jinz

In April next year we will be visiting the US for the first time. We are overwhelmed with the amazing information on this site but after doing a great deal of research have narrowed down our choices. We are a couple in our early 50's and we will have a car.
We fly in and out of LA (no choice over this). We are not big shoppers - love beautiful scenery, picnics, farmer's markets, wine, and do not hike but love river trips. These are the areas we would like to visit. Please can you help me order them to minimize back tracking and driving between the various spots. Once I have the order I begin on working out how long at each place

LA
Anaheim
Las Vegas
Grand Canyon South Rim
Antelope Canyon
Half day Colarado River Trip
Sedona area
San Fransisco
Coastal Drive between SF and LA
Big Sur
Monterey
Carmel

Thank you from a very excited couple from Auckland.

hazel1

First question is how long is yout trip?

mjs

How much time do you have? Your destination choices put LA in the middle so if you drive everywhere you will be doing a lot of driving.

Jean

I would rent a car on arrival in L.A., see the sights plus Disneyland (presumably the reason for Anaheim). Drop the car and fly from Orange County Airport (near Anaheim) to Las Vegas. When you're ready to leave LV, rent a second car, and see the sights in Arizona on your list. Fly to San Francisco from Phoenix or Flagstaff. (If you fly from Flagstaff, you'll have to change planes at Phoenix.) Rent a third car when you're ready to leave SF.

I hope you have 3-4 weeks for this trip.

mjs

I like Jean's itinerary.

jinz

Hello Everyone,
Thank you for the quick feedback. We have full three weeks (excluding our arrival and departure days).
My husband needs to do business in Anaheim and I plan to have a second day in Disneyland while he is busy. He also has to do business for one day on the Monterey Peninsula.
Are the times involved in getting to the airport, flight times,etc less than the time for driving? Appreciate the advice as on a number of sites people say drive as you see more and can stop on the way. However, I have wondered about my poor hubby spending too much of his holiday behind the wheel. Would buses be another alternative? If flights are the best option then I will get onto booking them.
Do not know how I will wait so many months till we arrive!

tovarich

I would not spend a lot of time in LA or L.Vegas but that's personal.If you want to make the trip of your life I suggest this itinerary :
LA-Anaheim-Phoenix-Flagstaff(Sedona)-G.canyon-Monument valley-Page (lake Powell)-Bryce canyon-Zion n.park-L.Vegas-Death valley-Yosemite-S.Francisco-Monterrey-Big Sur-S.Barbara_LA.
Paul

emalloy

Jinz,

You have been given some good advice here. As to the drive times, from LA to Vegas the drive is about 5 or 6 hours or so depending on traffic in the cities, and flights can be relatively inexpensive, but maybe not when you need 4 tickets. I found the drive interesting once we were out of the LA area, when I did it. Death Valley can be visited before you get to Vegas. It is probably not much different time wise from going to the airport, checking bags, flying, getting bags, and getting rental car. So I'm going to suggest that you save LA for the end of the trip and continue flying into Vegas immediately without staying in LA.

Vegas to Grand Canyon is about 5 or 6 hours depending on how long you get stopped at Hoover Dam. This is a place you might want to stop in any case.

Vegas to Page is about 4 hours depending on how many stops you make to look at things. In Page you can take the Antelope Canyon tour with a Navajo guide, just go to the parking lot and pay to get on the next tour . I found that having a bright sunny day was more important than being there at noon. We did the smooth water raft trip in the morning with www.rafttheriver.com and Antelope Canyon in the afternoon.

Page to Sedona will be about 5 hours or so. Sedona to Phoenix is about 3 hours.

The drive down the coast hwy from SF to LA took us two days but we could have taken longer to see all the beauty along the way. You might be able to do it in one if you didn't stop to see things.

You will need to decide on the costs/time thing. If you did the drive east then dropped the car and flew to SF you would be cutting the long ride west to SF. There are generally good deals for flights to or from Vegas. Then you could tour SF without a car (it has public transportation and parking is expensive here) and get one when you were ready to do the coast route to LA, then tour LA. You would need a car in LA.

