Las Vegas - San Francisco - Los Angeles

ellie2

Planning on taking a trip to california and nevada during the year.

I have been looking at doing it independently (booking flights/hotels/car hire separately) or as part of a package through a tour operator. There will be between 2 and 4 travelling.

Any advice on options or must sees would be greatly appreciated
Cheers

jdivision

Most people will tell you to avoid LA as it's a kip. I'd recommend Monterey - get fish chowder on the pier, it's great and the views around there are amazing. Everybody does Yosemite these days and Tahoe is alright for a couple of hours - personally I wouldn't spend more than that there but others love it for some reason. I love San Francisco, great place, very safe, good atmosphere. There's loads to do there but Pier 39 and the box cars and tourist traps. Good fun, good public transport. great place.

*edit* my mate did it on her honeymoon, I'll get her to post here if I remember

rossie1977

for las vegas read here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055175172 and for san francisco and a little more vegas read here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055193435

LA is an ok town, nothing amazing though, universal studios and santa monica are must sees, downtown can be avoided, hollywood/sunset/melrose/beverly hills are well over-rated

as far as sights outside the cities; places like death valley, valley of fire, yosemite, lake tahoe are again must sees

travelling between los angeles and san francisco should only be done on route 1 which cuts along the coast, it puts alot of miles on your journey but its well worth it, you pass places like half moon bay, monterey, big sur and santa barbara

flanzer

We did this trip back in June.

Arrived in darkness in LA and stayed in Hollywood for the night. Got up early realised it was a kip and drove up to Santa Barbara for the night. Very upmarket and swanky place. From there, drove up along Big Sur up to Monterey and stayed in a beach hotel. Was a tough drive up Highway 1 but well worth it as the scenery was spectacular looking out to the Pacific. Monterey was gorgeous. Make sure you do the 16 mile drive around by Pebble Beach. From there we drove to San Fran and stayed the 3 nights. Amazing city. Plenty to do and see and 3 nights would suffice.

Then this is where the holiday gets better. Make sure to take in Yosemite Park. I've never seen such scenery and wildlife in all my life. If you're lucky like we were, you could spot a wild bear or two! Stay there 2 nights at least. There's accomodation in the centre of the park that can be pricey. We stayed just outside the park and the drive to the centre was about a half an hour. You'll be in such awe of the place!

From there we drove down to Death Valley and stayed there for a night. I wouldn't recommend this though as the place was extremely hot. Keep that night free and drive straight to Vegas. It about a 6 hour drive from Yosemite through Death Valley. It flys by as the roads are so good! We stayed there for 3 nights last June but were raging we didn't stay more. In fact we just came back on Friday last after spending 5 nights over New Years there! The place is just amazing. Words cannot describe it! I've been there 4 times in the last 3 years! Try get a hotel on the strip. They're quite reasonable during the week but get pricey at the weekends. Try MGM Grand or the New York New York Casino.

Good luck! It'll be a holiday you'll never forget