LA, San Diego, las Vegas, San fran back to LA
Discussion
For my honey moon we are flying into LA and then going to San Diego, then to Vegas, to San fran and then back to LA over the space of 3 weeks.
What are the must see's, must do, stay where, etc?
We will do Disney, knottsfarm, grand canyon by chopper as everyone says fly and don't drive. Alcatraz will be Done too.
Some people have mention death valley? Is it worth it? Yosemite park?
I'd like to see a ghost town?
Where do we stay the longest, we are thinking LA.
What hotels do people recommend? On a sensible budget I'm not rich
.
I'd love to rent a classes car for a few days in la, but they are all stupid crazy money, any ideas?
What are the must see's, must do, stay where, etc?
We will do Disney, knottsfarm, grand canyon by chopper as everyone says fly and don't drive. Alcatraz will be Done too.
Some people have mention death valley? Is it worth it? Yosemite park?
I'd like to see a ghost town?
Where do we stay the longest, we are thinking LA.
What hotels do people recommend? On a sensible budget I'm not rich
. I'd love to rent a classes car for a few days in la, but they are all stupid crazy money, any ideas?
Edited by S1OWW on Monday 1st August 22:12
Its a great trip that everyone who has done it loves..
Loads of people on here have done it so have a search and there lots of info on what to see / do etc..
I did it a few years ago.. drove all down the big sur which is an awesome drive. Stopped by Laguna Seca which was cool to see. San Diego is a great city, especially if u like nightlife. I stayed at the Hard Rock hotel, fantastic location and rooftop pool parties are excellent! I would stay in SD the longest as LA is a bit hit and miss.
Drive to Vegas is long and a bit dull if u take the highway.. Ive seen pics of people driving some mountain roads etc.. which look great but i had a Town Car which was like a wobbly jelly to drive! Bellagio was where i stayed, couldnt fault it really... but im sure most of the hotels are the same.
Loads of people on here have done it so have a search and there lots of info on what to see / do etc..
I did it a few years ago.. drove all down the big sur which is an awesome drive. Stopped by Laguna Seca which was cool to see. San Diego is a great city, especially if u like nightlife. I stayed at the Hard Rock hotel, fantastic location and rooftop pool parties are excellent! I would stay in SD the longest as LA is a bit hit and miss.
Drive to Vegas is long and a bit dull if u take the highway.. Ive seen pics of people driving some mountain roads etc.. which look great but i had a Town Car which was like a wobbly jelly to drive! Bellagio was where i stayed, couldnt fault it really... but im sure most of the hotels are the same.
vegas is the best place to rent a differant car , theres lots of stuff avail at the hotels although more fancy sports than old stuff
http://www.dreamcarrentals.com/vehicles.php
theres a ghost town between lv and la , calico , its been done up fro tourists though , i think theres some real untouched ones way into the sticks in the north
http://www.dreamcarrentals.com/vehicles.php
theres a ghost town between lv and la , calico , its been done up fro tourists though , i think theres some real untouched ones way into the sticks in the north
Unless you've already booked it, I would consider flying in and out of San Fran. You can have a couple of days car-free in the city, and then get the underground back to the airport to pick up your car.
That way you can do a boozy tour on a bus to wine country, a couple of hours North, without having to drive. If it's peak tourist time, and you want to do Alcatraz, (it's good,) try to book in advance.
That way you can do a boozy tour on a bus to wine country, a couple of hours North, without having to drive. If it's peak tourist time, and you want to do Alcatraz, (it's good,) try to book in advance.
Another one you have to prebook: http://www.hearstcastle.org/ Try and stay in San Simeon and get the first trip of the day. First of all it's empty and you can get cracking pictures, secondly it's not too hot 
Hi. It's a great trip to do, but my primary piece of advice based on your post is
SPEND AS LITTLE TIME IN L.A. AS POSSILBE
It's a smoggy, sprawling metropolis with very little to see and do, you have to drive everywhere and is very easy to end up in in gang land ghetto's. My suggestion would be to stay in Santa Moncia/Venice beach the night you fly in as it's easy to get to from the airport. Beverly Hills and the walk of fame will take half a day if you want to do them. Very touristy. On your return, drive in, ditch the car then fly out. Really as little as that. Fly in/out from San Fran if possible, a much nicer city.
However, other things worth doing:
Take Pacific Coast Highway PCH1 between LA and SF. Worth spending a couple of days doing that. Santa Barbara is worth visiting,Lan Louis Obispo is a very relaxed hippy town, Carmel and Montery are worth stopping by, there is also a coastal loop around there which is very pretty.
