West Coast USA travel plan

Fiskar

Travel plan below for 2 adult and 2 teenagers.

Whats in/out, feasible/not feasible in your opinion, also what am I missing!
Would like to slot in one base ball game, an old western town and some retail therapy before heading home!

Arrive LAX

Los Angeles area. (5 Days)
Stay Santa Monica, Rest day
Visit Disney World
Universal Studios
Hollywood
Part of the pacific coast highway north of Malibu to Santa Barbara

Las Vegas x 2 nights
(Take in Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon) and the usual night sites and theatrics.

Death Valley x 1 day

Yosemite x 3 days

Carson City, Lake Tahoe x 1 day
Reno – x 1 day, Go back via Carson city and Tahoe through the national park, stay before Sacramento.


San Francisco x 5 days
Taking in Nob hill & Lombard (by tram)
Alcatraz & The Warf
Golden Gate Bridge and north to Nappa and north beach, china town, Marthas Vineyard & North Beach.
Monteray and Carmel (17 mile drive)
Fly back from San Francisco

Looking at 21 day or 20 nights.
Flights are the biggest cost so any advice on timing and potential Travel agents can be fed via private message to me. Timeframe July 2014

Have done this once many moons ago but not with teenagers, but they like to travel and this is their holiday experience of life outside Nama Land!

qaswww

your doing too much leave out Nevada ,Vegas gets hot, you can die in death valley in summer, all the attractions will be full, Yosemite gets booked up in summer, if you take a car from California to Nevada many company's charge one dollar mile for your whole trip, so you would pay extra $2000,ask them about it,
Marthas Vineyard is not in cathere's a restaurant called Marthas Vineyard but it does not have a wineryyou would need six weeks for your plan
la to vegas about 5 hours drivevegas to frisco about 10 hoursdriving to napa in traffic from frisco is about 4 hoursSonoma is nicer than napa and its near napa

ProudDUB

qaswww wrote: »

your doing too much leave out Nevada ,Vegas gets hot, you can die in death valley in summer,

That's nonsense. He'll be driving thru Death Valley, not going for a Sunday stroll in it. Don't skip Nevada OP. Vegas is very cool. It may not be to every ones taste, but it's one of those very, very unique US cities that every one should experience at least once in their lives imo. Plus, its the perfect jumping off point for trips to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, which are both very well worth seeing by themselves. Reno is a bit of a dive though. I'd give that a miss unless its a stopping off point on the way to somewhere else.

When it comes to baseball, I'd try and take in a Giants game in San Francisco. There are 3 other teams that play in the area (Anaheim Angels, LA Dodgers & Oakland A's) but the Giants have by far the better stadium & its a nicer experience over all. In the US, the stadiums themselves are very much a part of the baseball experience, far more than they are at sporting events here. So going to the nicest ones make a big diff.

Fiskar

As I said, have done this trip before but in June so there is enough time for 2 adults over 3 weeks but with two teenagers who will want to be awed and mesmerised we want to get them the most of the west coast.

Yes, Yosemite will be full but first in best dressed!

Thanks for the detail on the games, last time I vaguely remember an Anaheim game being on as we passed the stadium (no internet that time!), so would like to do that next time.

Where would we get a wild west show or town along the route, somewhere Nevada would be perfect.

InTheTrees

It looks pretty good. Usually I try and push the Big Sur Highway One drive up the coast between LA and SF but you have enough time allocated to each area that I dont think it matters. You'll see a lot of coast.

For Baseball, you have some choices...

As Dub said; Giants, A's, Dodgers and Angels. I'd go for Giants first, followed by the Dodgers (Dodger stadium is just near Downtown LA). The Angels are good but play in Anaheim. And Oakland isnt a fun place to go so I'd skip the A's if poss.

There's going to be at least one playing at home when you're there. I'd pick the Giants first, followed by the Dodgers. Oakland isnt a nice place so that would be 4th.

There's good info and schedules here:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/

Also a good ghost town:

www.calicotown.com

Fiskar

Thanks to all.

On the theme parks and given the age of the teenagers (17 and 13), would it be best to do 1 day Disney and 2 at Universal Studios or vice versa?

ironclaw

Just my two cents, but do not attempt a Las Vegas to San Francisco drive in one day, especially if your going through Yosemite. Its too far, I did it with another driver and it almost killed us. There are some very slow sections and it will easily take 12 hours+, maybe even 16 hours by the time you factor stops.

My advice would be to go Las Vegas to Yosemite (Stay 2 Days) and then onwards to San Francisco. My biggest regret was not seeing Yosemite enough. You could probably shorten San Francisco a small bit, you'd easily see it in a busy 2 days.

Alcatraz, book as far in advance as you can. We booked two weeks ahead and only managed to get two tickets. DO NOT park your car near Alcatraz and make sure its absolutely EMPTY and I mean nothing of value. A lot of the car parks near the attractions are a hive of thieves (Speaking first hand)

Fiskar

Thanks Ironclaw. That is the plan, Yosemite first for a few days, then the Streets of San Francisco.

Cienciano

If you need to take a day of anything, I'd lose one from LA. 4 days is plenty, even with the theme parks.
We rented go cars in San Francisco, not sure if they'd go down to well with teenagers, but we were both early 30's and had a ball in them.
http://www.gocartours.com/sanfrancisco.html
They have a tour programmed into the gps, so you drive around the city in them taking in the sights.