2 weeks vacation in the west coast

Un1corn

Hi All,

I am just wondering what is the best way to visit California with my wife for two weeks. There is a huge amount online and we are not sure how to plan it. Should we rent a car and drive everywhere? Fly to San Francisco or Los Angeles. Would be interested in seeng the famous sites. Death Valley, Yosemite, Hollywood, Disney Goldengate and possibly Vegas and grand Canyon? Is this doable? Is it worth renting a car for 2 weeks or just some of the days?

Thanks in advance.

tricky D

Perfectly doable.

A few days in San Francisco, not so many in Los Angeles which many reckon is a bit of a overrated dump, but some do like.

Other things to see or do apart from the opnes already listed;

Bodie Ghost Town near the eastern entrance to Yosemite (near Tioga Pass).

Mammoth/June/Mono Lakes

Monterrey/Santa Cruz are nice spots, with whale watching.

Lake Tahoe is another option.

A visit to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. Have a look at the helicopter tours which though expensive ~$250 are a Bucket List item for many.

Unfortunately, the bets sections of Highway 1 aka Pacific Coastal Highway are shut due to torrential rain damage and won't be open for the near future. That's also a Bucket List item.

Do a search of this and the Travel forum as there are loads of great threads with loads of info. Be sure to check the car rental advice carefully. Personally, I would rent for the whole duration as it is cheap enough and allows flexibility. I got a basic but good rental for $30 a day with all the cover but had my own SatNav.

Do be aware that places at altitude like Yosemite and similar have a few roads and businesses shut down for the Winter which can last as long as from late Sept to April. Also. I'd advise you to book accommodation in Yosemite long in advance for best value and options.

Enjoy!

él statutorio

A lot of Highway 1 has reopened, so it's not all bad...

decent article here
http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-tr-california-highway-1-pauls-slide-reopens-20170720-htmlstory.html

You can still get to most of the scenic bits, it's just a bit of a pain that you can't get a straight run at it so to speak.

Un1corn

2 further questions. Would it be possible to also fit in 2 days in New York on the way back?

Should I go to San Francisco, then Vegas then finish in LA or something else?

tricky D

Best to do a round trip if you want to save on rental car drop off fees.

While él statutorio is correct about most of it being open, the problem is that some of the best bits which are around Big Sur are cut off from one direction or another, and the detour back and around is not short.

NY should be doable on a multi-city flight booking. However, I reckon if you do that too, you risk not spending enough time in the other places which it is worth spending a few days as opposed to a night or two.

Un1corn

Idea is this roughly currently.

San Fran -> Vegas. Stop at some of the places in between. Then Vegas to Los Angeles. That is two weeks. Then I can add 2-3 days to visit New York and have it all. I am actually flying from Germany. So something flights wise would be Munich -> San Fran either San Fran or LA to New York and back.

Just seems like returning to San Francisco for the Car is a large amount of driving for little gain.

1huge1

Just back from this trip - 15 day holiday

• San Francisco - 3 days, pick up car ("Europacar" trading as "Advantage" in America)
• Yosemite - Half Dome Village - 2 days
• Monterey Bay - 2 days (we weren't able to get the whole way down Highway 1 as mentioned above, so we had to double back, still work it).
• Santa Barbara - 1 day
• Los Angeles - 2 days
• San Diego - 2 days
• Las Vegas - 3 days (We were able to take a drive to Hoover Dam, its only about 40mins).

I was able to pick of the car at San Francisco Airport and drop it off at Las Vegas at no extra cost.

There was 4 of us so we each took turns driving but no journey was ever that long, always had a few nice pit stops along the way. Longest car journey was from San Diego to las Vegas which was about 5 hours so still not too bad.

Agree with previous poster about LA, its not the greatest, however we went to Six Flags when we were there which was amazing and relaxed at Venice Beach, other than that, I wouldn't rate the place.

Any questions, let me know.

The-Rafalution

Wouldn't waste too much time in LA city but when you are in LA, I'd recommend going to see Santa Monica, the pier etc. Also, you could go see Hollywood. It's a bit tacky to be honest but you might not be that close to Hollywood again. Also, internal flights can be cheap if you look now. You can easily fly from LAX to San Fran or Vegas which would save driving time but if you don't mind the driving, another option is a bus. Got a bus from San Diego to Vegas, was 12 hours or so but if you are stuck, it's an option.

