticed I didn't &quot;turn off the <i>italics</i>. Made it hard to read - but you got the idea :)