Hi, my wife and I, both in our fifties are going to the USA in May. We will be staying for 19 nights, the first five in San Francisco.I had thought of going from there on a round tour of possibly Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas, then south to possible Lake Powell, Monument Valley, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon area, LA and then up the coast road back to San Francisco. Would Lake Powell and possibly calling on friends in Monticello a bit too ambitious? I would welcome any comments on my itinarary with any recommendations.
Many thanks
Toledo

Would suggest you do your trip in reverse. The California coast is best viewed going from north to south, so I would suggest you start out from SF and go southward.

AFter LA, cut across to Arizona and see the sights you have indicated.

If you are going that far, you may want to add Zion National to your itinerary, possibly Canyon de Chelly, and even Death Valley. You could plot a circular route that included all these. It really depends on how much driving and riding around in a car you want to do.

End up by coming north on Highway 395 and going through Yosemite, back to SF.

Happy planning!

Well, Toledo, do you mean Monticello in Virginia? If so, that is perhaps a too ambitious driving trip from San Francisco, although it is a lovely and very interesting place, the home of Thomas Jefferson, our early President of broad vision and multitalented mind.

I am not trying to make fun of you, as I gather from your question that you are not from the U.S. and may not understand the enormous distances between the Western sites you mentioned and Jefferson's home, which is a great tourist attraction.

Perhaps you meant another place named Monticello, and in fact there are a number of towns in the U.S. named that, but I just checked on the Mapquest.com site, and none of the Monticelloes they listed were in the western half of the U.S. at all.

Perhaps Mapquest is not up to date, and this is a new city recently built up near Lake Powell, as your message hints Monticello may be near there. I know the population is growing fast around that area. If not, if you can tell us a larger city near to where your friends live, we may be able to be more help about telling you if it is realistic to include a visit to them in your itinerary.

Or if you doublecheck the spelling of the name of where your friends live and find it to be a little different from Monticello, we may be able to identify it and help you in the same way.

Enjoy your visit to the Western U.S., and do visit Jefferson's Monticello sometime, perhaps in combination with a trip to Washington, DC which is two or three hours away.

To JBC411,

There is a Monticello, Utah and it's an old town. Funny but I knew right off where toledo was taking about. Yahoo Maps had it. It's about 95 miles north of Monument Valley on Hwy 191.

To toledo,

Do you realize that you will be driving over 2,600 miles if you were to visit all the places you listed to visit. You are also looking at 65 hours of just driving time...a lot of the roads are slow driving.

Some things to keep in mind. Tioga Pass (Hwy 120) through Yosemite could still be closed for the winter in May so you would have find a different route to Death Valley.

You won't be able to spend much time in each area with 5 days in SF and only 14 days for touring. Of all the places on your list, I would drop Death Valley and Flagstaff. This will save you 6 hours and 175 miles. I would also think about dropping a day or three in SF to see the other sites. Maybe your friends could come down to Monument Valley to see you there and save you another 190 miles and another 3 or 4 hours of driving time.

Utahtea

Hi, having done a bit more research I'm thinking of doing SF (5 already booked) staying one night somewhere between SF and LA, then 2 in LA. Over to Grand Canyon for 2, having stayed somewhere enroute from LA for 1. Spend 2 more nights before getting to Las Vegas , ( maybe Lake Powell and Bryce Canyon. Then 3nights in Las Vegas. This gives me 2 more nights before returning to airport hotel in San Francisco.

Just my opinion: you couldn't pay me to spend 3 nights in Las Vegas.

I live in San Francisco and I'd rather spend that time in Yosemite or...anywhere else. I understand a lot of people like to see Vegas, but 3 nights is overkill. Or do you really, really like gambling?

I don't gamble and don't intend to gamble. I have heard so much about Las Vegas that I thought I would need at least three days to look round.

I didn't mean to insinuate you're a compulsive gambler--I was kidding.

And I certainly don't want to knock Las Vegas. I just think you can get a good taste (?) of it in 2 nights and maybe funnel that other night into one of your other destinations.

Have fun!

I would cut out Lake Powell-it really isn't a scenic wonder to begin with, and the drought that has plagued the west for years now has drastically reduced water levels, so that it looks, well, strange.
I also agree 3 nights in Vegas is a lot UNLESS you have identified particular shows there you would like to see, and you need all 3 nights for that. If you don't gamble, a single night in Vegas might be plenty.

Thanks for the advice. Please don't think I was offended (re gambling), I wasn't. Much to chew on now. It looks like a quick look round the Page area of Lake Powell then onto Bryce and Zion, lose a night at LV and spend an extra night in Yosemite. I've booked 5 nights in SF and 2 in GC, may just leave it like that and make the final decisions as to where we stay/what we see, when we get there.
Much obliged for your comments

I second easytraveler's suggestion of including Zion National Park. I would skip Bryce Canyon which is not worth the detour compared to Zion. Lake Powell is very beautiful and is worth seing.

Las Vegas is on your way and is worth seing once in a lifetime.

I would agree that you could get a good taste of Vegas in 2 nights but have to recommend both Zion & Bryce. They are both beautiful in very different ways. If you are in the area it would be a shame to miss either! Good luck.