West coast to East Coast in April-May 2018
 

Hi,

I am planning a family vacation in April/May (around 30 days), and plan to travel from San Hose, CA to Florida. Starting towards mid-end of April, we plan to travel to Florida and reach there around End of May.
I will be with my family including children of 15 and 10 years, and looking for attractions including valleys, national parks, special mountains, Niagara falls, Grand Canyon.
Please suggest if there are any must see places on the tour and a possible road map along with halts and time required at each place. Also, any 'where to stay' suggestions would be good. We are vegetarians and hope that should not be a problem anywhere.

Thanks,

Yateen

First thing you need to do is get a decent map of the US. 30 days to travel from San Jose to Florida is doable, but including Niagara Falls isn't really, since that would take you way off course of a direct route. San Jose to Miami is 3000 miles, San Jose to Niagara Falls to Miami is nearly 4500 miles.

You could try and get reservations for Yosemite National Park, but places book up to a year in advance so you need to start looking now, and may have to keep calling to get a cancellation.

Is this with a rental car or your personal vehicle? Are you coming back to San Jose?
My style of travel is to take Amtrak to a destination and then rent a car to make a loop and then go onward on Amtrak to the next destination and rent another car.
If you are coming back to San Jose, delay the visit to Yosemite until the end of the trip.
My plan would be Amtrak California Zephyr from California to Glenwood Springs Colorado. Either rent a car there or take the bus up to Aspen. Take the CZ from Glenwood to Chicago. Spend at least a day in Chicago before taking the Lake Shore Limited (leaves at 9:30PM) east to Buffalo NY. Rent a car and go to see Niagara Falls. Spend a couple of days in Upstate NY before returning the car and going to NYC.
Take an Amtrak train to Washington DC and spend some time there without a rental car.
Take one of the Silvers trains south to Florida from Washington. Rent a car in Florida. Try to see Everglades NP.

I assume you are visiting from overseas - right?

30 days is not nearly enough for that much travel. You could easily spend 30 days just visiting California, the Grand Canyon, the drive to Florida and maybe a week in Florida - and that would be a bit rushed if you want to see places like Yosemite, San Francisco, Monterey/Big Sur, Los Angeles and San Diego. You could even spend 30 days JUST visiting part of California, the Grand Canyon, flying to Florida (saving the drive time across the country) and a few days in Florida.

So you need to prioritize/decide things - do you more want to see Niagara Falls/New York, maybe some of the east coast, and Florida . . . OR . . . do you want to see California/the Grand Canyon and Florida. Can't do it all.

Where have you been already? Do you plan on going to places that are closer to/in California like Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce etc.?

Do be aware that some National Parks will not be fully open if you start in April especially if there has been much snow during the winter. Most of the northern ones or ones at elevation like the North Rim of Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier, Cedar Breaks, parts of Bryce, Rocky Mt. NP (esp. Trail Ridge Road) even the upper parts of Yosemite will have snow covered trails or roads in them will be closed and limited or no facilities.

In 30 days however, you can have a fantastic trip and see plenty of NPs along the way. Grand Canyon south rim, Zion, Bryce, Arches, and Canyonlands all have fantastic natural beauty. Acoma Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, Canyon de Chelley, Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verda and many other sites are great for Native American history. Carlsbad Caverns, Big Bend, Everglades, etc. all have unique points of interest.

Go to www.nps.gov to find the locations of the National Parks and plan a route to hit the ones that hold the most interest for you. Get a National Parks America Beautiful Pass which will give you entrance to all the NPs for everyone in your car for a year.