There will be drop off fees if you drop a car off in a different city.

Best wishes for a great trip.

2bamafan

tovarich has given you a great itinerary (shown above). The diversity of sights is mind-boggling and the trip is certainly doable in 3 weeks without extremely long drives. I'd definitely rent a car and not take several short flights since you have 3 weeks. No need to spend more than 2 full days in LA and in Vegas. Tovarich added three national parks (Zion, Bryce, Yosemite) that you didn't have listed above. If at all possible, I'd squeeze them into your itinerary even if you have to cut your time in LA & Vegas to one day.

This is going to be an amazing trip. Have fun!

november_moon

Since you mentioned your husband being behind the wheel - will you be driving at all? As a road trip with 2 drivers, this is reasonable, but that is a lot of driving for 1 person.

wetwillie05

How about a small R.V or VW camper bus rental? That way you are not limited to staying in motels, and so forth, having to find a town at every place you want to go. You can eat, sleep, and stop to rest up any where and any time you want.
Just do a websearch for either of those terms and you'll find lots of options.

It's how we roll, and it is a blast.

michele_d

Hi jinz,
If you love wine, California has some beautiful wineries. You can probably fit in several along your route. There are hundreds dotting the landscape from just north of SF down to Santa Barbara.

When you are on the 101 from San Luis Obispo down towards Santa Barbara you can plan to spend a day or two driving around to the various vineyards. It's beautiful country.

Happy planning,
Michele

SOCALOC

Are the times involved in getting to the airport, flight times,etc less than the time for driving?
__________________________________________________ ___________
Yes, if you stay as far away possible from LAX while you are traveling here.
If it were me I'd go with Jean's suggestion. On the other hand, Jean, I believe, is a native of California like myself who know how LONG these road trips are. Not only that, some of it is visually undesirable. To be fair though, perhaps if I haven't had to drive in the CA. quagmire for decades- a road trip like the above could be a great adventure. I've done road trips to all of the above but not in one trip. Today, I'd fly to most places depending on the circumstances.

We had a fun Aussie family here who did a very similar trip this summer. Perhaps his perspective will help give you an idea of what might work best for you.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...lden-state.cfm

You have the right destinations! Keep asking questions to help move the process along until YOU find your dream itinerary.

Happy planning and welcome to the USA!

Jean

I am a SoCal native! and I love road trips! However, three weeks of nearly constant driving would do me in. I'd rather spend more time AT the destinations and less time getting to some of them.

We drive through Las Vegas twice a year on our annual ski trip to Colorado. IMO, the scenery between Los Angeles or Anaheim and Las Vegas is very skippable (especially considering what you'll see later) in favor of gaining nearly a half day in Las Vegas.

As beautiful as it is, I think Bryce Canyon is a time-consuming detour from your itinerary. Zion is closer to the route you'll be taking to Page. I would forget Yosemite on this trip. The road you would need to take coming from the east is usually not open until sometime in May or even June. If you went to Yosemite between San Francisco and Monterey, you'd be cutting a big chunk of time from your coast drive. But, if you choose to add Yosemite, you need to make your lodging reservations in the park NOW. Some options book up a year in advance.

jinz

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the great advice. Loved reading the trip reports. We have decided to follow advice and split our trip into sections and to do less knowing we will be back. We are not going to do Yosemite on this trip. Usually when we travel we go where the train, etc takes us but reading the info on this site we think this leg of our US trip (a month) needs hotel bookings. We campervan a lot in NZ and want the ease of hotels for this trip. So we are thinking that we will pick up the car in LAX (no freedom of choice here), drive to Cambria (stopping on way). Check in to a hotel on Moonstone Beach. Next day visit the seals, paddle in tidal pools (there are limited living creature in pools in NZ - miss them from my childhood in Africa), wine tour in the afternoon. Over night on Moonstone again. Next day take a slow drive to Big Sur. After this we have three more days before we need to arrive in San Fransisco. We need one day for orchid shopping on the Monterey Peninsula. Need help to decide if we should base ourselves in one place or 2 nights at Glen Oaks for example and 2 nights in Monterey.
THEN we have time in San Fransisco and I am thrilled because my daughter is flying in from London to join us- a great surprise. We will all fly to Las Vegas. 3 days in Vegas.
Then pick up hired car and drive to South Rim, Grand Canyon and overnight there. Sound good so far?