SF a great city, you'll have lots of fun there.
Yosemite is definately worth seeing, although it gets really crowded in the summer months and you may struggle to book in. However I preferred Sequoia - the trees there are absolutely incredible and there are hardly any tourists. Much more peacefull.
I also really like death valley. A complete contrast to yosemite or sequoia. The night skys are really clear. You can go down to vegas.
Vegas - personally I wouldn't spend more than 3 days there, lots of fun, but it is intense! Make sure you go down the 'dirty end' of the strip! Thasts the real vegas!
Grand canyon is great, depends how hands on you want to get with it if you fly or not.
TBH with a trip like this and 3 weeks, you can just drive and see where you end up or if you like it or not!
Congrats and have a great time!
SPEND AS LITTLE TIME IN L.A. AS POSSILBE
It's a smoggy, sprawling metropolis with very little to see and do, you have to drive everywhere and is very easy to end up in in gang land ghetto's. My suggestion would be to stay in Santa Moncia/Venice beach the night you fly in as it's easy to get to from the airport. Beverly Hills and the walk of fame will take half a day if you want to do them. Very touristy. On your return, drive in, ditch the car then fly out. Really as little as that. Fly in/out from San Fran if possible, a much nicer city.
However, other things worth doing:
Take Pacific Coast Highway PCH1 between LA and SF. Worth spending a couple of days doing that. Santa Barbara is worth visiting,Lan Louis Obispo is a very relaxed hippy town, Carmel and Montery are worth stopping by, there is also a coastal loop around there which is very pretty.
SF a great city, you'll have lots of fun there.
Yosemite is definately worth seeing, although it gets really crowded in the summer months and you may struggle to book in. However I preferred Sequoia - the trees there are absolutely incredible and there are hardly any tourists. Much more peacefull.
I also really like death valley. A complete contrast to yosemite or sequoia. The night skys are really clear. You can go down to vegas.
Vegas - personally I wouldn't spend more than 3 days there, lots of fun, but it is intense! Make sure you go down the 'dirty end' of the strip! Thasts the real vegas!
Grand canyon is great, depends how hands on you want to get with it if you fly or not.
TBH with a trip like this and 3 weeks, you can just drive and see where you end up or if you like it or not!
Congrats and have a great time!
We did something similar a few years back and Yosemite was definitely one of the main highlights of the trip. Stayed at hotel just outside the Park next to the Merced river (sorry, can't remember the hotel name).
San Francisco was great - more compact and friendlier than you'd have thought. Nightlife etc by Fishermans Wharf is worth taking in.
We stayed at Long Beach in LA, opposite the Queen Mary. A couple of great restaurants and bars nearby, one including it's own micro-brewery with some lovely beers. Quite easy access to Hollywood, Beverley Hills or Disney etc
Death Valley interesting but not much to see / do.
Vegas similar but probably more dependent on your own preferences - wasn't really our "thing" and a couple of days there was enough.
The changes in scenery when driving were amazing - loads of fascinating places en route like Mono Lake.
Enjoy!
San Francisco was great - more compact and friendlier than you'd have thought. Nightlife etc by Fishermans Wharf is worth taking in.
We stayed at Long Beach in LA, opposite the Queen Mary. A couple of great restaurants and bars nearby, one including it's own micro-brewery with some lovely beers. Quite easy access to Hollywood, Beverley Hills or Disney etc
Death Valley interesting but not much to see / do.
Vegas similar but probably more dependent on your own preferences - wasn't really our "thing" and a couple of days there was enough.
The changes in scenery when driving were amazing - loads of fascinating places en route like Mono Lake.
Enjoy!
LA-San Diego-Vegas-Death Valley-Yosemite-San Fran-LA is a ballpark 1500 miles. How much of your Honeymoon do you want to spend in the car and how much do you want to see at each stop?
Yosemite is simply awesome. I also love Death Valley - though you don't mention when you are going, so consider that it gets up to 50 deg in the middle of summer there.
For ghost towns, consider Bodie State Historic Park. It would be a small detour if you decide to go through Death Valley and up the east side of the Sierra Nevada before crossing the Tioga Pass to Yosemite (again, season-dependent).
Yosemite is simply awesome. I also love Death Valley - though you don't mention when you are going, so consider that it gets up to 50 deg in the middle of summer there.
For ghost towns, consider Bodie State Historic Park. It would be a small detour if you decide to go through Death Valley and up the east side of the Sierra Nevada before crossing the Tioga Pass to Yosemite (again, season-dependent).
warp9 said:
Did you read my next sentence?
