garlicgirl

I'd love some feedback and suggestions on our trip itinerary. Must-sees, great places to stay/eat, etc.

Details
2 week trip starting the end of April this year (2009)
We are a late-30’s married couple.
Road trip—I know this is a ton of driving, we’re expecting a lot of the sightseeing to be done as we are driving with quick stops along the way on the long driving days. We'll be staying in hotels.

Here’s the plan so far.
Day 1—drive from Seattle (using I-5 most of the way) to Crescent City or somewhere on the northern CA coast. Sleep there.
Day 2—Drive down 101 and then highway 1 to San Francisco. Sleep in San Francisco
Day 3—Spend day and night in San Francisco
Day 4—Drive down coast and sleep somewhere in the Big Sur area
Day 5—drive to Las Vegas and sleep there (my husband really wants to do this)
Day 6—drive to Grand Canyon and sleep there
Day 7—day hike and see the GC and sleep there
Day 8—drive to Santa Fe and sleep there
Day 9—sightsee Santa Fe and sleep there
Day 10—drive to Boulder, CO and sleep there (at a friend’s house)
Day 11—hang out in Boulder and sleep there
Day 12—drive to Bryce Canyon and sleep there
Day 13—maybe hike Bryce Canyon or drive to Zion and hike there. Sleep somewhere in that area
Day 14—start the trek home, hopefully get more than halfway
Day 15—arrive home (Seattle)

Thank you!!

Orlando_Vic

This is just a very quick, initial reaction.

At Grand Canyon (I assume you are talking about South Rim?), you must make your Grand Canyon reservations <u>now!<u> </u></u>

geotravels

For Day Three I would recommend getting out and seeing as much of the city as possible. Since I live in the Bay Area, some of the places I love to go in SF are Fisherman's Wharf, China Town, Market Street, and Union Square. Not sure how much time you have in the city, but Alcatraz is always a great site to see (although you will want to get tickets in advance). I stayed at a nice hotel near Big Sur as well when I did my trip of the coast. I will try and see if I can find the place where I stayed.

Matt
Travel Writer
Geogad.com

StuDudley

You must love your car, and sleeping in different hotels !!!!!

I would eliminate either the firt third of your trip, or the last third - and it would still be too fast paced for me.

In San Francisco, Big Sur, Las Vegas, you won't have much (if any) time for many &quot;must sees&quot;.

What's wrong with Cresent City (1 night), Mendocino (1 night), San Francisco (3 nights), Carmel (2 nights), Big Sur (1 night), San Simeon (1 night), Yosemite (3 nights), Lake Shasta (1 night), Medford Or (1 night), then home???

Stu Dudley

geotravels

garlicgirl:

StuDudley has a good point; you will miss some of the &quot;must see&quot; items of each location. Example, Alcatraz probably would take up a lot of your time in the city. Would be good to have just a day to walk the city and then a day to do 2-3 of the must see items in each location....

Matt
Travel Writer
Geogad.com

garlicgirl

yeah, I guess what we're doing is a whirlwind tour where we get to see a little of everything. A taster, if you will! Although, I have actually spent a fair bit of time in Santa Fe and San Francisco. We both do truly enjoy the driving portion and are already making our mix CD's for the trip! Perhaps I should finesse my questions a bit.

Mostly what I'd like advice about is:

A good inexpensive place to stay either in Crescent City or perhaps nice little town in that general area that might be more appealing?

Also, it seems, from reading other threads that driving down highway 1 into SF is much prettier than 101. Any opinions on that? Obviously, it's more time consuming.

Same for Big Sur general area--a place to sleep. Rustic is fine, basic is fine.

Grand Canyon my question relates to a good day or half-day hike.

Bryce Canyon/Zion--should we split the day between the two or focus on one and just enjoy the other from the road? Suggested half-day hikes? Suggestions of where we should sleep those two nights.

And, anywhere along the way recommendations for vegetarian places to eat (hubby does eat fish).

Thanks again for the quick responses, I love this site! For me, planning is almost as much fun as the trip itself!

garlicgirl

Thanks for the advice, Orlando Vic! I booked our room at the Grand Canyon today--almost everything was booked so I was glad I did. We are staying at the Yavapai Lodge, east.

geotravels

I would take Highway 1, little longer, but much better view.