MomArizona

Your itinerary sounds very "doable". I suggest you might look into visiting the Hearst Castle near Cambria. The website is www.hearstcastle.org.
My husband and I have visited all of the places mentioned in this discussion and I know you will have an absolutely wonderful time.

SOCALOC

Much better jinz!
I would suggest stopping in Santa Barbara en route Cambria; at least for lunch. It's a very lovely central coast town.
As for Moonstone Beach/Cambria accomodations- do your homework. There are some real dumps for $$$.(supply & demand) On Friday afternoon, Cambria has a Farmer's Market in town.
For Paso Robles wine country, you'll need to plan it around a weekend. It's not a commercial tourist area like Napa/Sonoma, so some wineries are only open Fri-Sun. IMO, it is one of California's best kept secrets!

I don't know what your budget is in Cambria but thought I'd share this new boutique hotel for you or anyone else. We'd jump if the weight limit for dogs wasn't 30lbs.

http://www.elcolibrihotel.com/

Cheers!

fball

I would stay in Monterey or, better yet, Pacific Grove. Visit Point Lobos National Marine Sanctuary between Big Sur & Carmel. It is spectacularly beautiful. From Monterey to San Francisco, stop at Elkhorn Slough for some short wildlife viewing, with lunch in Santa Cruz. Drive from Santa Cruz up Highway 1 to San Francisco, stopping at Ano Nuevo State Reserve to see our famous elephant seals. It will be just past calving time so there will be a lot of seals to see. You will not see them anywhere else in the world.
I would not do three days in Las Vegas, but then it's not some place we visit. One night would be enough. It is a great place to fly into to tour around the southwest, so that sounds great. Try to stay at one of the hotels right on the rim. I would spend more time around the Grand Canyon, say Sedona & no time in Las Vegas. Sedona is incredible, especially in spring. The drive from the south rim is several hours & it is worth staying in Sedona two nights.
You will be seeing some of the best of California (minus the Sierras)and Arizona without killing yourselves driving everywhere.
Have a great trip. It sounds wonderful.

hazel1

If you're going to be in Cambria, then you can see elephant seals just off Hwy 1 at Piedras Blancas Rookery, about 7 mi. north of San Simeon. Much easier than Ano Nuevo, which I love, but it is quite a hike through the sand dunes to get to where the seals are. Piedras Blancas is literally a pull-off from the road and they're right there.

I think your trip sounds terrific. If you plan on staying in Big Sur, consider the Big Sur Lodge in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. It's a beautiful area, lots of great hiking, and the lodge, which is more motel-like but very nice, has cottages with fireplaces and kitchenettes. Pfeiffer Beach is just across the highway, down an unmarked road 2 mi., and is spectacularly beautiful. Point Lobos, closer to Carmel, is also awesome.

jinz

Have cancelled our flights to New York so we can spend more time in the area around Monterey/Carmela and San Fransisco. No point coming all that way from New Zealand to spend only a few days and the opportunity to see seals and otters is impossible to resist. We are thinking of doing Point Lobos and the slough at Moss Landing. We have cut back the stay in Vegas to two days (going as a concession to our future son-in-law!, two days and one night at the South Rim and two days in Sedona. Would now really appreciate some advice on the best way to get back to LA without too much more driving.
The mind boggles as to how much this trip planning has changed with the advice on this site. So much better than what I had planned! thank you.