I agree with Warp. LA is a dump and I'll never go back. The highlight of my LA stay was seeing a tramp shaving her feet with a bic!Carmel is another nice place to see, as is 17 mile drive...is it 17 or 21, dunno. Yosemite is also lovely and I recommend a overnight stay in a log cabin.
I assume the PCH is a given?
Can second/third/fourth the recommendations for Yosemite, we camped there a few Aprils back and it was amazing. Did most of the obvious hikes and the scenery and wildlife were simply breathtaking. We had to lock all our food in a bear proof locker every night too - Which I found very cool! Can't really recommend any of the luxurious honeymoon type places there but from what I saw there were quite a few about.
I loved Vegas but like others have said I probably couldn't stand more than 3 days there. It's a pretty absurd place and everything about it is in your face - Fun, but not for too long. Of course there are people who have been to Vegas and never left so not everyone feels the same.
Between Vegas and San Fran you've got all sorts of cool places, Death Valley has a fascinating landscape and both Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe are awesome places if you like the outdoors, wildlife and scenery. If you can get up to Heavenly on the Cali-Nevada state border in south Tahoe there's an amazing view where on the California side of the mountain ridge you can see the blue lake stretching out and endless forest, on the other side (the Nevada side) and a good few feet lower is the vast Desert basin.
San Francisco is a beautiful city and a great place to explore on foot or using the decent tram and bus network. Been three times now and never managed to get on an Alcatraz boat so if you want to do that (i've heard it's a great tour) then book well ahead.
Down Highway one, Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Barbara are all places I could happily spend a few days in so you're really never going to be limited by places to see.
LA has a bad rep as a tourism destination and after my first time I would have agreed, having been back a couple of times since i'd definitely check it out again. Santa Monica and Venice Beach are fun areas and if you're at all into the movies then you'll almost certainly enjoy Hollywood for a day (whole bunch of dodgy folk around though). Most of the things people complain about after a trip to LA are to me what makes it interesting, 'the people are so rude, self obsessed and superficial' … Nope, it's not the Cotswolds, but it's different to anywhere else on the planet and in my opinion a fun place to take a look at. You'll need a car or a strong stomach for the bus though, it's as sprawling as you'll have heard.
San Diego is another beautiful city with a lot to offer, i'd put it slightly behind San Fran as a priority but that's not to discount what a great place it is to visit. Like someone else mentioned, great nightlife and it has a really compact centre so it's easy to get around without driving.
All in all you're in for an awesome trip, California is one of my favourite parts of the world, to me it has everything you could ever want (from geography at least) stunning beaches, world class mountain ranges, vast deserts and incredible cities.
Writing about it makes me wish I could move out there.
I loved Vegas but like others have said I probably couldn't stand more than 3 days there. It's a pretty absurd place and everything about it is in your face - Fun, but not for too long. Of course there are people who have been to Vegas and never left so not everyone feels the same.
Between Vegas and San Fran you've got all sorts of cool places, Death Valley has a fascinating landscape and both Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe are awesome places if you like the outdoors, wildlife and scenery. If you can get up to Heavenly on the Cali-Nevada state border in south Tahoe there's an amazing view where on the California side of the mountain ridge you can see the blue lake stretching out and endless forest, on the other side (the Nevada side) and a good few feet lower is the vast Desert basin.
San Francisco is a beautiful city and a great place to explore on foot or using the decent tram and bus network. Been three times now and never managed to get on an Alcatraz boat so if you want to do that (i've heard it's a great tour) then book well ahead.
Down Highway one, Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Barbara are all places I could happily spend a few days in so you're really never going to be limited by places to see.
LA has a bad rep as a tourism destination and after my first time I would have agreed, having been back a couple of times since i'd definitely check it out again. Santa Monica and Venice Beach are fun areas and if you're at all into the movies then you'll almost certainly enjoy Hollywood for a day (whole bunch of dodgy folk around though). Most of the things people complain about after a trip to LA are to me what makes it interesting, 'the people are so rude, self obsessed and superficial' … Nope, it's not the Cotswolds, but it's different to anywhere else on the planet and in my opinion a fun place to take a look at. You'll need a car or a strong stomach for the bus though, it's as sprawling as you'll have heard.
San Diego is another beautiful city with a lot to offer, i'd put it slightly behind San Fran as a priority but that's not to discount what a great place it is to visit. Like someone else mentioned, great nightlife and it has a really compact centre so it's easy to get around without driving.
All in all you're in for an awesome trip, California is one of my favourite parts of the world, to me it has everything you could ever want (from geography at least) stunning beaches, world class mountain ranges, vast deserts and incredible cities.
Writing about it makes me wish I could move out there.
Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff