Has anyone done a road trip of the West coast of the US?

[The Skunk]

Myself and the OH are looking to do a road trip down the West coast of the States in July/August time this year. I was wondering if any PHers have done this in the past and might have some pearls of wisdom.

The plan is to take 2 weeks to do the trip. Start in Seattle and end up in Las Vegas. Any tips of places not to be missed? Hidden gems, etc?

Also, i've been looking at car rentals and it seems very pricey to hire something interesting to do the trip. It looks like we might have to settle for the bog standard rental unless anyone else has some tips on that too?

Any help/ comments gratefully received.

Cheers

[The Skunk]

Just seen HereBeMonster's thread... apologies for the repost.

Ben

[Puggit]

Just something relevant to your thread... It takes most people 10-14 days to do the SF-LA-LV triangle.

2 weeks for you including Seattle. Lots of driving and not much seeing

[Pierscoe1]

We did 2 weeks in a mustang, san fran, yosemite, lone pine, death valley, vegas, hoover dam, grand canyon, pismo beach, up highway 1 back to san fran...

By a million miles the best holiday I've ever had... I would do it again in a flash, and I would struggle to force myself to get on the plane home, when the time came.

We hired a mustang from Hertz, think it was ~£350 for the two weeks iirc, only about £100 more than a crappy chevrolet lacetti or whatever the base model hire car is... (it was a v6 mustang mind.. but it still felt like an event and made a cool noise!)

Some pices and info of our trip here:

http://2weeksintheusa.blogspot.com/

(start at the bottom... we blogged as we went around, using hotel's free wifi and a PDA to upload the pics..)

Edited by Pierscoe1 on Thursday 14th May 09:09

[The Skunk]

Piers - that's excellent, thanks for the linky. I'll read through all that at lunch time. I love the pics of the Satsuma next to those desert surrounded roads. I think the reason i was having issues finding an interesting car was I was looking to start out for Seattle. I think we'll can that idea and do LA, SF, LV instead.

I might have a few questions for you (i.e. which helicopter/planes tours did you book in advance).

Cheers,

Ben

[The Skunk]

Puggit - thanks for the advice. I think we'll change our route accordingly - two weeks of solid driving and no fun sounds like, well, no fun!!

Ben

[Pierscoe1]

The Skunk said:

I might have a few questions for you (i.e. which helicopter/planes tours did you book in advance).

yeah no problem... happy to pass on our experiences & recommendations.

[The Skunk]

Ok - flights booked now, convertible mustang reserved Let the research begin!!

Havin taken on board the wise words imparted by Phers, we fly in and out of SF. We've got two weeks to explore the SF, PCH, LA, LV and then back to SF.

Can't wait.

Ben

[taffyracer]

the 1st 2 weeks of our honeymoon were spent doing this route....just amazing fun and would do it again in a heartbeat

[Arese]

taffyracer said:

the 1st 2 weeks of our honeymoon were spent doing this route....just amazing fun and would do it again in a heartbeat

We'll be doing the same for our honeymoon in May 2010, can't wait! I want to do it in a 'vette, but Mrs Arese wants something 'practical'.

Gonna read Piers' blog now