Jake18

That sounds like an amazing trip and you will definitely have enough time to do it. Though don't expect there to a lot of relaxing time, I agree with some of the other responses that a hire car can sometimes be more of a hinderance than an asset. In saying that though it's always nice to have your own car. When we did a similar trip we hired a car and used a site called www.hopolla.com and they had a few unique places to stop at along the way which was nice. Plan well and don't rush, thats my advice.

kathnNikki

Thanks Guys,

We are leaving Aus the 10th September and still need to book a flight home to be back at work by the 14th October.
At this stage no flight home booked until we know what our plans are.

Some really great suggestions Stu Dudley, Sassafrass with the National Parks, Grand Canyon. Definitely places that we would like to see.. but we also wanted to see Boston, Washington, NYC.
Sounds like we ditch the car idea and get a flight from San Fran after driving from La to San Fran. Stops on the way Vegas > Grand Canyon?

StuDudley

Mid-Sept to mid-Oct is a perfect time to visit the US. Fog should have disappeared around the San Francisco area and the Big Sur coast. Mountain passes through the Sierra Nevada mountains will be open. The summer heat & humidity in Washington DC & NYC will be gone. And it will be foliage season in New England.

Here is an idea for a plan.

Summary

West USA
San Francisco
Carmel/Big Sur Coast
LA
Grand Canyon
Zion National Park
Death Valley
Las Vegas
Yosemite

East Coast USA
Vermont Fall foliage
Boston
NYC
Washington DC


For the West USA, get the Fodors guides to:
California
Arizona and the Grand Canyon
detailed maps of California, Arizona, and Utah

- Fly from Australia to San Francisco. Spend 4 nights in San Francisco - 1 night/day to recover from jet lag. I would stay in the Embarcadero area. Not Fisherman's Wharf. No need to rent a car - yet. Get a 3 day Muni pass. Here are some things to do & see in the San Francisco area.
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...mendations.cfm

- On your last day in San Francisco, rent a car and follow the driving itinerary in the above link in the section titled "Driving Tour of San Francisco". Start the drive in the paragraph that starts with the words "You are now in the Haight". This paragraph is towards the bottom of the driving tour.

- Get an early start and drive west on Geary Blvd to the Cliff house (Geary stops just short), and then south along the coast & eventually join beautiful Hwy 1. Continue the drive all the way past the scenic San Mateo coast, through Santa Cruz, and on to Carmel by the Sea. There are faster ways to get to Carmel - but you would be doing the "fastest way" on a work day and it might not be the fastest.

- Spend 2 nights in Carmel. You might hit the Carmel area on a weekend - and most places have a 2 night minimum stay. We usually stay at the Coachman's Inn.

- Continue south on Hwy 1 to Pt Lobos - just south of Carmel. Visit Pt Lobos for 2 hrs ("the most beautiful meeting of land & sea" - it's been called by some)

- Continue south along the famous Big Sur Coast. Stop at Nepenthe for lunch. Continue south to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park & visit for around 1-2 hrs. Then continue south on Hwy 1 to San Simeon. Stay in San Simeon 1 night (many hotels)

- Next morning visit Hearst Castle. After Hearst Castle, head for LA as fast as possible. It's a 5-6 hr drive to LA - but all the Aussies I've helped have indicated that a 5 hr drive is a "shortie".

- Spend 4 nights in LA. Recognize, however, that 4 nights (starting in San Simeon) is only 3 days. Three days is a very short time in LA because all the most popular sites are very far apart, and it is often a long drive between sites.(unlike San Francisco).

- Take US 15 north to Barstow. Head north from Barstow on a small road and visit Rainbow Basin National Monument. This is a "weird" place, with many colorful rock formations. Many movies have been filmed here. Then take US 15 a few miles towards Las Vegas and visit the Ghost Town of Calico. This is on the LA to LV tourist route - so it gets a lot of tour bus people - but it's an interesting place to explore. Now, get on US 40 east to Kingman and stay for 1 night. There isn't much stuff to do in Kingman - but visit the Route 66 museum in the Tourist Information & Visitors center. Route 66 is a very famous route in the USA. It was the first major route between the east & California. It might not mean much to an Aussie - but there are some very interesting things to drive past & to wander into along the way. Read about it in the Fodor's guide.

- Next morning - head east on Route 66. Take it from Kingman to Seligman. At Seligman, head east on US 40 to Flagstaff, then head south to Sedona, Az & spend 1 night in Sedona.. Take some walks through the interesting red-rock canyons in Sedona. Get a map at the tourist center and obtain advise from the tourist guide as to which walk to take.

- Now, head to the Grand Canyon South Rim. and stay for 2 nights. Make reservations today. We stayed at the Kachina Lodge and dined at El Tovar (also a hotel - but probably already fully booked).

- Head north on Hwy 89, then 9 to Zion National Park. We stayed 1 night - and that was fine to see the major stuff.

- Take Hwy 15 to Las Vegas & stay 1-2 nights (no appeal to us)

- Drive to Death Valley & stay for 2 nights. We stayed in a cabin at the Ranch at Furnace Creek. We dined at Furnace Creek Inn and at Wrangler Cafe.

- Drive north on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Death Valley is the lowest place in the USA, and Mt Whitney (which you'll pass soon) is the highest place in the continental USA. Continue North on 395, then west over the Tioga Pass, then south & east into the Yosemite Valley. Stay 2-3 nights in Yosemite Valley. Reserve today. We stayed at the Lodge at the Falls.

- Spend most of your last full day in California at Yosemite. Then drive back to San Francisco for your flight home. Stay at an airport hotel. Others might advise flying from Sacramento or Oakland - but I could not find any direct flights. There are 16 direct flights from SFO.

- Fly from SFO to Boston. Do not visit Boston now. Immediately rent a car and head up to Vermont to watch the fall foliage color change. Mountains seem like they are "on fire" with all the red, yellow, & orange colors of the leaves. Spend 2-3 nights in Vermont. Reserve a place to stay today. We've stayed near Newfane many times & watched in awe. Newfane is about 3 hrs from Boston.

- Then head back to Boston for a visit, then NYC, then Washington DC. I'll let an East Cost experts suggest a specific itinerary for you.

I just counted up the days. All the West USA stuff will consume your entire 24 days. I do not recommend reducing any of the days I suggest in the various places. If this was my itinerary, I would eliminate LA and Las Vegas. That will save you around 4 nights or so - but not enough to make a big difference. You could cut Zion or Death Valley - but that probably only saves 2 nights - you still have a lot of driving to do & you'll drive near Zion & Death Valley anyway.

So you have 2 options, IMO:
1. Just do a West USA visit.
2. Eliminate everything past LA (maybe even LA) in the West USA, and fly from LA to Boston and do the East Coast stuff.

Stu Dudley

StuDudley

Oops - had the East Cost portion in reverse. Fly from SFO to Washington DC and do the East coast this way:

DC
NYC
Boston
Vermont
Fly home from Boston

This will put you into the fall foliage at the correct period in October.

Stu Dudley

nelsonian

Stu, thanks for your driving itinerary, I am going to copy and paste it for our next trip to the US. Up to now we have just done the cities.