West coast for 4 weeks in June 2019
 

Thanks to all Fodor community who helped me a lot to finalise a trip with family in June 2019 for about 4 weeks

Arrivng after a long flight of about 22hours on June 06 at about 14:00 hrs at LAX airport and have finalised the following itinerary

June 06-09 (4nights) in Main LA
June 10-12 (3nightd) Anaheim for Disney + outlet mall
June 13-15 (3 nights) SAN Diego
June 16-17 (2 nights) Vegas
June 18 - Travel to Yosemite & stop at Mamooty lake or any other suggestion
June 19-21 (3 nights) Yosemite
June 22-24 (3 nights ) Main SF
June 25-26 (2 nights ) shopping at SF outlet malls
June 27-28 (2 nights) Carmel/Minterey
June 29-30 (2 nights) Pismo & Santa barbars
July 01-03 (3 nights) LA (Universal and not sure)
July 04 Back to home sweet home

Any tips, suggestions & advise are most welcime

Thank you again

>> stop at Mamooty lake<<. Pretty sure you mean stop at Mamooty Mammoth Lakes


Not quite sure what this means>>June 22-24 (3 nights ) Main SF
June 25-26 (2 nights ) shopping at SF outlet malls<<

The outlet malls are well outside San Francisco -- like in Gilroy, and Petaluma and Vacaville, and Livermore

As for the rest -- I won't comment that much since you seem set on places I wouldn't recommend. But just one thing -- it is not 100% sure you will be able to get from Vegas to Yosemite via Mammoth Lakes and the east side of the Sierra. Now, it is probable that Tioga Pass will be open and clear - it usually is by mid/late June. But currently the snowpack is a bit above normal/average and if we have any late spring storms it could delay the road's opening.

I don't understand the spell that Las Vegas has cast on tourists. You're planning to spend 5+ (mostly boring) hours driving from San Diego to Las Vegas and 5+ (mostly boring) hours driving from Las Vegas to Mammoth Lakes in order to have an afternoon and a day in Las Vegas.

Further to janisj's comment about Tioga Pass... In the last 20 years, the road has opened after June 15th five times. The latest it has opened is July 1st. With climate change and government shutdowns, there is no way to predict when the road will open in any year.

You should make your hotel reservations for Carmel/Monterey and Pismo/Santa Barbara as soon as you can. Many places will probably have a 2-night minimum stay requirement, and the closer you get to the July 4th holiday, the less availability you'll find.

Traffic throughout L.A. on July 3rd and 4th will be very heavy, so plan on needing a lot of time to get from place to place. Universal Studios will likely be crazy crowded.

Do your outlet shopping in Las Vegas, and if you have time, south and inland from Santa Barbara are the Camarillo outlets, probably one of the best in Southern California. That way you don't have to lug all your shopping bags along with you for almost the entire trip.

I do wish you hadn't started yet another thread This is # 9 (so far) for this trip. Unless folks have been along for the entire ride they won't know all the advice you've already received and what we've tied to advise you . . .

Most of the outlet malls have the same stores. You may not need to spend all those nights attached to shopping.

@janisj - i though it would be tedious for all member to go through so much in the all thread and this is why i started a new one

@jean - your advice has always helped me and if possible keep them coming

Yes, Vegas has a spell on foreign tourits. Coming for soo far off and didnt see Vegas (hahaha)

@Jean - Planning to visit Universal studios on July 01 or 02 - would that be fine in terms of crowd ?

What should be the PLAN B if Tioga pass is closed ? and would the plan B hamper a lot of sight seeing?

GOD I hate this new 'feature' of 'Related Threads'. I wrote a long response but it ended up on your other thread and vanished . . . :(

>>@Jean - Planning to visit Universal studios on July 01 or 02 - would that be fine in terms of crowd ?<<

Not really. That week is just about the busiest vacation/holiday week for American families. The crowds will be enormous that whole week (not only at Universal but al all tourist attractions). You might consider visiting Universal during your fist stop in LA June 6-9.

>What should be the PLAN B if Tioga pass is closed ? and would the plan B hamper a lot of sight seeing?

If the pass is closed your only option is the loooong boring, hot drive around through Bakersfield and north through the Central Valley. Nothing to see or do on that route. Unless you take a couple of extra days and detour to Sequoia / Kings Canyon . . . but you'd definitely need to pre-book accommodations. But, again, most years Tioga Pass will be open by early to mid June. Ask here again closer to the dates of your trip to see what the road conditions are.

There is a website that gives the snow plowing conditions but I won't look it up now - afraid I'll lose another post . . . grrrr >)

Yes but you're coming from so far off and aren't visiting the Grand Canyon...it's far more worthy of your time than Las Vegas.

I haven't looked at all the other topics but my first reaction is, you're devoting way too much time to outlet malls. As mentioned previously, they pretty much all have the same stores and same stuff. You really don't need to devote quite so much time to them.

And he has at least 20 on TripAdvisor!

Re # posts - Personally, I have no concern about that. They have done similar trips to the US before, at least once to the east coast that many of us contributed to & remember. They sought and got a lot of good advice in the past even though there were many very specific, detailed questions.

As a teacher/mentor, I learned long ago that I am the one who must have patience - an inquisitive student simply wants to learn as much as they can. I'd much rather help out someone with any info I can provide rather than complain. ymmv.

There is such a thing as information overload.

J62: The number of questions is not an issue. The more discussion the better (up to a point). It is reinventing the wheel over and over and over again on multiple threads, most covering the same issues/questions/territory. Sort of like "If I ask enough times I'll get the answer I want".

The OP has certain set ideas and 'musts' - we've just tried to point out potential problems . . . Like July 4th week.

Given the OP's resistance to some items of advice I suggest we just leave him to it. They want to shop till they drop, they want Las Vegas, won't adjust to avoid worst crowds and likely others I've missed. I suspect they'll have a good time despite all that and just because we'd hate those things doesn't mean they will. I think he's been clear (ad nauseam).

Thank you all for your advises and suggestion which has always helped me whether it be a trip to East coast, Australian , now West coast and others. Probably i joined Fodors community late ( in 2015) and i should definately have joined it much earlier

@Janisj - thanks for writing again and i agree that "related threads" seems a problem.

All of us will definately have a particular interest and priority. Yes we do love
*shopping especially in US as it is much much cheaper with a good mixture of low to mid to high brands and we try to get a hold for a stock of about 2 years ranging from clothes,
*Theme parks, again cuz we do not have those back in our country and offcourse US theme parks are amazing
*Vegas - havent seen something like this and its one of a kind, though i know that 2 days would be enough
*we do love nature and parks and serene beauty and this is why devoting 3-4 days to YM and 4 days to PCH1 but offcouse we like big ciities and SF and LA are great cities to visit

Weekends, local holidays etc surely do come up when one is travelling and you have to cope with it and July 04 and any other holiday rush which comes up should be ok and have to be adjusted accordingly.

All in all we have tried to get a mixture & taste of all with offcourse few priorities

We are also on a budget and therefore have kept on taking advise from the forum or rather Forums including Fodors and TA and posting 10/20/30 posts for different topics or discussing ideas in forums from where you gain a lot is not at all bad

I thank you all again for your patience, advise and suggestions which has helped me a lot and sorry for any trouble i might have posted due to too many posts or any others