Un1corn

What is a good price for car rental for 2 weeks. Getting quotes here from advantage for 1500 euro. Seems a bit steep but maybe I am delusional.

Haha

1huge1

We paid $400 with Europacar and then added insurance/breakdown assistance for another $100, total $500.

Book through the Europacar website, and it will be Advantage you collect it off in SF.

We got a Kia Sedona.

Un1corn

It definitely makes sense to start in SF then LA then Vegas? Or should it be SF, VEgas, LA. I want to minimise driving time.

fire_man

Hi,
I am going to west coast in November and will look at renting a car aswell as taking internal flights. Can you book a car on the day as not sure what days we will need it yet?Do you need Irish driving licence or other documents?

1huge1

Un1corn wrote: »

It definitely makes sense to start in SF then LA then Vegas? Or should it be SF, VEgas, LA. I want to minimise driving time.

Well our route was SF --> Yosemite --> Down the coast --> LA --> San Diego --> Las Vegas

The only part where we went back on ourselves was from San Diego to Las Vegas as we headed back in the direction of LA.

The route worked well for us, average journeys took 2-3 hrs bar the last one from San Diego to Las Vegas which was about 5hrs (still fine in my opinion).

1huge1

fire_man wrote: »

Hi,
I am going to west coast in November and will look at renting a car aswell as taking internal flights. Can you book a car on the day as not sure what days we will need it yet?Do you need Irish driving licence or other documents?

Irish/European driving licence is fine. You will need your passport as well as far as I remember.

I'd recommend booking in advance if I were you, you can ring and change dates closer to the time if necessary (we decided we didnt need the car in San Francisco for example, about a week before the trip we rang Europacar and they gave us $75 back for collecting it 3 days later.)

Un1corn

Yeah. Looks now like I will go SF, LA, Vegas and maybe new York. I managed to get 3 weeks off work.

Kalimah

We did that trip in June. Flew to SF. Three nights there. Train to San Jose to see relatives. Two nights there and then picked up a car and drove to Monterey ( 1 night), San Luis Obispo, Ventura (2 nights and did Universal), Anaheim ( Disney! ), Oceanside and San Diego. We dropped the car there and got a flight to Vegas. On reflection it might have been cheaper to drive. We stayed three nights in Vegas and did the Hoover Dam by hire car which we then drove on to Yosemite and then back to San Jose- more relations- and back to SF.
We were away for three weeks. It was my first time in the US. Yosemite was my favourite but my 13 year old liked Vegas the best!

fire_man

I am travelling to west coast in November.We will book a car in San Francisco and drive down the coast and drop car off in La.We weren't going to use car in LA and get train to San Diego and fly from there to Vegas.We will spend 2 to 3 days in each city . Should we hold onto car and drive all the way?Bit anxious about driving in La as heard it was crazy!

Kalimah

fire_man wrote: »

I am travelling to west coast in November.We will book a car in San Francisco and drive down the coast and drop car off in La.We weren't going to use car in LA and get train to San Diego and fly from there to Vegas.We will spend 2 to 3 days in each city . Should we hold onto car and drive all the way?Bit anxious about driving in La as heard it was crazy!

If you don't want the stress and don't need the car then I'd go with your original plan. We flew from San Diego to Las Vegas. I think it took about 40 minutes and cost about €150 each. LA is crazy alright. We were only on the outskirts in Universal Studios- we managed that alright but I wouldn't have cared to drive much further in! Actually I wasn't even doing the driving!

What I would recommend is getting a thing called a travel tab from the car hire company. I hadn't seen one before - it looks like a cross between a tablet and a mobile phone. It acts as hot spot in the car as well as a GPS and a phone. Our teenage daughter was able to WhatsApp her friends in the back and I could navigate using the GPS. Occasionally the GPS was a bit slow so i turned on Google maps on my phone and that was a bit faster in giving me directions. It cost about €150 for the week. Expensive but worth it. You can make phone calls on it too. You get 60 credits per day and that resets to 60 each day. Very handy!

fire_man

Thanks for that feedback, is car insurance extra or apart of the deal?

él statutorio

fire_man wrote: »

Thanks for that feedback, is car insurance extra or apart of the deal?

There's usually basic insurance included but they'll try and sell you the extra insurance (which I have always declined).

Some credit cards do offer car insurance when you use them to pay so check with your provider.