Matt
Travel Writer
Geogad.com

jimisgood4something

Wow... you must really love your husband to want to travel from Big Sur to Las Vegas in one sitting...lol. I live in Fresno and too a driving trip to Eugene on some of the areas you will be traveling. I took several days and many stops to do it and I am thrilled that I did. I used to drive all over the state and never stopped to smell the clean air and enjoy the views. When you get south of Eureka about 15 miles you can get off the main hwy and visit the town of Ferndale. Its claim to fame are all the victorian homes. Traveling further south you might want to stop off in the town of Scotia. It was a company town and was the home of the worlds largest redwood sawmill. You can tour the mill and go through the museum there and be awed by the old pictures of the old growth redwood. As you continue to travel south, jump off the 101 onto the &quot;Avenue of the Giants&quot;. It was the original 101 and meanders through the vast groves of redwood forests. As you proceed south on 101, get off at Willits and sneak over to hwy 1 which will take you down to Fort Brag. The coastline on that stretch is breath taking. Staying the night in Santa Rosa will allow you easy striking distance to SF after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. There is just too much to tell you about and just too little time, sorry. I am just about to call it an evening as I am flying to the Big Island at 7 am tomorrow. Aloha and have a great trip!

StuDudley

&gt;&gt;Also, it seems, from reading other threads that driving down highway 1 into SF is much prettier than 101. Any opinions on that? Obviously, it's more time consuming.&lt;&lt;

The drive to SF along the coast is quite nice, but nothing compared to the drive from Carmel down to San Simeon. SLOW DOWN - you'll want to stop many, many times. If you want to spend so much time in the car &amp; listed to cds, why don't you just drive fast around the Pacific Northwest close to home &amp; save money by sleeping at your own house. I would rathar listed to the seagulls, the sea lions, waves crashing, etc while driving Hwy 1. Your drive from SF, overnight in Big Sur, then on to LV would be as very very long day spent in the car. You'll arrive in LV very late, I suspect, get only a few hours of sleep, then on the road again to the Grand Canyon. Does that really appeal to you?

&gt;&gt;Same for Big Sur general area--a place to sleep. Rustic is fine, basic is fine.&lt;&lt;

http://www.deetjens.com/deetjens-diaries.htm

Please, Please, Please - spend 2 nights in Carmal, 1 in Big Sur, 1 in San Simeon. You'll want to do this sectlon very slowly - unless you hate beautiful coastlines (one of the best in the world, IMO)

Stu Dudley

meemasue

garlicgirl! As has been mentioned before...you must really like your car! You are passing so many wonderful things to see, so quickly! There are a lot of cheap flights to Las Vegas. Include the Grand Canyon in that trip and ENJOY the West Coast! A hike or drive through the Avenue of the Sequoias (the trees as so big that sunshine hardly filters down to the ground...so quiet and so majestic; seeing the whales migrate near Mendocino (take a boat ride and get up near them - awesome!), a hike on Mt Tamalpais at the north end of the Golden gate bridge (seeing SF bay from above, with the fog rolling in at the end of the day is so memorable!), eating on the deck at Napenthe - a wonderful restaurant in Big Sur, the Aquarium at Monterey, Hearst castle in San Simeon (that takes all day to enjoy). Slow down a bit and savor what you are experiencing and seeing and sharing with your husband..that is where the memories will be made..unless you really want memories of hours in the car singing to your favorite CD's!

garlicgirl

&gt;&gt;&gt;If you want to spend so much time in the car &amp; listed to cds, why don't you just drive fast around the Pacific Northwest close to home &amp; save money by sleeping at your own house.&lt;&lt;&lt;

Wow. Seriously? StuDudley are you really taking this so personally that you feel it is necessary to say rude remarks such as this?

Just because my idea of travel is different than yours doesn’t invalidate it. I have traveled across this country by car several times. As well as hitchhiked and hopped freight trains, camping along the way with my dog, all around the US. I’ve done cycling trips in Europe…unless I was walking it really doesn’t get much slower than that.

I know the kind of trip I’m planning this time is a whirlwind (with a ton of driving, which I said in my very first post), but it’s the trip we want to do. I do appreciate and value people’s friendly opinions and have taken them into consideration and made some adjustments.

Honestly, I really was just so excited to talk about the trip I was planning I wanted to share with others who love to travel too.

StuDudley

We love to travel too, but don't like to only see America through a windshield of a car. Walk on the beaches, through a redwood forrest, along a mountain crest, watch the whales migrate, watch the falls at Yosemite, find all the secluded beaches on the Big Sur coast, visit the varied neighborhoods in San Francisco, visit a few lighthouses, find some small wineries, take some back roads, etc, etc etc.

We spend 2 months traveling in Europe every year, and since we slowed down about 15 years ago - we've really enjoyed it a lot more when we can smell the roses. Leave the CDs at home, and listen to the waves crash, the seals bark, the foghorns.

Read my suggestions for San Francisco:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35129049

Stu Dudley

garlicgirl

StuDudley, Thanks for the great list of things to do in SF!